THE OVERCOMERS
A STUDY OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION (Chapters 1 - 22)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
>>Introduction
>>Synopsis of Revelation
>>The Super Drama of Revelation
>>The Overcomers
>>The Christian Endurance Race
>>From the Footstool to the Throne
>>"Weep Not; Behold, the Lamb"
>>The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse
>>The 144,000
>>The Power of Prayer
>>God's Warning to Repent
>>Delay No longer
>>The Two Witnesses
>>The Dragon and the Woman
>>The Mark of the Beast
>>The Final Harvest
>>The Redeemed and the Wrath
>>The Seven Bowls of the Wrath
>>Babylon, the Great Harlot
>>The Fall of Babylon
>>The Banquet and the Battle
>>The Meaning of the Thousand Years
>>The New Jerusalem
>>The Climax of the Bible

INTRODUCTION TO REVELATION
Author — God
Writer — John, the Apostle
Date — c. A.D. 95
Destination — The original recipients were the seven churches in Asia Minor

It was written for God’s servants (1:1) and was designed to bless everyone who will read, hear, and keep the things written in it (1:3; 22:7). It will bring a curse to anyone who adds to or takes away from the words written in it (22:18–19).
Even the parts addressed specifically to a church in one place (2:1) were intended for everyone in all of the churches of Christ in every place (2:7). It is a revelation to God’s servants (1:1) and there is no guarantee it will reveal anything to anyone else nor is there any assurance it will bless anyone except those who will keep its teaching (1:3).
Purpose — to reveal (Revelation 1:1) in such a way as to bless all of God’s servants who read it (1:3). It is the only book in the Bible that pronounces a blessing on those who read, hear, and obey it’s words.

It is not written just for historians, theologians, scholars, and intellectuals. Yet, the difficulty of the book is frequently stressed to the discouragement of the would–be reader.
For example, a recent commentator wrote: “Because of it’s symbolism, it’s saturation with Old Testament passages and themes, the various schemes of interpretation that have developed concerning this book through the ages, and the profundity and vastness of the subjects that are here unveiled, I believe that the Apocalypse, above ever book of the Bible, will yield it”s meaning only to those who give prolonged and careful study” (Wilbur Smith, The Wycliffece Bible Commentary, p. 1500).
Surely, the more one studies the more one is apt to learn, but even a beginner is bound to learn something and may even see something the scholar has missed. A pertinent question here is “How much did God intend to reveal in His Revelation? Are we expecting it to have more meaning than God intended for it?”
To illustrate, the same writer quoted these words regarding Revelation from a man he said is generally acknowledged to have been the most gifted Bible expositor in the first quarter of our century. “There is no book in the Bible which I have read so often, no book to which I have tried to give more patient and persistent attention. ... There is no book in the Bible to which I turn more eagerly in hours of depression that to this, with all it's mystery, all the details of which I do not understand” (G. Campbell Morgan, Westminster Bible Record, Vol. 3 (1912), 105, 109).
Could it be this scholar was looking for meanings in the details which the details were never intended to convey? Might it not have been sufficient that through these details God was able to convey a message sufficiently powerful to overcome his depression? As another writer expressed it: “Whenever there is a world crisis, whenever the State exalts itself and demands an allegiance which Christians know they cannot pay without abandoning their very souls, whenever the church is threatened by destruction, and faith is dim and hearts are cold, the Revelation will admonish and exhort, uplift and encourage all who heed it’s message” (Martin Kiddle in Moffatt Commentary, p. Xlix).

*How can we know what Revelation means?
*How do we interpret the Bible?
*How do we interpret any literature?

1. Allow it to explain itself.
2. Interpret the part in light of the whole. (Recognize unity of the Bible. Part must harmonize with the whole.)
Consider historical background, purpose (do not make it say more than it intends to say) and style of writing (prose and poetry are interpreted differently).

3. Interpret the complex by the simple, the confusing by the clear, the ambiguous by unambiguous.

4. Do not change the clear meaning of a simple passage to fit one possible meaning of a difficult passage.
What more should we consider in interpreting Revelation specifically?

APPROACH IT WITH HUMILITY
One of the most respected Bible scholars in the world today said very simply in the preface to his commentary on Revelation: “Some of the problems of this book are enormously difficult and I certainly have not the capacity to solve them” (Leon Morris, The Revelation of St. John, p. 13). That does not mean we can understand nothing nor be certain about anything. It is to approach Revelation with the kind of attitude Peter had toward some of Paul's writings (II Peter 3:15–18).

