readrevelation.org

I say, "Read Revelation. Read the Apocalypse from the Bible." Why? There's a promise of blessing to the reader. It's the only part of the Bible that claims that blessing.

I've been thinking about some of my friends who say they don't like to read the book of Revelation because of all the violence in it. They figure with their luck they'll be on the receiving end of all those judgments from God.

Okay, I'll grant you, there was a time I guessed I'd be left out of the good things in the end, too. But for some reason the promise of blessing kept me coming back to read the book again, and I learned to choose to envision myself among the winners. You can choose where you envision yourself. I think it was the persistence in reading that switched my visualization choices. Once I started letting me paint myself among the finally happy, I loved reading the book and receiving the blessings.

Further argument says, "Well, if I were among the winners, I wouldn't want to teach myself to gloat in revenge as some of the winners' songs seem to do. That's reason enough not to paint myself among the winners!" 

That one is more difficult. Let's make a deal, however. Would you read the book of Revelation one more time, and notice for me how many of the human winners participate with violence toward others in any of the judgments of God. They may say some things in praise to God that celebrate their deliverance from superhuman evil through the acts of God, but their rhetoric is not even as strong as much vindictive-sounding rhetoric in the Psalms.

Would you read the Book of Revelation one more time? Honestly, now. Don't be reading into it what you've heard others say this or that means. Just read it straight through looking for one human who takes vengeance into his or her own hands. When you find it, you can quit reading. That's the deal.