Revelation Installment #1

Just so you know I was raised under dispensational views... My pastor and most people in my surroundings went to DTS. (Dallas Theological Seminary.) So I mean I always thought the whole apocalypse was coming; tribulation and Armageddon and all that jazz is imminent. So, we are doing Revelation..So we can learn what has been fulfilled at 70 A.D. and what is still future. I am really excited to learn about Eschatology and to learn more about the Scripture. It is going to be so fantastic to find out what the Bible says..So these are just some random notes from the sermon :) I like to rewrite them so I can internalize it and get it right in my brain.  So I figured, “Why not write it here!”

 Revelation 1:1-3 "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and he sent and communicated it by his angel to His Bond-Servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophesy, and heeds the things which are written in it; for the time is near."

 *A better translation for the word ‘Communicated’ would be that the message was Signed to him.
A better translation for the word ‘Heeds’ would be Keep (Obeys and guards)
(My pastor stressed how important it is that we keep and guard these things. Which also implies we really need to know what the flip is going on here.)

 *Apocalypse, which is a Greek word, means, 'To pull the veil aside or Pulling away the veil. (What wasn’t known is now known.)

 Revelation is:
From God
^
From Jesus
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From the angel
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From Paul
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To the 7 Churches

 *Revelation is Heptamerous. (7 Fold) it is built on 7s.
It mirrors creation. Creation was in 7 days and in Revelation there are 7s everywhere. (7 churches, 7 angels, 7 stars, 7 golden lamp stands, just to name a few.) It is built on 7s because Revelation is about a New Creation.

 *Testimony of Jesus vs. Word of God.
Cognate phrases/ words. ‘Word of God’ refers to the Old Testament where as ‘Testament of Jesus’ refers to New testament. Rev 6:9- Were old testament saints who had delivered the Word of God and had been martyred as a result.

 *The Church is growing and we are all being unified over time.

 *‘Soon must take place.’ Soon, quickly, near and swiftly are all words used in Revelation and throughout the Bible. They always mean exactly what they say. Which are SOON, QUICKLY, NEAR and SWIFTLY.  (Heb, 8:13) ( Eph 2:13, 17) (John 11:55) (Acts 12:18) (James 1:19) are a few scriptures that have these terms. Language is language. It means what it means. The meanings never vary.

 *Why then do people (Ahem dispensationalists) try to stretch out the meaning of these words over 2000 yrs. Perhaps is it possible that Jesus already came in a way (Not the second coming mind you) that was judgment on the nation of Israel for how they broke the covenant ant would not believe the New Covenant? (AHEM **SPOILER ALERT!**) Perhaps at 70 A.D. when the temple and Judaism were destroyed?....

 *Revelation was written somewhere in 64 or 65 A.D. under the reign and persecution of Nero. People think it was written 90 to 95 A.D. under the reign and persecution of Domitian. However, my pastor pointed out that in Revelation John is told to ‘measure the temple’ and he could not have measured the temple in those years because the temple had already been torn down and destroyed in 70 A.D.

 *Written to the church that was in persecution and not written to ‘Israel’.
Most of revelation is not about the Second coming.

*In the Old Testament, Gods law was administered by angels. The angel is guarding the garden and we are barred from Gods presence which was in the garden. In the O.T angels had the keys but now in the N.T and in the New Covenant the church has them. The church is now the guardian of the ways and things of the Lord.
At 70 A.D. the O.T Disappears.  Revelation is a transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. Angels are still operative in Revelation.
Not that they aren’t operative today but just not in the same way. We aren’t getting direct words from angels from God. It does not work like that anymore…

 My pastor told us it is so important that we look in the Bible to see what it says instead of just going with what we have been taught. He says we can’t make a ‘Procrustean Bed.’
*Procrustes was someone in Greek mythology that would cut off the legs of the person on the bed if his legs were too long to fit.
*People do that with their theology, they try to make scripture fit their argument when we should be doing the opposite and be making sure our arguments fits scripture.

 (When the truth of the matter is hardly anyone even knows what it in revelation!!) I am so excited to learn this week by week. Let me know if you want to come here the word as well!!

Neeways. Just some thoughts..

 
Love always
HollyDee

 
P.S Did you know the Serpent that deceived eve in the garden was really a dragon? I’m just saying. My pastor blows my mind. I should blog about that sermon as well….. :)