Revelation In Perspective

A current use of two very different scripture passages illustrate a point about what often happens when well-meaning people adopt scripture passages without studying the context. Something of a similar nature can happen with the book of Revelation.

A favourite passage of a number of people I know is Jeremiah 29:11, which reads (in the New Revised Standard Version):

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. (NIV)

This passage fills my friends with hope and sustains them in times of trial – which are both wonderful things.

Jeremiah 29:11 is usually presented as a promise to the Christian. What I find troubling is that every one of them found this passage quoted without its context in a devotional reading of some kind. The devotional’s writer applies a single verse to a situation far removed from the original context of the verse. In other words, they did not do their homework.

What none of them tells the reader is that this passage is from a letter written by the Prophet Jeremiah to a group of Jewish slaves in Babylon. The entire nation was being cursed by God for failure to live up to their end of the covenant they enjoyed with God. He is telling them to take their punishment gracefully and obey their Babylonian overlords while that condition continues – until he rescues their great-grandchildren from Babylonian captivity.

In other words, the “future with hope” is guaranteed not to happen within their lifetime. They still have to put up with their punishment, which their own children and grandchildren will inherit because of their sins. There is no forgiveness being offered to them, only a future hope for later generations.

The reason Jeremiah is writing is to counter a message from false prophets that predicts the early fall of Babylon and their return to Jerusalem. He wants them to understand that their punishment will not be shortened. Rather, the false prophets will themselves meet their doom at God’s hands – the same hands that forced them into exile.

He is basically telling them to accept their servitude without complaining, and especially without revolting against their oppressors. Nothing good could come from revolting against Babylon. (Jesus is saying similar things to his Jewish audience about revolting against the Romans in his famous “turn the other cheek” sermon.)

I have to wonder how completely relevant a letter written to 5th century B.C. Jews under a well-deserved curse is to a forgiven and free Christian people in the 20th century. Are there not better words from Jesus with which to give hope to a Christian?

Another passage that has me wondering about the Bible study depth of the average devotional writer is the one that takes Deuteronomy 31:6 and turns it into a promise that God will always be with the Christian:

Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.

This is a command that Moses gives to Israel as they are about to enter the Promised Land 40 years after their parents and grandparents were to afraid to do it. Moses is telling them not to be as chicken as their ancestors were to face the armies of the land of Canaan. These were marching orders for an invading army of occupation, with orders to rid the land of it current inhabitants.

The context of the verse hardly makes it the promise of a gentle companionship by God for a Christian under persecution. It is addressed to a specific nation at a specific time for a specific purpose.

The reason I mention the above examples is to highlight that we often do something similar with the book of Revelation.

• We may assume that it was written in a code that was intended to be broken in our day.
• Or we may assume that the original readers were not meant to understand it.
• Or we may assume that certain of the visions correspond to modern military warfare.
• Or we may assume from the geography of the Roman mail route that the seven churches who were the original recipients are intended as a kind of roadmap indicating seven “eras” of the church.

At one time I managed to make all of these assumptions at once!

What I failed to account for is the the Apostle John had been in overall charge of all of these churches from his headquarters in nearby Smyrna until his imprisonment on Patmos. He knew these churches well, and was inspired by God to tell them what they specifically needed to hear from God.

For one thing, I usually skipped over the individualized addresses to the different churches to get to “the good stuff” of the visions. Even when I did read the different addresses to the churches, I tended to look at them as addressed to different “church eras.” Interestingly enough, almost every church I have been involved with wants to think of itself as the “Philadelphia” church, because they are the only one that God doesn’t have complaints about. Go figure.

The rest of the letter, including the visions, is intended for all of the churches to read and understand. They were to understand something very simple and specific about God and His workings: What you see is not all that there is. There is a spiritual war going on beyond what we can see, and God is inevitably winning that war.

The reason John is sharing the visions that follow his messages to the individual churches (whose problems he is quite aware of) is to encourage them to stay close to Jesus no matter what comes their way.

His colleagues Peter and Paul had personally preached in many of these churches and their environs prior to John’s oversight of the region. Both had predicted persecutions and even betrayals within the ranks of the church membership. Both had already been martyred in Rome as a result of Roman opposition to the Christian message.

John knew that it would only get worse. The last thing the church needs in a time of persecution is to lose focus on Jesus. Of course, internal corruption and dissension certainly do not help. John is writing to try to lift up the eyes of the churches to Jesus so that they can both resolve the internal issues and prepare for intense persecution.

John (not to mention Peter and Paul) was very familiar with persecution. It was the very reason he was writing from the island of Patmos. It was a prison island (think Icarus and Daedalus) where political prisoners who could not be executed outright were kept. (According to Tertullian they had tried unsuccessfully to boil him in oil, with the same effect as with Shadrach, Meschak and Abednego in the furnace in the book of Daniel. So exile was their only option.)

Some claim that the book of Revelation is written in a code that could only be understood in the generation we live in now, because we live in an age of modern weaponry that would have seemed like demonic magic in the days John wrote. Others believe it is coded to reveal an order of the last days leading to a specific great tribulation that also could not be understood until today.

Whether or not some of the visions represent futuristic weapons of mass destruction or signals a descent to a great tribulation complete with an Antichrist figure as some moderns hold, the main message remains clear and understandable to all generations.

Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and nothing in heaven and earth can prevent his triumphant return to rule the earth. Stick with him and all will be well with you. Deny or abandon him, and meet the fate of his unfortunate enemies.

They understood the message when John wrote it. Do we?