Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
The Biblical Book of Revelation is a bit of an enigma. Here are five mistakes we make in our approach to reading it.
- We treat it like prediction. Unlike every other book in the Bible, we act like this one book predicts the future. Nope. It is something closer to an allegory that helps us make sense of our present.
- We read it literally. Because the book is full of vivid imagery, we usually treat the visions as literal, physical, and real—rather than what they are imagery. In contrast, when Jesus tells a parable about seeds, we usually don’t struggle with recognizing that he’s talking about us.
- We think it is about divine judgment. The evangelist weaves a story about our behavior in light of divine judgment. It isn’t a story of the stuff God will do (see #1 again), but about who we are in light of who God calls us to be.
- We ignore the critique of Empire. The entire book is about the evil of empire, of exploitation, of stealing, and the ways people extort each other. By focusing on prediction and judgment, we ignore what actually is being judged—empire itself.
- Those raptured are the ones who reject Jesus. The underlying plot of Revelation is that the people who follow the way of Jesus are protected like the Hebrew people were protected in the Passover. When we say “you are marked as Christ’s own forever,” we are connecting ourselves with the mission of God, rather than with the mission of worldly empires.
Revelation is definitely the most misunderstood book of the Bible. But knowing how to read it better helps us to understand why it speaks to our world right now.
With love,
Drew+