Bible Basics

Signs and Symbols

The very first verse of the book of Revelation not only points out that the book concerns things “which must shortly come to pass,” it says these things were “signified” to John by the Lord.  What this means is that the method of communication was through “signs” or symbols to express the message.  One of the great mistakes made in understanding the book is to disregard the symbolic nature of the text.  If we take language that is intended to be figurative and make it literal we do great violence to the text and to the truth it contains. Because the times were very dangerous it was necessary to write the book in signs and symbols.  The message had to be kept concealed from the enemy.  If a Roman soldier were to find in a Christian’s possession a message from John saying the emperor was a false god and that Rome would fall, that Christian would be arrested as a traitor, and the scroll confiscated.  But if the soldier read that “Babylon is fallen,” the language would not be understood, and both the message and the Christian would be protected.  We must, therefore, recognize the symbolic nature of the text and the circumstance under which it was written in the first century to understand the message of the book of Revelation. If we take literally that which is intended to be figurative we pervert the truth.

                                                                                                               -- Clark Dugger

Bible Basics