Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today I want to challenge you to think through the issue of introducing the book of Revelation. That's what I've been doing in our church services at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We are well into the book of Revelation. What an exciting time it's been for our church as well.

Many of our people have anticipated this for a long time, and I just invite you to join us on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard so that you can participate with us in our study of the book of Revelation and on the radio here. I have been in the midst of introducing the book of Revelation. This radio program lags maybe a week or two behind where we are in our preaching series. But nevertheless, you'll get pretty much what you get on Sunday morning here on the radio. But I would just enjoy having you come and visit us at New Geneva and join us for this series in person.

And it's always better to fellowship with brothers and sisters. So I invite you to our study of the book of Revelation on Sunday morning at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. But here's just a bit of a sample of what we've been doing. And I have introduced in the past, several weeks now, ago, I've introduced, for example, the author of Revelation. And we looked at that in quite some detail.

And of course, it is the Apostle John. There's some competing theories. But we concluded that it was indeed the Apostle John who authored the book of Revelation. And that as well, we had the date then, we nailed that down at about AD 64. With all of the context in which we've approached the book of Revelation and some of the features of the book, we concluded that the book of Revelation was authored at about AD 64, before the destruction of Jerusalem, during the reign of Nero.

A couple other issues I'd like to deal with as we are introducing the book of Revelation, just so we establish some of our working order and principles while we interpret this book. Because that's one of the greatest challenges to this mighty book of Revelation, is indeed to put it in its context so we can better understand it and really grasp what's going on in this book. And so let me deal with another issue that comes with introducing the book. And that is the audience. To whom was the book of Revelation written?

Well, it was indeed written to the seven churches of Asia immediately, but the whole church immediately. Yes, the seven churches of Asia immediately. That is proper and right up front. But in the background, of course, John had in mind all of the church throughout the ages in mind as well. Rarely in the history of interpretation do teachers agree unanimously on anything.

But here, amazingly, almost all commentators agree that Revelation was written for all the church militant that is here on the earth, still in battle here on the earth, rather than translated to our heavenly rest. Revelation was written for all the church militant. And for John, the number seven symbolizes completeness and fullness, the totality of the thing represented. And so, the seven churches of Asia symbolize the whole of the church, extant then, and that which she would become down to our own day. Next, we want to look at the genre of Revelation.

That is the type or kind of writing that it is. The type or kind of writing that it is. And of course, the genre of Revelation is apocalypse. A-P-O-C-A-L-Y-P-S-E. Apocalypse. That is a genre.

Apocalypse. Let me give you my brief definition of the genre of apocalypse. Apocalypse is a record of divine disclosures made known through the agency of angels, dreams, and visions employing vivid and sometimes bizarre images for historical realities meant to comfort and encourage saints in or under distress and persecution. Let me repeat that again if you wanted to jot this down so you have a record of it. Indeed, apocalypse as a genre.

Apocalypse is a record of divine disclosures made known through the agency of angels, dreams, and visions employing vivid and sometimes bizarre images for historical realities meant to comfort and encourage saints in or under distress and persecution. Unquote. And some of the features of the genre of apocalypse, and this is something that you need to keep in mind when interpreting this book, the features of apocalypse are, first of all, A, vivid and bizarre images. This is one of those things that gives apocalyptic its imaginative zing, doesn't it?

It makes apocalypse alive and exciting around the proverbial campfire, and apocalypse captures your attention and it opens you up to be taught. That's one of the purposes that John has in mind, to open you up, to make you see, in order to be taught. But this is both its bane and blessing, unfortunately. If those vivid and bizarre images are misinterpreted, which many, many people do today, then you are led merrily down the prophetic lane to grandma's house, where that interpretive wolf is in grandma's nightgown, and you are food for foolishness. Don't be food for foolishness.

Understand what the genre of apocalypse is before you go interpreting it. Well, another feature, B, another feature of apocalypse is its historical rootedness. Apocalypse is inevitably historically rooted. The imagery and symbolism of apocalyptic is not anchored in airy fairy tale or exclusively for far-off generations, no. But rather, apocalypse is anchored in the historical reality of the time in which it was written, though it will move from there to unveil consequences for the future, too.

Okay. Another feature, C, another, there are a lot of features to apocalypse, and dear listener, you have to keep these all in mind. You have to keep these balls in the air of the variety of features of apocalypse, if you're going to understand it. C, another feature of apocalypse is an oscillation between heaven and earth. Oh, revelations replete with this, isn't it?

