Revelation
The Book of Revelation: Who Is, Who Was, and Who Is to Come
A Canonical-Theological Guide to Revelation
by Robert Church

Revelation is often either feared as an end-times codebook or dismissed as an unreadable maze of symbols. This guide takes a different path.

Written for pastors, teachers, and serious lay readers, The Book of Revelation: Who Is, Who Was, and Who Is to Come treats Revelation first as Scripture for the church-not as a playground for speculation. Robert Church walks slowly through the book, passage by passage, asking what Revelation meant for the seven real churches in Roman Asia and what it must still mean for Christ's people today.

Key features:

• Revelation as apocalypse + prophecy + letter: Explains how genre shapes what "literal" reading looks like, and why Revelation is meant to be read, heard, and kept (Rev 1:3), not decoded for trivia.
• Canonical reading: Shows how Revelation's imagery is built from Exodus, Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Zechariah, Psalms, and the Gospels, so symbols like beasts, trumpets, bowls, Babylon, and New Jerusalem are interpreted by Scripture itself.
• Fair comparison of major views: Clearly lays out preterist, historicist, futurist, and idealist approaches-what each explains well, where each strains the text-and then offers a careful "hybrid" synthesis, with conclusions labeled as strong, moderate, or tentative.
• Serious engagement with context: Sets Revelation in the world of Roman Asia-emperor worship, trade guilds, economic and social pressure-showing why issues of idolatry, compromise, and endurance dominate the book.
• Wise use of "hidden" literature: Draws on Second Temple Jewish apocalypses (1 Enoch, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch) and later "apocryphal" works as background for shared imagery, while making clear that they cannot overrule the biblical text.
• Pastoral focus at every step: Each chapter ends with a concise summary and "Key takeaways" that highlight Revelation's call to worship, repentance, discernment, and hope.

Along the way, Church:

• Explores debated passages with charity and clarity: the 144,000; the two witnesses; the beasts and 666; Babylon the Great; Armageddon; the millennium; and the "soon / near / quickly" time language.
• Shows how Revelation exposes beastly power (idolatrous empire), Babylonian seduction (luxury built on injustice), and false-prophetic religion-and how the church is called to refuse panic, refuse complacency, and refuse complicity.
• Keeps the Lamb at the center: the One who conquers by being slain, opens the scroll of history, and leads His people to the river of the water of life in the New Jerusalem.

Helpful appendices include:

• A Symbol & Image Glossary (beasts, seals, trumpets, bowls, Babylon, etc.).
• An Old Testament Echo Index to trace Revelation's allusions.

If you are weary of vague readings that ignore judgment and new creation, this book offers a different kind of help: a deeply biblical, theologically careful, and pastorally sensitive companion that invites you to hear what the Spirit says to the churches-and to endure in the hope of the One who is and who was and who is to come.