After persecution and tribulation, after God's wrath and judgment, we arrive at the restoration of all things. The first thing we notice in Revelation is that eternity is not off somewhere in heaven but is on a renewed earth. "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband" (Rev. 21:2).
While it is common to think of eternity being in either heaven or hell, we should realize that this is neither the predominant message of the New Testament nor the common position of Christianity throughout the centuries. I would not go so far as to say that this perspective has no basis in the New Testament (e.g., see John 14:2-3). But I would agree with the consensus position that the majority of the New Testament looks to eternity on a restored and transformed earth for those who serve Christ. [1]
Who will be present in this kingdom? Certainly those in Israel who believed in Jesus throughout the centuries will be there. Although John uses the image of 144,000 specifically in reference to those in Israel who remain faithful through the sufferings of the final woes, we can surely extend it now to all those Christian Jews throughout church history who have and will believe. These did not lie when they appeared before rulers, interrogated for their faith (14:5).
Also present with eternal life are all the Gentile believers. Then there are those mentioned in Revelation 7:9--"a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language." In keeping that Revelation gives multiple images of the same thing, we find this same group in 14:6. Like the 144,000, we can extend this image now to all of those Gentiles since Christ who have believed and will believe.
There is a reminder in this image that the gospel is not limited to one race, nation, or people. We are long used to the fact that Christ is not just for Jews. But Christ is not just for Americans either. Christ is for the immigrant in our land, whether here legally or illegally. Christ is for the Iraqi and the Palestinian just as much as for the Israeli. Christ is no less for the "white" as for people of color. [2] "God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right" (Acts 10:34-35).
John was of course writing just decades after the turn of the ages, just decades after Christ's sacrifice. The first group of resurrected that he has in mind are those who died as martyrs for Christ in his day (Rev. 20:4-6). When he next speaks of the resurrection of all the dead (Rev. 20:11-15), he probably is thinking mostly of those who died before Christ. Those who rise to life were those who were faithful to God given the light they had. He primarily has in mind individuals like Noah and Abraham and especially those within Israel like Moses and Elijah.
Given how symbolic Revelation is, we probably shouldn't separate these two resurrections in our sense of how God will literally restore all things. After all, no other book in the New Testament speaks of two different resurrections. We as Christians simply believe that, at the end of history, when Christ returns to renew and judge the earth, the dead in Christ will rise to serve the Lord forever, including those who were faithful according to the light they had in the time before Christ.
If we are not to separate the two resurrections in our sense of how history will literally play out, we should probably take the picture of the millennial reign of Christ as somewhat symbolic as well. Traditionally, there are three perspectives on the Millennium of Revelation 20:1-6. In recent times, the "premillennial" view has been very popular. This view takes Revelation 20 more or less literally and sees things getting worse and worse until the end times. Then Christ will reign for a thousand years literally after the judgment pictured in Revelation.
However, throughout most of Christian history, the predominant view has been "postmillennial." This view more or less associates the millennium with the age of the Church these last two thousand years. If the premillennial view tends to be pessimistic and see things getting worse and worse, the postmillennial view tends to be optimistic, seeing the Church as the means by which God is getting the world prepared for the kingdom of God.
Given how symbolic Revelation is--and given the fact that John was primarily addressing the Roman Empire and the struggles of his own day--perhaps we are best to take a more "amillennial" view of things. The amillennial position does not restrict the millennium to a specific period of time but recognizes that there have been times in the last two thousand years when Christ has reigned more and times when he has reigned less. Most of all, he will reign for all eternity.
Again, since Revelation is the only place in Scripture where a millennium is mentioned, we probably should take it mostly as a symbol for Christ's eternal reign. But Christ has also reigned over his true Church these last two thousand years, and he must reign in all of our hearts individually, even though Satan is still on the loose. It is, after all, striking that John's imagery allows for there to be some who are lost even after the reign of Christ (e.g., 27:8).
John's picture of the final city of eternity is surely also full of symbolism that we will not fully be able to understand until the end. The image is clearly one of immense beauty and happiness.
