When John the Revelator studied the scriptures to learn about Jesus and God’s plan for our world, he read what we know as the Old Testament. So when he tried to understand and explain the visions he received on the island of Patmos, it was natural that he would use its references, symbols and ideas in his letter to the first-century church.

As such, the Old Testament offers valuable resources for our understanding of the Book of Revelation as 21^st-century readers, particularly as it points us anew to Jesus-Revelation’s victorious Lamb and coming King.