(Ver 1.0) This is Part 3 in the series of Bible lessons on attempting to Correctly Understand the Book of Revelation. If you have not read this series from the beginning, please start your study from “Part 1”. In the last lesson we touched on the subject of building a firm foundation. There are massive numbers of interconnected and dependent prerequisite subjects spread throughout the Bible that must be found, organized and applied correctly to understand the book of Revelation. We understand this basic Law of Interpretation from reading Hebrews 6 which states “Therefore leaving the basic doctrines of Christ, let us move on to maturity, not laying again the foundation…” and then lists several basic doctrines of the Christian faith. These verses teach us of basic doctrinal beliefs that are foundations for other beliefs. That is the way of the book of Revelation also.

It is impossible to understand the book of Revelation independently from the correct foundational understandings of many Old and New Covenant foundational subjects found everywhere in the Bible. This is the first and most major law of our lesson series on Understanding Revelation. We are going to find out very soon that it is a requirement of God’s design to grow in spiritual maturity. This is because the carnal immature mind of humans is just unable to comprehend the meaty words of God (1 Peter 2:2).

Now here is Law number 2 of correct Bible interpretation. The Bible will always interpret itself by God’s sovereign choice (2 Peter 1:20). This Law eliminates the human factor of error. But please understand that all of our answers to all of our questions are not in one verse, chapter or book. Therefore, I believe we must become intimately aware of the entire Bible and come to the realization that the Bible’s main Subject is Jesus Christ, either: 1) plainly spoken of or 2) divinely hidden in many ways.

The Laws and Rules of Interpretation is our key subject today. Even if you believe Laws are not necessary, or you believe you know all of the laws or rules already, I would strongly suggest you keep reading to establish harmony of beliefs between us. If there are even one belief that is different, this can cause us to be near each other in beliefs and the beginning, but can cause us drift a very far distance apart at the conclusion of the series.

If you disagree with any statement in this lesson, I welcome your input and contribution. I do not know everything as you also do not, but we do both know that God does know the truth, and He understand our differences and will always help us resolve them to unify with His Truth. Therefore, please leave your comments after reading. If you are ready to proceed let us, get started.

Introduction to Bible Riddles, Puzzles and Hidden Mysteries

If you did not know it, the Bible was written as a giant puzzle book of Symbology, Types, Shadows, Patterns, Parables, Riddles, Puzzles and Hidden Mysteries. I have found the book of Revelation is certainly no different. All of these usually natural items have corresponding revealed spiritual Parallels, Solutions and Answers almost always pointing us to Jesus Christ. Let’s examine some scriptures to prove this concept:

Matthew 13:11 – He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Mark 4:11 – And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

Luke 8:10 – And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

These are only 3 examples of over 25 verses in the New Testament that describe the existence of “mysteries” being hidden in the Word of God. These mysteries are clearly designed to be revealed and hidden simultaneously. According to Jesus, some are given their meanings and answers and some are not.

The Greek word “musterion” (G3466) translated as “Mysteries” is a word that means “to shut the mouth” as in “keep a secret”. Therefore, we learn from verses like these that there are major secrets that are hidden to not allow every human and devil to know the mysteries of the “Kingdom of God and Heaven”. We immediately must conclude that God has many things that He has chosen to keep from us to know. But we can begin to see that these hidden things are items that can and will be released for us to know as the Holy Spirit wills.

Proverbs 25:2 – It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. 

According to Proverbs 25:2 God said; “It is the Glory of God to Conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search it out”. The Hebrew word H5641 Sathar means to “hide by covering”. But this is a problem. We can all read every word written in the Bible and even look of the definitions to try to understand the statements. But we are discovering from verses like this one in Proverbs that these plain text statements have hidden or covered over meanings and applications.

Therefore, this further supports the introduction of the concept of “mysterious secrets” being withheld from plain and obvious view. This is confirmed in John 5:39 when Jesus (God in the flesh) said to the Jewish religious leaders, “Search your scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but these are they that testify of me”. That is an amazing statement. This clearly says to people who think they understood their Bible verses, that they did not know nearly as much as they thought.

This means not everything in the Bible is placed in plain obvious sight for just anyone to understand. This DEFINITELY is TRUE of REVELATION based upon the number of opinions people have to what it means. Can we agree?