Who will be part of this everlasting kingdom? "Those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life" (21:27). These are those who are covered by the blood of the Lamb, those who have kept God's commands and remained faithful (e.g., Rev. 14:12).
There is no temple in that eternal city, the new Jerusalem come down to earth (21:22). The earthly temple was always just a copy of the throne room of God. Now there is no need because God himself will dwell with humanity (21:3). There is no need for sun or moon for God himself is our light (21:23, 25; 22:5).
There will be no more sacrifices for there will be no more sin. The curse of Adam is gone (22:3). The Garden of Eden is restored and the Tree of Life is now available as originally intended (22:2). We are not in a position to know exactly what this all means literally. God gave John these spectacular images to give us just a taste. What we know for sure is that we don't want to miss it!
[1] N. T. Wright is probably the scholar most known for renewing this understanding of the New Tetsament. See his Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (San Fransisco: HarperOne, 2008) and his more extensive, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003).
[2] "White" is a fairly recent category that grows as groups that were initially immigrant become more accepted. So a century ago, Americans were Irish and Dutch and German and English. Now all of these are artificially put together as "white," in contrast to black, a category more or less invented during the slave trade of the 1500s and 1600s. There is no black and white in the Bible, only Jews, Greeks, Romans, Scythians, Egyptians, Babylonians, etc.
Showing posts with label Life Reflections on Revelation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life Reflections on Revelation. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
Four Approaches to Revelation
There are four general approaches to Revelation as a book of prophecy. The most popular by far is the futurist approach. This approach primarily reads Revelation as a book about things that haven’t even happened yet today. Certainly there are elements of Revelation that have not happened yet. For example, Jesus has not yet returned to earth in any literal way. The final resurrection and judgment have not taken place. Many Christians feel that, if they could just understand the imagery of Revelation, they would have a blueprint for the final events of history.
At the same time, John says he is writing about things that are “soon” (1:1). Another approach to Revelation is the preterist approach that sees most of the imagery of Revelation as symbolism about John’s own time. As I just argued above, prophecy wasn’t usually about the far distant future, at least not in the first place. So wouldn’t our first expectation be that Revelation was primarily about the near future of the churches in Asia Minor, to which this scroll was first written?
A middle way between the two previous approaches is the historicist approach. This approach sees Revelation predicting events throughout the last two thousand years of church history. For example, if Babylon symbolizes the Roman Empire, then it did not fall until several hundred years after John was writing. In the past, some have also wanted to make the seven churches of Revelation 2-3 into an allegory of the ages of church history.
Finally, the idealist approach worries less about the concrete references John may have originally pictured and looks more to the timeless struggle between Christ and Satan that goes on in every age. In this approach, we should not so much look to what this symbol predicts or what that image specifically represents but see Revelation more in terms of types of struggles and types of opponents that Christians will face repeatedly in this world.
In my own reading, I have found elements of all of these in Revelation. Certainly I believe that we should start with the assumption that the book of Revelation was relevant to its first audience. Yet its contemporary images quickly blur off into the types of struggles and opponents Christians have faced repeatedly throughout time. And we are also still looking to the final return of Christ in salvation, accompanied by a final resurrection and judgment.
At the same time, John says he is writing about things that are “soon” (1:1). Another approach to Revelation is the preterist approach that sees most of the imagery of Revelation as symbolism about John’s own time. As I just argued above, prophecy wasn’t usually about the far distant future, at least not in the first place. So wouldn’t our first expectation be that Revelation was primarily about the near future of the churches in Asia Minor, to which this scroll was first written?
A middle way between the two previous approaches is the historicist approach. This approach sees Revelation predicting events throughout the last two thousand years of church history. For example, if Babylon symbolizes the Roman Empire, then it did not fall until several hundred years after John was writing. In the past, some have also wanted to make the seven churches of Revelation 2-3 into an allegory of the ages of church history.
Finally, the idealist approach worries less about the concrete references John may have originally pictured and looks more to the timeless struggle between Christ and Satan that goes on in every age. In this approach, we should not so much look to what this symbol predicts or what that image specifically represents but see Revelation more in terms of types of struggles and types of opponents that Christians will face repeatedly in this world.
