Revelation: speaking of the church..

I owned up this morning to having attended a Speed Awareness Course this week due to the fact that I was caught speeding a few weeks ago. That’ll teach me - maybe! One thing the course did teach me was just how much of the journey one can miss through lack of proper concentration. There we were, focussing on all sorts of things on the DVD, only to miss the glaringly obvious; there was a ------------- in the room! (I can’t tell you what, because you will probably end up on the same course!!)

Speaking of missing things on the journey leads me on to the prime purpose of the Book of Revelation. God did not give it us to confuse or amuse; he gave it us to alert us to his presence and agenda in this world, lest we get so preoccupied with the here & now that we end up at our destination (hopefully the right one) clueless as to how we got there. Revelation does, I believe, have much to say to the church of every generation. There are stunning truths and insights to be found that will transform fearful Christians into fearless Christians. But there is more, there are events described that we have yet to witness on the earth, events that will nonetheless take place. In saying the above I have aligned myself with a particular school of interpretation of Revelation of which there are several.

5 views on interpreting Revelation:

Historicist interpretation: This approach views the book of Revelation as one prophetic vision of church history, from John’s day to the Second Coming, something akin to one long calendar. It’s extremely difficult to establish who’s who and where we are in this process as there are all sorts of possibilities as to what refers to which event in history, and we seem to reach the final day on several occasions as we read.

Preterists’ interpretation: This view argues that Revelation was totally grounded in the days of its writing, that the visions only meant something to Christians then, and they were fulfilled with the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Babylon the Great then represents apostate Israel who aid Rome (the Beast) in persecuting Christians, and it was therefore written to encourage Christians that their Jewish persecutors will be judged.

Futurists and Dispensationalists interpretation: Moving to the other extreme, Futurists think that most of Revelation will take place in a period of final crisis just before Christ’s return. The most popular form is Dispensational futurism which sees the seven churches written to in Revelation as referring to the church in its seven stages throughout history, ending up with Laodicea which speaks of the lukewarm church at the end of the age, i.e now. This view has the difficulty that it would have had little relevance to the lives of the Christians in John’s day (and indeed Christians throughout history) yet John clearly expects his readers to make connections between the visions he sees and the circumstances of the first century.

Idealists (Symbolic) Interpretation: This approach avoids all the difficulties of trying to identify the happenings in the book of Revelation by identifying its purpose as being to convey spiritual lessons to believers. The imagery is not to be interpreted, cannot be interpreted, as it speaks of happenings in the realm of spiritual warfare. However you just have to read chapter 1 verse 1 to see otherwise.

Progressive parallelism interpretation: This view acknowledges that Revelation spoke to Christians in John’s day, to Christians in our day, and everywhere in between! But as well as conveying timeless truths and lessons for believers, there is also a final, ‘actual’ consummation in view, and so the symbolism does take on actual, tangible fulfillment. This view acknowledges a prophetic, predictive content to Revelation, but gives due credit to the apocalyptic nature of the book, drawing on Old Testament imagery to give interpretation to the symbolism. This view also identifies a series of visions, each with a message of its own. The ‘end’ is therefore reached several times, at the conclusion of each vision, before another vision brings us to the same conclusion from a different standpoint. This is the view that we shall be following.

Meanwhile, as we make the journey, the Church is shown in Revelation for all she is - radiant, resplendent, Golden Lampstands in whose company the risen, ascended, glorified Christ walks and makes his presence known. Jesus is in his church, working in and through her.
Last word from Michael Eaton: You can’t say ‘I love Jesus but I don’t love his church’. If you don’t love the church you don’t love Jesus. For he loves it. He was the one who Himself announced that his plan for the world involves building his church.

Have you seen it? Are you taking your place & playing your part? Next Getting Connected course is this coming weekend (see The Loop for details).

Goff