There is always an oscillation between heaven and earth. The same scene is sometimes played out in both heaven and earth, primarily to show that no matter how desperate things may seem below, how unknown and unseen they may seem below, they are yet all part of God's divine plan, and their saint remains in God's hand. Because when you oscillate to heaven, you see God sovereignly superintending and overseeing and ordaining all things that come to pass. Well, another feature of apocalypse, D, another feature of apocalypse is repetitive cycles. Oh, this is so important to keep in mind in Revelation.

Revelation is not a linear progress of history, no. Revelation is full of repetitive cycles. The same scene, the same reality, the same circumstance is often taken up multiple times to highlight a different feature or aspect of that scene, reality, or circumstance. And as we will see with the approaching eternal state, for example, just one example, the eternal state is taken up multiple times with increasing fullness until the closing chapters of Revelation, where it is dealt with extensively with great power and glory. It's kind of like the magnifying feature you often find online, right?

Where you can move a digital magnifying glass over a product maybe that you're thinking of buying to view its features in greater detail? Well, Revelation does kind of that same thing as well. Correspondingly, the temporal state too. Not only the eternal state, but the temporal state shares some of these features. The temporal state is dealt with extensively at the outset, like the earthly state of the seven churches of Asia.

But this earthly state recedes into the background increasingly as Revelation progresses. And the eternal state is highlighted greater and greater. Oh, dear listener, we must always keep in mind that Revelation is full of repetitive cycles. Another feature then of apocalypse, you have to keep this in mind too. Another feature of apocalypse is the cataclysmic end of all things.

We sometimes use the word apocalyptic, something this or that event is an apocalyptic event because that is one of the features of apocalyptic is the cataclysmic end of all things. In apocalypse, as Daniel chapter 12 gives eloquent testimony, brings ultimate reassurance that all of history is in God's hands and that he will achieve his glorious salvific purposes at the end of linear history, whenever that end may be, dear listener. That's one of the features of apocalyptic is its cataclysmic end of all things.

And then finally, another major feature then of apocalyptic, Christian apocalyptic is that Christ is the glorious center of all history. Oh, isn't this one of the dear themes of the book of Revelation, dear listener, is that indeed our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ is the glorious center of all history. And as the multitude of names, sometimes the names of Christ are repeated seven times, sometimes four times, sometimes three times, depending on the name. As these multiplicity of names of Christ testify, he is the subject, object, and central character of the drama of Revelation.

He's the reason for being, he's the focus of our worship and the only hope for a lost and dying world, dear listener. He is the alpha and omega first and the last. Oh, these are some of the features of the genre then of Revelation. Well, I have some other things that I want to introduce to you in the course of Revelation, but first I want to bring you this urgent bulletin from the Babylon Bee, the news source, the Babylon Bee.

And they report, and I quote from them, in a move sponsored by Tyndale House, as well as several prominent dispensationalist scholars, the Left Behind series has been declared the official modern replacement for the book of Revelation. Sources confirmed on Friday. Oh, dear listener, isn't this scary? Tyndale House is replacing the book of Revelation with the Left Behind series. They go on to say, at the Babylon Bee, all copies of the Bible going forward will replace the complex imagery of John's apocalyptic vision with the clear, compelling narrative of the left behind novels to minimize confusion among readers.

Oh, what a relief, dear listener. Now obsolete copies, they go on to say, now obsolete copies of the Bible already in print can be mailed to Tyndale House, where the final book of the New Testament canon will be torn out and tossed in the fire to be supplanted with freshly pressed pages of the new official description of the Eschaton. And as one, as Jerry B. Jenkins and as Dr. David Jeremiah of Shadow Mountain Community Church said Friday, he says, does the book of Revelation ever leave you stumped? Well, be perplexed by signs and symbols no more.

As the masterful writing of Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye transports you to the very near future, you'll no longer have to spend hours attempting to line up dragons, blood moons, and harlots with modern day politicians and countries. The dream team of LaHaye and Jenkins did all the legwork for you already. Unquote. From Dr. David Jeremiah. Oh, dear listener.

Parenthetically is too. Let me also point out, they point out for us that left behind the kids. The popular adaptation for children will also be included in the new Bibles in an apocryphal section, according to the publisher. And at publishing time, sources had confirmed that the book of Genesis would also slowly be phased out in favor of the entire Answers in Genesis website. Oh, dear listener, what's our world come to?

