Apokalypsis, the source of our English word
‘apocalypse’. This term has come to denote a major catastrophic event, and it
is true that the book depicts great disasters that have given us concepts such
as Armageddon and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The derived word
‘apocalyptic’ denotes a genre of literature depicting end-of-the-world
scenarios that are often filled with fantastical, colourful imagery of wild
things of different kinds involved in various events, including great battles
between good and evil.
Etymologically, the Greek word apokalypsis is
formed from apo (= away from) and kalyptein (= to cover), and
means an uncovering, unveiling, disclosure or revelation, usually of something
hitherto obscure or hidden. Both the source and the subject of disclosure is
Jesus Christ – a person……
Revelation promises to do two things: fill our hearts
with praise to God, and simultaneously prepare us for God’s inevitable
cataclysmic intervention in this world to judge evil righteously at the return
of Christ. It will challenge us to think hard about what we are really living
for. It will also give us a way of coping with the ongoing problems of evil,
pain and death by revealing how God will finally deal with these issues, and so
give us a credible hope of ultimate victory.
Paul was encouraging the Thessalonian believers to look
at the present in the light of the future. That principle, sometimes called the
‘telescope principle’, is one of the keys to applying Revelation at any
time in history.
--- John C. Lennox, God, AI and the End of History:
Understanding the Book of Revelation in an Age of Intelligent Machines. 2025.
