A Double Helping

A Double Helping
Students are full of questions. The tiny toddler who was once running you ragged with the question of “why” can now think for themselves and form more profound questions. Thus, when it comes to the Bible, students have some outstanding questions. It is no surprise that they are particularly curious about the book of Revelation. In fact, even most adults are curious about this book. So, the Youth will be doing an in-depth overview of the Revelation to Saint John. 

This past Sunday was a lot of “technical” work. We sought to lay the groundwork for the students to understand several things about the book of Revelation. The first of which is that many followers of Christ disagree on how to understand this book. This is an important piece for all of us to grasp because otherwise we can become proud. Then we become “those who take the book of Revelation ‘seriously’” and start to point fingers. This is not the way that the followers of Christ should look at each other or speak of each other. 

Secondly, it was pointed out that the point of the book of Revelation is to reveal more of Jesus. Too often people become distracted by the things that seem odd to us in this book. However, from the outset John tells us that this is “The revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1). This is not a book about who the antichrist may or may not be. Revelation is not about Adolf Hitler, the pope, or any other person in history. The main figure is Jesus. In our reading of Revelation, if we do not come away with a greater understanding of who Christ is then we have missed the point. If we fail to know Him more and adore Him more after reading through Revelation then we have missed the purpose.

Lastly, we made clear that we do not fall into two errors. One is to ignore this portion of Scripture because it is hard. The other would be to obsess over it thinking that all the answers of the world are found here. No, we are to read Revelation in proper proportion to the rest of our Bibles. 
So, pray for our students as they survey the book of Revelation. Read this book of the Bible yourself and be encouraged by the victory of Christ. As we all read this book and seek to understand God’s word, may He give us a double helping of grace to deal kindly with one another on areas where we might disagree. 

Grace be with you,
C. R. Hamilton