RECOGNIZE THAT IT IS HIGHLY SYMBOLIC
This does not mean we enter a world of unreality. As J.B. Phillips, who produced a popular translation of the New Testament said, “He is carried, not into some never-never land of fancy, but into the Ever–ever land of God’s eternal Values and Judgments” (J.B. Phillips, The Book of Revelation, 1960, p. 9 as quoted by Morris, op. cit., p. 15).

Or as C.S. Lewis said in his book, Mere Christianity, “There is no need to be worried about facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of ‘Heaven’ ridiculous by saying they do not want ‘to spend eternity playing harps.’ The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown–ups, they should not talk about them.
“All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggest ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share this splendor and power. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs” (p. 121).

That, in Revelation, we are dealing with some symbolic language can be seen from a few sample passages (3:18; 6:13; 8:10; 12:3-4). The rich imagery of Revelation introduces us to a whole menagerie of animals: horses, lions, leopards, bears, lambs, calves, locusts, scorpions, eagles, vultures, fish, and frogs. Revelation comes to us in living color with white symbolizing purity, black—distress, red—death (blood), purple—royalty and luxurious ease, and pale yellow—expiring life and the kingdom of the dead. Numbers are important symbols in Revelation. The number seven leads the way with 54 occurrences in Revelation. It symbolizes completeness, fullness, or perfection. Three and a half is a broken number that appears in various forms (42 months, 1260 days, “a time and times, and half a time”) symbolizing distress or tribulation.

Ten also is a symbol of completeness or perfection (ten commandments, the Holy of Holies was a cube, each side being 10 cubits—symbolic of heaven, according to Hebrews 9:3 and 24). Twelve is symbolic of God's people, the church, or the kingdom. So we have twelve tribes, twelve apostles, twice twelve being the number of elders representing the redeemed church (Revelation 4:4), the new Jerusalem has twelve gates and the walls of the city have twelve foundations—all of this associated with God's people. Multiples of these numbers are common as the cube of 10 which is 10 x 10 x 10 is 1000.

Certainly, one could turn Revelation into a bizarre mathematical nightmare with numerological games, but it is well to be aware of the possible symbolism that is often suggested and sometimes demanded by the context. We must not force into a symbol a meaning it does not naturally bear, or Revelation will become merely a playground for our own wild fantasies

RECOGNIZE THE BIBLICAL CONTEXT
Revelation was not a work produced in sublime isolation, but it breathes the atmosphere of the whole Bible of which it is the climax. It has been concluded by the research of two Bible scholars, Westcott and Hort, that of the 404 verses in Revelation, 265 contain lines embracing approximately 550 references to Old Testament passages. A thorough knowledge of the Old and New Testaments will surely enrich one's study and understanding of Revelation. Similarities to the language and symbolism of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 and other prophecies and portions of scripture are found in abundance. While these comparisons can be helpful, they can also cause one to seriously distort the message and meaning of Revelation if the the rest of the Bible is used as a kind of dictionary for assigning meanings to symbols. This assumes Revelation is a kind of cryptogram or coded message to be deciphered by treasure hunting through the entire Bible for hints and meanings. It is natural that Revelation would express itself in the familiar phrases of the rest of scripture since it is the summing up of God's purpose in the history of His people.
However, it would be a mistake to assume that a symbol used in one part of the scripture will have the same meaning as the same symbol used in another place. Consider the serpents in Eden and the wilderness; also, the cross, once a symbol of shame, became the symbol of salvation. This mistake can be seen in some attempts to apply the symbolism of Revelation to the glorified kingdom in its perfected state, which is yet to come.

