An Outline of Revelation

I'm currently studying through Revelation with a few recent high school graduates, and I'm pretty excited that these guys want to dig into the Word! However, Revelation is a tough place to start! Part of what makes it tough, as this picture aptly demonstrates, is trying to understand the basic structure of the book. Toward that, I present here an outline that I think may be helpful to them, and perhaps to you as well if you have found John's masterpiece a wee bit daunting to untangle.

Outline of Revelation

I.                   Introduction: “The Things Which You Have Seen” (ch.1)

A.    Prologue (vs.1-3)

B.     Greeting (vs.4-8)

C.     The Patmos vision of the glorified Christ (vs.9-18)

D.    The commission of the prophet (vs.19-20)

II.                Letters to the Seven Churches; “The Things Which Are” (ch.2-3)

A.    The letter to the church in Ephesus (2:1-7)

B.     The letter to the church in Smyrna (2:8-11)

C.     The letter to the church in Pergamum (2:12-17)

D.    The letter to the church in Thyatira (2:18-29)

E.     The letter to the church in Sardis (3:1-6)

F.      The letter to the church in Philadelphia (3:7-13)

G.    The letter to the church in Laodicea (3:14-22)

III.             The Revelation of the Future: “The Things Which Are to Come (ch.4-22)

A.    The seven seal judgments (ch.4-8:1)

1.      The vision of the throne (4:1-11)

2.      The book with seven seals (5:1-14)

3.      Six seal judgments executed (ch.6)

4.      Interlude between the sixth and seventh seal—salvation during the Tribulation (ch.7)

5.      The opening of the seventh seal (8:1)

B.     The seven trumpet judgments (ch.8:2-11:19)

1.      The angel and the golden censer (8:2-6)

2.      Six trumpet judgments executed (8:7-9:21)

3.      Interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets (ch.10-11:14)

4.      The seventh trumpet (11:15-19)

C.     Interlude—seven principle characters of the end-times (ch.12-13)

1.      The woman clothed with the sun (12:1-2)

2.      The red dragon with seven heads and ten horns (12:3-4)

3.      The male child (12:5-6)

4.      The angel, Michael (12:7-16)

5.      The offspring of the woman (12:17)

6.      The beast from the sea (13:1-10)

7.      The beast from the earth (13:11-18)

D.    Interlude—preparations for the final judgments of the Tribulation (ch.14)

1.      The Lamb and the 144,000 on Mt. Zion (14:1-5)

2.      The first group of angels (14:6-13)

3.      The blessing of the faithful saints (14:13)

4.      The second group of angels (14:14-20)

E.     The seven bowl judgments (ch.15-18)

1.      The third group of angels with seven bowls of judgment (15:1-8)

2.      The seven bowl judgment executed (ch.16)

3.   The fall of Babylon the Great (ch.17-18)

F.      The Seven Last Things (ch.19-22)

1.      The songs of hallelujah in heaven (19:1-10)

3.      The first last thing: the Second Advent of Christ (19:11-16)

4.      The second last thing: the battle of Armageddon (19:17-21)

5.      The third last thing: the binding of Satan (20:1-3)

6.      The fourth last thing: the Millennial reign of Christ (20:4-6)

7.      The fifth last thing: the release of Satan and the final rebellion of man (20:7-10)

8.      The sixth last thing: the Great White Throne Judgment and the end of the world (20:11-15)

9.      The seventh last thing: the new heavens and new earth (21:1-22:5)

10.  Epilogue (22:6-21)