Now it appears from this knowledge we are learning the concept of God playing a childlike game of hide and seek with humans. In other words, this is describing the concept of divinely inspired God puzzles that were placed by God in His Word that were intended for humans to work, seek and find His hidden treasures containing true solutions and answers. Did you know God created this concept? Could it be that this is why many children like to learn this way? We are God’s children, right? But we are not designed to solve the problems and puzzles independently and without growing in maturity, Thank God!

Notice that Proverbs 25:2 speaks of “kings doing the searching for the truth” and not children. This concept is confirmed to us in Galatians 4:1-7 where children are kept by the Father under tutors until they mature. Therefore, God sends His Spirit to come inside us to help us to grow and mature and also guide us into all the “Truth” we need to know. Let’s continue to learn how to grow.

Introduction – Lesson Purpose

Based upon the opening statements, the Bible is not designed for just anyone to understand everything instantly and automatically. We find one reason for this is based upon our normal natural human ways of thinking, these just do not align with God’s much higher spiritual ways of thinking. No natural human mind will ever be able to understand the Ways, Thoughts and Words of an infinite knowledge Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The Bible proves this everyday by natural minded people trying to read it and not understanding what they have just read. Why is this? Doesn’t God want all humans to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? Why wouldn’t God write a book that is more open and of plain understanding to natural human minds? Of course, He does want us to know what He says and to accept Him as our God. But how would God give a human the right to choose Him freely if the only said one thing that could only be taken one way?

This would certainly be nice if we all could read a verse and automatically know what it is speaking of, and never have any arguments to what anything meant. But yet that is not how God sovereignly chose to write the book. Nor is it in agreement with other scriptures instructing us to “walk by faith and not by sight”. Nor does it agree with us being reliant upon Him as our Loving spiritual Father to teach us as His beloved spiritual children. This new way of thinking is where many may get offended at me, for telling the truth (Galatians 4:16). That is another normal childlike type of behavior of the most spiritually immature.

Also, most humans do not understand that there is a spiritual enemy that is turned against God and us. Currently he (Satan) is called the “god of this world” and the ruler of all those in the darkness in which the lost are living within according to 2 Corinthians 4:4.

Why then hasn’t God just eliminated this evil rebellious spiritual enemy?  After all we all know He is Sovereign and Omnipotent? Yes, He is Sovereign and Omnipotent, but He is also Love, Peace, Righteous, Holy, Just and Fair and He will not break His word that He has spoken to anyone. This simply means God is more than powerful enough and is certainly able to accomplish anything needed to eliminate all “EVIL” and “TERROR” but He will not do so, if it is not LEGAL and JUST or if it destroys or violates His Character or Highest Moral standards.

According to Numbers 23:19: “God is NOT a MAN that He will LIE, Nor the SON of MAN that he must repent”. Do you see what I am doing? I am taking verses from everywhere in the Bible that must be placed together to teach the foundational truths of God’s identity and character. This is exactly how we must teach and learn the Book of Revelation.

We are not going to study the book of Revelation in the order that it was written. We are not going to teach or study it verse by verse, chapter by chapter, etc. We will only be led by the Spirit and attempt to organize each lesson so that we are able to understand what needs to be understood before we move to anything new that we do not yet understand. And guess what, we may never totally understand every word, phrase, verse, or chapter, etc.

Bible interpretation is like building a tall building as we learned in the previous lesson. There is a requirement for a firm foundation of basic truths, before we move into each higher building block layer of greater truth (Hebrews 6:1-3).

It appears that too many Christian pastors seem to not be following the basic plan and design of God and are trying to jump to the top floor of building an understanding of the book of Revelation without first understanding the basic rules of construction. Jesus called this type of building strategy to be foolish like trying to build a house upon unstable sandy ground, which causes the whole building “teaching to fall when shaken with strong opposition (Matthew 7:26-27).

Two factors are essential to every Bible study. These are 1) asking Right and Good Questions and 2) being led by the Spirit of God. Failing to ask the Holy Spirit the correct questions when studying the Bible will lead us to potential great error. Failing to follow the Lord’s instruction and guidance will also be equally detrimental to finding the Truth.

