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'd like to challenge you to think through the issue of what is the genre of apocalyptic. This is a topic that we've covered in our Bible study on Revelation this past week, and it went over so well that I'd like to reprise it with you. I'd like to go over it again with you here on our radio broadcast to give you an idea of what we're covering in our Bible study, which is called Revealing Revelation, a community Bible study on the book of Revelation.

We had our first session this past week at Starbucks on 17th Street in Idaho Falls, and it went over spectacularly. I was very pleased. We had a lot of people there, a lot of people that are not involved with our church, a lot of people who haven't heard some of these things before, and are looking forward to our unpacking of Revealing Revelation, a community study of the apocalypse. And we'll be meeting on Thursday evenings from here on in.

We began this past Thursday, October 10, but we'll be meeting on Thursday evenings at Starbucks at 7 p.m. in Toronto, 8.15 p.m., and it's going to be led by myself, Pastor Dave Bass of New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and Pastor Mike Gilea of Share the Sun Ministries. We invite you to come and join us. Get yourself a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, and sit down with us, share your opinions, share your points of view on the book of Revelation, and we'll be introducing the book of Revelation as it has been classically understood in the past, and see how it contrasts perhaps with other points of view.

You can get more information by calling us at area code 208-523-0196, area code 208-523-0196, if you'd like to let us know that you're going to be there, or to gather some more information.

But today, I'd like to cover with you what we covered in that very first lesson, because it's very important to understanding what the book of Revelation is, and I did some of this a little earlier, way back when we first introduced the book of Revelation, but let me cover this again, because it's so important for us understanding in the future, too, what the book of Revelation is all about, and that is an introduction to apocalyptic, that is the kind or style of writing that the book of Revelation has, and it has rules, too. Every genre has rules for interpreting it, for understanding it.

First of all, let me give you our definition 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, standing for historical realities meant to comfort and encourage saints in or under distress and oppression. This is a very important definition, because it does encapsulate not only the book of Revelation, but other apocalyptic literature in the Bible, like the book of Daniel.

Apocalypse is indeed a record of divine disclosures made known through the agency of angels' dreams and visions, employing vivid and sometimes bizarre images for historical realities, standing for historical realities meant to comfort and encourage saints in or under distress and oppression. Now, that's the definition we'll be unpacking then, and you'll see some of the features of apocalypse as we go through them. I have 10 of them for you. First of all, we need to define what genre is. That is, genre is a type or kind of writing.

A type or kind of writing, and Revelation is no exception. It is a certain type or kind of writing, and that type or kind is apocalypse. So, the genre of the book of Revelation is apocalypse, and every genre of writing has its own rules and its own style for composition. This is not hard to grasp. Just think for a minute of the different genres of writing that you're familiar with.

For example, what are some of the rules and style for letters? For example, you have the date at the top, right? And then the addressee, the person and address, and perhaps the phone number of the person to whom you're addressing the letter, and then you write, dear so-and-so, right? To begin with, and then you have the body of the letter, and then you conclude with sincerely, and then you have your name, address, and perhaps phone number as well. These are styles and rules for the genre of writing letters.

You have the same thing with a science paper, for example, or fairy tales, right? You know a fairy tale is coming when you hear once upon a time, right? And then you generally have a fantastic story that concludes with everybody lived happily ever after. You know you're dealing with a genre of fairy tale, right? Or there's news articles, the genre of news articles, where you have the who, what, where, why, when, and how, right?

These are the questions you ask of any particular news story, or a love letter, all different genres, type or kind of writing. But let me ask you, what would happen if you mixed the rules for one genre with another, right? If you had a science paper approach to the love letter you're writing to your wife or your girlfriend, oh, that relationship would be over pretty soon, wouldn't it? Or if you had a form of love letter in your science paper, you'd get flunked, wouldn't you, right away, or rejected from whatever science journal you may be writing for? You know what I mean.

