The Angel’s Riddle

This book holds the results of a Critical Analysis (CA) that was accomplished on the book of Revelation as a decoding effort. The purpose was to decipher the extensive symbology and imagery used by Jesus Christ, through the Apostle John, to communicate with the first century Christian audience. They were enduring a considerable amount of persecution that varied in its intensity throughout the first century from both the Jews and Romans in the early part of the century to primarily the Romans, after the 69 to 70 AD timeframe.

There are basically six major sets of beliefs or theories regarding the Revelation message. They are all vastly different and therefore cannot all be correct. From personal research, I was not able to locate any attempt to accomplish a CA type decoding effort on the book of Revelation (the Revelation). Based on my twenty years of experience in the Department of Defense (DoD) contractual efforts, performing CA successfully, I decided to inflict a CA on the Revelation.

There are several key points that, when recognized and applied to this CA effort, make a significant difference in the understanding of the Revelation message:

• Recognize that the Revelation was for the first century Christian audience first. Once we know what the message was to those beleaguered souls, we can then determine how the message applies to all generations that follow.
• The Revelation, as part of the New Testament, must be in harmony with the other books of the New Testament, and not in conflict with them. Remember, Jesus taught His Apostles, to include the Apostle John, what ultimately became the writings of the New Testament. The Revelation, also from Jesus, must, by basic logic, not be in conflict with what He taught earlier while still on this earth.
• To unravel and unpack the Revelation, we must use the Old Testament as a guide. The Revelation and the Old Testament cannot be separated in terms of many prophecies and issues of the Old Testament that are resolved and revealed in the Revelation, not the least of which are many symbols and images in the Revelation that came directly from the Old Testament, and in particular, the book of Daniel.
• The use of the number 1,000 in the Revelation message must be understood as a symbolic number as used in the Old Testament, to show a state of affairs.
• Understanding timeframes is important. What is a long time off and what is a short time? Time is meaningless to God from God’s point of view. However, God understands that man lives with time and knows time as it relates to mankind. We must be careful when we see time references that we know how to determine whatever differences there may be in the application of those time references. What is literal and what is symbolic or, what is only an image.
• We know that the Revelation is coded. We are told as much in Revelation 1:19-20; 17:1-2, 7-18; and 21:9-10. Recognizing this fact is important. There is a difference between decoding a message and translating a message. A coded message can be translated into any number of different languages. However, in whatever language the coded message resides, it is still coded and must be decoded.

My approach for serving up the results of this CA, is to give you a brief overview of the many details first and then provide you an increasing amount of expansion to those details as you go through the document. There is so much to digest, this appeared to be the best way to play it out; rather than just ask you to “open wide” and then open the fire hose on you. This document is not laid out like most commentaries. It is more of a study. You will need to arm yourself with some writing materials for notes and possibly some sticky notes. There is a commentary. It is chapter 11. Before you get to that chapter, you will need all that precedes it. Don’t get in a hurry. Your patience will be rewarded.

God Bless.