In my own reading, I have found elements of all of these in Revelation. Certainly I believe that we should start with the assumption that the book of Revelation was relevant to its first audience. Yet its contemporary images quickly blur off into the types of struggles and opponents Christians have faced repeatedly throughout time. And we are also still looking to the final return of Christ in salvation, accompanied by a final resurrection and judgment.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Revelation: The Woman and the Dragon
In the previous chapter, we looked at the beginning of Revelation, which sets up the book as an apocalypse (Rev. 1). Then we discussed the heart of the letter part of Revelation (Rev. 2-3). In the chapter that follows this one, we will look at Revelation 4-11 and other parts of Revelation that give us imagery of the final judgment and victory of God and Christ. In this chapter, we want to look at some of the middle chapters in Revelation.
The imagery of Revelation 12 is not difficult to understand, especially if we can get in mind that the events of Revelation do not all happen in a chronological order. The chapters that come right before have been giving us image after image of the final judgment. But when we get to Revelation 12, we have arrived at the eye of the storm. John pauses for a moment to step back and give us the heavenly story that has gotten us to this point.
The woman with a crown of twelve stars on her head is clearly Israel, with the twelve stars standing for the twelve tribes of Israel. John is a Jew. Assuming that he is John the son of Zebedee, he is not just any Jew. He is a very conservative Christian Jew. Remember in Galatians 2 when Paul appeared before Peter, James, and John. Thy did not force Paul to have his Gentile coworker Titus become circumcised, but the wording of 2:3 makes us think they would have preferred it.
But some of the things John writes in his letters also makes it clear that he does not consider all the Jews of the world to truly be Jews. Some synagogues in his world are rather "synagogues of Satan" (e.g., 2:9; 3:9). We can imagine that John believed Jewish believers to be the true remnant of Israel and that those in these opposing synagogues were not truly Israel at all.
The true Israel stands at the heart of the coming kingdom. On the one hand, John clearly has a place for the Gentiles in the kingdom. After all, there are people there from every "nation, tribe, people, and language" (7:9). But the heart of the kingdom are the 144,000 who were sealed from the twelve tribes, 12,000 from each. [1] For John, these did not represent all the Jews of the past but the Jews alive in John's day who were currently suffering but eventually going to be saved--true Israel.
And here it is worthwhile to pause and think about what is going on in the book of Revelation. In Revelation, John's time blurs into all time, which blurs into the end time. John is thus both preterist and idealist and futurist all at the same time, like three images all overlaid on each other. The first image is that of John's day and events going on at the time he was writing. But these struggles would become the struggles of all time throughout church history. Yet we believe that there will be a final judgment and Jesus will return to earth. God will set the world to right.
So the woman represents true Israel (12:1). The dragon obviously represents Satan (12:3). He has seven heads which, we will see, represent Rome. The dragon swept a third of the stars out of the sky, which may refer to the angels that "did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling" (Jude 6). In other words, the verse refers to the fallen angels.
The child to which the woman gives birth is Jesus, the Messiah, destined to rule the world (12:5). He was "snatched up to God and his throne" when he rose from the dead. The woman was now waiting for his return for a season, symbolically represented by 1,260 days. This year and a half period is not literal but represents the current age of persecution, while we are awaiting Christ's return.
It is tempting to see imagery of the early Christian escape from Jerusalem just before the Roman siege of the city. According to an early tradition, the early Christians fled to Pella in keeping with Mark 13:14, which warned Christians to flee to the mountains when they saw the Romans coming to desecrate Jerusalem. Could Revelation 12:13-16 allude to the escape of the Jerusalem church from the city? Meanwhile, the dragon turns to the rest of those in the world who keep God's commands (12:17)...
[1] We shouldn't think of this as a literal number. It is rather symbolic.
The imagery of Revelation 12 is not difficult to understand, especially if we can get in mind that the events of Revelation do not all happen in a chronological order. The chapters that come right before have been giving us image after image of the final judgment. But when we get to Revelation 12, we have arrived at the eye of the storm. John pauses for a moment to step back and give us the heavenly story that has gotten us to this point.
