REVELATION
I. Introduction--difficulty of
Revelation
There
is a Greek saying, “Kalepa ta kala,” which might be translated,
“Difficult things, beautiful things. Beauty
and
difficulty often do go hand in hand, e.g. a reverse 1 1/2
somersault
which is both a difficult dive and a beautiful dive.
And then there’s the book we move on to now:
Revelation—which is
both a difficult book and a beautiful book.
Revelation
is so difficult, that it’s tempting not even to assign it in a
class of
this kind. But it’s an important
book in
addressing the general theme of the course, the transition of
the Roman
empire from pagan polytheism to monotheistic Christianity.
The church is about to go through extraordinarily
difficult
times: emperors from Nero to Galerius are going after Christians
in a
major way. The theme/message of
Revelation
goes a long way toward explaining the survival of the church in
these
difficult circumstances.
A.
Struggles of theologians with this book
Some of
the all-time best Christian thinkers have struggled with this
book. Luther scoffed, “A Revelation
should be
revealing,” implying that this book really wasn’t what it
claimed to be. Calvin said the book
gave him a headache. And Dionysius
of Alexandria, one of the first
Christian philosophers said that, while he supposed there was a
great
message here somewhere, he sure didn’t know what it was.
B. Disadvantages of apocalyptic style
Part of the struggle with Revelation has to do with the fact that it was written in a genre we’re for the most part unfamiliar with today, what’s called apocalyptic style. This was a style popular in some Jewish circles starting around 200 BC or so, a period where the Jews in general believed the true prophetic voice had ceased. Often, the apocalyptic books are pseudepigraphal, books that claim (falsely) to be by a great figure of the distant past. Often, these works are borderline heretical, and it seems possible, at least, that *this* apocalypse was written as a direct challenge to some other apocalypses. *This* is the apocalypse of Jesus Christ: the true vision of world beyond the one we live in.
C.
Advantages of apocalyptic style
Apocalyptic
style has some advantages. It can
(and
did) serve as a vehicle for resistance literature.
When an open message might get one in trouble with the
Roman
authorities, hiding one’s message in cryptic language might be
useful. Further, the cryptic style
is engaging. A certain kind of mind
just can’t help trying
to figure out the symbols. Just
like the
symbols in Jesus’ parables, the language in Revelation sticks in
our
minds. Also, symbolic language
often makes
a work adaptable to many different situations—symbols have more
than
one meaning, and more than one applications.
D. Skills needed to understand Revelation
Those
to whom Revelation was originally written probably had far fewer
difficulties than we do: the conventions of the apocalyptic
style were
more familiar to them. But today,
one
needs a combination of skills fairly rare to completely
understand the
book.
1. An
ability to deal with symbolic language: the
skills of a poet or (perhaps) an English professor.
2. Historical
skills. While most people today
don’t understand the political cartoons of (say) the late 19th
century (see the Thomas Nast cartoon below), historians often
do.
Those who know about the historical events of the 1st century
have a
great advantage in understanding Revelation.
3.
Spiritual experience. Those who
fast and
pray in the way John does are more likely to understand this
kind of
book.
4. Pastoral
skills. This
is a message from a person in a pastoral position, designed to
encourage people he knows are going through hard times.
II. Difficulty with
dating and
authorship
Understanding
Revelation would be easier for us if we knew when it was
written. And here we’ve got a few
difficulties.
A.
External evidence
Most of
the external evidence points to the apostle John as the author. But there were a few relatively early
Christian writers who argued that a different John (John the
elder) may
have written this book.
B.
Internal evidence
The
internal evidence seems to point to the apostle John as the
author, but
the author doesn’t make it absolutely clear that that is the
John he
is. Internal evidence doesn’t give
us
quite the clear dating we would like either.
Revelation
talks of a beast with seven heads and ten horns, and these heads
are
specifically identified as seven kings (emperors) or Rome.
Five are fallen, one is, and one is to come.
Ok, good enough. But who
specifically are the heads? Perhaps
we
should count this way.
Julius Caesar
(d. 44 B.C.)
Augustus (31
B.C.--A.D. 14)
Tiberius
(14-37)
Caligula
(37-41)
Claudius
(41-54)
Nero
(54-68)
If so,
the Nero is the sixth “head,” the one who “is.”
