021918: Summary, Session 4 (final)
The Book of Revelation was authored by a Christian Prophet named John of Patmos, who wrote in a genre referred to as Apocalyptic Literature around the last decades of the first century AD. In all likelihood, John had been exiled for being a Christian to the island of Patmos, where he presumably lived out the rest of his days. We continue reading his work because his visions and insights offer access to the heavenly realm in general and Jesus in particular, so that we can appreciate—at least in some way—what Christians experienced in the area of Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, during the period in which he lived. There seemed to be widespread persecution of Christians, though we cannot nail down who did the persecuting.
In reading Revelation, one is struck immediately by the nature of the imagery John uses to convey his message. It seems rather like a code, which it very well may be, since, given his history, John may have been trying to convey the sense of the persecution he and others were experiencing without calling attention to it with too many specifics, which might have worked against the people he was writing about. He may have been shielding those who were most vulnerable, while he was also trying to make their message known. I draw such a conclusion, since John offers vision cycles—six in all—of plagues or woes that batter the earth and its inhabitants, especially those who have engaged in unrighteous acts, idolatry, greed, and lawlessness. He uses his imagery in such a way that usual descriptionsfor Godare reflectedin the actions of demons and others that give the sense of a negative orientation. For instance, human beings who are stung by the strange locusts, who wear crowns, seek death, not life, in their efforts to avoid punishment and torture by these insects. God is the Source of all Life, so human beings seeking death, rather than conversion and the life that God offers, are described so as to understand that they are expending their energies in precisely oppositional ways to the direction that is God’s.
Something found uniquely in Revelation is the faithful (after death) ruling for 1,000 years (20:4c). This tradition, found only here in Revelation, is not a matter of faith, since our own understandings of a particular judgment and a later final judgment are what the Church teaches. However, noting this aspect of Revelation helps us to appreciate that John held those who confessed their faith in high esteem, and this is important. Those who rule must be witnesses to Christ as well as to a righteous life devoid of worship of false idols (idolatry), which would have been seen as demons, prime participants in the dramas depicted in the pages of Revelation.
We also find, hidden within the violence that we read about, some aspects of mercy, such as when the woes and plagues stop, because violence and destruction can only go so far in swaying hearts. Conversion is what needs to develop, but this only happens with the earlier foundation in violence in firm view. But then new witnesses, namely, in the persons of the two prophets appear, who die, whose corpses remain unburied, and who rise again to life, only to be taken toHeaven. These individuals bring about faith on the part of some. This is the nature of some of the cessation to the carnage that we see, but it is all within God’s ultimate plan for humanity.
If we look again at the beginning of the Book, we see that John is ordered to write to the angels or leaders of the churches in the seven churches of Asia Minor. This marks the one and only time that individuals are singled out. Each receives a message, mostly about repentance from some activity that is in arrears, but it underscores that leaders and their example influence a great number of people. Nonetheless, in general, John writes about collections of beings and demons who represent “types” of people, meaning that he talks primarily about groups rather than individuals in his work.
Perseverance and endurance on the part of those under affliction receives mention a great deal throughout the work. Given the genre of Revelation, this makes sense, since those who are experiencing trauma or who are looking for vindication, are initially told to hold in place, in effect, until the Lord God acts. His plan is in full view, though others may not see it. However, what the Book of Revelation always conveys is that God will reward the patient who hold out for his rewards, which end in the heavenly realm with him and the Lamb at its center.
Plagues and woes attempt to punish those who have inflicted hardship and suffering upon God’s witnesses; however, everyone is not wiped out when they occur. Generally, only a third of the population in any given locale is afflicted. The rest are left behind, but the point of the afflictions is meant for conversion.
We have seen as well, primarily in the second half of Revelation that Satan, the Devil, is on a short leash. The Devil and his angels are cast out of heaven (chap. 12), so that they will no longer testify against God’s servants, but this opens up the Devil’s ability to fight against humanity on earth. However, we learn that he is to be sequestered in the abyss for 1,000 years, and ultimately defeated by being thrown into the everlasting fire after a brief release from his prison, so his ability to do harm to the faithful is limited and will ultimately come to an end. The message, especially from the image of the Beast and the Whore of Babylon, is that “evil becomes evil’s undoing.” God, the Creator of all, is over all.
