Why Revelation? A Journey Back to the First Century

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to the Revelation Sessions. I'm Vince DePolo, and we're reading Revelation the way its first hearers heard it. This podcast grew out of a personal journey, learning to understand Revelations through Scripture and the world of its first hearers. I wanted to share what helped me in plain language with people who have found this book confusing. Today I am explaining how this study began, the sources that I'm using, and what you can expect from the series. I think you'll enjoy it. It's a personal experience and how God led me to this point. Revelation. A manual of spiritual warfare. And they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. Revelation 17, 14. Expository sermons on the book of Revelation, Max Doner. Dr. Alan J. Dunn, Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, has been its pastor since 1985. My wife and I visited the church in the COVID era, a little before, I believe 2019, 2020, and spent almost a year at that church where we became friendly with the pastor and listened to his sermons. At the time he was preaching revelation, and he was diligently sharing God's word and making the point that this was not the way he learned it in ministry school. In my first year with Alan at his church, Pastor Dunn was fantastic at showing references for what he believed as he began to expound with clear explanations of the meanings trusted. He later shared a transcript given to him by Max, which he was able to share with me and with Max's permission, and I was able to read it, which later was published. Both of these men had a profound impact on my life, in that for the first time I could start to understand the letter of Revelation. It was quite extraordinary. Fast forward six years later, I have decided to do this podcast in order to share what I've learned. I believe this will be a great benefit. As you probably know if you're listening to this, Revelation is a very uh complex book. As Max writes in the introduction, its complexity is irredactable, which cannot be simplified. The famous scientist Albert Einstein once said, everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. To simplify something further than the subject matter itself permits is to lose the essence elements of it and thereby misrepresent it. Revelation, a manual of spiritual warfare, which is two volumes, each volume over five hundred pages, that's over a thousand pages combined. Max writes, I am writing this commentary on Revelation. I have sought to make it as simple as possible, but no simpler. Therefore, I have provided an explanation of every phrase in this book, because no part of it is dispensable or unimportant to our understanding. Every phrase contributes to the valuable information to the reader. This necessarily means that there is a lot of explanation and interpretation requires that much attention and thought. So here is my challenge to relay this information from this book and other sources without becoming so complicated that no one can follow it. So, in short, most of these podcasts will be summaries. Most of it is taken from the information supplied by um Pastor Max Doner and also information taken from Alan Dunn. Dr. Alan Dunn and Pastor Max Doner both have their sermons as they preach them on sermonaudio.com. I do not receive any compensation from either one, and nor do they have any financial or do they review these podcasts. Commentary, revelation, a manual of spiritual warfare is certainly available, and I will supply those links. Uh and these links were given to me by Max, and they are apparently more reasonable than some of the others. The book can also be found on Amazon. And I would suggest that you purchase the book and then read further for yourselves for the detail. There's quite a bit in it, and it would not really be possible or practical to try to do it in a single podcast or in a series of podcasts due to the length and the time that it would take. There are different approaches to interpreting this book. There are four major ones. I will only tell you that for this podcast, I am only centering my attention on the first century. So I am not dealing with anything past the first century when John himself wrote this letter. When I went back in history and I started to approach this seriously over six years ago, I really wanted to understand the first century view. In my lifetime and in my professions, uh in both of them, it was very concerning to me to find out the original story or fact. Um this is very important. Uh every mistake is based on a wrong assumption. I've made mistakes in investments and in other things in my life, and when I go back and look at it, I had an assumption. I assumed something that was true or a principle that would work and was proven wrong. That is very important to consider, whoever you are, and whatever you may think. Different principles of interpretation concerning revelation vary across the board. Everything from being a calendar, this is going to happen at this time, and this will happen at that time, from saying this part of the church meant the uh Reformation, and or this was the Catholic Church, and there are a lot of these um ideas out there. But my concern is they come after the first century. So the best that I can do personally is stay with the first century because I can be confident of what John wrote, I can be confident of what's in the Old Testament, I can be confident what's in the New Testament. After Scripture and the New Testament, I can be confident with historical events. Chronicles are listed in the Old Testament, the book of Kings is another one that's listed for historical reference. I have the Torah. All these books in the Old Testament have been well vetted. Also, they all speak in the same language. Sometimes things are said very plainly, and there is no need for interpretation. Other times they're said symbolically. For instance, Pharaoh was called the dragon. Well, Pharaoh, as far as I know, was a man, so why was he called the dragon? Ezekiel chapter 29, verse 3. Jesus called Herod a fox. So why did Jesus call Herod a fox? He was a man. Obviously, it was a way of conveying a message. In the book of Daniel, there's a statue with a golden head and silver arms and uh bronze and iron legs, and that was the dream that Nebuchadnezzar saw that Daniel is called to interpret. Daniel doesn't give his opinion of what it means. He's told by God, and it's revealed to him. The book of Revelation, i.e., comes from Greek words, which means to be revealed, and also a Latin word. So, simply put, my decision is to stick with the first century. I've decided I am not a theologian. I do not have a theological degree. So, for safety reasons, this podcast will only be centered on the view of the first century, what the brothers and sisters would have seen and understood on the first century, what the traditional Hebrews at the time would have looked at the Old Testament, and in what traditional sense. One of the things that happens that became evident to me here is uh mathematics, we have a