Bitter Honey

Bitter Honey: The Revelation is a book that I finished in 1976. It is not a scholarly or academic study. There has been a world full of academic discussion about Revelation in the past fifty years. This study does not reflect any of that discussion. Between 1974 and 76, I was working as a security guard in a factory. The position allowed me to bring in my Bible and study it on the job. I spent a year working on John's Revelation for 40 hours a week. I spent all of that time trying to understand how the symbols in the Revelation grew out of the rest of the Biblical text. After a whole year of study, I became convinced that I was the only person in the world who really understood the Revelation. Since then, I've met about 200 other people who are also the only person in the world who understands John's Revelation. There is something about the book that grabs people. It sinks deeply into their souls and will not let them go. More than 30 years later, I still look at the world with an apocalyptic eye. At the same time, people who are grabbed by the book usually have little interest in reading the interpretations of other people. Their own wrestling with the book makes other perspectives irrelevant.

This study is not offered in some vain hope that many people will suddenly discover that it is the right way to interpret John's prophecy. It is offered instead as an example of how to begin to study the Bible. If you have limited exposure to the Word, do not begin by reading mainstream liberal books. Start by reading a couple of conservative overviews of the Bible like Gleason Archer's book A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, Horace Hummel's book The Word Becoming Flesh, or Martin Franzmann's study The Word of the Lord Grows. That will give you an introduction to when, how, and why the Biblical books were written. Then choose a topic that interests you like the Bible's view of marriage. Read through the whole Bible and take notes every time the topic appeared. When you finish the Bible, organize your notes and see what's really there. Then with those insights, read through the Bible again. Look for all of the important ideas that you missed on your first reading. You will be surprised by what you find. When you have finished that study, do the same thing on two or three other topics. Study the Word until it sinks into your soul. That's the kind of process that produced Bitter Honey. It is a vast summary of everything that the Bible says that is related to John's Revelation. Always let the Bible interpret itself first. Then after the Word has sunk deep in your soul, turn to the academic debate. The Word in your spirit will become a searchlight that shines on the academic material. In the context of the Word, you will see that some of the academic discussion has great value. Some has limited value and represents a distortion of the Word's true teaching. You will also see in the spotlight of the Word that much of the academic discussion is simply vain and empty. It will eventually be dust blowing away on the winds of history no matter how important it may be perceived to be today. Nothing that challenges the truth of God's Word will last. Arguments that would have once sounded compelling will loose their luster when seen in the spotlight of God's Word.

This book is not currently available in printed form. You may read it online or download it to your computer.

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Introduction.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 1 - Christ's Angel.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 2 - Letters to the Churches.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 3 - More Letters.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 4 - The Reigning Christ.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 5 - The Sealed Book.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 6 - Opening the Seven Seals.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 7 - The Promise Sealed.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 8 - The Three Woes.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 9 - The Woes Explained.pdf

Books\Bitter Honey - The Revelation\Ch. 10 - Christ's Return.pdf