I've read the New Testament multiple times, as well as most of the books of the Old Testament...I've only read Revelation once.
I recently tried to do so again...and I can never get into it. All the symbolic language. I've tried reading it from several different translations...I just don't get it.
Maybe it's because I don't concern myself with eschatology? My thoughts being, do the best I can while I'm here and the end will work itself out. So I guess I'm a pantribulation panmillenialist lol...whatever happens happens.
I would like to get a better understanding of the book though. Are there any good study helps, that aren't slanted one way or the other, that anyone could recommend? Should I just pick up a Thompson chain reference and let scripture interpret scripture?
The only other books I have struggled with are the ones in the OT with all the begats...well and Leviticus...so what is it about this book?
My advice is this: Christ is a Teacher (the greatest of); John, is a teacher. A good teacher knows how to teach. A good teacher will build upon the teachers that came before. Don't understand the teacher as most do, as if he teaches "pin the tail on the symbol" "see if you can look around you and find the meaning outside of the teachings": people have turned the book into a kind of, apocalyptic scavenger hunt. "I see it! I see it!" Avoid that mindset and that way of "seeing": this is not a "guessing game" and God did not leave us to rely upon our own ability to "figure out what modern machinery John is 'trying' to explain": the language employed is precise.
Instead, look back to the books that come before it. Perceive John not as saying "See if you can find or guess what I'm symbolizing" but as saying "If you've listened to the prophets before me, and heard them, you should already know the meaning of the words." John is writing in cryptography. You know how in war, behind enemy lines you hear over the radio things like "John has a long moustache" "The chair is against the wall": it's the same here. Now, carnal-minded men with no understanding of the cryptography will be looking around for someone named John, who has a long moustache; engaging in a fruitless "find the literal application"; but the ones who know the cryptography know what "John has a long moustache" really means.
So let the teachers before teach the symbols and the phrases. For instance, you know the "666" right? "Count the number"? Now, would it surprise you that the OT specifically tells us
how to do that? It does. Look at Numbers chapter 1 (Numbers, apt, eh?) and you'll see instruction on how to "count the number of a name" and what that means. You'll see the same phrasology being used "count the number" "the number of the name" "the number of [name] was" etc. This even repeats other times in scripture. "Joab counted them, and Levi he did not count" "count the number of Israel" "the numbers of the men of Israel" etc.
Now, you'll run across men who will say "Don't listen to the bible, that is not how to count the number of a name; listen to me" then offer you some convoluted nonsense that is no where in scripture. "Transumte the letters into Greek, tally the result according to the numeric value; transpose that number into Hebrew" or worse just pointing at the number "I see it!" But if you let the bible teach you how to understand; the teachers are all building on the teachings prior to them. That is how competent teaching works. Now, you will find one man in scripture whose number, when counted, is 666. Coincidence? No.
Again, look at this:
Jer 15:2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.
Death; sword; famine; captivity. Sound familiar? Four horsemen? Conquering, sword, famine, death? Ever heard of the "four sore judgments" sent against Jerusalem?
Ec 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
The past is apparently the future. The question is, how well do you know the past? The biblical past? That will determine how well you know the future. Look here:
Eze 24:1 Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.
Does the Lord seem rather, emphatic, on getting that specific day-month recorded by the prophet? Did you know that the king of Babylon is the one-and-only man in the entirety of scripture who actually has the exact day-month of his coming recorded for all future generations to know?
Lu 21:20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem
compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
2Ki 25:1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts
against it round about.
The past is the future.
