The Book of Revelation is, according to the Wikipedia entry for it, “one of the most controversial, and hardest to understand, books of the Bible”. Despite hundreds of years of scholarly argument, there is no consensus as to the true meaning of its arcane symbolism.

Such being the case, some might hesitate before attempting to teach this baffling text to children, but Roy Kemp is not one of them. In this unusual self-published volume Kemp sets out to teach Revelation in its entirety, in 52 lessons, a whole year of Sunday School.

Moreover, before the title page of this book Kemp announces that he is planning to produce similar commentaries on the whole Bible. There are 22 chapters in Revelation, out of a total of 1189 in all 66 books, so by a simple calculation it would take something approaching 54 years to complete the lot at the same plodding rate. The “tots” must be nearing retirement age, and still not done.

In Kemp's view Revelation depicts the reality of the “End Times”, which are, as ever, nigh. He is not dogmatic enough to insist that every word of the prophetic vision is to be taken literally, but his interpretation is of course the only correct one. The anti-Christ is coming and all the unbelievers are going to have a terrible time of it: bloody seas, darkness at noon, plague, famine, war and the rest. The faithful meanwhile will be carried safely away to Heaven in the “Rapture”.

Kemp recognises that in teaching Revelation to tinies he has to make it easier to digest. To that end he employs two means: simplified language and a remarkable innovation he calls the “flannelgraph”. The latter is a piece of blue flannel, three feet square, which ingeniously can represent both heaven and earth:

Make a rainbow in a complete circle 28” in diameter at the very top of the piece of blue flannel. Place all scenes pertaining to the Throne of God inside this rainbow. When the lesson pertains to an earthly scene, use the plain side of the flannel for background.

A set of 155 pictures printed on “flannel-adhering paper” is meant to be used with the book, to illustrate the stories as they are told, such as in this extract - which also shows Kemp's masterly reworking of the text for his young audience:

Our lesson today is about two mean men. Guess who? . . . Yes. (1) The False Prophet and the (2) Antichrist.

Oh here is the False Prophet.

Use Picture No. 97 ... False Prophet.
Place on Board

We found out in lesson last Sunday that The False Prophet will be a man who will serve the ol' mean Antichrist, didn't we? Yes. Well there he is (pointing) as he starts to serve the Antichrist as God. (Explain the true God). Look what this evil False Prophet says in Verse 14.

Rev 13:14

The False Prophet Says That He Is Going To Make An Image Unto The Antichrist, That Is An Image Unto The Antichrist For The Unsaved To Worship.

We will read Verse 14 and see this.

(Teacher lead in reading Verse 14. Talk one minute about the Antichrist was (will be) killed by a sword. Then he will be resurrected from the dead).

Now here is the Antichrist; here he is as he will be when he is risen from the dead.

Use Picture No. 20 ... Antichrist.
Place on Board

And so on, and on, and on. I like that instruction in brackets to “explain the true God”. Here's another extract, which includes scenes of violence some may find disturbing:

In Revelation 14:20 we read that blood (of the wicked army) will flow up to the horses' bridles. We will read it. (Teacher, lead in reading Revelation 14:20).

Blood up to the horses's bridles. That will be very deep.

Oh, I Have the picture of that terrible river of blood. Here it is:

Use Picture No. 125 ... Long Blood Stream.
Place on Board

(Teacher: This must be colored red before you go to class)

Now there is the blood stream. Where did the blood come from? (Pause) ... Yes, it is the blood (5 or 6 quarts to each wicked soldier) just now shed. (Pointing). Christ crushed them.

Explain the crushing - (no guns).

This is followed by a lovely image in which the flannelgraph Christ and his saints are made to wade through the river of blood - “And oh, Look! Their feet and legs are red”, in order to fulfil a prophecy made in Psalms 58:10 - no doubt eliciting a spontaneous round of applause from the little ones.

In this jaundiced modern age it is easy to forget that only half a century ago the weekly promise of the flannelgraph would have brought children running to their Sunday School classes, frothing with anticipation at the thought of more crayoned-in blood. Sadly, I don't have a complete set of pictures, so I can't show you what the Antichrist or the Long Blood Stream look like. You must be satisfied with the rather less exciting ones on the right. Sorry.

(You may also be interested in another example of unusual Bible illustration.)