Mixing the rules or style for composition for one genre with another, you have chaos, confusion, and you have a failure in terms of what you're writing. Well, the same goes for apocalypse. Apocalypse has its own rules and style for composition, and I have 10 of them here for you. Note below with me some standard features of the genre of apocalyptic. First of all, number one, apocalyptic by its very nature reveals spiritual realities through the text.

The text was not meant to be interpreted literally, no. In apocalyptic, apocalyptic by its very nature, spiritualizes the text. I have an example here then from the book of Revelation. For example, in Revelation chapter 8, or chapter 11, verse 8, we have, when the two witnesses finish their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will attack them and overpower and kill them, and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified, speaking, of course, of Jerusalem.

In the King James Version, you have a literally translated verb that is where, spiritually speaking, Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified, the idea of spiritualizing the text. And this happens on a consistent basis all through not only the book of Revelation, but all through apocalyptic. That is, the signs and symbols and pictures and some of the bizarre images consistently reveal spiritual realities through the text. The text is not meant to be interpreted literally. That's one of the rules of apocalyptic, which, of course, you violate if you indeed interpret literally.

Apocalyptic also, mostly uses numbers, symbolically and not literally. That's another rule of apocalyptic literature. It's part of genre interpretation. That is, numbers are mostly symbolic and not literal. And that goes, for example, for chapter 20, the idea of a 1,000 in chapter 20 of the book of Revelation.

And Revelation says there, I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who was the devil or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. Once again, apocalyptic uses numbers mostly symbolically.

This is true, whether you're talking about the book of Zechariah or you're talking about the book of Revelation or the book of Daniel numbers are largely symbolic. The idea of a thousand, for example, all through the Bible, we have in Psalm 50, of course, the idea of God knowing the cattle on a thousand hills are his, right? The cattle on a thousand hills, that's a number, a fantastic number, a large, a limitless number. Or is it true that maybe he does have the cattle on a thousand hills, but that thousand and first hill, no, those aren't his, no. The idea of a thousand is an expansive, large, limitless number.

The idea of Job in the book of Job, in chapter nine as well, Job complains that if he disputes with the Lord a thousand times, he will not be right, he will not be found justified. But, oh, how about that thousand and first argument with the Lord, right? Can you win that one? No, the idea of a thousand here is, again, a large and limitless number. Or the idea that a day is like a thousand years in the eyes of the Lord to the Lord, or a day like a thousand years, right?

A thousand years like a day. This from 2 Peter, the idea of a thousand then we see time and time again is limitless. It's supposed to be beyond imagination. So we see in apocalyptic numbers are used symbolically. That is a rule for interpretation.

Number two in the genre of apocalypse. Number three, apocalyptic uses vivid, imaginative, sometimes bizarre metaphors to portray contemporary. That is near or soon to be fulfilled historical realities and not far off future events. The book of Revelation begins that way, doesn't it? In chapter one, verses one through three, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.

He made it known by sending his angels to his servant, John, who testifies to everything he saw. That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take it to heart. What is written in it? Because the time is near.

Once again, this is apocalyptic literature and the writers of apocalyptic literature were writing to their own generation. They were writing about things that would transpire soon. And that's precisely what happens then in apocalyptic in the book of Revelation. Also, our Lord then in his Olivet Discourse, when he was talking about things that would transpire, that is the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans, by Titus in AD 70, he was talking about things that would happen in the lives of his own disciples. He tells a parable in this way too.

Once again, a vivid, sometimes bizarre metaphor, the idea of the fig tree, where Jesus says, now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, that is the signs he brings out in his Olivet Discourse, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Once again, he was talking about the generation in which he lived, that is the disciples standing there before him. The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 would happen, indeed, within the lifetime of the disciples. These are historical realities in apocalyptic. The vivid images, sometimes bizarre images, are all metaphors to portray contemporary, that is near and soon to be fulfilled historical realities, not far off future events. The book of Revelation, Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, or Daniel chapter 8, for example, or Ezekiel chapter 10.

