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
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,
unravelling Revelation seems possible by just comparing the teaching
here to
earlier, clearer material. Comparing the
7 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).
Somewhat
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
have a
complete answer.
Also,
the 7th
seal has all sorts of strangeness. The
seal opens, 7 trumpets sound. Fine:
judgment day. But the last three trumpets are associated with woes (one
woe is
passed, two are to come…), but the pattern breaks and we get the 7th
trumpet sounding and 7 thunders before the 2nd woe of the 6th
trumpet has passed. And we get the
temple opened in heaven before the temple has appeared in the vision. Very strange, and very hard to understand—at a
critical point in Revelation!
VI. Difficult interpretation of
symbols
Remember:
we have four approaches to
Revelation. 11:1-3 (gentiles treading
down city)
·
Preterit:
refers to 3 1/2 year war
between Jews and Rome
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
·
Historical:
entire period of gentile
domination
·
Futurist:
the "Great Tribulation"
of the the future antichrist
·
Allegorist:
a limited # of
Jews/unlimited # of gentiles saved
Each
approach 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.
"Two witnesses" (Ch. 11).
5. Woman clothed with sun (Ch. 12)
6.
Different interpretations of harlot drunk with saints’ blood
V. Beautiful conclusion of
Revelation—but more difficulties!
A. 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.
A beautiful picture of John especially, a man
who had seen so many of his friends executed.
Where are they now? Living and
reigning with Christ.
B. But beautiful...
Plenty
of difficulties, then, in Revelation.
But as the book closes, plenty of especially beautiful images. 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.