Book of Revelation

Definition and Meaning

The Book of Revelation is the last of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament and contains twenty-two chapters. The Korean term for "revelation" (gyesi) means "to uncover and show what has been covered," and the book's title derives from its first Greek word, apokalypsis. In Korean, the Catholic Church's Common Translation and its current Bible translation call it "The Apocalypse of John." Writing that uses visions and symbols to depict heavenly realities and the last events of history is called apocalyptic literature, and Revelation is the principal example of this genre in the New Testament.

Biblical and Historical Background

The author identifies himself as John and states that he received his visions on the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9). Church tradition has identified this John as the apostle John, although some scholars regard him as a different person. Many scholars date the book to the late first century, during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, while others place it around the time of the emperor Nero.

The book proceeds through letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor (chapters 2–3); the plagues of the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls; the destruction of the beast and of Babylon; the thousand-year reign (chapter 20); and the new heaven and the new earth (chapters 21–22). During the process of its acceptance into the canon, parts of the Eastern Church hesitated for a long time, and Martin Luther once wrote a preface expressing a low opinion of the book. John Calvin wrote commentaries on most of the New Testament but is known to have left no commentary on Revelation.

Approaches to interpretation fall broadly into four categories. Preterism reads the book as describing events of the first-century Roman era; historicism reads it as a portrayal of the course of church history as a whole; and futurism reads most of it as describing events that will occur in the last days. Idealism (or symbolism) reads it as a symbolic depiction of spiritual truths that apply to every age.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, Revelation has been regarded as a central text for belief in the Second Coming and for eschatology. Through early missionaries and revival meetings, dispensational premillennialism—the interpretation that the Great Tribulation and the millennial kingdom follow the Rapture—spread widely. Today the emphasis varies among denominations and seminaries. Presbyterian seminaries in the Reformed tradition teach both amillennialism and historic premillennialism; the Holiness Church emphasizes the Second Coming as one element of the Fourfold Gospel; and belief in the imminent return of Christ is also strong in the Pentecostal tradition.

In 1992, a date-setting end-times movement that proclaimed a so-called "October 28 Rapture" became a social problem. In addition, Shincheonji, which the general assemblies of several denominations have declared heretical, claims to know the "actual fulfillment" of Revelation and places the book at the center of its doctrine. As a result of such episodes, a reluctance to preach from Revelation developed in many churches. At the same time, expository preaching and Bible studies on Revelation aimed at teaching sound interpretation have continued steadily. The passage on the new heaven and the new earth in chapter 21 is frequently read at funeral services.