Revelation is like a foreign country. Or even another planet. We come to a world of strange images and symbols, angels and other creatures, lampstands, beasts, and dragons.
Sometimes, Revelation is straightforward.
Other times, it's obscure—locusts with the faces of human beings that rise from bottomless pits, for example.
Is Revelation literal or symbolic? If it's symbolic, is it symbolic of a specific event, or is it symbolic of a general truth? If it's an event, did it happen in the past, or will it happen in the future? What should we do with this book?
Though Revelation may be the most difficult of the Bible to understand, it contains one of the Bible's clearest messages: God is the sovereign Lord of history, and God wins. No matter how bad things get, Jesus is Lord of all. God is victorious over evil, and God establishes a new kingdom.
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