The Bible For Dummies

Simon Peter wrote 1 and 2 Peter for two very different reasons. The first letter was a letter of encouragement to the persecuted church offering the early believers hope and meaning in the middle of the suffering they were enduring for their faith. 2 Peter on the other hand was written as a warning against false teachers and contains very harsh condemnations of these teachers.

1, 2 and 3 John were all written by the Apostle John who also wrote the Gospel of John. They were written for very similar reasons as Peter’s letters. The first letter is a letter of encouragement, the second a letter of warning and the third letter is a short personal note warning a friend about a specific person in the church.

Jude Is a dark little letter that ends the epistles. Written by Jesus’ brother Jude the letter was written to warn believers about the dangers of some of the strange doctrines being spread throughout the church by false teachers.

And here we are at the end, the book of The Revelation, did you catch that there’s no S, it’s not many revelations, never has been, never will be it’s only one revelation. Sometimes it’s called The Revelation of John, but actually it’s the Revelation of God to John. It says that in the first verse and so I guess that makes the Author God. The human author or scribe is identified as John who wrote down the revelation and sent it to the seven churches in Asia. Although we don’t know exactly which John this was tradition holds that it was John the Apostle who wrote this book while an exile on the Island of Patmos which is located in the Aegean Sea just off the coast of modern day Turkey

The Revelation refers to itself as: a revealing, an unveiling and an explaining. Anyone who has read anything written about the Revelation knows that people have very dogmatic beliefs about this book and everyone is convinced that theirs is the only correct view. Understand that there are any number of interpretations of this book and every one of them has difficulties and require some straining to make things fit.

The parts of this book that we are most familiar with is the number 666 and the antichrist, neither of which has been or will be revealed until the end times come. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Revelation is the playground of the religiously eccentric. Don’t get so caught up in what you don’t understand here that you miss all the stuff you can understand in the rest of the book.

That’s it, Genesis to Revelation in 25 minutes or so. What is the most important part of the Bible? Whatever part leads you into a relationship with God.

PowerPoint may be available for this message, contact me at denn@bccnet.ca

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