Revelation and our current times

Before you think I’m one of those pastors who is all into reading the times and thinking that they are predicted in Revelation, I’m not.

I subscribe to the school of thought that says that Revelation was written for the early church and about the time of the early church, not some distant time in which we twist events to make them fit into some pre-conceived narrative that we have constructed so that we get to think we are in the end times, making us somehow more special than previous generations. Here’s the deal, Jesus said we don’t know the day or the time of his return. I’ll take Jesus’ word over someone who thinks they have Christ’s return all figured out.

Revelation is one of the books of Scripture that is often misunderstood and misused. I get it. Part of it is the way John of Patmos wrote it — all the fantasy-like creatures and the what sounds like Hollywood effects. Often Revelation is seen as this book of destruction in which God throws a hissy fit and destroys the world. But that’s not what Revelation is about at all. Revelation is actually a hopeful and hope-filled book of Scripture. In the end, God wins, and without fighting. The final battle isn’t even a battle at all. It’s over before it begins. That shouldn’t surprise us — we’re talking about God after all.

So Revelation isn’t some predictor of a dystopian future. Rather it is a guide for how we get through any time the theology of empire rears its ugly head.