Participants 120
Discussion Questions
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What advice would you give a new Christian who wants to read the book of Revelation?
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Remind the person that this is not fortune telling but information written to first century Christians and to see it from that perspective.
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I would give him a brief on the apocalyptic genre so that he would not be puzzled by the symbolism. I might give him a brief on the first-century persecution of Christians so that he would read Revelation in this context and try to imagine how the original readers would have taken the message. I would caution him against trying to find current-day events and figures to fit into the symbolism. I would advise him to look out for what the timeless principle is in each segment, and to apply that to his life and faith. Finally, I may advise him to find a group to read the book together with, so that they can help one another.
#Revelation
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I would recommend some background research prior to reading so as not to lose the understanding of its real meaning.
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Anyone who wants to read Revelation should first gain a general understanding of all of Scripture. This would include some familiarity with other prophetic and apocalyptic writings in scripture.
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The advice I would give to a new Christian who wants to read the book of Revelation is to be very prayerful about it. “Veteran Christians” don’t all agree upon it’s meaning. New Christians will clearly have more confusion on the subject than Christians that have been studying the Bible for years. I would suggest they stay in the Gospels and get a better understanding of those texts before jumping into the deep end.
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What new things about interpreting the book of Revelation did you learn from this lesson?
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The “hot” and “cold” clarification was helpful to me. I appreciated the instructor’s delicate wording to consider other perspectives as opposed to being dogmatic in his approach.
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I learned about the four approaches to determining the message given in Revelation.
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I learned that there are several different ways to interpret the book of Revelation and we should be open minded and accepting of these different interpretations.
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I have heard from various places and pastors of the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls. But they were just an overview of what I read and listen to in this course so far. To this point of the lesson, not the whole book, is quite interesting learning how John and God talked, the letters to the churches, the trumpets, seals, 144,000, and the witnesses. I find it all fascinating.
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One thing that reframed my thinking was the clarification on Jesus telling his people not be lukewarm. We automatically assume being on fire/hot for God is the good and being cold is turn away from Christ. Instead, to be hot is to be therapeutic through our faith and to be cold is to be refreshingly cold.
