How Revelation Works
Primary passage: Revelation 1:1-20
Revelation is apocalypse, prophecy, and a letter to churches. Its symbols draw heavily on the Old Testament and address worship, compromise, endurance, and empire.
Intermediate · ABOUT 240 MINUTES
Revelation and the End: Horsemen, Judgment, Return, and New Creation
The churches, seals and horsemen, beasts and Babylon, Christ’s return, millennium, final judgment, and new creation.
Course Outline
Seals and Four Horsemen
Primary passage: Revelation 6:1-17
The first four seals release the white, red, black, and pale/greenish horses, associated with conquest, war, scarcity, and death. Christians differ on whether the visions are recurring, historical, or future in primary reference.
Beasts, Babylon, and Allegiance
Primary passage: Revelation 13:1-18
Revelation portrays beastly opposition demanding allegiance, deceptive signs, economic pressure, and the number 666. Babylon later symbolizes a corrupt world-city/system judged by God.
Return, Judgment, and New Creation
Primary passage: Revelation 19:11-22:21
Christ is portrayed as the victorious rider on the white horse. Revelation then presents the millennium, final defeat of Satan, final judgment, and a new heaven and new earth where God dwells with his people.