We don't have time to go into all of these, but if you were to look up Daniel 8 or Ezekiel 10, you would see that the prophet was predicting historical realities that would transpire very soon, if not within the lifetime of the prophet, then very soon. So this is the nature of apocalyptic, the genre of apocalyptic, rule number three. Rule number four, apocalyptic uses the tool of recapitulation in order to return to and revisit previous themes to further expand them and then develop them. An important rule, the idea of recapitulation.

So often, especially in modern contemporary interpretation of the book of Revelation, it's kind of done in a linear straight line fashion from beginning to end. You start at the beginning in chapter one of Revelation and you finish at the end in chapter 22 and it's all a straight line panel. No, the idea of recapitulation, that is you go back to a theme you started earlier in the book and you revisit it, you expand on it, and you develop it. And a perfect example is the idea of the horse and rider on the white horse.

We have, uh, in Revelation chapter seven, we have the, the, the horse, uh, white horse and the rider upon that horse who goes forth conquering. And then we recapitulate that very same image and expand upon it. Um, in Revelation chapter 19, where the horse and rider are developed and expanded, uh, uh, even more fully in Revelation chapter 19, um, where the, uh, Christ figure on the white horse goes forth conquering to the battle of Armageddon. That's a theme that's expanded and developed. And that is a common theme throughout the book of Revelation, the idea of recapitulation.

Well, rule number five in interpreting apocalyptic. And once again, the book of Revelation is indeed, um, of that genre of apocalyptic. We know one of the rules for interpreting the book of Revelation is that the apocalyptic uses the technique of oscillation. We've seen it uses the idea of recapitulation. Here it also uses the idea of oscillation to move from between heaven and earth to show that God knows and controls what goes on.

Although it may not be apparent to us on the earth at the time. And once again, we see this all through the book of Revelation or the book of Daniel too. Uh, the book of Ezekiel has, uh, oscillation between heaven and earth. And we see it in the book of Zechariah for that matter too. But in Revelation, what do we see after the letters to the seven churches on the ground, on the earth, all of the ups and downs, the persecution, the turmoil, the victories, the defeats on the ground, on the earth, the seven churches of Asia, what happens in chapter four?

We see immediately after this, I looked, John said, and there before me, it was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. There is the oscillation between heaven and earth. John, after spending time on the earth, seven letters to the churches, he finds an open door into heaven and he is transported immediately into heaven. This is the idea of oscillation.

And we find it throughout the book of Revelation. John will later find himself back on the earth. He will oscillate between heaven and earth all through the book. And this is characteristic of the genre. This type or kind of writing is that there is an oscillation between heaven and earth.

And that's one of the techniques by which we are shown. It's for a purpose. It's not just to give us a golly gee whiz experience. No, it's to show us that God knows and controls what goes on here on the earth and in heaven, although it may not be apparent to us on the earth at the time. All things may seem chaotic and losing ground.

We may seem like and feel like we're doing, even as the early church did. The seven churches in Asia, they were going through all kinds of tumultuous experiences. They were going under persecution. They were under suffering. They were being killed, even as Antipas was killed for their faith.

And it may cause them to ask, what is God doing? Is God in control? Really? Is God love me? Is he superintending my life for good?

Well, by being transported into heaven and seeing the heavenly perspective on the life of the church, we see indeed that God does love us, that God does care for us, that he does superintend all that happens to us. It's not out of his control. We are numbered, all of us, 144,000. That's a figurative symbolic number, by the way, to indicate that there is a perfect number of saints here on the earth, and God knows us and loves us all, cares for us, and shepherds us through whatever circumstances we are going through, even though it may seem chaotic and out of control to us.

