What kind of book is revelation?

Reflecting on Phil Moon's Bible reading this morning:

Lots of us are scared by the book of Revelation - it's complex, confusing, and uses pungent powerful imagery to make big scary statements. But the answer is (of course, you dimbo) in the text. revelation 1 tells us it's a whole mixture of things:

1. A revelation (v 1): a description of the world as it really is now.
2. A prophesy (v 3): A light from the future to illuminate our path for today
3. A letter (v 4): written to specific churches (seven of them in chapters 2 and 3) to apply specific things, but the rest of the book is to teach all churches what they need to know.

People have mistaken it for:

• A timetable - to look up when the train will arrive (or when Jesus will return)
• A Novel - something made up and fictional to entertain or frighten us
• A Textbook of dry academic facts to learn head knowledge from.

It's none of these things - it's a picture book, with lots of moving images which all focus on the Lordship of Jesus, over the church, over everything, over today, over me. It's a picture book about who Jesus is now, and how we should live and hope and endure as a result.