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Lesson OneWhat Kind of Book Is Revelation?3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoWhy Was Revelation Written?3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeRevelation Is Too Hard to Understand!3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourIsn’t Revelation a Depressing Book About Doom and Gloom?3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FiveHow Should We Apply Revelation Today?3 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 264
Discussion Questions
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Why is it so important to understand what type of book Revelation is? How has what you’ve learned in this lecture changed your understanding of the book of Revelation?
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The book of Revelation is about what will happen in the future.
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You must know that Revelations is composed of prophesy, apocalypse and a letter. Revelation is proclaiming a message in the present; vision that uncovers and unveils the true nature of things; and a letter that addresses a crisis or issue or circumstance or problem in the life of the first-century readers. So I don’t see Revelation as doom and gloom and I can interpret with a better understanding.
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It is because how we understand the kind of book Revelation is will determine how we read it and what we expect from it. In so doing, we can avoid the misunderstanding of the meaning of the author John intended to say.
I have learned that the book of Revelation resembles three type of literature that were familiar to John the author and the first readers of the time. It has clarified my understanding of prophecy which is not only “fore-telling” of future events but primarily also “forth-telling” the immediate audiences of their problems/issues and urge them to change.
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If you view Revelation as only one of the three styles of writing (letter, prophecy, apocalypse), you miss out on the value of the other two perspectives. Letters are personal; prophecies tend to view a longer period of time, the foretelling piece; apocalypse is a term terribly misunderstood in the present day, primarily because of the film industry and such movies as “Apocalypse Now.” But if apocalyptic writing is to help reveal something, it changes the way one might interpret a situation.
I see now that I must examine Revelation from all three perspectives in order to fully grasp what John was saying.
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The reader must know what type of book Revelation is before a complete understanding is achieved. The reader will probably mininterpret the book id they
do not understand the type of literature is being employed. Even though I have read and studied the book of Revelation many times, I had never studied the
three types of literature employed in the book.
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Why is Revelation’s first-century historical context important to understanding the book? How has your understanding of Revelation changed after learning more about its historical context?
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Knowing history is important as human always repeat mistakes made in the past over and over again. It will be helpful to learn from the past as it would be as applicable for all churches in the current world.
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I always thought that Revelation is all about the future. Knowing the historical context will help me to understand the book of Revelation correctly. It’s a book about the situation at that time which also gives visions about the heavenly world beyond what we can see. Fascinating!
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I think it’s especially important to understand the historical context since we don’t have apocalypse literature anymore, which makes it so easy to misread Revelation. I really liked the point/warning at the end that any interpretation that John’s readers wouldn’t have understood is probably incorrect.
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Understanding the historical context helps us in our interpretation of what John is conveying to his readers. This is a new concept to me.
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I always thought it was a revelation of future events. It is interesting to realize that it was written for people of the time how to live. Yes, I can see how that is true with the letters to the churches. This study hasn’t changed my mind, except that it has widen my view to include teaching us how to conduct our lives in view of the coming final world events.
