The Book of Revelation often lies in the dusty corners of the preaching program of many churches. It has become the playground of the cults, and many Christians have left it unread, turned off by the many bizarre flights of fancy found in many writers’ extravagant interpretations. For many others, it is a frightening book that seems to portray a very different type of God from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we call “Abba.” Many Christians feel like Swiss theologian Karl Barth, who said, “If only I knew what to do with Revelation.”
Yet it is a book with a message containing both a word of comfort and challenge for Christians living in Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile, instilling confidence in our hearts as well as challenging our commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord.
The book enables us to see behind the human events of history with all the perplexity and pain we see around us. It is a visual portrayal of the outworking of God’s plans and purposes for this world. It enables us to see the One controlling human history is Jesus Christ — the One who will ultimately triumph over all the forces of evil and bring in His eternal kingdom of righteousness. We are presented with a succession of scenes in which the unfolding drama of history reaches its climax when the whole of creation will declare, “Hallelujah, for the Lord God almighty reigns!”
One major mistake Christians make in reading Revelation is failing to understand the nature of the literature it represents: apocalyptic. It is a type of literature 21st century readers do not appreciate and with which very few are familiar. Yet apocalyptic ideas played a significant role in the development of Judaism and early Christianity and are of tremendous value in understanding Revelation. Without some insight into the genre of literature we are reading, we miss the writer’s point.
The books of Daniel from the Old Testament and 4 Ezra from the Jewish Apocrypha are two examples of apocalyptic literature with which people of the time would have been familiar. They arose during periods of crisis in Israel’s history, and by the time Christians began to listen to the Book of Revelation’s message, this type of literature had become established over a period of several centuries.
Apocalyptic literature grappled with issues of faith and hope in the midst of oppression and persecution for God’s people. The word “apocalypse” means an uncovering or a revealing of something that would otherwise have been hidden to human perception. Apocalyptic books disclose hidden details about the events surrounding the end of human history. In the midst of crisis and despair, they convey a sense of confidence that a coming judgment will vindicate God’s people, triumph over evil powers and establish God’s kingdom on earth.
Apocalyptic literature expressed the idea that this world offers no hope for improvement but history will end with a cosmic catastrophe at which time the apparently victorious wicked will be punished and the downtrodden righteous rewarded. Biblical apocalyptic literature speaks of the powers that oppose God — Satan, elemental spirits, principalities, thrones, the dragon, the beast and the Antichrist. The message of apocalyptic works declares that in and through all the darkness of the world, God will emerge as the triumphant victor over the forces of evil.
Biblical scholar E.F. Scott described this book as a “trumpet call to faith.” John, the author of Revelation, knew from experience that living the Christian life could be difficult, dangerous and discouraging. This book was written to strengthen the faith and courage of believers, calm them as they faced an uncertain future and encourage them to continue to commit their lives to Jesus Christ, knowing He is Lord of heaven and earth.
Revelation has been variously understood. Some have seen it as referring to the past events of John’s day, in the last few years of the first century, and that its purpose was to bring encouragement to the harassed church of that time without any future application in terms of prophecy. This is a view known as the preterist interpretation, from the Latin word for past.
Another view, known as the historicist interpretation, sees the bulk of the book as a kind of panoramic view of world history. It views Revelation as history written in advance, usually interpreted as the history of Western Europe. At best, this is a narrow view of the world, and at worst is patronizing to Christians of other cultures.
Perhaps the most common interpretation for many years among current evangelicals who have adopted the “Left Behind” perspective is the futurist interpretation, which views the majority of Revelation as referring to future events near the end of human history. Through the years, different interpreters have managed at different times of history to see fulfillment of different parts of the book.
One thing we need to remember is prophets were not so much predictors of historical events of the distant future but rather inspired interpreters of historical events through which their hearers were living.
Premillennial eschatology, the viewpoint that the Lord Jesus will return prior to a literal 1,000-year reign, had immense influence on people such as Evangelist Dwight L. Moody and Cyrus I. Scofield. The Scofield Reference Bible first appeared in 1909 and was revised in 1917. It introduced a chain cross-referencing system that tied together related verses of Scripture and allowed the reader to follow biblical themes. It taught the interpretative school of dispensationalism, which divided God’s dealings with human beings into different time periods of human history. The Scofield Reference Bible was the chief vehicle by which premillenial dispensationalism became highly influential in the United States. Scofield’s extensive notes on Revelation are a major source of the various timetables, judgments and plagues predicted by proponents of this view concerning the end times.
Premillennial dispensationalism has influenced many Southern Baptists’ thinking, but the various editions of the Baptist Faith and Message have remained noncommittal about any one interpretation of eschatology. Southern Baptists continue to include within their theological perspectives a variety of views on eschatology, although it would not be surprising to discover that the majority understanding within many pulpits and pews throughout the country would be that espoused in the “Left Behind” series.
