Apocalypse of John

The Orthodox perspective views the Apocalypse of John not as a literal prediction of future events, but as a symbolic book of hope, victory, and spiritual endurance for the Church. It sees the visions as interpreting earthly struggles in light of the supernatural, emphasizing that Christ has already won the final victory over evil. Therefore, the book's primary message is a call to remain faithful amid persecution, with the promise of God's ultimate triumph and the renewal of creation. Integrated into its presentation, the author claims to be removing the "cover" or "veil" from the spiritual realm in order to fully reveal it to the hearer (reader).  It purports to describe the reality behind religious experience, but also to fully reveal reality itself.  Spiritual beings and events stand in cause and effect relationships with events in the material, physical world. Apocalypse of John contrasts Apocalypse of Peter in that the former is a journey to heaven, whereas the latter is a journey to hell.

• Symbolic and numerological: The book is read with a focus on symbolism and numerology rather than literal predictions. For example, the number 666 is seen as representing the eternally imperfect, or a state of falling short of God's perfection, rather than a literal number on a person.

• A message of victory, not fear: The Orthodox view is one of victory, not fear. It sees the visions as a reassurance to the struggling Church that God and Christ are in control and will ultimately prevail over evil.

• Encouraging faith and endurance: The book was written to encourage first-century Christians to remain faithful during persecution. It reassures believers that God will strengthen and guide them through suffering and that they will be crowned for their patient endurance.

• Christ's victory: The book emphasizes that Christ is the ultimate victor. The visions depict the Church, armed with the Gospel, struggling against worldly powers, but ultimately assured of final victory through the power of Christ's blood.

• A call to preparedness: The message of the second coming is one of waiting with "vigilant heart and sober thought," while not knowing the exact time. The focus is on being ready to meet Christ when He comes, rather than on predicting the date.

• New creation, not destruction: The final chapters describe a "new heaven and a new earth," which is understood as the renewal of God's original creation, and the new Jerusalem, which is a heavenly, communal reality, not an earthly territory.

• Quote by Father Stephen De Young: All of the scriptures are apocalyptic in that they describe the otherwise unseen spiritual realm as it encountered and interacted with the history of the people of God.  It is this fact to which the Fathers refer in their mode of exegesis.  When they speak of the spiritual and material levels of interpretation of the text, these correspond to the material and spiritual realms of reality.  As they so often point out, if the material level of the text is read and the spiritual disregarded, as is de rigueur for modern interpretation, the text becomes incoherent.  The spiritual interpretation of the text is not a flight from the text, an attempt to move away from or beyond it.  Rather, it is an attempt to interpret and apply the text’s revelation of the spiritual realm, which is the primary level and focus of the text.  What is often mistaken for allegory is, in fact, a literal reading of the spiritual sense of the text.

Finally, it is for this reason that the text of scripture is treated as it is within the Orthodox Church.  The one who is prepared to read scripture is not the one who has done advanced linguistic or historical study.  Rather, the one who is prepared to read scripture, its reader par excellence, is the one who shares the religious experience of the authors of scripture in encounter and interaction with the spiritual realm.  For those who do not share this experience, scripture is read and proclaimed within the structure of ritual as a central point of interaction with the spiritual realm.  The Divine Liturgy is an apocalyptic act and the scriptures are there read as apocalyptic.