Revelation!

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     My Lord and my God, I lift before you this day these
hands and humble myself before you, who is all Wisdom and
all
Knowlege.  Allow, my Lord, that your servant may decrease
that you may increase as is fitting in Thy sight.  Magnify
Thyself in the words of Thy servant!
     I find that the most appropriate manner to begin a
discourse on the book of the Revelation is with revelations
from the Lord.  I was puzzled after reading the Revelation
for about the twentieth time and although I recieved
"something" from it I was certainly "lost" as to the
greater inplications and in
passing, and as is my habit, spoke to God as if He were
right in front of me (since He is) and said "You know Lord,
you are going to have to explain this to me or at least
give me something on this so I can handle this book."  I
added that there was, of course, no hurry as I trusted Him
to know His timing and purpose far better than I.
     I was amazed by the almost immediate answer: "Handle
it
(Revelation) like any other book (in the Bible)."  The
parts in parenthesis I added for clearity since this was
not part of the revelation about the Revelation but was my
clear understanding
of the terms.  I recieved one other revelation about the
book.  This one came when I was preparing a "sermonette"
for a brotherhood day, 5 to 7 brothers (laymen) preach on
various topics of our own choice for 5 to 10 minutes each
(it usually turns out to be ONE sermon delivered by
different people who were given their part of the whole by
God independantly of the others).  The topic of my
sermonette was a run down of the list in 2 Timothy 3 about
the qualities inherent in the populus at large in the last
"times" or years.  As I sought the Lord about how to give a
"practical" message about this topic I said "Lord, I need
to have a practical understanding of prophecy as a whole to
be any use to anyone and would like to have an
understanding like this, and in particular, of the book of
Revelation.  His answer was "Read to the end of chapter 8
(in Revelation) and then close the book."
     One must not read too much into these and must take
them for what they are, as they are written.  For one
thing,
these do not exclude any interpretation of the Revelation. 
The first establishes 
an attitude for the further study of the book and the
second says that once you garner the practical truths from
the first 8 chapters that the rest, although they are rich
in many
useful and enriching points for the believer, do not add to
the basic "practicality" of the precepts established.
     I have a few principles of study that I use to aid in
my understanding of the Bible.  I cannot say exactly how I
came by these and therefore merely list them and the
underlying reasoning to support them.
     God wants us to know Him and His plan for us.  Why
else go to all the trouble of sending the prophets and
manfesting Himself in the flesh and then through that flesh
provide a way for us to 
"relate" to Him?
     God gave us the Bible to make this easier.  The Bible
gives us continuity and introduces us to the Spirit.  All
True understanding of the written Word comes from the
Spirit.
     Acts 15, "18 Known unto God are all his works from the
beginning of the world." and Isaiah 48, "3 I have declared
the former things from the beginning; and they went forth
out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly,
and they came to pass." And lastly: Ecclesiastes 1:9, "The
thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that
which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no
new thing under the sun."
     "no new thing under the sun!"  When one considers
these verses one must conclude that God knows what is going
to happen, God has told us these
things from the beginning and that if you want to know what
is happening and what is going to happen, look to the past.
     Let's begin.  

Timothy Litteral
472 Grant St.
Marion Ohio 43302
trlitteral@usa.net
http://members.tripod.com/~trlitteral