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Daily Devotional Bible Studies in Revelation

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Revelation is the Word of God from the Bible blue flower

The Apostle John

Revelation comes to us from about two thousand years ago but it also reveals today's truth and tomorrow's destiny. God shows himself to John in a spectacular and mysterious vision. John was not attempting to predict the future, but to obediently describe the wonders he had been shown. He was a prophet and was bound by his oath to write down only what he saw, and nothing more or less. He was faithful in that task, even though most of the time he obviously did not understand what it was that he was seeing. Through graphic word pictures, we are shown a radiant Jesus in all his glory speaking to his church in the heavenly realm.

Painting of the Apostle John

Sensational and Incomprehensible

Unfortunately the Book of Revelation has been presented to us by many Bible scholars and writers as "sensational and incomprehensible." It is, I believe, on the contrary very much based on the customs and ethos of the times in which John wrote i.e. the first century AD. It may be a vision of splendour but it is also written to people like you and I, ordinary working folk, for our edification and blessing. This is the approach I have taken in the hope that you, like those early Christians, might learn and be built up in the Faith as you see Jesus of Nazareth in a new light as the eternal One in glory. He is still our Saviour but we see him in Revelation as he will be.

A Debt of Gratitude

The Rev Dr William Barclay

I owe a debt of gratitude to the many scholars and scholarly works that I have consulted in the preparation of this Bible Study. A special thanks is due to the late Dr William Barclay (5th December 1907 to 24th January 1978), the great Glasgow scholar, teacher and communicator for his writings in the St Andrew's Press. See the Wikipedia link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barclay_) When I started my ministry in 1970 as a young man at the Bible Training Institute on Bothwell Street in Glasgow, William Barclay as an old man was finishing his ministry at Glasgow University in Scotland.

Wikipedia Motif

Since that time, I have felt a oneness with him through his writings for the ordinary working person. Though I never met him, he more than anyone else I know, made the Scriptures come alive. Barclay wrote many other popular books, always drawing on scholarship but written in a highly accessible style. In The Mind of Jesus (1960) he states that his aim was "to make the figure of Jesus more vividly alive, so that we may know him better and love him more." One day, Dr Barclay and I shall meet on the golden streets of Heaven and I can thank him personally.

Google Title Block

I should also acknowledge the great contribution of Google Images to this and other texts. Such a repository of excellent images should be recognized as a modern wonder of the world. Thanks.

Draw Closer to God

This online Bible study book is offered so that you, the reader, may be drawn closer to God and grow in grace.

Apply these Truths

Apply these truths from the Book of the Revelation of John, God's Living Word, to your own life. They are life changing. "There are two great days in a person's life: the day we were born and the day we discover why." William Barclay

tellout line "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place." tellout line

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