Revelation

The Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament.  Scary stuff, right? It should not be.  The very first words in the book are this, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servant the things that must soon take place.” 

First things first.  The book is meant to reveal (it is a revelation).  So it is meant to communicate, to tell a story, to inform, not confuse.  If I gave you a text from from the 1930’s that explained organic chemistry, unless you had already received some instruction in that regard, you wouldn’t consider the book inexplicable or a mystery.  You would understand that you simply did not possess the tools for rightly understanding it.

This is a similar situation with the book of Revelation.  We need to remember that this book was written in the first century, prior to the fall of Jerusalem, in the Mediterranean.  Different century, different culture, different language, different genre.  We have all read fiction, we have all read history, we have all read biographies, but the book of Revelation is none of these things, yet has many things in common with these.  Thus our tendency to impose upon the text some of the restraints and structures common to these other genres.  But this is a misleading and often dangerous approach.

The book of  revelation is apocalyptic, but it is not about the end of the physical world, as we know it.  With the exception of the last chapter or so, the book of Revelation has already taken place.  Obviously, in this short blog format, I cannot go into detail to explain much of this.  One thing that has helped me understand what is actually taking place is to think of the book of Revelation as the book of Daniel, part two.  In the book of Daniel (one of the last books, chronologically, in the Old Testament, the same symbolism and apocalypticism is used.  But the main difference is that Daniel ends with the command to close up the book and leave it a mystery.  We should think of the book of Revelation as the opening up of, and the explanation of, the book of Daniel.  It is very much so that Revelation picks up where Daniel leaves off, but then reveals what Daniel kept hidden.

Ultimately, the book of Revelation is about the end of the Old Covenant.  It tells the story of Jesus' coming, ministry, death, resurrection and defeat of sin and death.  It closes up and finishes off the Old Covenant and leads mankind into the New Covenant.

There is so much in the book that people do not understand (myself included) simply because we are 21st century Americans.

For further reading, I would recommend: "The Vindication of Jesus Christ: A Brief Readers Guide to Revelation" and "Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating of the book of Revelation".

Race?

One thing that is really valuable and poignant about the occasionally occurring discussion about the “color/race” of Jesus is the reality of what the New Covenant actually brought into being.  Prior to Jesus' life, death and resurrection, the question of race was the main point.  During the Old Covenant, if someone wanted to be part of the people of God, one had to be a child of Abraham.  Technically speaking, to be a child of Abraham meant to be communally acknowledged as part of the people of Israel, i.e., circumcised, following the law, etc.) 

But with the institution of the New Covenant and the passing of the Old Covenant, it is no longer about being Jewish, its about having faith in Jesus as the Messiah and being part of the Christian church.  So, if someone wants to argue that Jesus was black, it’s really irrelevant. (But he was not white, yellow or red either.  Because he is Jewish, he is light brown.) 

It doesn’t matter what color your skin is, it doesn’t matter what country you come from.  What matters is faith in the Triune God and community in the church.  And the church is everywhere.