Let the One Who Hears Say, "Come!"

Unexpected Prayers STUDY

Revelation is the scariest book in the Bible, says almost everyone. I just mentioned the word to my high school Sunday school class, and lifelong, baptized-as-a-baby Christians shuddered at the name. I asked if anyone had actually studied the book before, and two kiddos who grew up in other church traditions sheepishly raised their hands. One of the Lutheran gals, who had never even flipped through those terrible pages at the end of the Bible, cringed deep into her seat. “Ooooo, it gives me shivers just saying it – Revelation.”

But I can imagine why there is so much fear associated with this book of the Bible. We have all heard snips and clips of the impending judgment day, whether you have read it or not. Plagues and horsemen, earthquakes and destruction, the end of the earth and life as we know it. I heard even more about it from our youth on that Sunday morning, fear and trembling used by bad teachers to shock these little ones into righteousness. I even heard a story about Revelation camp, where young happy minds were shipped off to purposely be scared into submission. If you don’t believe, they said, Revelation will get you. I began to envision the fire-breathing, drooling monster that most of my kiddos were hiding from who answered to the name “Revelation.”