REVELATION INTRODUCTION

Introductory Material to the Book of Revelation

The Attitude toward the book.

 +There are the unbelieving, that vast host who know of the book but are not morally inclined toward it (1 Cor. 2:14). "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."  The Greek word there is psychic; and I think it would be a great gain if we so read it. The man who is merely the man of mentality, the man whose mentality is divorced from spirituality; the man who is trying to grasp the operations of the universe, but who fails to realize the spiritual element that pervades the universe. Paul says that man, the merely psychic man, is at enmity against God. Why is it the psychic man is at enmity against God? There is only one reason; he does not know God, and has a false idea of God. His false idea may be due to his own false philosophy.

+There are the uninterested, those in the church who prefer to ignore the book entirely.

+ There are the unfriendly, those who prefer to see the book a compilation of heathen mythologies.

+ There are the untaught, a great many within the church who are interested but have never been taught or had opportunity to study the book.

+ There are the understanding, a group who have not only been taught, but have revelled in the message (Rev. 1:3). "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."

This brief analysis, however, reveals in part the tragedy in Christendom today, especially in the light of what the book says of itself. One preacher is quoted as saying, after announcing he would preach on the book, "I don't know anything, you don't know anything, nobody knows anything about this book." He then closed the book and preached on something else. Another said John wrote Revelation because he was homesick to get back to Jerusalem. In Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary, the professor asked a student at the outset of class to review Revelation in five minutes. The young man said he could not do it but that he would need five hours. The professor replied, "You could if you knew John was drunk when he wrote it." The stream never rises above its source and when it does it is a catastrophe and so in that seminary.