Admittedly the book of Revelations is a difficult book and I am not entirely sure that anyone has got it
all right, including me, and because of that I will also avoid an in-depth argument in chat rooms. I respect that others opinions differ and that they are or have struggled to arrive at where they are in the matter. I also accept that some may feel the need to thwart this post but I present this only as a view that was not known to me until about 10 years ago. Prior to that I was a dispensationalist in my view, believeing in the multiple comings of Christ (or the secret rapture) as one who believe in the pre-tribulation rapture.
I wish only to set it out there for those still struggling through Revelation and you may use this to bolster your own view or just be educated in other people's opinion. However, I will state again, that do to the expansive nature of the arguments I will not enter into any long debate in a chat room. Though I may entertain phone call conversations or if one is close by a face to face.
That being said, I myself have found the most comfort and consistency with the recapitulation view of the book also known by other names such as parallelism, etc. I find this view consistent with the introductory of the book that the book is written for me and the strengthening of my faith as opposed to being relegated to a simple curiosity for me and of extreme help to some future group.
I have included a website that does a sufficient job outlining the thought they it is not at all exhaustive in nature.
Please keep that in mind - it is a simple overview and not in-depth. Click the link Below...
Enjoying God Ministries
The point of particular interest is how the book is divided in cyclical sections, each ending in some manner. A side note is that some folks divide it into 8 cycles rather than seven but again this site is a simple overview of the main idea.
To me one of the strongest evidences of this view is Revelation 12 which seems to stop the modern progressive view of Revelation and back track at the beginning of it. Rev 12 also corresponds very nicely to the words of Christ in John 12.
In both passages we have the foretelling of Christ's victory:
- John - Christ being lifted up (his death and resurrection)
- Rev - The baby's (Christ's) ascension
- John - He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life
- Rev - And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
- John - The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified...Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself
- Rev - Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
Other Parallels
The nations flow into the kingdom as Christ promises in John 12 and evidenced by what is recorded in Rev 12 Christ has been lifted up who rules the nations.
Later Rev. repeats this that Satan has been cast him into the bottomless pit...so that he
should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Satan is bound from accusing the brethren in Heaven as he did of Old in recorded scripture and so he is bound on earth not to deceive the nations.
Herein are the rulers we wrestle against are bound up where it says that Christ has made you alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. This is the great story and the one that all men (Jew and Gentile) are invited into.
There are also two women in view in Revelation. The woman of faith and the harlot. These are no different that the women of OT history of the righteous woman and the harlot.
The OT describes Jezebel, delilah, etc in opposition to Ruth, Ester, etc.
Proverbs also recalls the harlot and the faithful woman. These are the faithful in contrast to the wicked who have serve other gods.
If these are pictures of the faithful bride of Christ and the wicked then likewise we should see it in the NT and indeed the church is called to be faithful to our husband as it said "For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present
you as a chaste virgin to Christ."
Herein I have made the point that the 144,000 of Rev. 7 is made up of the Church universal represented in the passage as both the tribes of Israel and uncountable number of the nations (12 tribes x 12 apostles x multitude = 144000). Then it should be no surprise that in the context of the imagery of Revelation that these are virgins following their husband (the lamb) in Revelation 14.
The list goes on but I will stop with this one last picture which are a series of variations on the theme of being prepared for and united in Christ.
The scripture says that we are the body of Christ and at the same time elsewhere the analogy is used that we are spiritual stones being made into a spiritual house. This too is in Revelations. For it says we are pillars in the Temple of God in Heaven, yet it says later that in heaven there is no Temple in Heaven for Christ is there and he is the Temple.
This blessed picture of consummation and unity is also in the OT when Solomon builds the temple. The stones are quarried and shaped outside the city. The anguish the stones undergo to be shaped and built into a spiritual house does not occur on the glorious site. But is the point of God mentioning this just so that engineers marvel at the precision that must have occurred to make this possible. No, for the spiritual house that we are being prepared for will be glorious and our shaping will be complete when we arrive in the glorious City of God to the Temple of God - Christ in heaven. We (the redeemed of Jew and Gentile) are the bride that once longed for the great day in absence from her betrothed, as in the parable of the ten virgins, now being united with the groom as one flesh for which time we have remained as chaste virgins.
You see Revelation holds great faith-building messages for us today beyond this simple continuity of the whole Counsel of God that I am presenting but one must first accept the continuity of the whole counsel in order to accept the message even as the Jews must
still accept the continuity of Christ.
Respectfully Submitted