set of mathematics that originates in the 15th century. This mathematics doesn't uh, or and some will go back as far as the 11th century, but nonetheless, far after Revelation, the letter was written by John. And the math is not the math that John understood, it's not the math that would have been understood in the first century. And I will also uh post that up as well. Um you can see this quite easily in the mathematics of Roman numerals. Uh, Roman numerals can't be really divided or or or uh multiplied or um treated the way we treat math in our day. So these things are important. The book was written symbolically, and really the easiest way I can explain it from my perspective is it's a picture book. It's a big book of pictures. Um I have a painting on my wall, and on Sunday nights when we do the Bible studies, I always point to the picture and I say, look, there's stuff going on in the sky, there's stuff going on here in the storefront, there's stuff going in the market, there's stuff happening in the street. All these things are happening at the same time. Or if you go to your house, east, west, south, and north, you look at it each direction, each thing you're seeing is there, it exists, but it's happening at the same time. The letter of Revelation wasn't written to be a history book, in my opinion. It was written to show the forces in the warfare, as Max had titled his um commentary. It's a manual of spiritual warfare. It's what you can expect, it's what you can expect from your governments, it's what you can expect from people who will listen to the government when the government is doing evil things and treat you as if you're evil. It's uh it defines groups of people, it defines the politics, it defines the uh warfare. Warfare was used back in uh Pharaoh's time to make the then Hebrews slaves. Uh it was Joseph who literally God used to save the world from famine, and the Hebrews were treated well when Joseph was alive, but when Joseph passed, then they used warfare, and it says that lawfare rather. Exodus chapter one. It says that Pharaoh, the new Pharaoh, dealt with him harshly because he was afraid that the end the their enemies would come and the Hebrews would join them. When you look at Daniel, he was thrown in a lion stand because they changed the law, lawfare. Uh when you look at Christ, uh punches Pilate's trying to get him off because he knows he's innocent. But the high priest uh incites the people and uh they insist that he be crucified. And why did Pilate bring him to the judgment seat? Because of public pressure. In chapter 19 in the Gospel of John, it says, From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar's. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar's Caesar. When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat him down on the judgment seat at the place known as the stone pavement, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. This account can be found in the Gospel of John chapter 19. So they're using the law to advance their position. And in our own day, we see this in the politics everywhere. We see these people all of a sudden being investigated for no reason, losing their licenses, um, being put on trial, and then it turns out um there was no offense. So if you follow this through from Pharaoh through Christ, through Daniel, many other cases in the Bible to today, you see the same pattern forming political pressure for political power, i.e., so all these things repeat over and over in every century. This is an example of the devil deceiving men to think they're acting in their best interest, uh, which is what the high priest was doing. But in fact, he was literally deceived and literally threw his king under the bus, if you will, Christ was the Messiah. And here was the high priest who should have been leading people to Messiah, instead is leading them to a false king, a false government, an antichrist. Same pattern, same picture, over and over through the Bible. It's politics, it's lawfare. Jesus said that the world is under the power of the evil one, but not the fear, for he has overcome the world. The devil is not going to win. Uh, it's going to be Christ. Christ is always going to win, but we will be persecuted. Jesus said, Blessed are you when men speak evil of you, blessed of you when they try to take your life. Remember, it's a spiritual manual for the warfare. And that's why it's important to take the time and understand what John's saying and to understand it through a biblical view, meaning using the Bible as your standard, the Old Testament that uh refers Revelation. The book of Revelation refers to the Old Testament more than any other book in the New Testament combined. Combined. It's I think it's 254 times in that small letter. I think there's 400 and changing verses, and 250 Samad are referring to uh things in the Old Testament. So what do I mean by that? In other words, the lesson is the same. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything in which one says, Look, this is something new, it was already long ago, it was here before our time. So what do I mean by that? In other words, the lesson is the same, the tree is the same, the governments are acting the same. There is no difference. It happens every generation, whether it's our parents' generation or their parents' generation. It happens every single generation. So by going back to the first century, at least we can deal with what John was saying, which he said came from God, that was delivered to Jesus Christ, that was delivered to an angel, that was delivered to him, and he was told to write what he saw, not what he believed it meant, not what he thought it meant, but what he saw. So the reason again why I've decided to do this podcast is because for myself, my view as life has changed. It's changed because of this very letter. This letter will show you why you die, why people are rich, why people are poor, why there are wars, why there are people who believe things that you think are absolutely crazy. It is because of the devil who has deceived the world. The people who are acting this way and these wars that take place and the reasons they go in, the devil has deceived them. I'm not saying people are not responsible for their actions, I'm just saying that Jesus said that the devil is a liar and that he's the father of lies. And in Revelation it says he's called the deceiver of the world. Why would you believe that you could outsmart the devil? Come. Take some time. Listen to the podcast. I'm going to do my best that I can to keep it as simple as I can in plain language. And I think that is the way God intended it to be. You certainly can go dive into things deeper. I will do my best to answer your questions. I cannot get into doctrinal issues per se, as what people perceive. I really want to keep this centered on the first century, the letter of Revelation, and the Bible patterns that are revealed. Got a question, go to the revelation sessions.com and hit ask a question. I will answer it on the next show. Until next time, blessed is the one who hears and the one who takes it to heart. God bless you.