LET'S FACE IT ..... OUR HOPE IS IN REVELATION
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The first time I read "The Bool of Revelation " in the Bible, I was confounded. It was very confusing. I did not understand the meaning. Many years later, I have enlisted the help of a number of resources, including Dr. David Jeremiah and Daymond R. Duck, to name a few.
rev·e·la·tion | \ ˌre-və-ˈlā-shən \
Definition of revelation 1a: an act of revealing or communicating divine truth b: something that is revealed by God to humans 2a: an act of revealing to view or making known b: something that is revealed especially: an enlightening or astonishing disclosure shocking revelations
per Book of Revelation Explained Scripture by Scripture (bible-studys.org)
Revelation begins with John, the last surviving apostle and an old man, in exile on the small, barren Island of Patmos, located in the Aegean Sea southwest of Ephesus. The Roman authorities had banished him there because of his faithful preaching of the gospel (1:9). While on Patmos, John received a series of visions that laid out the future history of the world.
John reports that he saw his visions and was told to write them down while he was on the island of Patmos (1:9, 11; 19:9; 22:9-10, 18-19). Patmos is about 60 miles from Ephesus.
John was told to write down what he saw in a book and to send it to seven churches in the province of Asia (western Asia Minor): Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea (1:11). The original recipients of Revelation were the believers in these seven churches. Tradition reports that the apostle John exercised spiritual oversight over these churches while he resided at Ephesus during the final decades of the first century. The order of the listing of the seven churches forms a semicircle beginning in the west at Ephesus, then extending northward to Pergamos, and subsequently southeastward to Laodicea. Revelation was probably sent initially as a circular letter beginning at Ephesus and thence throughout the province.
THE MOST ENCOURAGING VERSE IN "REVELATION" TO ME:
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."