Bible Tuesday - Revelation

A revealing of Jesus, the Messiah.
Revelation 1:1

Since it's January, every good Christian is starting their "Read the Bible in One Year" deal.  That means that most of Christendom is reading Genesis right now.  And really, who doesn't love Genesis?  Every great Bible story you ever learned as kid came mostly from Genesis.  It's easy to read, easy to interpret, and easy to talk about with others. 

Revelation is NONE of those things. 

For a long time I have wanted to do a study on this book.  I envisioned something like "Revelation for Normal People".  Because here's the problem.  Some people just ignore this book.  Some people skim it and move on.  And some people like it FAR too much.  You know the ones I'm talking about?  These goofs that diagram all the sentences and assure you that a pattern emerges confirming that Obama is the antichrist.  They stockpile canned goods to make it through the tribulation.  They speak with total confidence regarding their interpretations no matter how shaky their biblical foundation may be.

I am none of these people. 

You see, the first time I read this book, I was a brand new Christian who knew jack diddly about bible prophecy.   And I really enjoyed it.  But every time I heard someone talk about it, it was if we hadn't read the same book.  I was confused and annoyed. 

One of the core tenets of my beliefs is that God intended for ME to be able to read and interpret scripture for myself.  I do not believe God would inspire something to purposefully confuse me.  So when we encounter something that is, shall we say...odd, I am just going to say "I have no idea what that means" and move on.

So my hope is that by the time we get done, you and I can be the type of people who love Revelation for what it actually says.  That we can read this book with hope, not fear.  And that we will see Jesus revealed because ya'll...that's the whole point