2nd Episode - Key Terms: Seven Interpretative Guidelines from Revelation 1:1-20

 To interpret what a person says is not always easy. The story is told of a farmer, who walked into an attorney’s office and said, “I want to get one of those dayvorces.” The attorney asked, “Well, do you have any grounds?” “Yea, I got about 140 acres,” replied the farmer. “No, you don’t understand, do you have a suit?” “Yes sir,” said the farmer, “I got a suit. I wear it to church.” The exasperated attorney then inquired, “Well, sir, does your wife beat you up or anything?” “No sir, we both get up about 4:30 am.” “Okay, let me put it this way,” the lawyer declared, “Why do you want a divorce?” “Well, she claims she can never have a meaningful conversation with me.” 

Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” He asked, “How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb?” Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” The Jews objected, “How can you rebuild this temple in three days? It took forty-six years to build.” Jesus said, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you.” They retorted, “How can we eat his flesh and drink his blood?” “I have water to give you to drink.” The Samaritan woman, however, questioned Jesus, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.” 

Like the farmer with the lawyer, Nicodemus and others misconstrued Jesus’ words. Re-birth, rebuilding the temple, eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood are spiritual not physical realties. There is a birth from above, Jesus’ body is God’s temple, His broken body is the true bread from Heaven, and the Holy Spirit is living water. Jesus expects spiritual leaders to understand these things. He said to Nicodemus, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things…If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

Like the farmer and those of Jesus’ day, we too can misinterpret Revelation, failing to grasp the spiritual realities its terms signify - like the term “soon.” This chapter concerns other important terms in Revelation. To interpret these terms, it requires the Holy Spirit to instruct us. Paul said, “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

May God’s Spirit help us to discern Revelation’s heavenly terminology and overcome our natural mind-set. Seven interpretative guidelines are now provided, from key phrases in chapter one, to do just that.