Gives
us a date during the reign of Nero, who started persecuting the
Christians around 65 AD. But if we
don’t
start with Julius Caesar, it’s not as clear who the sixth head
is. Playing around a bit with
the symbols,
we might get to the reign of Domitian. Here’s
how:
"As we have seen, the other attempts to understand the seven kings as seven emperors faced their biggest challenge in identifying the eighth king in a way that made sense. If Vespasian is identified as the sixth king, and Titus as the seventh, the eighth would be Domitian, who reigned from A.D. 81–96. Can the description of the eighth king in 17:11 be legitimately understood as a reference to Domitian? It is possible. Of the eighth king, John writes, “As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.” This is where the history of the Roman emperors is informative. When Vespasian was named the emperor in December 69, he was preoccupied in Egypt for approximately six months before he was able to come to Rome. During the first six months of his reign, his son Domitian ruled in his place, accepting the title of Caesar and all the authority of the throne" (Keith Mathison).
III. Four
approaches to
Revelation/difficulty of deciding among them
In
addition to
dating problems, we
also have a problem deciding on the best approach to take in
interpreting the
symbols of revelation. There are four major
approaches—and all of them work.
These four approaches:
A.
Preterit: the book refers mostly to events of 64-70 A.D.
B. Historical:
the book foreshadows all subsequent
history
C. Futurist: the book describes a
still-future
conflict w/antichrist
D. Allegorist: the book describes
spiritual
forces,
not historical events, and the symbols are deliberately designed
to
talk about
spiritual forces that are always at work in human history.
IV. Beautiful
aspects of Revelation
But
while a difficult book,
Revelation is certainly a beautiful book.
The opening and closing chapters are especially
beautiful.
A.
Revelation is a beautifully constructed book
1.
The many repeated/modified images are like the theme and
variations
approach to
a symphony.
2. The image of
the glorified Christ (and the
glories of God’s kingdom) are especially beautiful when
considering the
circumstances: John the Baptist dead, Jesus dead, James dead,
the other
apostles dead, John in exile, a great persecution coming.
3. Each of the Seven Churches gets a message beginning
with a
particularly appropriate aspect of the vision of Christ, a
status
report, and
then a promise particularly appropriate to that church.
A church with doctrinal problems, for
instance, gets the image of the two-edged sword in Christ’s
mouth, and
a
persecuted church gets the message of victory over the 2nd
death,
while those excluded from the synagogue get the promise they
will be
pillars in
God’s temple, never to be removed. And
those
condemned for their faith get a white stone at the Great
Judgement innocent!
B. Depiction of majesty of God and heavenly
worship
Revelation is
beautiful also in its depiction of heavenly worship.
If your churches are being destroyed, that’s especially
nice! And if you’re feeling
outnumbered
and overwhelmed—well, just take a look.
And notice—up go the prayers of the saints: God really
does hear.
V.
Difficulty
with Seven Seals
At
first, unraveling Revelation seems possible by just comparing
the teaching
here to
earlier, clearer material. Comparing
the Seven Seals to the “little apocalypse” (Mark 13, Luke 21,
Matthew 24) helps
a
lot--maybe! The apostles ask Jesus
about
the destruction of the temple, about His return, and about the
end of
the
world. He seems to answer all three
questions, and the seven seals of revelation correspond very
well to
some of the
events Jesus describes. Here are
the
Matthew verses:
1.
Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ and shall
deceive many
(vs. 5).
2. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars (vs. 6)
3-4. There shall be famines and pestilences (vs. 7-8).
5. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted (vs. 9)
6. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall
the sun
be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light and the stars
shall
fall from
heaven (vs. 29). And he shall send his angel with a great sound
of a
trumpet,
and they shall gather together his elect form the four winds,
from one
end of
heaven to the other (vs. 31).
Seeing the parallels here could be
really helpful, but, of course, the little apocalypse is
somewhat difficult
itself, so
even if we assume the seals are talking about the same thing, we
don’t
necessarily have a
complete clarity about the events in mind.
Also,
the Seventh Seal has all sorts of strangeness.
The
Seventh Seal opens, and Seven Trumpets sound.
Fine:
we've reached the judgment day. But the last three trumpets are
associated with woes (one
woe is
passed, two are to come…)--and the the pattern breaks. Not
the order. The Seventh Trumpet Sounds and we now here
Seven Thunders. But these "Thunders" occur before we get
the words "The Second Woe" (associated with the Sixth Trumpet
remember) has really finished up. On top of that, we get the
temple opened in heaven before the temple has appeared in the
vision! This is very strange, and
very hard to understand—at a
critical point in Revelation!
So what goes on here? Lots of
possibilities. One has to do with the nature of visions of
this type. Just as in our dreams logical order gives way
to impressions, those having visions of John's kind are detached
from normal rules. Another possibility is a deliberate
change of order to make it harder for (say) Roman authorities to
understand. And there is also a possibility that, in
putting together the manuscript, there was an inadvertent
switch. Revelation was probably initially a scroll like
the heavenly scroll it describes, written on both sides.
