Related to genre, but not the same, is the character the book of Revelation. Revelation is Jewish in character. One of the points of opposition to John’s authorship was that the book is too Jewish. However, the Apostle John was Jewish and the book is tied to the Old Testament. Bullinger clearly points this out by making the following points:
· The book contains Hebrew idioms, expressions, words and phrases.
· The book is full of imagery from the Old Testament—the Temple, Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, Incense, and Priests. All belong to Israel.
· There are 285 references to the Old Testament, more than any other book in the New Testament. [Bullinger, E.W., THE APOCALYPSE, Samuel Bagster & Sons, London, 1972, 4-7]
He concludes, “It is undoubtedly written about the people of the Old Testament who are the subjects of its history. These will understand it as Gentile Christian can never hope to do.” [p.7]. One could omit the epistles, and read the Old Testament and Gospels and still understand Revelation. That is how heavily it is tied to Old Testament prophecy. The book of Revelation does not stand alone. The understanding of Revelation relies on the massive body of prophecy that was revealed by the Old Testament prophets.
There is no prophecy in this book that relates directly to the dispensation of grace and the Church, the body of Christ. Revelation does not refer to any Pauline revelation of the dispensation of the Mystery (Grace). It looks beyond the present dispensation and the Church, which is raptured before the culmination of prophecy (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-52). The Church was a mystery hid until it was revealed to Paul (Eph. 3:1-10). The church started with the revelation of the mystery and ends with the mystery of the Rapture. The rapture takes place before the spiritual rebirth of Israel and the coming of the Tribulation that ends with the prophetic Second Coming of Christ.
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