Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
It is day 359. We're reading from the book of Revelation, chapters 1, 2, and 3. as well as the conclusion of St. Paul's second letter to Timothy, chapters three and four. We're also reading the book of Proverbs, chapter 31, verses eight and nine. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, second Catholic edition.
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan for these last seven days, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, and that'll be neat. You can also subscribe to this podcast for the last week, and then, you know, it's one of those things. Let go of your pride. Let go of your pride. Just subscribe.
Come on, just kidding. I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm just joking around. It is day 359.
Chapter 2: What symbolism is found in the book of Revelation?
We are reading Revelation chapters 1, 2, and 3, 2 Timothy chapters 3 and 4, as well as Proverbs chapter 31 verses 8 and 9. The Revelation to John, the Apocalypse. Chapter one, introduction and salutation. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place.
And he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written therein, for the time is near.
John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom,
priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, everyone who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. a vision of Christ.
I, John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands.
And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace. and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars.
From his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.
Now write what you see, what is, and what is to take place hereafter. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Chapter two, the message to Ephesus.
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Chapter 3: How does Fr. Mike explain the significance of the seven churches?
St. Paul in chapter four, verse seven, he says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And there's something so, I don't know. I don't even know if I have words for it. It's just so powerful. We just say, God, please let that be me. Let me not fall away from you. Let me not abandon you ever, ever.
And if I do bring me back, because we know this, that the Lord's love for us never fails. Even if we walk away from him, he is faithful. We heard that yesterday or the day before that, that even if we're unfaithful, he is always faithful. Even if we don't care about him, he cares for us. Even if we say, I reject your love, that love of his for us never wavers ever, ever.
So Lord, if we have walked away, if we have fallen away, bring us back. Bring us home. So, Revelation. A couple things. This is maybe, this is the one you've been waiting for, everybody. I don't know if that is. I don't know if you've been afraid of Revelation or if you've been excited for Revelation. But a couple things about the book of Revelation is... this is going to be a great book.
It's a lot like Daniel. It is a lot like those other books of the prophets, apocalyptic literature, right? Where there's a lot of symbolism. For example, it talks about the number 10. When you hear the number 10 in the book of Revelation, there's 10 horns, there's 10 days for 10 years, this is going to happen. Just know the number of 12 will be a number of fullness, right?
Number seven is number of Sabbath, the number of covenant. Okay. So the number of 12 be a number of power, a number of completeness. 10 is powerful, but not all powerful. 10 would be powerful, but limited. And that is just kind of a little insight, little clue that when we read the word 10 here in the book of Revelation, that's what that is.
Oftentimes, I believe maybe even every time is referencing. There's power there. It's long lasting, but it's not lasting forever. It's not all powerful. So it's limited power. It's limited time. Hopefully that makes sense. But let's look at the dating. So John says that he writes the book. And so the traditional
Our belief is that John, the beloved John, you know, that he wrote this book of Revelation, that this is a revelation from Jesus Christ to John so that he can pass it on to the churches. Now, we talked about the seven churches. So the addressees of John's book of Revelation are these seven churches in Asia.
And we just get to hear in these first three chapters, we get to hear what's going on in those churches. But before that, let's back up even more and say, what's the dating of this book of Revelation? There are, I think, two theories, essentially.
One theory is that the dating of this book is from the 90s, that the end of John's life, he's an old man at this point, and he's writing this book of Revelation during the era or the age of the Emperor Domitian. So that's one of the theories. Another theory is that this is happening in the 60s or 70s.
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