I have been reading Jonathan Kirsch's A History of the End of the World the last two days. It is the latest breezy popular effort to describe the meaning of the Book of Revelation. The subtitle of the book reads, "How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of Western Civilization".  I am not sure that can be said of the Bible's final prophetic summary but it makes a catchy title that draws you in.

Kirsch offers an overview of the book that shows a real lack of understanding of its contents. In fact I am not sure he has deeply studied the book. It is more of a survey of what others have said or done based on their misinterpretation of the books contents. Typically he presents it Revelation as a the work of human rather than what the first verse tells about the real author, Jesus Christ.

He fails to bring out the more positive aspects of the book, notably the hope given in chapter twenty of the resurrections, especially the one sometimes called the Great White Throne Judgment, where the "dead small and great" stand before God and have the books of the Bible opened to them.

What I found most useful was the chapter entitled The Apocalyptic Invasion. His summary of millenarianism offered some new insights, particularly this one from Jerome:
 

"The saints will in no wise have an earthy kingdom, but only a celestial one; thus must cease the fable on one thousand years," insists Jerome, who characterizes the literal reading of Revelation as a theological error that only a Jew would make. Indeed, that's the worst accusation and insult that he can lay against any Christian who commits the same error: "To take John's Apocalypse according to the letter," he warns is to 'Judaize'" (Page 131).
 

In this chapter there is a good summation of Augustine's deconstruction of the teaching about the kingdom of God. Augustine taught the church had become the kingdom of God on the earth and the teachings in Revelation about the saints ruling on earth for a thousand years were only allegorical.

Kirsch blames the book for all the human misrepresentation and misunderstanding about prophecy. In doing so he does the reader a great disservice and fails to bring out the positive message of hope found within its pages. You would learn more by reading our booklet The Book of Revelation Unveiled.