revealing of christ

Historically, Revelation has been not only the most intriguing book in the Bible, but also the most intimidating. Yet somehow, even though its talked about a lot, in many ways it’s also the most neglected by individual believers. My experience is most Christians aren’t nearly as familiar with Revelation as they are other books in the Bible. Most have probably, for example red Genesis or the letters of Paul more often than Revelation. As a result, what most people know about Revelation, they have relied on what others say about it. Many have been taught Revelation is about codes, riddles, clues, puzzles, like a Christian version of Nostradamus. I suspect most Christians consult google about Revelation more than reading it for ourselves, or in community. As a result, there’s perhaps more innocent misunderstanding of Revelation than any other book in the Bible. Many Christians can’t resist the urge to collate its images alongside of current events, world news headlines. Each generation of the church has tried to infuse contemporary news & world events into the pages of Revelation. People have inserted everything from presidents, to popes, to governments, to wars, to pandemics, to famines. People try to interpret the images in Revelation literally, others approach it as if it were a sudoku math puzzle, some use it as inspiration for doomsday preparation, a manual for surviving an inevitable future global catastrophe. Many have used Revelation to elevate themselves, claiming special prophetic insight to unlock its “hidden” secrets. Revelation has been unrightfully used to divide and splinter the church based on erroneous end times interpretations. None of these was the purpose or intention of John when he wrote Revelation, so what is the purpose? It’s to reveal Jesus in ways we’ve never seen Him before! Shouldn’t that be more compelling than this other stuff?