Revelation: The End Times - Intro

A couple weeks ago, on March 11th, my friends and I heard about the horrific disaster in Japan, and began talking about the End Times. We were discussing my favorite book in the Bible, Revelation, and were wanting to dive deeper into that book to find out more. Now, I have read Revelation over and over, and because of the tremendous earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and all of the talk and worry over the End Times, I have decided that my first amateur attempt to study the Bible will be with Revelation. I will be using an ESV bible. The NIV is a great bible to use for study.

First, I would like to give you the background of this book. Revelation was written by my favorite disciple, John. John and his brother, James, were both from Bethsaida, along with Andrew and Peter.(see in John 1:44) John and James were known as "the sons of Zebedee", and like him, they were fishermen.

In Luke, we find that John and James were in partnership with Simon Peter, who also had his own ship. These three men were very wealthy, but when Jesus called them to be "fishers of men", they dropped everything, followed, and ended up becoming part of the inner circle that followed Jesus during his earthly life. Of these three, John seemed to be the closest to Jesus, and was called "the disciple whom Jesus loved".(see in John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; and 21:7)

John wrote the last of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew, Mark, and Luke's books are called the synoptic gospels. Synoptic meaning, taking or involving a comprehensive mental view. John's gospel, however, is much different, and was written years later.

John also wrote the letters; 1, 2, and 3 John. But John wrote the only prophectic book in the new testemant, Revelation.