Chapter 24

Revelation 1:1-3 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.


From what I have gathered in Paul’s writings and missionary journeys he was a genuine mean longing to proclaim Christ’ salvation to the nations. Of course he was still human and made mistakes. He was also very bold and God-confident in what he was preaching (as this was the case with other apostle ministry). These create for a ministry that will make people UNCOMFORTABLE and CHALLENGED – that’s because Jesus’ truth isn’t necessarily comfortable. The result is a people’s response. From the book of Revelation we gather that there was a type of response that decided to create a new interpretation of who Jesus is: Nicolaitans, Balaamites, ‘Jezebel’ etc. I imagine that the apostles prayed for these people and also tried to address their questions and interpretations. But this was not enough. So Jesus decided to directly speak to them! Whoa!
John discusses ‘false prophets’. From his writings we can gather that they were individuals who believed to have some further revelation for God and therefore had a more intimate relationship with him. They were no longer in need of refinement as they were already perfect. This would have been very confusing indeed for the early church! Docetism was also a circulating ‘theology’ at the time. Followers of this theology believed that Jesus was not actually fully human but only fully God who only seemed to appear as a human. This probably arose from the common Greek thought that the human world is very separated from the god world and missing the two was difficult to comprehend. John’s letters address issues surrounding the false prophet influence and urge the church to remain true to Jesus’ teachings and salvation.
I am a bit confused/curious about when John would have wrote John (Gospel), 1 John, and Revelation. When in this writing process did he receive his vision from Jesus? How long was this false prophecy going on before Jesus gave him said vision?
Jude and 2 Peter also seem to address ‘false prophet’ issues in the church in a similar manner as John does. The false prophets again believed that they were completely holy and didn’t need any cleansing from Jesus. Therefore they also believed that Christ’ 2nd coming wasn’t really going to happen because they were in no need of further resurrection. 2 Peter addresses some theological problems associated with this belief including: just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean God won’t still fulfill his promise for a 2nd coming.
It is interesting to look at these books as an example for how the church should address ‘bad theology’ issues. We should have no tolerance for teaching that goes against: Christ’ ability to purify us, his power, or his authority. This however should be done with love and grace.