What should we do with Revelation? It’s a strange book, filled with bizarre imagery and symbols that feel more at home in fantasy novels than in Scripture. And to make things harder, it’s often explained by people whose interpretations seem as odd as the book itself.
A major part of the problem is that Revelation belongs to an ancient type of literature called apocalyptic literature that went out of fashion hundreds of years ago. And that means that we in the modern world just don’t know how to approach it. Many readers treat it like a fantasy novel—the only type of literature that even remotely resembles Revelation. But that’s just inviting misunderstanding.
The approach we should take is to see Revelation as the final act in a cosmic drama—a drama that begins in Genesis and threads through all of Scripture. Revelation’s purpose is to show how that drama ends—with the victory of God over sin and evil. Ultimately, Revelation is a declaration of God’s faithfulness, justice, and renewal.
As an example of this, consider John’s vision of the New Jerusalem descending from heaven in Revelation 21:10-21. The details are dazzling: walls of jasper, streets of gold, foundations inlaid with precious stones, and gates made of pearl. It’s tempting to visualize it all in vivid detail, like something out of Lord of the Rings or a fantasy book cover.
But is that really the point?
It’s tempting to paint a mental picture of what John’s describing, but when we get stuck in imagining golden towers and crystal streets, we risk missing the heart of the message. Revelation isn’t meant to dazzle our imaginations—it’s meant to stir our hope. The question we should be asking is: how does this vision of the New Jerusalem relate to the rest of scripture? How does it fulfil what’s written there? And how should we then respond?
Well, it’s interesting to note that John’s vision of the New Jerusalem has very close parallel to a similar vision had by the prophet Ezekiel. He had his vision about 500 years earlier during Israel’s exile in Babylon (Ezekiel 48:30–35). His city, too, was square, with three gates on each side named after the twelve tribes of Israel. Those features are prominent in John’s vision too. In both Ezekiel and Revelation, the vision of the New Jerusalem speaks to us of God’s ultimate plan for renewal and restoration.
Perhaps the major distinction between Ezekiel’s vision and John’s is that one speaks to a Jewish audience, the other to a Christian one. This really jumps out at us when we put the two visions side by side and we can see this when we observe how the two visions deal with the temple. In Ezekiel’s vision we find the temple rebuilt—not at all surprising given the enormous importance of the temple in Jewish religious and social life. But John tells us that “I saw no temple in it.”
And why not? Well, as John goes on to explain: “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”
What we have here is a clear sign of how Christians had come to see Christ as central to what God is doing in the world. In fact, Christ is so central that John is comfortable placing Christ right along side God on the throne. John’s vision of the fulfilment of all things can be thought of as a thoroughly “Christianized” version of Ezekiel’s.
But the purpose is the same—to encourage the reader with the promise that although life in the present might suggest otherwise, ultimately God will prevail! And that’s why I wrote earlier that it’s purpose is to stir our hope.
Revelation isn’t either of the things that many people seem to think. It’s not some kind of speculative roadmap for the future, nor is it anything like a fantasy novel. It’s the final chapter of the biblical story—a conclusion that assures us of the faithfulness and power of God. It’s major claim is that, despite all the suffering and chaos in the world, God’s promises will be fulfilled. In short, it proclaims that God wins. And because God wins, we have every reason to hope.