Senior High Sunday School Re-cap: January 4, 2009

This past Sunday, we began a series on the book of Revelation. It is important to know that the treatment of this book/work/writing will be from a historical/literary standpoint with applications made to life today. It will NOT be an attempt to place current leaders/countries/etc. into the text to make it a vision of the present-day world. While we can learn many things and find meaning for our lives today, we must remember it was written to a specific people in a specific situation for a specific reason..all of which we will look at through the coming weeks. Below is the outline for the first lesson.


Revelation—Part 1*
(Historical and Literary Context of the Apocalypse)


Historically

*Revelation was written during a time of CONFLICT between the church and the Roman Empire.
*It was written from the island of PATMOS where John had been exiled for his faith. (1:9)
*The author is concerned by persecution of saints for refusing to ACCEPT EMPEROR WORSHIP.
*This persecution and conflict actually began within JUDAISM. The government continued on with this practice.
41 AD--HEROD AGRIPPA instituted persecution of Christians.
49 AD--CLAUDIUS expelled "Jews" from Rome
64 AD--NERO killed Christians for a fire that destroyed Rome.
(He probably set it himself and needed someone to blame!)
81-96 AD--DOMITIAN followed in the footsteps of Nero.
112 AD--TRAJAN received a letter from Pliny the Younger asking what to do about believers. His response was to continue the cruelty already in place.

* The date generally given is 95 AD, during DOMITIAN'S reign.



Literary Context

* The category Revelation falls into is:
~LETTER--with salutation/closing….seven churches
~PROPHECY--according to 1:3
~APOCALYPTIC--which means "revelation" in Greek
~CRISIS LITERATURE--which is typical of apocalyptic literature.

*John's goal is to encourage the believers to be faithful even in the direst of circumstances.


Structure of Revelation--The Road Map

I. Prologue (1:1-8)
II. Prophet's Call (1:9-20)
III. Message to the Seven Churches (2-3)
IV. Heavenly Vision (4-5)
V. Seven Seals (6:1-8:5)
VI. Seven Trumpets (8:6-11:19)
VII. Great Conflict (12-14)
VIII. Seven Bowls of Wrath (15-16)
IX. Fall of Great City (17:1-19:10)
X. Victory of Christ (19:11-20:15)
XI. New Jerusalem (21:1-22:5)
XII. Epilogue (22:6-21)

*The bold/all caps words are the answers to the blanks in the weekly handouts.