Historically, a feature that often shows up for some people during troubled eras is an increasing obsession with predictions regarding the “end times,” or events surrounding the end of the world.
In our current difficulties and hard times, this concern has been heightened because of the war with Iran and reports of some U.S. military leaders connecting the war as presaging, or even triggering, the “rapture,” the physical return of Jesus, and the end of the world.
Bob Guffey
I’ve seen posts on social media from people concerned about predictions about the end of the world and when the “rapture” will happen. Apparently, there’s even a way to place bets on when it would take place — although logic would dictate that, to pick up your winnings, you would have to be among the multitudes left behind.
The problem, among many, with this frenzy is it ignores the clear, simple truth that Jesus, when pressed to name the timing of his return, clearly said no one knows, including him (Matthew 24:36).
That being the case, you could make a good argument that this combination of faulty theology and anxiety-fueled obsession is a basic lack of trust in the God who created and loves us — and a great waste of time away from our primary calling as disciples of Jesus.
Where we should focus
Instead, as disciples, we should concern ourselves with what the Lord Jesus was (and is) concerned with — loving God and loving others as Christ to the world. We also should apply ourselves to grow deeper in knowledge that helps us understand the depth of what the Bible is trying to say.
A good place to start with the latter is to spend time with the book that is the subject of so much misunderstanding — the Revelation of John.
When it comes to the Revelation of John — like with all our study of Scripture — our first concern toward understanding comes when we answer the key question: “What did the first hearers and readers know then that we might not know today?”
“What did the first hearers and readers know then that we might not know today?”
In answering that question in the case of the Revelation, we must become students of the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament) and the world of Christians in the first two centuries A.D.
With the Revelation, we know John’s congregations brought to the text certain experiences and assumptions regarding a then-popular and common style of Jewish and early Christian writing for times of peril (apocalyptic), of which there are many books like Revelation, and the biblical, social, political and economic circumstances of their times. Learning about these unlocks for us the value they found in this profound, and often profoundly confusing, word from God.
In understanding the context of the lives and experiences of the earliest Christians, and in coming to grips with the reality of Christian martyrs and martyrdom — words in the Greek New Testament that are usually translated as witness and testimony and mark the real-life experience of the early centuries of our faith, we find Revelation truly fulfilling what its name means.
The word “revelation“ means “to pull back or undo the veil.” In coming to understand John and his times, we have an opportunity to discover not a confusing set of signs and symbols designed to tell 21st-century Christians details on the unfolding of cataclysmic events in the future, but powerful and deep connections to the hope Christians have in Christ and his Cross, past, present, future and forever.
It is a hope so strong it can pull Christians through the darkest circumstances because of what Christ has done for us.
Our work in Revelation can connect us, also, to the roots of our forefathers and foremothers in the faith and their courage and passion for the gospel.
“It is a hope so strong it can pull Christians through the darkest circumstances because of what Christ has done for us.”
We can discover what it meant to them to be followers of Jesus Christ. These earliest Christians were reached by the gospel of Jesus that called together a new and large family made up of men and women, rich and poor, young and old, slave and free, Jew and Gentile, laborer and members of Caesar’s household. They believed the gospel and so trusted the gospel that they risked everything on God’s version of reality, not Caesar’s.
In the very literal testimony — that is, sacrifice — of their lives, they stayed true to the values of the kingdom (kin-dom) of God, even in dark and fierce times.
They embodied the words of Paul, spiritually and literally, to be “crucified with Christ; and it is no longer (they) who live, but it is Christ who lives in (them).” In the family of faith, we stand on their shoulders.
In our times, it can be hard to talk about the Revelation without disagreements about “end times” and interpretations that can divide the body of Christ. Still, Revelation can speak meaningfully and elegantly for our day in ways in which every reasonable person can benefit, if we are willing to listen.
7 revelations for today
What does Revelation have to say to us today in this way?
Let me offer seven ways — a good number, and one woven throughout the fabric of the drama of the Revelation:
- In every age the possibility exists of life in the most challenging of life-and-death circumstances. When that reality comes, hold on. You are not alone. Remember you will be able to hold on because Christ is present and holding on to you.
- Do not be surprised when difficult life circumstances get worse before they get better.
- A Christian’s relationship to God calls for letting go of relationships and practices in the world when those relationships and practices threaten allegiance that belongs only to God.
- Choosing primary allegiance to God and God’s ways can have enormous costs, worth paying.
- Great love and faithfulness among Christian brothers and sisters is made possible by the great love and faithfulness of Christ.
- Remember God already has conquered evil in this world. It has limits and it will not prevail.
- The power of the gospel of Jesus Christ conquers through sacrificial love. Christian martyrdom in ancient times reflected deep love and steadfast belief that the gospel brings life. Compare that to radical fundamentalist martyrdom of any belief or kind that seeks to take life and affect change through violence. Christians are to resist evil with vigor and to do so as Christ did and does.
Is God in control?
Finally, please hear these words.
In the context of its first hearing as the word of God — the Babylonian Exile and loss of the Promised Land — the first chapters of Genesis addressed not modern arguments about creation, evolution or worldwide floods, but the hidden, gnawing questions, doubts and concerns echoing in the hearts of God’s people, Israel-in-Exile, about God’s power, knowledge, providence and protection.
The people then wondered if God really was in control and if God cared. The word of God proclaimed, “In the beginning, God.” God was in the beginning and before the beginning. All that was created was created by God for the purposes of God.
In context of its first hearing as the word of God — Roman Empire and domination — the last chapters of the Revelation addressed not modern arguments over timetables, but the same hidden, gnawing questions, doubts and concerns echoing in the hearts of God’s people, the church, anticipating and then living the pain and exile of persecution and martyrdom.
The same word that proclaimed, “In the beginning, God,” now proclaims, “In the ending that yields new beginning, God,” through the Living Word that is Jesus Christ.
With the truth held in mind and heart, it seems Revelation may just reflect the supreme application of the gospel in the lives of human beings for, in Revelation, God’s dreams for Eden are finally coming true.
Bob Guffey serves as pastor of Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk, Va.