Mind of Bible
A Cipher for Interpreting Revelation
The Challenge:
The last book of the Bible – the Book of Revelation. Some people think it’s scary. Creepy. Nonsense. Fiction. Prophecy. Incomprehensible. Firstcentury political dissent. It just depends on who you ask. There are the actual, academic scholars who mostly don’t believe in anything ‘spiritual,’ and then there are the believers who really DO try to understand, but they lack the foundational knowledge to do so. Or there’s the worst case scenario: they’ve been ‘taught’ by unlearned teachers who filled their heads up with doctrines, interpretations and conspiracies that muddy the water so much it’s impossible for them to see the actual words in the book clearly.
I’m writing this for the believers who think there really IS something to the book, but struggle to make sense of it. And no, I’m not trying to sell you my word-for-word interpretation of the book! What I can give you that will be most beneficial is an understanding of the chronology and structure of the book. Once you have that piece down, the rest will start to fall into place – particularly if you already know your Old Testament.
Old Testament Primer:
To start, let’s cover a little (lot of) background. The most important thing to know and understand when reading and interpreting Revelation is that YHWH (the Creator) laid our the chronology for the prophecies in this book all the way back in the very first chapter of the first book (Genesis) of the Bible. In that chapter, YHWH worked (creation) for six days, and then He RESTED on the seventh day. We call this day the “Sabbath.”
In later books (Exodus and Deuteronomy for example) we were also commanded to follow this example – work for the first six days of the week and rest on the seventh – for forever. Had we all doing what we were supposed to be doing, this is something that would be hard-coded into each of us all our lives. As such, when presented with the Book of Revelation, we would IMMEDIATELY recognize a few things as familiar. But, we’ll come back to that.
Let’s talk about dreams and interpretations. Makes sense as that’s exactly what’s going on in Revelation, right? Well one other set of dreams comes to mind and that is Pharoah’s dreams which Joseph ended up interpreting for him. Mr. Pharoah had two dreams which were pretty much the same. In one, he dreamed of seven healthy cows that were eaten by seven starving, wasted cows. In the other, he dreamed of seven healthy stalks of corn that were eaten by seven unhealthy ones. Joseph explained to Pharoah that his dreams were in fact one and the same and described the next 14 years to come – seven years of wealth and plenty followed by seven years of drought and famine. This interpretation enabled Egypt to stockpile resources for seven years and successfully weather the storm which was to come.
Changing gears a bit here. In Genesis chapter 6, we read about well – bad things happening on Earth that were getting out of control, and YHWH took notice. He was none too thrilled about it either (as this is what led up to Noah and his ark). But before commissioning Noah’s big boat, YHWH said:
Genesis 6:3 … My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.
120 years. And what does that mean exactly? Well, a bit later in the chapter, it starts talking about Noah. But Noah lived more than 120 years, there weren’t 120 years until the flood, and mankind has been around for longer than 120 years obviously. So again – what’s this all about?
Well, consider for a minute that these 120 years that man has aren’t ‘normal’ years but rather jubilee years. According to Torah (YHWH’s law) as written in the Bible, every fiftieth year is a special year. Without going into the details of how to observe jubilee and its purpose, let me just cut to the math:
120 jubilees comes up to 6,000 years.
Big deal, right? Let me give you a couple more puzzle pieces and then we’ll fit them all together.
Psalms 90:4 For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or like a watch in the night.
That’s Old Testament, right? Peter made mention of the same concept but much more emphatically in when he wrote:
2 Peter 3:8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with YHWH one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
So long story short – in at least SOME CONTEXT, a day with YHWH is likened to 1,000 years and vice versa.
Last piece. It’s called “The Millennial Kingdom” in Christianity. In the Bible, it’s referred to as “The Day of YHWH” or “The Great and Terrible Day of YHWH.” Whatever you call it, the Bible describes it as a time when the kingdoms of man are subjugated (conquered or they surrender) by messiah and he rules over them for 1,000 years. So the ‘day’ of YHWH lasts for 1,000 years.
Now, let’s put all this background together and use it to explain the framework of Revelation.
The Chronological Framework of Revelation:
A week is seven days long. Six days are OUR days to do all our work. The seventh day of the week is the day of YHWH / Sabbath / day of rest. Man’s days were numbered in Genesis 6 – we’re given 6,000 years. Six days. We’re told in the Old Testament and the New that messiah will rule the Earth for 1,000 years. This is the “Day of YHWH.” Six millennial days of man to rule the Earth and do all his work followed by a millennial rest day. It’s an easy pattern to understand, right? A day is as a thousand years. So now, let’s take this and put it into Revelation.
In Revelation, we have four different perspectives of the SAME seven periods of time. Remember Pharaoh's dreams (two perspectives of the same time period)? Well, here we are again only this time instead of cows and corns, we have letters, seals, trumpets and bowls. And actually, the letters are another key that help us identify this structure.
When you line up the seven letters, seals, trumpets and bowls side by side, you’ll quickly realize that the seventh of each of these sounds virtually identical. That’s because they ARE. They are four different perspectives of the same period of time – namely the 1,000 years when messiah rules the Earth. Obviously, that’s the future.
The first five of each of these series describe the time from Adam (roughly 4,000 BC) to (roundabouts) the year 1,000 AD. Obviously our calendar isn’t exact, but it’s in the neighborhood. The sixth period describes the time we’re in right now. Actually, by nearly anybody’s count, we’re at the very end of the “sixth day” and on the cusp of the seventh.
As one final, internal validation of this chronology of Revelation, you only have to read the letters to the churches. You’ll see hints in each letter which can be linked to the various millennia between Adam and us – from a clear reference to Eden to mentioning Jezebel by name. Some of the references are pretty obvious while others – not so much. But most serious Bible students won’t have any trouble recognizing enough to get the drift without doing any digging.
Remember how there are those frequent references in eschatological passages of the Bible to “the last days?” Even the New Testament authors seems to think they were living in “the last days.” We think they just had apocalyptic fever because two thousand years later, nothing has happened yet. Fact is, they understood that the last (two) days of man had just begun back then. Now, 2,000 years later, we’re here at the very end of the sixth day – still “the last days (of man).”
What comes next is the Day of YHWH. In Christian circles, you’ve maybe heard a lot of excitement about that time and it’s something they’re looking forward to.
They really, REALLY shouldn’t be. Read your Bibles.