What has the Christian world come to, dear listener? Well, there are two reactions to this news story, the Babylon Bee, over which I have great concern. Number one, two concerns I have for you. If you think the end of the world has finally come, that anyone could do this to the Bible, that is, that you take it seriously. This was a parody, of course.

I also have concern for you if, number two, if you rejoice at the prospect of this actually happening, that is, that revelation is due to be replaced by the left behind series. I have great concern for you if this is what you think is a glorious thing. And hopefully you see the Babylon Bee story for what it is. It's a parody. But the thing about humor is that what makes it funny is the kernel of truth at its center.

And the kernel of truth here is that for far too many evangelical Christians, functionally, if not consciously, they see the world created in the series left behind. They see it based upon a true understanding of revelation. And everybody, of course, would admit that the person's dialogue and circumstances of the left behind series are fiction. But all would say that what will happen will be something like what Tim LaHaye projects from his imagination. The particulars may be fiction, but the general shape of what will happen is not to so many people today.

And it's taken with such faith and conviction that to question it is to question the authority of the Bible and to be some kind of unbeliever or even heretic, right? And so the Babylon Bee's parody transpires. So rather than exegete the left behind series, let me continue to establish our groundwork, our introduction for the book of Revelation by articulating the purpose of the book of Revelation for you.

Let me just say, the purpose of the book of Revelation is to encourage and exhort the poor suffering church to continue her witness to Christ, since she triumphs by the blood of the Lamb, although the shedding of that blood may seem at the time a defeat. Oh, the purpose of Revelation, oh, especially in the day in which it was composed, the circumstances of the suffering church, purpose of Revelation was to encourage and exhort the poor suffering church to continue her witness to Christ, since indeed the church then and the church now still triumphs by the blood of the Lamb, although the shedding of that blood may seem at the time a defeat.

There's a divine irony throughout Revelation that is consistent too with the cross. That is, God uses man's very instrument of weakness and defeat cross to bring about his power and victory. This is divine irony at its most poignant and powerful, isn't it, dear listener? Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. He says, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart, Paul says. He goes on to say, where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified as stumbling back to Jews and a folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Unquote. The divine irony of the cross. Yet in this sign, we conquer, do we not? The sign of the cross. And so it is throughout the book of Revelation.

This is that theme, that grand theme. The more we bleed and die, the more we triumph and overcome. This is a thing that the dragon and his minions will never understand. Since Cyprian put it succinctly, he said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The more we suffer and die, dear listener, the more we grow, we triumph through the cross.

We have testimony from converted Muslims in Syria, for example, who burned and crucified Christians, thinking to stamp them out. But instead, the peaceful manner in which they died, the serenity in which they surrendered their lives to Christ, graciously asking God to forgive their persecutors, this kind of dying made a lasting and humbling impression on many Muslims. It is a little known fact that there is a quiet revival going on in Syria precisely because of this principle. There is a direct line of dissent from the martyrs of the first century who conquered in the same manner.

And they have conquered him, that is Satan, the enemy of our souls. They have conquered Satan by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Unquote from Revelation chapter 12. Now, Revelation, the book of Revelation, the apocalypse exists in part to show this and to show as well the ultimate end of their struggle, our struggle. And that ultimate end, we will see at the conclusion of Revelation, of course, the heavenly city coming down from heaven, adorned like a bride for her bridegroom.

How glorious it is, Lord. Glorious it is, dear listener. The purpose for the book of Revelation. Therefore, dear listener, please do not desecrate the memory of those martyrs and others yet to come by an obsession with end times prophecies and prophetic hobby horses of four horsemen of the apocalypse and identification of the Antichrist in an escape hatch rapture and speculations of a seven-year tribulation in which Nicolai Carpathia will finally unveil himself as the Antichrist. Oh, dear listener, what an abomination.

The purpose of Revelation is not to entertain dispensational dilettantes and red heifer rapture ranters, but rather the apocalypse is here to encourage and exhort the poor suffering church to continue her witness to Christ. Since that dear beloved church triumphs by the blood of the lamb, although the shedding of that blood may seem at the time a defeat, it is not. It is a triumph in the end. Well, that is the purpose of Revelation. But there's also a history too, a history to the composition of the book of Revelation.

And I want to cover that just briefly because it's germane to understanding that book. First of all, the history of Revelation in the life of the church is long and complex and sometimes fraught with conflict and controversy, dear listener. Are you surprised at that? No, it still is today, isn't it? The apocalypse appears in the life of the church very early.

