100 Answers in 100 Days

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Sharing answers to the various questions of faith I have faced, and which others have been challenged with also.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

What Is The Book of Revelation About?

For those unfamiliar with the Book of Revelation, it contains a description of a vision that the Apostle John had. The vision contains such imagery as angels unleashing plagues upon the Earth, and of people obtaining a mark on their forehead or hand, called “the mark of the beast”, which later consigns them to eternity in hell. And people naturally want to interpret this vision. Many have claimed to know what the vision means, and yet there are many different interpretations. Some say it refers to actual events in our future where, for example, a government will require a literal mark imprinted in our forehead or hands. Others say it refers to actual events that have happened in the past, such as the reign of specific emperors and the specific persecutions that they carried out against Christians. I wouldn’t be confident enough to make specific claims like that. But I do think there are a number of basic things we can say about the book for certain, and that those things may be all we really need to know.

Firstly, there are seven letters written to seven churches, and these are not terribly cryptic. They are fairly straight forward, and I think they form the key to understanding the message of the entire book. The general content of each of these letters is to say that in each of these churches there are things that Jesus commends them for, but that there are those in the church who do things that Jesus rebukes them for. He thus divides each church into two groups - those who do what they ought and those who, despite attending the church, do not. Each letter has in common a sentence which begins: “The one who conquers…” (or in other translations, “the one who overcomes”). “To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life”, “The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.” ... Each of these sentences, in each of the letters, are synonymous… The one who conquers will receive eternal life. That is to say, the one who does not continue in the errors that Jesus has named in these letters. This refers corporately to the churches but also to us individually. We fall into various errors, but how do we overcome these errors? Later in the book we read:

And they [the saints] have conquered him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12:11)

We also read in 1 John the passage:

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1 John 5:4)

This passage in 1 John, which refers to the world in the sense of the corruption of the world and its allegiance to Satan, reminds us again that it is not through our own efforts that we overcome our errors, but rather that our faith in Christ gives us that victory. The things that we do in this life are the effect of our faith. We do what pleases God because our faith influences us to do so. And we avoid errors for the same reason - our faith shows us our errors and gives us an aversion to them. So it is true that we work towards doing the right thing and avoiding the wrong thing, but it is because we have faith in Christ that we desire to work in this way and are able to. Thus, those who overcome the world (that is, the errors of this world), demonstrate evidence of faith. And in regards to the message of Revelation, this is really the foundation. What Revelation teaches us through the bulk of its content is that keeping ourselves from error in this life will be no easy task. It will be no easy task because there will be persecution towards us, and injustice done to us. The story of Revelation, presented in a vision, is (at a high level) this: That there are God’s people and then there are God’s enemies who war against God and against His people. They cause God’s people to suffer persecution and injustice. But in the end, God’s people are taken up to heaven and God’s enemies are destroyed. The key message of the book is this, then… that we must endure persecution and injustice in the assurance that God will bring justice in the end. The letters to the seven churches establish this basic message; those in the church who are truly the people of God will receive their reward, but those who are not will receive their judgement. The book ends on the same note, Jesus speaking saying…

Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. (Revelation 22:11-12)

In other words, from the time of John’s writing this in the first century AD until the return of Christ, yet future, the book has shown us that there exist the enemies of God and the people of God who suffer at the hands of the enemies of God, and that justice awaits them both at the return of Christ. And it teaches us that we are to allow those who persecute us to do so. As it reinforces in other places in Scripture…

But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matthew 5:39)

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." (Romans 12:19)

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. (1 Peter 2:18-19)

If we are the victim of persecution and injustice, we must not ourselves become persecutors as a response. Rather, we endure it, knowing that God is the one who is able to judge rightly.

And then we read something that I find very interesting…

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book (Revelation 22:18)

We see this as a warning against trying to modify the message of the book. But this, to me, also says something about the plagues described in the book. People try to interpret the various “plagues” in Revelation as somehow referring to some actual event, perhaps past, or of a future event - a nuclear war, or some chemical weapon… But Jesus is saying that to anyone, at any time in history, who tries to modify the message of this book, “God will add to him the plagues described in this book.” I personally feel that the things described in Revelation at least have a more general sense to them. Whether they refer to specific events in the past or in our future… they may well do… but that doesn’t exclude the idea that they refer to a general state of affairs for all humanity for all of history. People suffer war, famine, pestilence… we have suffered horrific wars, from the 100 years war in 1300-1400s or World War II as an obvious example. And we have seen the bubonic plague, or outbreaks of syphilis and ebola, to barely mention a few.

At the very least we can say that if the visions of Revelation refer to actual plagues in the past or in the future, or to actual governments in the past or in the future, we can still, nonetheless, apply the message to ourselves. Do we suffer at the hands of unjust governments now? Do we suffer persecution for our faith? These are things which apply to us all, and the message is the same… To the one who conquers (by faith), there is a reward and justice will be done in the end.

Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:21-22)