Introduction
     There's an old saying that goes, "He can't see the forest for the trees." This study, though focusing on some of the trees, is an attempt to see the forest, to see the big picture. Too often most of us seem to get lost in the details of the imagery, thereby missing the overall picture. While we seek to avoid that problem in this current study, we also want to be mindful of the danger in oversimplifying anything to the point of insignificance. And so we wish to strike a reasonable balance so as to not lose sight of the big picture. Therefore, this will not be a verse-by-verse study but rather will focus more on the passages that I think point us in the right direction, that will give us a handle on the big picture.

     We begin with the understanding that the bible, consisting of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation, is the inspired Word of God, in fact God-breathed, 2 Timothy 3:16. As such this is literature designed to communicate the mind of the infinite God to finite human beings, and so is written so that we might understand it. The Old Testament prophets spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, 2 Peter 1:21, and this includes the apostles who wrote the New Testament as well, Ephesians 2:19,20, whose writings are the word of God, 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

     With this in mind, two basic principles served as guidelines for this study:

     One, THIS BOOK SHOULD BE READ NATURALLY, NOT NECESSARILY LITERALLY, JUST LIKE ANYTHING ELSE MIGHT BE READ. For example, if you read in the newspaper that Tiger Woods can hit a golf ball a mile, you know that literally that isn't true. You recognize that as a metaphor, an exaggeration for effect, that tells you that he can really hit a golf ball a long way. Or if you hear on the news that the White House issued a press release today you know that really the White House did no such thing. It is just a building, and that what is meant is simply that the current administration occupying the White House issued a press release. These types of statements would never be taken literally by anyone, and everyone naturally understands what is intended or meant by them.

     Scripture sometimes is also written in a metaphorical way, meant to convey emotional rather than literal images. For instance, in Psalm 22:6 David clearly states that he is a worm and not a man. Are we to understand that he literally was a worm, or is this an example of someone humbling himself due to a past action, in this case David's sin with Bathsheba? The answer is obvious.

     In Revelation, the exact meaning of some of the details may not be as important as the overall effect they have within the context in which they are found. For example, who the 24 elders in chapter 4 are isn't nearly as important as what they are doing and why.

     Note here that this contrast is between the natural and the literal, not between natural man and spiritual man. Of course spiritual truths are to be spiritually discerned, as the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:13,14. But we must remember that the same God who inspired Paul also told the prophet Isaiah, "Come now, let us reason together..." in Isaiah 1:18. And so we are trying to spiritually discern what the natural or most obvious message of Revelation is.

     Two, NO PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE CAN MEAN MORE TO US THAN IT DID TO ITS ORIGINAL READERS. OTHERWISE, SCRIPTURE CAN BE MANIPULATED TO MEAN ALMOST ANYTHING. By that I mean that scripture cannot mean something to us that it could not possibly have meant , or shouldn't have meant, to the original readers. (It is possible, however, for scripture to mean something to us that it didn't mean to the original readers but should have. For example, many of the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus that most of the Jews misunderstood, or missed entirely, which the New Testament, often acting as a divine commentary on the Old Testament for us, explains. But that's a different issue...)

     This is particularly true for the book of Revelation. So whenever you arrive at an understanding of some part of the book, a good question to ask yourself is, "Is this likely to be the way the original readers understood it?" If not, then your understanding probably needs some revising. For example, many think that Babylon, described in chapter 17, is the Roman Catholic Church. But is it likely that the original readers would have understood it that way some 400 years before it came into existence? No, and this shows why it is important to try to figure out what their understanding would be before we try to apply it to ourselves today.

     In line with that idea, one of the problems many of us have is the fact that the Old Testament is not our strong suit. But much of the apocalyptic imagery in Revelation is first seen there. Noting what Romans 15:4 says, in part that "...everything that was written in the past was written to teach us," we believe it would be useful to have some understanding of how much of the apocalyptic language was first used in the Old Testament in order to get a handle on how to interpret it in the New Testament in general, and here in Revelation in particular.

     We will try to deal with that, trying to be thorough enough to be beneficial without being overly so to the point of losing sight of the big picture, keeping in mind that scripture best interprets scripture. And so although this study may not be satisfying to the scholar it should meet the needs of the rest of us.

     You will also notice that many of the following text files contain colorful 'thumbnail' images illustrating various scenes from the book of Revelation. These are courtesy of Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992, Revelation Illustrated, and are used here with her kind permission.

     When you click on the Flowchart link below, you will see that the page it is on is framed, with the flowchart in the top frame and text in the bottom. The text that is currently there will further explain the flowchart. Please read that file before continuing. Then simply use your mouse to click on any box in the flowchart. The text file for that box will immediately appear in the lower frame.

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