It's alluded to or directly referenced by the church fathers. For example, the shepherd of Hermas and the letter of Barnabas, both composed early in the second century, use the very language of Revelation in a very familiar way. And the church father, Papias, and the church father, Justin Martyr, both who wrote in the mid to late second century, they cite Revelation too. And they give some background to it as well. But the first church father to write a complete commentary on the book of Revelation was a man named Melito, who was Bishop of Sardis, one of the churches addressed in the book of Revelation.

Melito wrote a full commentary on Revelation, Bishop of Sardis, and he did that in AD 175. So we see the book of Revelation very early in the life of the church. And during those early years, expectation was high that the Lord would return very soon. Yet everything changed too. If you understand your history of the church, I taught a whole course on the history of the church and we covered this particular point.

That is, everything changed when Rome began to decay and collapse and then finally fall in AD 410. And the book of Revelation in part predicts the fall of the Roman Empire. It finally did in AD 410 when Alaric, the barbarian of the Visigoths, he sacked Rome in AD 410. Sacked Rome like a stricken sick man. Rome would linger on for years, but it would never be the same.

Most people chronicle the fall of Rome from about that time, AD 410. And it's so distressed and shocked one bishop in particular in the far-off city of Hippo that he set about to explain to both the pagan world, because the pagan world blamed the church and Christianity for the fall of Rome, but he also set about to explain to the growing Christian world, many of whom thought Rome would flourish until the end of the world, to the end of time. Kind of like many Americans see the United States in prophecy, you fools, thinking that you see the United States in prophecy in the Bible. No.

Many fools in the Roman world thought that Christians thought that Rome would go on forever to the end of the world. So they were shocked when Rome fell. And Augustine, St. Augustine, set about to explain to both pagan and Christian what God was doing. This man, Augustine of Hippo, St. Augustine, set about then to explain exactly what was going on, what God was doing in history. And this distress and anxiety and perplexity drove this genius too, as it so often does.

Anxiety, perplexity drives geniuses. Well, it drove Augustine to write his magnum opus, that is the city of God. Where do you think he got the title, the very title of the city of God? He got it, of course, from the book of Revelation. Oh, what a work it is, dear listener.

This masterful work called the city of God ranges over all of scripture, the whole of history of man. But for our purposes, the city of God also shifts the church's perspective on last things. And we in our own generation need a shift from last things, dear listener. Instead of reading Revelation as a handbook of the second coming, we were meant to decode when the time was near. No, Augustine saw Revelation as a mandate given by Christ to his church to conquer and transform a lost and dying world, that is the Roman world.

The church, in his mind, must settle down and expect to be in the world but not of it, and be in the world but not of it for a long indeterminate time. This is why both amillennialists and postmillennialists can claim St. Augustine. Augustine tried to persuade the church that it could be for millennia, which it has been. And simultaneously, he tried to persuade the dying pagan world that Christ and his gospel was salutary for them, too. The church had been nothing but gracious to all men, even pagans, innocent, wrongdoing, and supportive of just emperors.

So, Augustine has transformed eschatology. His shadow looms large over all of the Bible interpretation, even today. But this didn't stop the futurists. As we will see, when the prophecy bug bites, millennial fever overwhelms even the most sober, thoughtful man and drives him and his followers over the prophetic cliff like lemmings. And this, in part, is why both Luther and Calvin approach Revelation with great caution, even skepticism.

Opposition to Revelation has almost always been because of the abuse to which it has been put and the extremes to which Revelation has been subjected. Well, we'll cover some of those extremes and some of those abuses in our next lesson as we continue to introduce the book of Revelation. And there's many cautions I want to bring to you, dear listener, in all of these things. But I also want to encourage you to come full-throated to the book of Revelation because it does exalt our Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't it? He is the center, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega of the apocalypse.

And it is to him that we come when we worship and Revelation will unfold various modes of worship for us as well. One of the exciting motifs that we find in the book of Revelation and many, many more. Well, it's not just Revelation, red heifer rapture rants that we want to engage in when we come to this book of Revelation. And I hope you've seen that. It's an approach maybe you have never heard of before when we come to the book of Revelation, but one with which you will encounter in perhaps a new and fresh way, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I love him. He has saved me and he's bringing me to that eternal city, that bride adorned, that city adorned like a bride for a bridegroom. I look forward to that time. And I say with you, come Lord Jesus, come soon. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with the Moment of Truth.

We encourage you to join us for worship at New Geneva. We meet for worship at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Call us for more information about this series about our church at area code 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.