God Conversations With Tania Harris

How did John know his Revelation was from God? I wonder how the seven churches of Asia Minor felt when they first received John’s letter. Along with the rest of the early churches, they’d been instructed to ‘weigh up’ prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:29) and ‘test the spirits to see if they’re from God’ (1 John 4:1). Like today, there were many claims to divine revelation floating around. How did they know it was from God? And even more so, how did John know it was from God? We learn from history that the book of Revelation was received eagerly by the church - at first. By the third and fourth centuries, church leaders became sceptical. Some debated its source and you can probably guess why. The book of Revelation certainly has a chequered history. Even today eastern orthodox churches don’t use the book in their liturgies. Like the seven churches of Asia Minor, we are called to test the revelations we receive. The question of course is, how? We can learn from the early church’s example, applying these 3 tests