This opens the door for heaven to become a realm of total respite with God, whom we find with the Lamb providing light and life-giving water for those who end up here. It is totally new; nothing unclean may enter (22:1-5).
Near the end of the book, in chapter 17, we hear about the problem with wealth, where an economic boon due to guaranteed trade routes on sea and land cause some to become exceedingly wealthy. In order to accommodate luxury goods, some move their trades to these markets, which leaves those who cannot afford such goods without the necessities of life or causes the cost of such necessities to increase beyond their ability to pay. This upsetting of general life is a theme.
At the end of the Book, we note that John is chided for bowing down to the angel who is acting as his guide between earth and the heavenly realm (22:8-9). Perhaps the worship of angels, which was an issue in the New Testament and Early Church, was something that this book also attempted to address.
Imagery involving drinking is used to describe how violence is inflicted both by God and the Whore, which offers a vividness that is both memorable and disturbing:
“If any one worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger” (14:9-10).
“And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (17:6).
“And God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain the cup of fury of his wrath” (16:19b).
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion” (14:8).
We also note John’s use of “suspension,” where he will develop imagery, then move to another scene, then return to the original scene, as he did in the appearance of the Woman clothed with the Sun in chapter 12, where, in the first scene he describes the difficult scene of a dragon ready to pounce and consume the birthed child (vv. 1-6), but that drama is suspended to reveal the end of the Devil’s accusatory role in heaven (vv. 7-12), which then returns to the drama of the first scene in subsequent verses (vv. 13-17), where the woman is saved from the wrath of the Devil.
Many writers throughout the centuries have attempted to see in the pages of the Book of Revelation a commentary on their own times, a hidden time-line of persecution that relates to moments in the history of those in the Church. These theories have been elaborate and varied, where no clear consensus has emerged. Instead, as with most books of the bible, we need to recognize the difficulties that we find within Revelation’s pages and apply them in a general sense to our own time and circumstance.
There must always be a concern for the wealthy to become complacent in light of Faith in God, because, as everyone who sees themselves as “self-made” individuals, God’s presence becomes a “blesser” of projects (done by one’s own hand), rather than a partner in life, whose creation and underlying Natural Law provides the building blocks for human creation in all its forms. If someone has “made it,” how will that person treat the poor who have not? The sense that the system is rigged can be hard to overcome, especially if you see people oppressed by the same system that you benefit from. The theme of complacency is, then, an issue that transcends the Book of Revelation, but is something that it treats.
There will always be those whose Faith means more to them than life itself. These are those people not willing to compromise. We can never lose track of these people, because, like the martyrs, they are those who are willing to lose everything for their love of God. The martyrs are the seeds of Christianity. We celebrate them, because their testimony and faith were something that they were willing to die for. We cannot trivialize their witness by neglecting it. We probably will never have to stand up to testify in like manner, but the Book of Revelation underscores that such testimony is enormously important, worthy to be heralded and lauded, and that those who choose another path need to examine their lives, as the leaders of the seven Churches were called upon to do. This is difficult and uncomfortable to hear and recognize, but we all recognize the Truth of it.
As we will hear this week in the Gospel of the Transfiguration, Christ tells Peter, James, and John not to speak about the incident of the Transfiguration until he rises from the dead. They don’t know what he means, but we do. Resurrection is assured to those who are ultimately faithful. The problem is: Life is grey. Shall we, with the grey of our ashes so recently wiped from our foreheads, be wont to don another mark that casts our identity as a disciple of Christ into question, so that a clear-cut mark from the hand of Christ is impossible? This is our present-day dilemma, and it was the same dilemma seen in John’s time. What will our choice be in light of the treasures and dramas of the world? This is what makes the Book of Revelation timeless. The same choices lay before us. What, then, will your choice be?
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