Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the book of Revelation.

Is this the most intriguing book of the Bible? There is a huge variety of views about what this book means and, even if we can understand it, what we should do with that understanding today.

Bern and Owen start by looking at the culture it was written into, the challenges Christians were facing towards the end of the first century, and how words from Jesus and visions of future battles, judgements and resolutions would have been received.

Jesus had notes for every regional church, and the theme of “repent” - changing of mind - was consistent. Could our understanding of this today be too small? Did Jesus want to “come in and eat” only with new converts to faith, or with every believer throughout life?

John’s prophetic visions were dramatic and packed with meaningful symbols from stories across the whole of the Bible. But was this a code people needed to crack, or more of an encouragement to suffering people that they were richly connected to the God who had always promised to rescue and deliver them? 

The world as they knew it was coming to an end - as the world sometimes looks to us too - but they could look forward to a better future. God and his love wins.

Thanks for listening! You can review the whole of our Bible listening plan and hear every episode of this podcast at severnvineyard.org/bible.