Heaven's View of the Church in Revelation 2 and 3

Abstract

The earthly-heavenly duality of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, evidenced by their prophetic character as letters from Jesus, the use of symbolism (much of which is already introduced in John's vision of the heavenly Son of Man, 1:9-20), and structural clues evident from the surrounding context, shows that these letters are to be read not only as first-century epistles to particular churches but also as a portrayal of the checkered progress of the church throughout history. A corollary of this study is that even these "epistolary" chapters can be viewed as apocalyptic in harmony with the overall genre of the book.

Key Words: apocalyptic, genre, church, structure, visions, septet, letter, Rev 2-3, ecclesiology