NOT A BOOK TO TITILLATE OR GRATIFY
We need to recognize that it is not a book written to titillate or to gratify the curiosity of men who are anxious to tear aside the veil from the future (See Matthew 24:35, 42, 44). Revelation was never intended to be a celestial timetable of what is to come. It becomes tiring to listen to the frantic ravings of those who see in Bible prophecies forecasts of imminent disasters.
The two most prominent religious groups noted for such activity proved themselves false prophets once again in 1975 for those who did not already know it. One group’s magazine of October 9, 1966 specifically declared that the seventh millennium would begin in Autumn, 1975. It read: “All the many, many parts of the great sign of the ‘last days’ are here, together with verifying Bible chronology ...” (Awake, published by the Jehovah's Witnesses).
The leader of the other religious group, The Worldwide Church of God, published a book in 1957 called 1975 in Prophecy. Here is what it said: “While modern science and industry strive to prepare for us a push-button leisure-luxury-world by 1975, United States Assistant Weather chief, I.R. Tarrahill, warns us unofficially to really fear ‘the big drought of 1975.’ But the indications of prophecy are that this drought will be even more devasting that he foresees, and that it will strike sooner than 1975—probably between 1965 and 1972! Here is exactly how catastrophic it will be: One Third Of Our Entire Population will Die in the famine and disease epidemic” (p.12)!
It seems as if that writer's favorite adjectives were amazing, astounding, incredible, and fantastic! On page 14 of the same work, he declared that another one-third would be killed by hydrogen bombs, and the remaining one-third would be sold into slavery! Jeremiah had the best comment on that (Jeremiah 14:14).
Herbert W. Armstrong was the author of the aforesaid document. Refer also to Salem Kirban's I Predict.
While Revelation was not designed to tear back the curtain on some chronological count-down of Jesus’ return, it does “draw veils aside and opens up a vista of God’s actions and His ways; for it proclaims the kingdom of God, which is here and now, and yet is still to come in its fullness, bringing with it the overthrow of all that is against Him” (W.C. Unnik, The New Testament, 1964, p. 161 as quoted by Morris, p. 20)

COMMENTATOR'S METHODS OF INTERPRETATION
The methods by which commentators have tried to interpret Revelation tend to fall into four categories:

Preterist
According to this view, all or nearly all of the book had its fulfillment in the first century or, at most, the first 300 years of the history of the church. Supposedly, the book deals primarily with the persecution inflicted on Christians by the Roman government.
For example, J.W. Roberts maintained in his commentary that Revelation 6:1—16:21 predicts the history of the church from John’s time until the conversion of Constantine and the Edict of Toleration (A.D. 311).
The three and a half years of the rule of the beast and the harlot represent this “little season” of Roman dominance. The binding of Satan represents the downfall of the persecuting power in which the cause of the saints (6:9—11) is “resurrected” (the first resurrection) and the 1000 years is the longer period of the triumph of the Biblical faith.

Continuous Historical
Or Chronological School
This view says Revelation is a prophetic history of the church from the first century to the end of time. This view attempts to match up significant historical events with the various symbols in Revelation. The book is seen as one continuous series of historical events.

Futurist
This interpretation says most of Revelation is yet to be fulfilled. It usually says chapter 4—22 have not yet been fulfilled. Chapter 14—19 are supposed to describe events in a three and a half year period immediately preceding the second coming of Christ. This is supposed to be followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on earth.

Philosophy Of History
Philosophy of history is sometimes called Spiritual Symbolic, Idealistic, or Poetic. This view says the book is not dealing with historical events at all. It is simply a symbolic representation of principles, ideas, and spiritual truths.
Is the task of interpreting revelation hopeless? Not if it is a revelation. Surely the proper way to interpret Revelation is to read the book and, insofar as possible, allow it to explain itself. Interpret it in harmony with the rest of the Scripture. When this is done, what impressions are made on the mind?
Here are some impression that are helpful in seeing how the book is structured. Four groups of “sevens” cover more than half the book, suggesting a tentative and incomplete outline as a starting point:
Chapters 1—3 Seven Lampstands
4—7 Seven Seals
8—11 Seven Trumpets
12—14
15—16 Seven Bowls
17—22
A comparison of the seven trumpets and the seven bowls suggest that, in a sense, they are dealing with the same things.

_{Notice:
1st trumpet 8:7 and bowl 16:2 affect the earth
2nd trumpet 8:8 and bowl 16:3 affect the sea
3rd trumpet 8:10 and bowl 16:4 affect the rivers
4th trumpet 8:12 and bowl 16:8 affect the sun
5th trumpet 9:1–11 and bowl 16:1–11 affect the pit of the abyss where the throne of the beast is (see 13:11)
6th trumpet 9:14 and bowl 16:12 pertain to the Euphrates River
7th trumpet 11:15, 19 and bowl 16:17-21 produce lightning, voices, thunders, earthquakes, and great hail}