Here are just some of the basic questions that I have encountered when studying that are being fought over in the Church today about the book of Revelation:

1. Many Pastors are struggling on the basic “Timing” of the book of Revelation. This is because this is a very advanced topic to begin to understand. Not everything in the Bible is Chronological. Hopefully you knew that. Even in one book, one chapter or even one verse Events can jump over vast areas of time. Jesus taught us this concept in Luke 4:18-19 when he was quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2. Jesus stops in mid-sentence declaring the first parts of the statement was fulfilled in Him in the Temple, but the last statement was about the “Day of Vengeance of the Lord” was cut off and this strongly implies there is a massive gap of time between this ending event from the first coming of Jesus Christ. This pattern will be repeatedly revealed again and again in this lesson series on Revelation. We are going to soon discover the concept of “Parenthetical Verses and Chapters”. God writes a lot of Revelation this way. In this style of writing the book’s chronological flow is interrupted to either explain a previous situation or to describe a simultaneous event that occurs in overlapping fashion with previously stated events. Knowing this will help us learn a principle that God sees and writes of events in time differently than we do. He can even call a “time out” to pause, stop or delay the next coming prophesied events. Sometimes, this is because of His great Grace, Love and Mercy to give men time to repent.
2. Many differences in modern Revelation views involves the timing of the Rapture! Is there a Rapture, and when will it occur? The most popular views are as follows: 1) No Rapture, 2) Pre-Trib Rapture, 3) Mid-Trib Rapture, 4) Pre-Wrath Rapture or 5) Post-Trib Rapture. Either these are all true, not any of them are true or one or more of them are true? This is one of the most major questions to be answered correctly. Without the correct answer people may become easily deceived enough to not be ready for the return of Jesus Christ. For example, in every view except for the “Pre-Trib” view Christians are normally focused upon looking for an evil world conqueror rather than the return of Jesus Christ. This appears to me to be the wrong emphasis of focus. But we will find out more about this later.
3. As stated previously Revelation views differ on the Timing of the events found in the Book. Here is another quick review: 1) Idealist View – Revelation is mainly Spiritually Symbolic Lessons with no Literal Fulfilment, 2) Preterist View – Revelation Has largely Already occurred around 70 AD, meaning there is practically nothing to learn from it, 3) Historicist View – Aligns itself with Revelation being mostly church History and therefore discounting any present time or future application, 4) Futurist View – Revelation chapters 4-22 are Prophetic and have not yet occurred, but will be happening very soon based upon the signs of the current days in which we are living.
4. Other major view conflicts occur with beliefs based upon the God given identity of 1) the natural nation of Israel (Old Covenant), 2) the Church (New Covenant), and how God deals with each? In other words, has anything changed throughout Human history?  And Has God done anything New or Different throughout Human History? At least one group view called “Futurist” believes in the doctrine of Dispensationalism. And I believe this doctrine is a strong example of a dependent basic doctrine that is required to understand Revelation. If we do not know this doctrine, we will easily be led astray in the book of Revelation. This doctrinal belief promotes the concept that throughout human history God has dealt with people, nations and groups differently depending upon His relationship with each of them and of course their individual desire to align with Him and listen to Him.
5. There are countless arguments happening over almost every key event, subject, symbol, character, etc. in the book of Revelation. These include, 1) the Anti-Christ, 2) the Beast, 3) the 144,000, 4) the Two Witnesses, 5) the Woman in Revelation 12, 6) the Whore of Babylon, 7) the four Horsemen, and on and on we could go. Resolving each and every one of these will be a great human challenge, but certainly nothing is impossible with the Holy Spirit’s help. Who are all of these or what do they correctly represent? Finding the most accurate answers to these questions will determine how much of Revelation we will understand.
6. There are pastors that are now creating new controversies with trying to redefine 1) what is Judgment and 2) when does Judgment Begin? Do you see how this fits with God’s necessity of seeking to find right answers and solutions of His hidden mysteries? We will need to ensure that we have found the correct Bible definitions of Judgment in order to define when it begins. And searching for these types of answers are not always obvious.
7. Likewise, others are asking the new questions: 1) what is Wrath and 2) when does Wrath Begin? And now even whose wrath is it is from 1) Satan, 2) the Lamb, or 3) God or some say from 4) Man or all of the above simultaneously? Do you see the confusion that Satan is potentially bringing into the study of the Bible? This is called Satanic distraction to cause deception. As long as Satan can take our eyes off of finding the truth we are more likely to believe a taught lie, partial truth or a misleading, misapplied or misaligned definition or statement of concluding human opinion.