The crucial thing to remember about Revelation is that through its images, a timeless message from God is being communicated concerning Christ’s ultimate victory over the forces of evil that were threatening to overwhelm the church at the end of the first century and every generation since that time. The particular perspective from which our writer begins, and returns to over and over again throughout the book, is Christ’s conquest over sin and evil at the cross of Calvary. This victory will ultimately be brought to its conclusion when Christ comes again at the end of human history.
Thus John was given a glimpse behind the scenes of human history from a heavenly perspective so he could see what was really going on in the events of his time and place. He also was transported in a vision to the final future of the world so he could see the present from the perspective of what its final outcome must be in God’s ultimate plans and purposes. As we live in the 21st century, we need to re-appropriate language and images that match the realities of our contemporary context and culture. This will enable God’s people to experience comfort and be challenged to live by faith in His promises. In this way, the church will display boldness in its worship and witness to God’s gracious purposes of love for a lost and lonely world.
Revelation provides our contemporary culture with a clear vision of hope for the future. This is vitally important, because our society appears to lack a promising image of an authentic future. The fear of death troubles people all around us. Despite the progress that has been made in medical science, lowering the mortality rates among children and young adults, we are aware that death defines our personal future as well as our universe’s future. Predictions that the universe will end with a cosmic freeze or burnout suggest to some cosmologists that the whole thing is pointless. Without a message of Christian hope, life appears meaningless. Revelation demonstrates that Christian hope is at the heart of our faith.
The book reminds us that the Christian life is concerned with not only spiritual life but also physical life. God is the God of creation, Incarnation and resurrection. The physical dimension of hope is linked to individual and corporate life, for animate and inanimate creation. God’s activity always finds its fulfillment in embodiment — a new heaven and a new earth.
Christian hope also includes the concept of judgment. Yet, in Scripture, judgment is not a negative concept but a positive intervention by God to restore righteousness and set the community right. American theologian Jonathan Edwards spoke of how there are many “causes and controversies that must be decided by the Supreme Judge” before the human community can be righteous; some are individuals’ violation of community life in society, some are “causes between one nation and another” and some are between one generation and another. Thus part of the last judgment involves setting to right all the accumulated injustices of history, when unrighteousness is eradicated and a new community established in which God’s will is done perfectly on earth as it is in heaven.
In a beautiful way, Revelation paints a positive picture of the eternal home and hope of God’s people. There will be no tears, death, sorrow or pain. Everything that robs human experience of being a fulfilled, joyful and vibrant life will be absent forevermore. There will be no barbed wire, bullets or bombs in heaven. Concentration camps and refugees will not exist. The weapons of sin and suffering will be no more: “God will wipe away all tears from all eyes” (Rev. 21:4). The tears of the widow and the orphan will be dried. The tears of the abandoned lover, the bitter tears of the unemployed, the tears of the black child snubbed in a white neighborhood, the tears we cry in secret and the tears we cry in our hearts will all be wiped away.
There will be a “new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1) in which righteousness will dwell. Notice that John tells us that the heavenly city comes down to earth. Heaven is not pictured by John as being somewhere “up there … way beyond the blue” but rather in terms of God bringing into being a new order of creation where heaven comes down to a renewed earth and God dwells with His people for all eternity. Our ultimate destiny is not a disembodied heavenly state of souls floating about in spiritual space but a re-created earth, resurrected bodies, a new community of the family of God knowing the presence of the risen Lord in its midst. Thus the eternal state is pictured as a city, a community, for a city speaks of interdependence — not so much of streets and buildings — but of people.
The eternal state is a place called the New Jerusalem, a place where God reigns supreme and uncontested as Lord and is worshiped by those who love Him. Within the New Jerusalem, there is the “water of life” and the “tree of life” to satisfy and enrich the experience and enjoyment of God’s people. There is no frustration but only fulfillment in living and serving the living God. The city has no need of a special temple because God’s presence fills the whole of the community.
Eternity also is pictured as a people, not just the residence of the faithful few, because this city’s dimensions are vast — some 12,000 furlongs (1,500 miles cubed). The dimensions are not to be taken literally but symbolically of an immense measurement: an infinite multiple of 12. It is to be the home of “all nations” who will stream to it, for the fulfillment of God’s kingdom is global in scope. In this way, God’s promises to Abraham come to their ultimate fulfillment as “all nations are blessed.” Thus men and women from all peoples, tribes, tongues and nations find a home in New Jerusalem, which is given for the “healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2).
The New Jerusalem is also an experience of God’s presence. In the words of David, “in your presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). So God gives the water of life, which flows from His throne, and the fruit of the tree of life, which satisfies all our needs. His presence also takes away all our fears. Ultimately the future hope of the Christian church is that God will be glorified: glorified in His people, His creation and His own being.
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