This document provides an overview of the biblical book of Revelation. It discusses Revelation's genre as an apocalypse and notes that it was written during a time of great persecution. The document outlines the major sections and events described in Revelation, including the seals, trumpets, bowls of wrath, and final judgment. It also presents four interpretive views of Revelation: preterist, historicist, futurist, and idealist. Finally, it briefly explains three paradigms for interpreting the millennium mentioned in Revelation 20: postmillennialism, amillennialism, and premillennialism.

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2. Literary Genre
REVELATION
• Epistle
• Prophecy
• Apocalypse

3. Apocalypse
REVELATION
• Based Largely on OT Prophetic
Literature
• “Write what you have seen”
• Born in times of great
persecution/oppression
– No longer concerned w/ events
within history
– Looked primarily to God’s radical
and violent end to history

4. Timing
REVELATION
• “must soon take place”
• 1:3, 1:19, 4:1, 22:6-7
• Either end time events will
occur soon
• Or, when they do begin
occurring, they will transpire
quickly

5. Overview
REVELATION
• Ch. 1-3 // Cast of characters
– John (seer)
– Christ the Keyholder (Daniel)
– Church // 7 churches

6. Overview
REVELATION
• Chapters 4-5 // Worship &
Praise

7. Overview
REVELATION
• Chapters 6-7 // Unfolding of the
Drama
– White Horsemen = Conquest
– Red Horsement = War
– Black = Famine
– Pale = Death
– The Martyrs Question // “how long?”
– The Earthquake = God’s Judgement
• 144,000 sealed
• A great multitude
– Gods Wrath = 7 trumpets

8. Overview
REVELATION
• Chapters 8-11 // God’s
judgment on Rome
– First 4 echo plagues of Egypt
– 5-6 indicate barbarian hordes
and great war
– 7 Kingdom of this world has
become the kingdom of our God

9. Overview
REVELATION
• Big picture up to this point
• Chapters 12-22 offer details
• Chapters 13-14
• Chapters 15-16 // Roman
emperors doomed
– Satan’s vengeance through the
Roman empire
– Demand for religious allegiance
• Chapters 17-22 city of earth
(Rome) is condemned for its part
in persecution, city of God where
God’s people dwell eternally

10. Four Views
REVELATION
• Preterist
• Written to comfort Christians who
suffered persecution from both
Judaism and the Roman Imperial
Cult
• Events of Revelation fulfilled in the
first centuries of the Church //
either the fall of Jerusalem 70 AD
or the fall of the Roman empire
• Most popular among scholars

11. Four Views
REVELATION
• Historicist
• Events of Revelation as
unfolding in the course of
history.
• Especially compatible w/
Reformers seeing Papacy as
the Anti-Christ.
• Very rare in current
scholarship

12. Four Views
REVELATION
• Futurist
• Events of Revelation largely
unfulfilled
• Ch. 4-22 await the end times
for their realization
• Most popular among the
masses
• Matthew 24:6-8

13. Four Views
REVELATION
• Idealist
• Reticent to pinpoint events of
Revelation historically
• Sets forth timeless truths concerning
the battle between good and evil that
continues throughout the church age.
• Spiritualizes events meant for
inspirational purposes.
• Doesn’t mean that an event occurs
repeatedly, but that the spiritual truth
behind the event is timeless, finding
several fulfillments throughout the ages

14. Millenniam
REVELATION
• Revelation 20
• A period of bliss on earth
brought about by the
conversion of the nations
because of the preaching of
the gospel.

15. Three Paradigms
REVELATION
• Postmillennialism
• Christ will return after the
Millenniam.
• As the church preaches the
gospel and performs its role
as the salt of the earth, the
kingdom of God will advance
until the whole world will bow
to the authority of Christ.

16. Amillennialism
REVELATION
• No literal one thousand year reign
• Three Reasons
– Throughout the apocalypse, numbers
used symbolically, especially in
Revelation 20
– Number symbolic of completion, not a
specific span of time
– No other passage of scripture
mentions a millennium
– Historic creeds of Christendom do not
mention a millennium

17. Premillennialism
REVELATION
• Christ will come again and
establish a temporary, one
thousand year reign on earth
from Jerusalem