As longtime readers of this blog know, I tend to avoid the topic of prophetic interpretation. And, if I'm being honest with myself, it is clear that this avoidance of most things prophetic stems from my former association with the old Worldwide Church of God founded by Herbert Armstrong. In particular, Armstrong's insistence on understanding the Bible from a literalist perspective, his elaborate attempts to identify modern nations in the pages of that book (defying DNA science, history, archaeology, linguistics and employing clear misrepresentations of certain scriptures), his efforts to introduce himself and his church into those prophecies, and his obsessive preoccupation with Christian eschatology.
Indeed, Armstrong's prophetic predilections are perhaps no where more apparent than in his treatment of the book of Revelation. Among other things, Armstrong taught that the messages to the seven churches represented seven successive eras/ages of church history, encouraged speculation about the identity of the two witnesses, taught that the "Beast" represented a resurrected modern European Roman Empire, that the "Great Whore" represented the Roman Catholic Church and her Protestant daughters, and fully embraced the blood and guts version of God's judgement on a wicked humanity. In other words, from Armstrong's perspective, John's vision was utterly depressing and explicitly horrific - except for the final two chapters which depicted the "Wonderful World Tomorrow."
Fortunately, after leaving Armstrong's church, I embarked on an independent study of the Bible, Biblical criticism, alternative interpretations of Scripture, church history, archaeology, DNA science and evolution. Even so, my attitudes toward prophetic scriptures remained ambivalent at best generally and almost hostile with regard to the book of Revelation in particular. Learning about the loud chorus of early Christians who rejected the notion of including the book as part of the Canon, and then later about Martin Luther's problems with the book, didn't help my feelings about the last book of the Judeo-Christian Bible.
I did, however, record one positive experience with the book about seven years ago. An independent congregation of the Church of God Seventh Day which I was attending at the time decided to do an intensive study of Revelation. It was like a breath of fresh air. There were none of Armstrong's teachings, and a recognition at the outset of the highly symbolic nature of the book. This new perspective avoided the very negative connotations that my former association had imposed upon the book and resurrected some hope in me that it might still prove to be a positive and worthwhile book.
Even so, I must admit that any mention of the book or its prophecies since that experience have evoked laughter, anger and those old feelings of distaste which I associated with Armstrong's interpretation. And those feelings may have continued unabated if Banned by HWA hadn't recently posted two brief video presentations which attempted to summarize the book. Needless to say, I was skeptical on the front end, but I found the piece to be an excellent distillation of some of my own thoughts regarding the book and the positive perspective which I had picked up in that GOG7th Day congregation. For those who are interested, you can view the videos here: The Book of Revelation
The presentation reminded me that Revelation is part of the Apocalyptic genre of Jewish and early Christian literature. Bible Gateway's Encyclopedia of the Bible (in its article on apocalyptic literature) describes this literature in the following terms: "There is much diversity among the apocalyptic writings. Nevertheless, there are certain general features which are characteristic of the lit. as a whole and which justify the distinguishing of 'apocalyptic' as a literary type: the presence of a cosmic dualism, visions and revelations; a contrast between the present evil age and the coming eschatological age; pessimism concerning the present age and optimism concerning the age to come; references and allusions to mythology, numerology, and animal symbolism; the idea of the unity of history and a goal toward which history is moving; the development of belief in life after death, and esp. the resurrection of the righteous and the judgment of the wicked (there is no resurrection for the unrighteous dead); and the appearance of a transcendent figure identified as 'the Son of Man.'"
This is entirely consistent with what the video presentation cited above has to say about the book. From this perspective, the book represents the "Heavenly perspective" on history in the light of its ultimate outcome. The presentation also underscores John's repeated use of the number seven (completeness) in the book, and that he used symbols from most of the prophetic writings contained in the Old Testament. In other words, John expected that his readers would look up his references to Genesis, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Daniel. From this perspective, Revelation is not a jigsaw puzzle or a book of code. It is a book that employs most of the prophetic symbolism of Scripture to summarize human history and tell the story of the Lamb's ultimate triumph over evil and mankind's real enemy, Satan.
From this perspective, the Lamb and his people conquer the different manifestations of the "Beast" down through the ages by their example of love, mercy and forgiveness - not with a literal army wielding literal weapons. The "Beast" then represents humanity's continuous rebellion against God in instituting different manifestations of the same flawed military and economic system. The infamous "Mark of the Beast" is NOT a mysterious tattoo, computer chip, currency or some religious/political/economic exercise. Instead, in this incarnation (which is certainly more consistent with the perspective of a First Century author), the "Mark" represents a kind of anti-Shema (the Shema is the Old Testament confession of faith that pledged that all of ones thoughts [forehead] and actions [hands] would be devoted to God). And, the number of the "Beast" (666) refers to Caesar Nero and Rome as a type of the world system which the Lamb is returning to overthrow.
