How do we handle its strange imagery?

The book of Revelation uses figurative language and symbols to reveal spiritual/physical events and spirit-realm realities. During his earthly ministry, Jesus used physical/material symbols to convey spirit-realm/physical-realm realities when He taught in parables. These are used because we humans have no frame of reference to enable us to understand the realities of the spirit realm. We can only relate what we don’t know to what we do know.

Hence, the strange imagery of the Revelation is not God’s way of keeping us confused.  Rather, it represents the efforts of an infinite God to communicate with finite human beings about truth and reality in both the spiritual and physical realms. In other words, it’s a behind-the-scenes peek at the reality behind the reality, the unseen world behind the seen natural world, and the great things taking place in the invisible spirit realm and how these interact with and manifest themselves in the visible physical world. Fact is, the natural world is only part of God’s created reality. And the unseen world is just as real, has a powerful effect on the seen world, and plays an active role in individual lives and in human history.

The trouble lies not with the way God has chosen to convey his message but with the way we humans try to grasp it. We simply cannot grasp invisible spiritual reality in the same way as scientific or historical knowledge. Spiritual reality can only be grasped by faith, through spiritual ears (see 1 Cor. 1:18-25; 3:19; Rev. 2:7; 2:11; 2:17; 2:29; 3:6; 3:13; 3:22) and eyes (Matt.13:13-15, from Isaiah 6:9-10). Therefore, God has not complicated “the Revelation of Jesus Christ.” He merely speaks in figurative language, signs, and symbols to reveal spirit-realm/physical-realm realities, but millions have tried to understand his meanings in purely physical/material terms.

We need to interpret and understand the stories and imagery of the Revelation just as we interpret and understand the parables and symbols Jesus used in the Gospel narratives—figuratively, as metaphors and similes that express both spiritual and physical realities. The parables and symbols of the Apocalypse become complicated and frightening only when we take the book’s language literally, purely physically—something that God never intended for us to do. Revelation’s very first verse stipulates this communication style thusly, “and he [God] sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (Rev. 1:1 KJV). The word “signified” (Greek word, semaino) most literally and graphically means “sign – ified”—i.e., making known or communicating with signs and symbols. Hence, if we take the Revelation precisely for what it is, visual parables of spiritual/physical reality, any sincere believer can better understand it.

But the physical/material mindset—the so-called scientific approach—denies or ignores the dimension of the spirit and blinds us to the spirit-world realities the Revelation reveals. Once, however, we accept that God is speaking in spirit-realm/physical-realm terms using signs and symbols, the Revelation begins to open up its treasures to us.

Source:

1 The Greater Jesus by John Noe

2 The Scene Behind the Seen (future book – est. 2017) by John Noe