As some of you know my Papa Rivers passed away a little over a week ago and we had his funeral this last Saturday. Among the many remembrances of him during the service there was the acknowledgement that he often struggled with bringing the Gospel from his head to his heart, something I know many of us often struggle with. He was, despite this, a man who knew his Savior and I know he is now with the Lord because of that.

The book of Revelation, I have found, as I’m sure have many of you, is one of the books of the Bible where I really have a difficult time getting the message from my head to my heart. If I am being honest I have always thought of Revelation as one of the books of the Bible I would really hate to have to talk about with an unbeliever since, due to the imagery, it can be a little strange and I frankly have never quite known how to interpret it. So when Daniel said that not only are Genesis and Revelation integrally connected, but that Revelation was telling the consummation of the entire Gospel story of redemption that began in the garden, my mind exploded a little bit.

You would think it would be obvious, I mean the name of the book is Revelation so it would make sense that it would be revealing something, and it is the last book in the Bible so it should also make sense that it would be revealing, at least in part, the fulfillment of the promise of redemption in Christ. However, I guess I never got past the “fire and brimstone” imagery that so many of us think of when we think of the book of Revelation, and I think that could very well be because I never understood the type of writing it was.

Therefore, I was very excited that Daniel defined the ‘genre’ of the book that is Revelation. It turns out that it is in fact 3 ‘genres’ in one: apocalyptic, prophetic and a circular pastoral letter; each of which provides a background that allows for greater insight into “what it all means.” So lets define the genres according to Pastor Daniel. Apocalyptic writing is when a heavenly being, in this case God, speaks to an earthly being, in this case John, to reveal something about heaven and how it transcends to things on earth. Prophetic writing is often declarative and speaks words of comfort and challenge from God to his people. Lastly, Revelation is a circular pastoral letter to the 7 churches of the time, it was written to be very relevant to these churches and those they served, in fact, in the 404 verses in Revelation some scholars state there are as many as 635 allusions to the Old Testament which the church leaders of the time would have been able to pick up on easily.  Once I understood that much of the imagery was in reference to the Old Testament I realized that in the future I would be able to interpret Revelation better by looking up those references, and in a quick internet search I found there are tons of resources in regards to that very thing. I am excited to further understand the glory and majesty of Christ as revealed through Revelation!

*Below are just a couple of the many resources I found for Old Testament references in Revelation. I hope you find them helpful!

http://www.fifthacttheology.com/blog/2015/7/7/a-super-nerdy-list-of-old-testament-references-in-revelation

http://johnsnotes.com/documents/OldTestamentReferencesintheBookofRevelation.pdf

~ Rachel Whippo