https:\/\/readingacts.com\/2012\/04\/05\/revelation-and-apocalyptic-imagery\/<\/a>) <\/p>\n\n\n\nKnowing that the book of Revelation is from the late first century, written on a Greek island in a time where Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire, we can start to unpack and interpret some of the vivid and dramatic imagery that we find. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Numbers, for example, have meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number seven represents completion or totality\u2026 the sum of all of the heavens (3) and earth (4)\u2026 like the seven days of creation<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twelve represents God\u2019s people\u2026 three times four\u2026 like the twelve tribes of Israel or the twelve apostles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can start to see the beasts as the empire of Rome and its allies and the throne is about where power ultimately resides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second tool I want to give you is an orientation in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I brought with me this morning a commentary on the book of Revelation that lays out at least four different ways that you can approach this text and then provides at least four different interpretations of a verse based on which approach you are taking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How many of us here have read \u201cThe Late Great Planet Earth\u201d or the \u201cLeft Behind\u201d series?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those authors and some preachers that you might have heard on the t.v. or radio, have a future orientation to the Book of Revelation. They believe that it predicts things that will happen, but haven\u2019t yet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or maybe that are happening as we speak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But just as I wouldn\u2019t take that political cartoon from WWII and use the metaphorical imagery to speak of future events, I don\u2019t think this is the orientation we should take towards Revelation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It might sell, but I\u2019m not sure that it is truly faithful to the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And neither do the leading people who study the Book of Revelation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his book \u201cMaking Sense of the Bible\u201d, Adam Hamilton writes: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got ten commentaries on Revelation in my library, written by some of the foremost scholars to study this book, and every one of them holds some combination of the preterist and idealist perspectives. This is in stark contrast to the views of most television evangelists and many conservative preachers, who favor the futurist view. Most mainline scholars see the book as describing events of the author\u2019s day.\u201d (p.285).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, he just threw some big words at us, but the \u201cspiritual\u201d or \u201cidealist\u201d view thinks that the book is timeless\u2026 that it uses metaphor to talk about how good and evil constantly battle in this world with the promise that God will ultimately win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cpreterist\u201d view is oriented towards our past and John of Patmos\u2019s present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John isn\u2019t reading tea leaves or telling the future, he is describing events that are happening as he is writing and speaking about how God is present in the midst of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many scholars hold those two in tension. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They look back to what was happening in the time of John of Patmos\u2026 apocalyptic literature after all is about revealing what is there\u2026 but believe we can apply the themes of the text to the struggle between God and the powers of the world we experience and remembering that God will ultimately prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This orientation is probably the most helpful to us today as we try to figure out what to do with this strange writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, I want to remind you to keep the main thing the main thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The text we began with this morning from Revelation is a sort of overview or introduction to the themes that we will discover within the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
John of Patmos has received a word, a revelation, from Jesus Christ the slaughtered and risen Lamb and is sharing it with the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The message is simple: Jesus is coming and he will sit on the throne and the world and all its powers will not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our work is to allow God to make us into a kingdom, to serve as priests, and give God praise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those are the basics of this entire book and it is the lens we can use to make sense of every verse we read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The locusts and plagues and persecution\u2026 the worst things will never be the last thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we have a choice about whether we will serve God and worship God or if we will choose to throw our lot in with the powers of this world that bring nothing but disaster and death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And friends, we know the end of the story! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know how it turns out! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
God wins!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friends, this is a book of hope and love and life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These aren\u2019t meant to be texts of terror or designed to confuse or scare us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Nadia Bolz-Weber writes, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201coriginally\u2026 apocalyptic literature \u2014the kind that was popular around the time of Jesus\u2014existed not to scare the bejeezus out of children so they would be good boys and girls, but to proclaim a big, hope-filled idea: that dominant powers are not ultimate powers. Empires fall.\u00a0 \u00a0Tyrants fade.\u00a0\u00a0 Systems die. God is still around.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p> https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/acts-of-faith\/wp\/2018\/03\/14\/were-in-the-midst-of-an-apocalypse-and-thats-a-good-thing\/<\/a> <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nThe world as we know it\u2026 with all its trials and tribulations\u2026 is coming to an end, and we are fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than that\u2026 we have hope because it is all in God\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Text: Revelation 1:4-8 \u201cIt\u2019s the end of the world as we know it\u2026 . It\u2019s the end of the world as we know it\u2026 It\u2019s the end of the world as we know it\u2026 And I feel fine.\u201d More than fine, actually. I feel hope. I feel promise. I am clinging to the love of…<\/span><\/p>\nContinue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[50,70,76,299,484,542,1811,1810,694,1814,757,789,840,1813,843,1812],"class_list":["post-4183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-easter","category-kenotic-words","tag-adam-hamilton","tag-apocalyptic","tag-art","tag-easter","tag-hope","tag-jesus-christ","tag-magrey-devega","tag-nadia-bolz-weber","tag-numbers","tag-political","tag-power","tag-prophet","tag-resurrection","tag-reveal","tag-revelation","tag-throne","post_format-post-format-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/title-light.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7cYpi-15t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4185,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions\/4185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvagedfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}