Why Should I Study the Book of Revelation?
The book of Revelation sparks widespread reactions. On the one hand, like a magnet, it draws readers seeking to comprehend its prophetic message. On the other hand, it makes many shy away from seriously studying the book because its symbolic and figurative language is difficult to understand, leaving them perplexed.
Some pastors refuse to teach Revelation because deciphering its meaning can prove controversial and lead to confusion and division within the church. Others do not want to commit the time and effort necessary to understand the book’s teaching properly.
Nevertheless, Revelation is an extremely important part of Scripture; and there are many reasons to study it.
1. It is God’s verbal, inerrant, infallible Word. No matter how difficult to understand some may find Revelation, God expects every Christian to read and study it.
2. It reveals God’s sovereignty over all things. He controls how, when, and where His plan will be revealed and fulfilled in the last days. Humanity could never know God’s plan if He had not revealed it.
3. It is a reliable outline of God’s final program for the world. It provides abundant end-times prophecies, which God expects every Christian to know, and teaches us how to view the world from His perspective.
4. The Lord Jesus Christ is the major theme of Revelation. The book is a revelation from Christ about Christ. It unfolds His deity, humanity, ministry, death, resurrection, return, judgment, final victory over evil, and eternal reign on Earth and in the new heavens and new earth.
5. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). In other words, Jesus provided the prophetic revelation of Himself in the Old and New Testaments and has propagated it through His angels, apostles, and believers worldwide.
6. God promised a blessing to those who read, receive, and respond in faith to what is written in the book (1:3). Six other blessings are promised in Revelation (14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14) to the faithful in Christ. The book commences and concludes with blessings (1:3; 22:14).
7. It reveals and reaffirms doctrine from the rest of the Bible. As God’s final written revelation to man, the book demonstrates the unity of Scripture from beginning to end.
Don’t be afraid to study Revelation, for “blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it” (1:3).
