Revelation Study - Lesson 1

I've decided to pull the study I was writing on Revelation over to this blog.  That way, if anyone is interested in reading it they can.  Originally, this study was presented on a private blog and offered to members of the church.  About a dozen people signed up, but by lesson 10 or so, no one was longer completing the readings of commenting on the blog.  I do not know if that was a failure of the lesson material, writing, form of presentation, of not meeting as a group every week, or something else.  This was frustrating for me because I was researching and writing each lesson so it was very time consuming on my part.  I stopped writing and posting when people quit the study.   Since I would still like to complete the study I am presenting it here so I have easier access to it and I'm hoping that seeing it here will encourage me to finish it.  If you decide to read it, please feel free to leave comments and I will try to answer questions as best I can.
Note: I have not changed the lessons and they still appear as if directed to an on-line class.
I have copied the comments.  Someone may find them helpful.
Also, in reformatting, all sub-scripts and super-scripts have reverted to "normal" size.  I refuse to spend hours reformatting back to what it was.  Sorry about this, but that's life.

Lesson 1 - Apocraphyl Literature and The Book of Revelation

Welcome to Gravel Hill's newest Bible study. With this type of on-line study, Gravel Hill is exploring new ways to reach people, to help them learn and think about what they really believe, and then to find ways to take these new ideas and turn them into real-world missions in the name of Jesus Christ and his Church. This first study may be a bit slow or rocky as we all learn how to maneuver and navigate in this wonderful world of electrons, but I believe, after a fashion, we will all find it has become second nature.

Obviously, an on-line study is much different than one that meets weekly to discusses readings and issues face-to-face. Meeting with others in the "real world" gives us the ability to immediately respond to others' comments and questions and to get immediate feedback to our own. Body language and voice intonation, a huge part of the communication process that we rarely think about, can help aid understanding as well as help to avoid misunderstandings. These additional clues help us to understand others' tenor of emotion and when they are unavailable, it becomes easier to misunderstand or misinterpret what someone is trying to convey through the written word alone. These are issues of which we must all be conscious.

How is this study going to work? Every Wednesday I will post a lesson, or "blog." These lessons will consist of researched ideas, such as writings paraphrased from scholars, quotes or articles, linked readings from other on-line sources, or anything else that might be useful in exploring or shedding light upon our topics or discussions. Some things you will agree with. Some things you may absolutely not agree with. Some things you may find so extremely different from anything you have ever considered that you will not be able to accept them. That's okay. The idea is to learn, to understand what scholars are saying about biblical and faith issues today, and to perhaps discover that there may be more than one way to think about scripture, about belief, and about living out your faith. If a Bible study simply parrots everything you've learned to date then perhaps that study hasn't been doing what it should be doing to you, for you and in you. If a study doesn't stretch you, I'm not sure why you would bother to continue with it.

Once you've read the material you will be asked to comment on the article. If the post ends with some questions, you will be asked to discuss them. Everyone's comments will be open for everyone else to read. In that way, you can comment on something on one day, and go back later to comment on someone else's comment about your first comment, and so on. Comment once or comment often. This is the way we will discuss the readings. I will check the comments periodically and enter into the discussion if need be, but please don't be afraid to comment. No one should think your comments are "stupid" and you should not think you are making a fool of yourself. This is a learning environment and this is how we all learn. It really does hold true that if you want to ask something or make some kind of response, more than likely someone else is thinking the same thing or something close to it.

Some of you might want to know how long this Bible study will continue. Unfortunately, at this time I do not have an answer for you. Running this initial online study was decided upon by the staff of Gravel Hill and this process is as new for me as it is for you. At the very least I expect to be "meeting" for eight sessions but my guess would be it will take more than that to complete a thorough study. I will keep you posted as we go along. We will certainly be done before May.

What This Study Is About

For many of us The Book of Revelation is intriguing, interesting, and for the most part, indecipherable. For some of us it is scary as well. As a child, Revelation terrified me so much that I refused to read it and would have excised it from my Bible if I could have. Laying in bed at night I vividly remember staring out of my window toward the northeast, the direction of New York City, and waiting for the first flash of a nuclear weapon going off. For some reason I was convinced that an atomic bomb exploding over New York City would initiate the first phase leading to the "final battle" and the Second Coming of Christ. I was convinced that all my family would be taken in the Rapture and I would be left alone to fend for myself. I would plead with God to forgive my sins so I would not be alone when the rest of my family was taken away. This was pretty strong stuff for a youngster and I remember this fear from a very young age. All of this fear was directly related to what I thought I knew about Armageddon, the Rapture, the Final Judgment. Perhaps some of you can relate to this experience.

