Revelation 1 · a question people ask
"This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants" (1:1). How do Christians read Revelation?
Christians read Revelation in four main ways, each resting on the book's own words, and these notes choose none of them. Many hold more than one of them, in differing measure. All agree that the book is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, given "to show to his servants" (1:1); that near its close it says, "Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." (22:7); and that John hears "something like the voice of a great multitude" (19:6) saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!" (19:6). These notes apply none of these readings to any event, person, nation or time, past or present, and the chapters that follow say in their own voice neither that anything in the book has happened, nor that it is still to come, nor that it pictures every age.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Mostly about what was soon to happen in John's own day
Those who read it this way take most of the book as being about what was soon to happen in John's own day. They rest on "the things which must happen soon" (1:1), "for the time is near" (1:3), "the things which must happen soon" again near the book's end (22:6), and "Don’t seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand" (22:10).
Revelation 1:1 · Revelation 1:3 · Revelation 22:6 · Revelation 22:10
The course of history from John's day to the end
Those who read it this way take the book as setting out the course of history from John's day to the end. They rest on "the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter" (1:19), and "You must prophesy again over many peoples, nations, languages, and kings" (10:11).
Revelation 1:19 · Revelation 10:11
Mostly still to come
Those who read it this way take most of the book as still to come. They rest on "Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this" (4:1), and "Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him" (1:7).
Revelation 4:1 · Revelation 1:7
Pictures of the struggle between God and evil in every age, ending in his victory
Those who read it this way take the book's figures as pictures of the struggle between God and evil in every age, ending in his victory. They rest on the book's own way of naming its pictures, "The mystery of the seven stars … is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies" (1:20), and on its calls to the saints, "Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints" (13:10) and "Here is the perseverance of the saints" (14:12).
Revelation 1:20 · Revelation 13:10 · Revelation 14:12
The verses
“This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John,”
“I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!”
““Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.””