God tells us through the technique of oscillation that he indeed is in control, however. Well, the sixth rule then of interpretation for the genre of apocalyptic, number six, apocalyptic uses the device of an angelic guide to help us interpret what we see and hear, and hear, then, as he guides the author through the vision. And we see that voice in heaven, right? We see that voice in heaven who is indeed guiding us through the book of Revelation, and that happens all through, then, the genre of apocalyptic, and it happens in Daniel, too, for that matter.

And we see it in Daniel chapter 2, for example, where Daniel is introduced, then, to his heavenly guide. Then Daniel went to Ariok, for example. We have in Daniel 2, I'm sorry, Daniel chapter 12, verses 5 through 13. Excuse me. In Daniel 12, we have that angelic guide, where Daniel is indeed introduced to the scene in Daniel chapter 5.

Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. One of them said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, how long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled? These are angelic beings, indeed, that guide Daniel, then, through the closing vision of Daniel. So, we see time and time again angelic guides that help us interpret what we see and hear. That's the purpose of the angelic guide.

As he guides the author of the apocalyptic book through their vision, he also then coincidentally guides us through and helps us interpret. That's the purpose of the angelic guide in apocalyptic. Well, rule number seven is indeed that the first audience of apocalyptic is that contemporary reader to whom the author wrote. The author always has his audience in mind as he's writing, indeed, isn't he? And the first audience of apocalyptic is that contemporary reader to whom the author wrote, whose culture and life circumstances the author shares, and not some far-off future reader with whom he does not share these things, right?

And that only really does make sense. And that's true of the book of Revelation, too. John had a particular audience in mind, and that audience was his own contemporary people that he's writing to. He says this in verse 9 of the opening chapter. He says, I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

This is the audience to whom he's writing. Brothers, right? Contemporary brother and companions, that is, those who are with him suffering and in the kingdom and patient endurance that is theirs in Jesus. And this is true throughout all apocalyptic literature. We can see it in the book of Daniel, too, who was writing to the exiles.

Ezekiel, in his apocalyptic chapters, too, was writing to the exiles on the river of Kabar, right? The first audience of apocalyptic is always that contemporary reader to whom the author wrote, whose culture and life circumstances he shares, not some far-off future reader in the 20s, 21st century with whom he does not share these things. That's so true of apocalyptic. Elsewise, how does the reader understand unless he shares something in common with them? Life circumstances, culture.

That's why it's so important to interpret the culture and life circumstances of the author and the contemporary reader so that we can understand them. Number eight, apocalyptic often concludes with the end of all things and the commencing of the eternal state, even as Daniel chapter 12 does or Revelation 21 and 22, where we have the end of all things, right? The descent of the new Jerusalem adorned as a bride for her bridegroom. Number nine, apocalyptic has as one of its major motifs the warfare between good and evil. That is the struggle of God and his faithful with Satan and his minions.

That's another popular motif throughout Revelation, isn't it? And then finally, number 10, so we can finish here. Apocalyptic has as one of its major motifs, the eventual dominion of God's kingdom over all of creation. We see that as a constant motif. And I've just done a quick survey of these things here for you today, but I urge you, if you'd like to have this filled out for you a little bit more, or you'd like to discuss some of these points, some of these topics a little more thoroughly, I invite you to do so at our Bible study, which is revealing revelation, a community study of the apocalypse.

We're tackling these things. We're looking at the book of Revelation here at our community study, the apocalypse, and it's at Starbucks at 900 East 17th Street in Idaho Falls. And it's being led by myself, Pastor Dave Bass of New Geneva, and also Pastor Mike Gillia of Share the Sun Ministries. And many of the things you've heard here on this particular broadcast we've covered in our first lesson, but we'll be willing to go over them again with you in our study, and plus many other things. And Pastor Mike is going to be taking a lesson here as well, or two as we go along.

So we're looking forward. We had a great first study. We look forward to subsequent ones, and you joining us as well. And if you would like to join us, New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, we are worshiping at Sunday, 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And we are preaching through the book of Revelation at this time.

I invite you to join us for that. Once again, we have holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196. Area code 208-523-0196.