The woman with a crown of twelve stars on her head is clearly Israel, with the twelve stars standing for the twelve tribes of Israel. John is a Jew. Assuming that he is John the son of Zebedee, he is not just any Jew. He is a very conservative Christian Jew. Remember in Galatians 2 when Paul appeared before Peter, James, and John. Thy did not force Paul to have his Gentile coworker Titus become circumcised, but the wording of 2:3 makes us think they would have preferred it.
But some of the things John writes in his letters also makes it clear that he does not consider all the Jews of the world to truly be Jews. Some synagogues in his world are rather "synagogues of Satan" (e.g., 2:9; 3:9). We can imagine that John believed Jewish believers to be the true remnant of Israel and that those in these opposing synagogues were not truly Israel at all.
The true Israel stands at the heart of the coming kingdom. On the one hand, John clearly has a place for the Gentiles in the kingdom. After all, there are people there from every "nation, tribe, people, and language" (7:9). But the heart of the kingdom are the 144,000 who were sealed from the twelve tribes, 12,000 from each. [1] For John, these did not represent all the Jews of the past but the Jews alive in John's day who were currently suffering but eventually going to be saved--true Israel.
And here it is worthwhile to pause and think about what is going on in the book of Revelation. In Revelation, John's time blurs into all time, which blurs into the end time. John is thus both preterist and idealist and futurist all at the same time, like three images all overlaid on each other. The first image is that of John's day and events going on at the time he was writing. But these struggles would become the struggles of all time throughout church history. Yet we believe that there will be a final judgment and Jesus will return to earth. God will set the world to right.
So the woman represents true Israel (12:1). The dragon obviously represents Satan (12:3). He has seven heads which, we will see, represent Rome. The dragon swept a third of the stars out of the sky, which may refer to the angels that "did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling" (Jude 6). In other words, the verse refers to the fallen angels.
The child to which the woman gives birth is Jesus, the Messiah, destined to rule the world (12:5). He was "snatched up to God and his throne" when he rose from the dead. The woman was now waiting for his return for a season, symbolically represented by 1,260 days. This year and a half period is not literal but represents the current age of persecution, while we are awaiting Christ's return.
It is tempting to see imagery of the early Christian escape from Jerusalem just before the Roman siege of the city. According to an early tradition, the early Christians fled to Pella in keeping with Mark 13:14, which warned Christians to flee to the mountains when they saw the Romans coming to desecrate Jerusalem. Could Revelation 12:13-16 allude to the escape of the Jerusalem church from the city? Meanwhile, the dragon turns to the rest of those in the world who keep God's commands (12:17)...
[1] We shouldn't think of this as a literal number. It is rather symbolic.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Revelation: Churches of Asia Minor
In addition to being an apocalypse and a prophecy, Revelation is also a circular letter, sent to seven churches in particular. John does not exactly say that he has been exiled to the island of Patmos, just about forty miles into the Aegean Sea from Turkey, but that is the tradition and it is a reasonable inference. [1] The Romans sometimes used exile as a form of punishment, and we know of other places where they used islands exactly for this purpose.
John has a revelation from Jesus on a Sunday, the Lord's Day. We have every reason to believe that the earliest Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday. In addition, Jewish believers would likely have also worshiped on the Jewish Sabbath, from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Then on Sunday morning, before dawn, they would worship, also coming together to eat at some point during the week. [2]
While it has become common for Christians to consider Sunday the Christian equivalent of the Jewish Sabbath, there is no evidence in the New Testament that the earliest Christians thought of the Lord's Day in this way. In fact Paul himself tells Gentile Christians that they should not be troubled about whether or not they keep the Jewish Sabbath (e.g., Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:16). Christian Jews might not work on Saturday, but we have no evidence that there was any such prohibition on Sunday for either Jewish or Gentile believers.
