"1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near."
Revelation 1:1-3
In any study of a book such as Revelation, there are necessarily many preliminary, introductory considerations and questions to be settled before we can properly turn to the text. It is an undertaking bristling with difficulties, but it needs to be tackled in the faith that the Book has a living word to speak to the Church and the world today. First of all, we must ask ourselves: What is the purpose of this prophecy, and what in fact is the purpose of prophecy in general? Take the latter first. The purpose of prophecy in general is never speculative, but moral. To imagine, as many seem to do, that predictive prophecy is something to speculate about and to make the plaything of our ingenuity is to miss the whole point of it. Everywhere in the New Testament that prophetic themes are stressed, this is what its writers say: 'Watch therefore, take heed, watch and pray'. We do not understand prophecy's message aright until we see that it is intent on stirring us to holy, earnest, watchful living, and renewed moral endeavour. But this also raises the former question: What is the purpose of this prophecy? For in fact it is maintained by one school of thought that the greater part of Revelation (chs 4-22) does not really apply to the Church at all. This view we reject in these Notes, if for no other reason than it seems pointless for the book to have been included in the canon of Scripture if it is not relevant to the Church and her needs. But this is a big question, involving bigger issues in interpretation as a whole, and we shall return to it more fully in tomorrow's Note. For today it will be sufficient to underline the moral challenge of the book by reminding ourselves of Peter's words in his second epistle (3:11) 'Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?'