One baby step into it

So our journey in Revelation begins…with a clip from “The Simpsons.”  In “Thank God It’s Doomsday,” Homer attempts to calculate when the rapture will occur only to find that he desires to be with his family instead of in heaven on his own.  Each week we will continue to view some take on themes in Revelation, how directors and movies depict the book of Revelation, and other jumping off points for our discussion.  Stay tuned!

We marked the beginning of our study by reading Revelation 1.  Here are some basic points about the context of the book before you read it (again):

• There are 500 allusions of the Old Testament in Revelation!  In its 404 total verses, contemporaries to the text would have recognized all of these references.  But the connections aren’t as clear to us in 2009…which means we have to be careful when we read each section!  We have to have clearer understandings about the connections to see the meaning of its message.
• The narrator is identified as John; but which John?  Well, the name John was as common then as it is now which means it is hard for us to really know much about our writer.  We do know: 1) He was send to the island of Patmos 2) most likely he ended up there because of his Christian faith and 3) was probably seen as a threat to the Roman government which was why he was sent to the island in the Mediterranean.
• Many scholars speculate that the book arose during or following the rule of Domitian.  Domitian was a Roman emperor who slowly tried to move the government to absolute monarchy.  If anyone seemed to be a threat (just a slight idea or mention of the possibility), they would be persecuted, martyred and/or sent away.  Revelation is a book in response to the controlling Roman empire; this is an important point to remember.

There are several other points we touched on, but I am sure they will come up throughout our study.  So please, join us and jump into Revelation 2-3 this Wednesday when we talk about the seven churches referenced by John!