It's been a long journey of reading and re-reading the Book of Revelation and I can honestly say that I know as little of its true meaning today as I did when my eyes first devoured it as a child. I will say this though, and will say it with conviction - John the Revelator was shown a pattern that was to occur in the distant future. It may be garbled and difficult to swallow for many, but there is an unmistakable sense of order that strikes the reader who sincerely attempts to absorb meaning from this cryptic text.
If John was making up much of his vision (or tripping on psychedelics as has been suggested by some researchers), it is odd that he should give such careful attention to detail. His careful and at times repetitive insistence on certain numbers and symbols makes it obvious to me that he was not attempting to impress or convince an unseen future audience. Rather, he was simply playing the part of a specially appointed scribe. Were any of us alive today be picked to deliver a strange and symbolic vision, would we live up to the task?
As an example of such attention to detail, let us consider the section of the text which pertains to what the thunders said. Why should John write that he heard seven voices that sounded as thunder does? He also writes that he was instructed to not write what he heard these voices speak. If John were seeking to embellish or convince, this is hardly the way to go about it. Indeed, a need for such unmentionable secrecy is surely a way of turning away any serious reader who wishes to believe John's story. Let us consider the English translation of this section for greater clarity (no pun intended):
I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them." The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.Likely, the content of what the seven thunders uttered holds a key or else some critical information which cannot be revealed until the time is ripe.The text is after all, a description of an inevitable apocalypse. The word comes from the ancient Greek 'apokalypsis' which literally means an 'unveiling' or 'revealing'.
The most common interpretation of the Revelation has been to associate it with the past. In the first century after Christ, the Christian world was very different from the one we inhabit today. It must be remembered that Christianity was in competition with countless other sects and beliefs also vying for the supremacy of people's spiritual beliefs. John's address to the seven churches of Asia was an attempt to bring about reform at this early and crucial juncture of Church history. His apocalypse has often been viewed as an attempt to deliver hope to an unstable Christian world - a world which was looking forward to the fulfillment of Christ's prophecy of the coming kingdom of God on earth. It was in short, a message of hope.
However, while this view is likely accurate, it does not take away credence from the actual prophecies highlighted in his message. John was shown a vision of what must eventually happen; whether it occurred in his lifetime or a thousand years after was and remains irrelevant. An obvious question that must occur to any skeptic is why John was not shown more definite details which might be used to convince his unseen audiences down the ages. But you must consider if a man living in John's age might be able to grasp and successfully convey the meaning of all he might be shown relating to modern life as we know it.
Rather, John was shown everything in terms of symbols and patterns. Wise men living in certain times might then recognize these symbols and patterns as comprising a perfect fit for the times in which they live. Regardless of advances in technology, certain forms of order remain intact. Language, power, money, trade - these are all examples of aspects of human life which remain essential to civilization and remain intact throughout the ages.
Modern day men of power may dress, speak and appear differently from their ancient counterparts; yet, their drive is the same - the age-old quest for domination and control. Organizations and religious bodies may change with the times, especially as science increasingly enters the equation; however, the fact remains that we do not yet have the ultimate answer to the riddle of life - of why we are here and of where we are heading.
I believe that John's vision is more relevant today than ever before. For the first time in known and recorded history, we have the ability to unite (and control) the entire world as one global entity. For the first time, technology has made it possible for the entire world to watch the series of events as they play out on the stage of the middle-east and especially Israel. For the first time, the time is ripe for a harvest. The time is ripe for the end.
