Making Sense of the Revelation: A Clear Message of Hope

One of the major human quests of the new millennium is the recovery of hope. The book of Revelation is preeminently a treatise on Christian hope.

Because it is part of our New Testament, we need to understand Revelation as surely as we need to understand the book of Acts or the letters of Paul. Time and again, Bible students have forced the symbolic nature of Revelation into conformity with contemporary events, organizing the book's details into a literal timetable of the future.

This is not Turner's approach to understanding Revelation. He discusses Revelation as a book that was a product of its time, with a clear message of hope to Christian believers during that time. Understanding its message for those believers living late in the first century will reveal some lasting and powerful implications for the Christians and churches of today. However, Revelation is not an almanac for any later century, including the 21st.

Revelation speaks of a faith by which to live and die. It is a book for all the ages. It is God's word to us of hope, strength, and home.

William L. Turner is pastor of South Main Baptist Church, Houston TX. He is also the author of The Struggle To Believe: Rethinking Faith for the Twenty-First Century (Smyth & Helwys 1993).

William L. Turner is pastor of South Main Baptist Church, Houston TX. He is also the author of The Struggle To Believe: Rethinking Faith for the Twenty-First Century (Smyth & Helwys).