John has a vision of the risen Jesus on Patmos. Since the Book of Revelation is imitating the form of a Jewish apocalypse in some respects, some of the features of John's vision may not be meant to be taken literally. For example, it may be that the letters that John writes to the churches are not exact dictations from Jesus but are actually more like the way the other parts of the New Testament were inspired, where the personalities and thought categories of the authors were involved. There is room for both views to be held by individuals who believe Revelation is inspired and inerrant. The issue is only about what was originally intended.
The seven churches were all in western Asia Minor, the western part of modern day Turkey. Although John specifically addressed these churches, no doubt it was understood that the entire region would read the book. John goes from one church to the next in what was somewhat of a circle, starting with Ephesus and moving north to Smyrna (modern Izmir), then Pergamum in the north, then going inland and down to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and finally Laodicea.
In the past, some have taken these churches as an allegory for various periods in church history (a historist interpretation). In this interpretation, Ephesus represents the church of John’s day and the church of Laodicea represents the current of our current day. Then the various churches in between are made to fit various periods of church history from then till now.
On the one hand, this is a very suspicious interpretation. After all, these were real churches, and there is nothing in the text of Revelation that suggests anything like this sort of meaning. Indeed, Revelation much more gives us the impression that its events are in the near future (e.g., 1:1). In fact, no one would have thought of this interpretation until about now in history. No one in the year 1000 would have thought, “I wonder if we’re in Sardis yet”…
[1] Revelation 1:9 says he is on the island "for the word of God" and the "testimony of Jesus," as well as that he is a companion in suffering to the churches to which he writes. See ***
[2] For gathering before dawn, see Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 10.96. 1 Corinthians 11 and Jude 12 suggest a common meal was customary.
John has a revelation from Jesus on a Sunday, the Lord's Day. We have every reason to believe that the earliest Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday. In addition, Jewish believers would likely have also worshiped on the Jewish Sabbath, from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Then on Sunday morning, before dawn, they would worship, also coming together to eat at some point during the week. [2]
While it has become common for Christians to consider Sunday the Christian equivalent of the Jewish Sabbath, there is no evidence in the New Testament that the earliest Christians thought of the Lord's Day in this way. In fact Paul himself tells Gentile Christians that they should not be troubled about whether or not they keep the Jewish Sabbath (e.g., Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:16). Christian Jews might not work on Saturday, but we have no evidence that there was any such prohibition on Sunday for either Jewish or Gentile believers.
John has a vision of the risen Jesus on Patmos. Since the Book of Revelation is imitating the form of a Jewish apocalypse in some respects, some of the features of John's vision may not be meant to be taken literally. For example, it may be that the letters that John writes to the churches are not exact dictations from Jesus but are actually more like the way the other parts of the New Testament were inspired, where the personalities and thought categories of the authors were involved. There is room for both views to be held by individuals who believe Revelation is inspired and inerrant. The issue is only about what was originally intended.
The seven churches were all in western Asia Minor, the western part of modern day Turkey. Although John specifically addressed these churches, no doubt it was understood that the entire region would read the book. John goes from one church to the next in what was somewhat of a circle, starting with Ephesus and moving north to Smyrna (modern Izmir), then Pergamum in the north, then going inland and down to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and finally Laodicea.
In the past, some have taken these churches as an allegory for various periods in church history (a historist interpretation). In this interpretation, Ephesus represents the church of John’s day and the church of Laodicea represents the current of our current day. Then the various churches in between are made to fit various periods of church history from then till now.
On the one hand, this is a very suspicious interpretation. After all, these were real churches, and there is nothing in the text of Revelation that suggests anything like this sort of meaning. Indeed, Revelation much more gives us the impression that its events are in the near future (e.g., 1:1). In fact, no one would have thought of this interpretation until about now in history. No one in the year 1000 would have thought, “I wonder if we’re in Sardis yet”…
[1] Revelation 1:9 says he is on the island "for the word of God" and the "testimony of Jesus," as well as that he is a companion in suffering to the churches to which he writes. See ***
[2] For gathering before dawn, see Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 10.96. 1 Corinthians 11 and Jude 12 suggest a common meal was customary.
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