Therefore, these were just some of the major modern questions that we must resolve with the Holy Spirit’s help. Let’s expand the list and see if there are others that need to be added (which there will always be more to come in any right Bible study, since we all currently do not know what we do not yet know to ask):

1. When are or did the events in Revelation happen according to scripture, not according to human opinion.
2. How long do all of the events occur in the book of Revelation?
3. Who are the Revelation events going to effect?
4. And what are these effects and do people have any rights of choice to participate or choose their outcome?
5. It might also be wise to ask and answer, can scriptures in Revelation have dual or multiple application simultaneously? In other words, could the All Knowing, All-Powerful, the Everywhere at All Times Creator of heaven and earth place more than one layer of meaning and application upon His written words?
6. In other words, can all the major views have some elements and applications of truth to past, present and future events? Is that possible? We cannot honestly say that it is NOT possible. However, we must not forget the works of Satan’s deception designed to distract Christians away from the Truth. This is definitely happening now in the world.

Introduction – Correct Interpretation
Laws and Rules

God is a God of order. God is a God of Rules and Laws (Psalm 19:7-9, Psalm 89:14, Isaiah 33:22). We see this in His creative works and in His Word. Another way of stating this truth is to say “God is not the Initiator or Author of Confusion or Chaos” (1 Corinthians 14:33, 40).

Therefore, we must assume God has given us some guidelines and rules to how to interpret His Word. Can we agree? If yes, then there must be some guidelines to follow to reach the Truth. Herre are some of my major Rules that I follow to ensure I am not being misled.

1. Know, hear and follow the voice of the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ (John 10:27).
2. Be Led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14).
3. I believe these two are the first and foremost commandments for achieving correct Bible interpretation. Only God understands it ALL. And without His asked for Help then we are laboring in vain.
4. The Bible NEVER CONTRADICTS Itself! (Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18, Psalm 119:160).
5. God’s Word when Correctly Understood is the Only Source for Absolute TRUTH! (John 17:17, John 18:37).
6. Therefore, when any precieved Scripture or Doctrine Contradictions are FOUND, the problem is ALWAYS in the Human interpretations of one or both of the contradicting doctrines or scriptures and it MUST be resolved with the HELP of the HOLY SPIRIT. Because ONLY HE Understands EVERYTHING in HIS HOLY WORD!
7. God was smart enough to Define and Interpret ALL of His own Words. Today, people are searching for Truth in almost everything except the Bible. Some say the Whore in Babylon is the Catholic Church, the Vatican, New York, Rome, Washington DC, London, and on and on we could go. But none of these are identified clearly in the Bible. The closest candidate is Rome because we have an entire book written to the Romans in the New Testament. We will also soon learn the Roman Empire will rise again shortly to world dominance with an anti-Christ figure as leader. But we need a lot more than these to establish this Truth. One of the most important rules in interpreting any verse is to research the Bible and find the answer on how to interpret it in another scripture. Always USE the BIBLE TO INTERPRET the BIBLE. Everything else is a PRIVATE INTERPRETATION and has been disqualified to be the truth according to 2 Peter 1:20.
8. Another critical rule of Interpretation is the requirement for us to Find repeated confirming “Patterns” of our drawn conclusion of interpretation. Only repeated patterns can help truly verify its accuracy. Ecclesiastes 1:9 reveals “the thing that has been, is that which shall be again, and that which is done, is that which shall be done, there is nothing new under the sun”. This rule establishes the reality of repeated “Patterns”. If you cannot find an old pattern of what you are teaching from the book of Revelation, it is probably not close to being a Truth. For example, I found one pastor dividing the 3.5-year period of time in Revelation that occurs 5 times, into a new fractional subdivision that he labels as the Great Tribulation or the Wrath of God. This fractional period of Wrath is why He claims the church will be going through the rest of the book of Revelation. Yet I have not found a confirming fractional period of wrath that can be used as a confirming pattern. I believe this is problematic private interpretation. But we will deal with this further later in the series.
9. Likewise, a similar rule is found in the following statement: “In the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses let every Word of Truth be established”. In other words, like not having any confirming patterns, let’s not take one statement or one part of a verse and believe that is an absolute isolated truth above all other truths in the Bible.
10. Furthermore, this leads us int the concept of “Balancing ALL Scriptures”. We must always find all the scriptures that may be in contradiction with our current position or view and find how to resolve the contradiction in order to keep our view or to determine if our view needs elimination, correction or minor adjustment.
11. For this lesson, this rule of interpretation is simply to help us take EVERYTHING LITERAL in the Bible, unless it is impossible to do so. This is the opposite (and I believe erroneous) approach of the “Idealist” View on Revelation where they try to make everything a figure of speech and try to apply it symbolically with only hidden meanings. If we took the entire Bible this way, we could make it say whatever we desired! Take for instance a place in Revelation where there is an obvious example of words that could never be literal. This is the “Pregnant Woman clothed in the Sun, standing on the moon about to be delivered” in Revelation 12. This is an impossible statement when interpreting it into natural terms. We know this because of common sense. 1) The Sun is so hot no human is able to exist anywhere near it, least they are consumed. 2) There is no oxygen on the moon and without a space suit the woman is dead and with a space suit the woman is unable to give birth. This is just simple common sense and demands us to look for spiritual and/or symbolic meanings to the descriptions. There are other examples, so please first look for the possible literal meaning before jumping into symbol definitions through searching. God usually always says what He means and means what He says.
12. Read the Context of the verse. Many times, a verse can be more quickly correctly understood by studying the context. Who is it about? Who is it spoken to or spoken about? For what purpose was it spoken? Who was speaking? And of course, what was written before and after the verse?
13. Understanding the differences between Universal Truths verses Interdependent Truths. First, “Universal Truths” are like 1 John 4:8: “God is Love”, which is universally true regardless of context or any other truth about God’s nature or actions. Based upon this universal truth of Character, if God renders Judgments of Wrath, it is necessary because there are no other options of “Love” to save these individuals. Second, “Interdependent Truths”, we must balance all interdependent Truths equally with all other non-Universal Truth. To do this we must use a fair and balanced scale without false weights of manipulation or favoritism. We are required by God, to keep ALL scripture balanced fairly together unless the Truth is Found to be True Universally in any setting or in any situation like 1 John 4:8. Unless a Truth is determined to be Universally True, then One Truth usually never overrules all others.
14. God usually always defines His own spoken words somewhere in scripture. It might not be what and where you think it is. But most of the time it can be found in some form when diligently searched.