The sheets put into the scroll have a "recto" and a "verso"
side, with the "recto" being the better for writing. If a
sheet was accidentally flipped in the production of the book,
that might explain the odd order. Other explanations are
possible as well--but it creates for us difficulties especially
because it gives us a rough start in interpreting the next set
of visions.
VI.
Difficult interpretation of
symbols
Remember:
we have four approaches to
Revelation. Note how these
interpretations can be applied to Revelation 11:1-3,
the section about gentiles treading
down the city.
·
The
Preterit approach says this
refers to 3 1/2 year war
between Jews and Rome and the following events:
A.D.
64
Rome
burns, Nero blamed
A.D.
65-68
First
persecution of Christians/Peter and Paul (and most apostles)
killed
A.D.
66-70
War
between Jews and Romans/Civil war in Jerusalem
A.D.
68-69
"Year of Four Emperors"/Rome sacked
A.D.
70
Jerusalem
(and the temple) destroyed
·
The Historical
approach says this refers to the:
entire period of gentile
domination
·
The
Futurist approach says this refers to the "Great Tribulation"
of the the future antichrist
·
The
Allegorist says this is symbolic. A limited number of
Jews will respond to the gospel, followed by an unlimited number
of gentiles
Each
approach also leads to differences in the
interpretation of various symbols:
1.
Dragon waiting to swallow man-child who is caught up into
heaven, persecutes
the woman who fleas into the wilderness.
2.
First beast (Seven heads ten horns)
3.
Second beast (Two horns)
4. The
"Two witnesses" (Ch. 11).
5. Woman clothed with sun (Ch. 12)
6. The harlot drunk with saints’
blood
V.
Beautiful conclusion of
Revelation—but more difficulties!
A. The
Millennium
Revelation
20 describes a period where Satan is bound for 1000 years and
those who
have
given their lives for the gospel live and reign with him.
But what exactly this passage is talking
about is widely disputed. There are
three very different views, the amillennial, premillennial, and
postmillennial positions. The
premillennial types view the millennium as
sometime in the future, and (understandably) most “futurists”
tend to
take this
position. There will be a “rapture”
of
the church, followed by a seven-year reign of antichrist,
followed by
the
return of Christ, and earthly kingdom of Christ lasting for 1000
years,
a “loosing
of Satan” and the final battle between good and evil and the
ultimate
day of
judgement.
That
view works pretty well. But, not so
long
ago, the postmillennial view also had many followers.
The post-millennialists thought the first
coming of Christ had brought with it a binding of Satan, and
that it
was now
the job of the church to build toward Christ’s kingdom.
During the 19th century, this idea
(that human civilization was going to get better and better)
seemed
plausible
enough. Ultimately, Christ would
return
to claim the kingdom we had built for him.
After the horrors of the 20th century,
postmillennialism
seemed less plausible.
A
third view (the one I happen to hold, so take my criticisms of
the
other two
views with a grain of salt) is the amillennial view.
Amillennialists say we shouldn’t look for an
earthly millennium at all. John
sees the
“souls” of those executed for their faith in Christ living and
reigning
with
Christ for 1000 years. The
“millennium”
of Revelation 20 refers to the period of Christ’s reign in
heaven
*before* his
earthly return, the resurrection, and the Day of Judgment.
This is an especially beautiful picture for John himself,
a man
who had seen so many of his friends executed.
Where are they now? Living
and
reigning with Christ.
B. But
beautiful...
And this leads into a section of the book that, no matter what
you think of the rest, is extraordinarily beautiful. As John writes,
his favorite city,
Jerusalem
has been destroyed, or it’s just about to be destroyed.
Imagine your favorite city or town lying in
utter ruin. But now John sees a New
Jerusalem—more lovely than the original Jerusalem had ever been. All sorts of wonderful things in
it—and every
bad thing excluded.
42.
TALK
ABOUT ME
Talk
about
me, talk about you,
Talk
about everybody;
Thank
God Almighty, if the Bible's true,
Ain't
no talkers in Heaven.
Lie
on
me, lie on you,
Lie
on everybody;
The
angels in Heaven done wrote it down,
There
ain't no liars in Heaven.
Of
course, that’s something of a worry for people like me.
Any place for us talkers? Well,
that
takes us down to the end:
And
the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come.
And let
him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the
water of
life
freely.
For more than 200 years, from the time
of Nero (AD 65) until Galerius’ Edict of Toleration (AD 311),
the
church
periodically goes through times as difficult as the times of
John’s own
life. The psychology reflected and
enhanced by the Book of Revelation—the psychology of seeing a
deep
beauty
beyond the difficulties of the moment—is a major factor in
understanding the
central theme of this course, the eventual triumph of
Christianity in
the Roman
empire.