Charles C. Ryrie. Revelation. Moody, 1996, 2018. See here to purchase the book.
Charles Ryrie was a renowned conservative Christian scholar,
theologian, and author. This book is a commentary on the Book of
Revelation, written on a popular level yet influenced by scholarship.
Ryrie’s perspective is pre-tribulational and pre-millennial.
“Pre-tribulational” means that he believes that the church (both living
and dead saints) will be raptured to heaven before the seven year Great
Tribulation. “Pre-millennial” means that he believes that Christ will
return at the end of the Great Tribulation and establish a thousand year
reign on earth. Ryrie defends these views occasionally, while
describing other views, using helpful visual aids.
Ryrie is also dispensational, but he overlaps with and differs from
other dispensationalists whom I have read, such as E.W. Bullinger, who
is often called a “hyper-dispensationalist.” At its basic level,
dispensationalism distinguishes between the church and Israel, rather
than treating the church as the new Israel. Ryrie adheres to
dispensationalism in this sense. Unlike Bullinger, however, he does not
treat the church as spectators of the Lamb’s marriage with Israel but
rather holds that the Lamb is marrying those redeemed from among the
Jews and the Gentiles. Yet, like Bullinger, Ryrie does make distinctions
when it comes to the Lamb’s marriage. On pages 152-153, he states
regarding the friends of the Bridegroom in Revelation 17:9: “These
guests are not the bride, and they are not unsaved people, so they must
be redeemed people who are not members of the church, the body of
Christ.”
Like many dispensationalists, Ryrie also believes that the church
operates under salvation by free grace and once-saved-always-saved. This
perspective influences his approach to certain passages. Revelation
19:8 states that the bride is arrayed in fine linen, which is the
righteous deeds of the saints. Ryrie states: “The bride is the bride
because of the righteousness of Christ; the bride is clothed for the
wedding because of her acts” (page 152). In Revelation 3:5, Christ
promises the church at Sardis that the overcomer will not be blotted out
of the Book of Life. Ryrie interprets overcoming as believing in
Christ, in light of I John 5:4-5, and he states: “This statement does
not threaten the possible loss of one’s salvation but rather promises
assurance that no believer will ever lose it” (pages 35, 41). That is
Ryrie’s approach to the promises to the churches in Revelation 2-3: they
are not rewards for doing good, but rather they represent Christ trying
to reassure the churches about the blessings that they already have, as
that can strengthen them amidst temptation and persecution.
Unfortunately, Ryrie does not really address Christ’s threats to the
churches. What did Christ mean in Revelation 2:5 when he threatened to
remove the Ephesian church’s candlestick, unless she repented? Is that a
loss of salvation?
Ryrie is not exactly an antinomian. Regarding those who are cast into
the Lake of Fire for certain sins in Revelation 21:8, Ryrie states:
“Notice that the text does not say that anyone who has ever committed
any of these sins will be excluded, but people whose lives are
characterized in these ways” (page 167). He later calls them “unsaved
people.” This is both helpful and unhelpful. Why are the “fearful”
included in that list of unsaved people? Ryrie does not say. My guess is
that, in the Book of Revelation, those who fear the world and the Beast
will give in to them, and that brings condemnation. My problem with the
verse is that I have long struggled with fear, and not just occasional
fear.
As a conservative Christian, Ryrie tries to address the passages in
Revelation that seem to suggest that the end is near, as in, expected to
occur in John’s day. There were not many surprises there. Like a lot of
dispensationalists, he interprets “things which must shortly come to
pass” in Revelation 1:1 to mean that, when Christ does finally come, it
will be quickly. But he realizes that Revelation 22:10 states that “the
time is near,” so he says, “these events are near because a thousand
years are as a day with the Lord (2 Peter 3:8)” (page 18). To his
credit, Ryrie does cite passages in favor of his interpretation of
“shortly.” He is not very convincing, though, for Revelation often
conveys a tone of urgency.
In terms of strengths, the book is informative. For example, in
discussing the Lord’s day in Revelation 1:10, Ryrie notes that kyriakos
outside of the New Testament means “imperial,” so the Lord’s day could
be when Christ “takes the reins of earthly government” (page 23) rather
than Sunday. Ryrie sometimes ignores details, but at other times he
tries to explain details, and he sifts through different perspectives in
so doing. He refers to translational issues: the angel of Revelation
8:13 is actually an eagle; Ryrie does not explain the significance of
that, however. Occasionally, Ryrie is rather elliptical. On page 146, he
interprets Revelation 18:2’s statement about fallen Babylon being the
cage of unclean and hateful birds by saying: “The latter phrase possibly
alludes to the birds in the parable of the mustard seed (Matt.
13:31-32), indicating the demonic forces at work in the apostate
system.” What? The birds who rest in the branches of the tree in Matthew
13:32 are demonic? The book has a cozy tone, and yet one has to pay
close attention lest one miss an intriguing insight.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My review is honest.