In the final analysis, this view of the book actually makes much more sense than some of the wild-eyed interpretations of our modern prophecy junkies. This presentation harkens back to the third chapter of Genesis, and mankind's decision to go his own way. The enemy is NOT really other people - the enemy is the spiritual power which has influenced them to do evil, and the Lamb will crush his head. In this view, all human kingdoms eventually become the "Beast" - exalting their own power and authority and denying the ultimate source of those things, God. In this vision, heaven and earth are united. God banishes the evil, heals the world, dwells with humanity and finally allows them to rule in God's image.
Yeah, I'm really liking this alternative perspective on the book of Revelation. These brief little videos have breathed fresh life into the book and made it to stand on its own two legs again. From this perspective, Revelation is the perfect way to tie everything together and conclude the Judeo-Christian Scriptures!
***The above referenced video presentation is the work of BibleProject, founded by Timothy Mackie and Jonathan Collins of Multnomah University. For those who are interested, their website is available at this link: The BibleProject
Miller:
ReplyDeleteI just watched the two videos and found them to be credible presentations of the meaning of Revelation. I don't know how I missed them the first time through - I do not remember that post at all. The videos fairly well match my preterist tendencies. I believe that the events in the book are mostly history with some passages at the end that are future.
At a higher level of granularity, I wonder if the book should even be in the canon. It has been long suspect by the early church, by Gregory of Nyssa and Luther. Origen thought it might have Gnostic roots. I do find meaningful passages in the text when viewed as adjunct writing to other books of the OT and NT. There are passages that clearly support universalism and a rehabilitative hell, for instance.
For me, the jury is out on the book. I think many Christians would find my viewpoint stunning. They would reason that if the book is there then God wanted it there. This neglects how the books of the NT were written, curated and canonized. All these are processes with a human touch. No doubt the NT contains the principles that God wanted to see in the message. But maybe the NT includes other views. For instance, one of the writers drew on the book of Enoch. One might reason that if this extra-Biblical writing can be impressed on the Holy Scripture fittingly, why isn't the entire book of Enoch included in the canon. I think because some people made a literary decision that God did not feel the need to abrogate.
One useful property of the book is that it makes a effective Rorschach Test. People project their hearts on the writing. I thought the following comment on this post from "Banned by HWA" was both telling and droll:
"This video trivializes the book of Revelation. Typical protestant mush. It ignored God's just vengeance on a evil world, including an army of 200 million sweeping through Europe. resulting in the death of a third of mankind."
From this and his other comments you could tell the writer cherished the end-time violence that he thought was going to happen and he could watch from the security of the Place of Safety. This self-projection tell us much about his heart and I think about the hearts of most apocalyptic Millerites. A Millerite named Vernon Howell looked at the Rorschach Test and saw himself in it - first as "The Lamb" who opens the Sixth Seal and later as Jesus. And believed it so deeply that he got himself and a bunch of other people killed over it.
I believe that the book of Revelation is the pulsating heart of apocalyptic Millerism, as they interpret it, and it replaces for them much of the rest of the NT. For them it is not about the gospel of life and salvation but about the prophecies of death and destruction. We might not know this so vividly if the book of Revelation had not been in the canon.
-- Neo
****** Click on my moniker for Disclaimer
NEO,
DeleteAs I related in this post and others on this blog, I have shared some of your ambivalence about the book (including whether or not it should have been included in the canon). Although I had rejected the Armstrongist/Millerite view of the book long ago and had reached many of the conclusions presented in the videos, after viewing them, it dawned on me that my negative feelings toward the book were based almost entirely on the abuse it had suffered at the hands of these obsessive prophecy nuts. When one understands the symbolism of the book in the context of Old Testament prophecies and the fundamental teaching of salvation through Jesus Christ, the book assumes the character of an appropriate bookend for the Judeo-Christian canon. In other words, the book was NEVER intended to be the wild-eyed and serpentine text of vengeance, death and destruction that heretics have made it.
I also agree with your characterization of the canon as a whole. I've said for many years now - Scripture was/is a joint venture between God and man. The notion that God is the author of the whole (and the one who brought it all together) is absurd! Whether we like it or not, God chose to have human fingerprints all over these writings (and Christ even indicated that not everything in those writings originated in the mind of God).
Delete