There are many people, even Christians, who will not read John’s revelation letter for two reasons. First, they don’t believe that it can be understood. Second, they are terrified of even thinking about reading of the deadly judgments of God that John’s revelation letter portrays—that is, the appalling plagues, famines, wars, and natural disasters that John’s letter discloses as having been pronounced against this present evil world, and they don’t want to be any part of that, nor do they even want to be reminded of those dreadful things that they think are going to happen. Such is so sad, so very sad! One of the purposes of this book is to alleviate that fear completely, and to replace it by making the reading of John’s revelation letter a time of comfort and encouragement. That shall all be accomplished by illustrating how the deadly forces of destruction that John described in his revelation letter are not decreed against the Christians—they will never fall upon God’s church—but rather, they are in fact, the very powers of God that protect his church, shelter his children, and defend the Christian faith.
All of that can be established by comparing the spiritual war that John witnessed in heaven with the carnal war that was fought between the Roman Empire and the church. That comparison is not difficult to establish, because both of those wars were actually the one and the same war. Once that correlation has been confirmed, Revelation becomes a letter of comfort and security, and a letter that replaces fear with hope.
Another reason that even Christians will not read John’s revelation letter is because they do not think that it can be understood because it is so complicated, but God does not put books in his Bible that cannot be understood. John’s revelation letter can be understood, and that is the other purpose of this book, to make it understandable.
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