Who knows where children obtain some of their fears? But I do know some of mine came right out of the pages of the book I loved so much, The Bible. These were pretty weighty fears for one so young, and yet after speaking to others, I realize that I was not the only one who was negatively impacted emotionally by the predictions in Revelation.

What is so indecipherable about Revelation? Where do we begin? It is filled with talk of other places, heaven and hell, battles where huge populations are slaughtered, descriptions of many headed and many horned creatures, seals that when broken result in chaos, bowls poured out, trumpets blowing, cosmic battles and heavenly armies, a sun turning black and a moon turning blood red, war, famine and death. These are all relayed to us in highly graphic descriptions that are equally highly symbolic.

Since the writing of The Book of Revelation, also called The Revelation of John, Christians have claimed that the events described in it would happen in their own day and time, and that the beginning of these events could be seen in the world around them already. Most of us have heard the rumors claiming the Antichrist is already alive somewhere in the world. Just about every modern day president has been accused of being the Antichrist. Many television preachers use air time and reap dollars preaching about the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming, speaking in ways and lending their support to anything that will bring the Battle and the Second Coming about more quickly. One such preacher is John Hagee. You are invited to view his ideas concerning the prophesies in Revelation as they relate to the world here. Revelation may fill us with many questions but one thing we do know is that despite Christians' claims through the ages that the events of Revelation would happen in their lifetimes, so far, none of them has been right.

In the following weeks we will take a closer look at The Book of Revelation, but we will begin by looking at topics such as what makes a writing apocryphal, protoapocryphal writings, apocryphal texts other than Revelation that are not in the Bible, other apocryphal texts in the Old and New Testaments, how Revelation got into the Bible and other "revelations" didn't, and finally, we'll take a closer look at Revelation itself.

Thinking About It

This week you are asked to take your time and read The Book of Revelation. It may take you awhile so just read a few chapters every day. Write your feelings, thoughts and interpretations, or whatever else you would like to share about Revelation in the comments section of this blog post. Read each others' comments and talk to one another about them online. Next week, we'll start to look at what makes a text "apocryphal." 

10 Comments

Person 1 said:

My husband and I have only read the first four chapters of Revelations, and I am already overflowing with questions regarding what we have read. Shall I wait until we begin the open discussion of Revelations?

Lynn said:

I'd hold off on the questions. We are going to try to cover a fair amount of stuff, but we will not actually be starting with Revelation. I simply wanted everyone to read Revelation as a review, since it is not a book most of us spend much time with and so people can reflect back on it as we proceed. We will be trying to cover it in a while, as best we can. Hopefully we'll answer questions then, and if not, ask away! 

Lynn said:

I changed my mind. Put all your questions here - that's what this is all about, and although your questions may not be answered immediately, it'll give me an idea what everyone's questions are and what I need to try to discuss later.

Person 2 said:

So I had to play around a little to get the follower thing up to even be able to post a comment here. So anyone who may be having trouble needs to sign up as a follower (with the option of following publicly or privately) by clicking on the link below the followers headline. Email Lynn if you are having trouble :)She will love hearing from you all! Off to read Revelations!

Person 3 said:

Hey Lynn! Just read your blog and will start reading Revelations tonight. Just wanted u to know that I'm here.

Person 4 said:

I'm here too- better late than never! I have read Revelation in the past through Disciple, but there's still so much of it that's beyond my understanding. Look forward to new discoveries...

Person 5 said:

I've also read Revelation before, both in Sunday School classes and in Disciple. I don't understand it all and have many questions but try to "be not afraid" and focus on the hope that can be found there. Ready to learn more...... and start reading.

Lynn said:

Here's just a comment about the blog itself. I would really love it if people could use photos of themselves so those of us who don't know one another can learn to recognize each other. This will help at church, when we see one another, to say hello and perhaps start a conversation.
It would alos be nice if everyone could write a short entry about who they are, what they are interested in, their families, whatever, just so we can get to know each other a little. I really want this study to help us build relationships, at least as best we can in this setting.
Thanks!  

Person 6 said:

Ok, so I'm really late, but I finally figured this out. I saw your last post about telling something about ourselves, so I'll do that at the end. I still have to figure out how to add a picture. Anyway, I just started reading revelations and I'm already confused and a little nervous about what I may find. That's really where I'm at right now, not very deep, I know. Anyway, for the folks who do not know me..(information deleted)

Person 7 said

I just got a gmail account a few weeks ago.I finished reading Revelations.It's so confusing with all of the symbolism in this book. Hopefully by the end of this class I'll have a better understanding about the end times.