These were some of my major rules of Eschatological interpretation that I diligently attempt to follow. I tried to give scriptural backing whenever I could. Other rules were common sense based upon the leading of the Holy Spirit that He has taught me over many years of Study. If you have questions or comments about any of these rules, please share them. If you feel there are other rules that must be followed, share your own rules that God has shown you. Remember if anyone is not following any rules of interpretation, then there only exists Chaotic Confusion. Thank you.

Conclusion

We are learning that the Bible is a Giant Puzzle book. God places puzzle pieces (Truths) and clues (Definitions) in understanding the book of Revelation anywhere and everywhere in the Bible. These clues can occur in any order and in any verse beginning with Genesis 1:1 and anywhere else going forward.

Think of this God designed learning challenge as if it were a giant jig saw puzzle with many thousands of pieces. All of these pieces when placed in correct position will fit together perfectly to reveal “Jesus Christ” who is God’s implemented solution for the 1) creation of a new spiritual family that 2) loves Him, through the offering of salvation by Grace through Faith in our savior’s death on a cross which also 3) causes the soon elimination of all unrighteous, uncircumcised evil spiritual entities.

Sometimes in our Bible study for the search for answers, it will require us to use computers, tablets, smart phones, etc., to find information and these modern tools are great assistance. As an ex-computer programmer, I have been using computers and Bible software to learn God’s Word for well over 35+ years. And all of this study did not include AI which appears to be taking over the world. While AI can be useful, beware the dangers of deception built within the algorithms. No AI tool can overrule the Infinite Intelligence of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you for reading and studying the Bible with us. We are dedicated to find the Truth in every subject necessary to understand the book of Revelation as correctly as possible. Will we be 100% perfect? I have never met anyone that I thought taught the book perfectly, but this is still our goal whether or not we achieve it. It is always beneficial for us to aim for the center of the target of perfection and miss slightly than to close our eyes and miss it completely.

We will attempt to remain open-minded to any and all commenters. We know there are many people in the world that hear from God also. We know with 100% confidence that God uses us many times to help a lot of people. But He also uses others that can help those we are unable to reach. God is so much smarter and wiser than all of us combined. If we all do our assigned parts to reach the world, it will work out better than if we worked independently without God’s guidance.

In our next lesson, we will probably talk about the book of Daniel. This is a key foundational book that must be used to interpret the book of Revelation. Both Daniel and Ezekiel are key books. But for now, please read Daniel before the next lesson and we will dig deeper into it to initiate our foundational studies for Revelation.

If you have any needs for prayer please leave them in a comment. We are happy to pray for you as you also continue to pray for us. God is Good, All the Time! Have a blessed day, and continue to look for the coming of Jesus Christ, He is coming sooner than many think or believe.