BLOG 10/16/16. THE BOOK OF REVELATION: A REALITY CHECK TO US.
I’ve always been enormously grateful for that final book in the Bible, The Revelation to John, what with all of its enigmatic, confusing often, and apocalyptic figures and metaphors, … for its role as a ‘reality check’ for the people of God, for reminding us of the ongoing, very real battle between the Beast and the Lamb. To those who live in an unreal illusion of the Christian life as a: “Oh, my sins have been forgiven, I can live happily ever-after and go to heaven when I die, tra-la-la …” over-optimism, it is a reality check in its reminder that God has indeed invaded, this age in the Person of His Son, this broken, this dominion of darkness, has destroyed the power of the devil, and is presently engaged in the cosmic warfare to ultimately consummate his New Creation at the end of the age when: “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (In my career as a teaching pastor I deliberately preached through it several times–it is so rich.)
It reminds us all that the people of God are, with their Lord, engaged in the huge cosmic battle of this age between the beast (Satan) and the Lamb, and that God’s people become the ongoing victims of the malice of that beast, so much so that they cry out: “How long, O Lord?”
To those who are over pessimistic, it reminds them that it is their faithfulness that is producing the fulfillment of God’s New Creation as he calls, through them and their lives and testimony, “a great multitude from every nation, from all tribes and and peoples and languages …” to stand before the Lamb, … and that: (from a previous epistle) “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”
It contains the heartening reminder to those despairing and horribly persecuted saints under the altar, that it is their prayers that ultimately ascend to heaven and determine the course of human history. It is a reminder that they ultimately conquer the beast: “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”
We look out at our world of today and we see all of this: poverty, malice, hostility, deception, human despair, famine, principalities and powers, lies, ethnic rivalry, slaughter, … what are we to make of it? The Book of Revelation spells out our Christian understanding of God’s design in human history, of Satan’s death-throes malice in opposing the Lamb, what with all the bloodshed, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the anti-Christian governments and economic powers … but in the midst of it all, the Lamb is working his purpose out in his church globally.
That doesn’t make it any easier for those suffering, and crying out: “How long O Lord?” But the Book of Revelation does come to its conclusion with:
“Then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, … On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” What follow is our assurance that this is all a part of the ongoing drama of God’s great salvation, that all that is alien and Satan himself shall be destroyed, and there will be consummated a new heaven and a new earth, and the assurance (which we begin to taste even now as his people) that; “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more …”
The Book of Revelation is a beautiful reality check and gives us an interpretation of what we are living with today as his people in every nation. What gift!
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