Revelation
By Anne L. GoetzIt seems as though just about every book of the Bible is at the center of raging controversy. What genre is the first part of Genesis? What are Christians to think of the conquering of the Canaanites in Joshua? Why are our four Gospels canonical, and not the gospels of Thomas or Judas? What on earth are we to do with Revelation?
To be sure, in recent years Revelation has been given much attention because of the Left Behind books and others of that ilk. However, this has been very superficial attention, focused on denouncing or supporting the specific interpretation of Revelation put forward in the series. I can’t remember the last time that I heard a sermon on Revelation, or participated in a Bible study on it. This is unfortunate, because it is a part of Scripture, and cannot just be ignored, no matter how confusing it is.
So, this summer, two friends and I are going to read Revelation and discuss it, not with an eye to solving all the difficulties, but in order to start thinking about this difficult book. Cecelia Raker ’11, Jennifer Delurey ’12, and I will trade e-mails from our different parts of the globe. Please do come and think with us!
Revelation 1-3: The Letters to the Churches
Anne: Recently I was talking with someone about Bible study in general, and he suggested a new question to ask of the text to go alongside application (what can we learn about how to live our own lives?): what can we learn about Christ? If the book we are studying were the only book of the Bible we had, what could we know about Him?
I kept this question in mind while reading the first three chapters of Revelation and was struck by what a triumphant picture of Christ is given. Each of the seven letters to the churches begins with a description of Christ: “These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands (2:1), who is the First and Last, who died and came to life again (2:8), who has the sharp, double-edged sword (2:12), the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze (2:18), who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars (3:1), who is holy and true, who holds the key of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open (3:7), the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation (3:14).” Then, in each of the letters, He says that He knows the state of each church. This is Christ as He is now, victorious, full of power and glory.
Often I feel as though this picture of Christ is missing in much of contemporary Christian culture. Right and good emphasis is put on Christ’s suffering and crucifixion, his gentleness in being a friend to sinners. However, too often it seems that his resurrection is forgotten, his final victory over death, and even more his ascension and kingship. I’m put in mind of the great altarpieces from the Renaissance that show Christ at the last day, judging the living and the dead. Has his kingship sunk into our collective psyche enough that today’s art could show the same thing? I’m trying to think of contemporary hymns, but I can’t think of too many that point past the present’s repentance and assurance of forgiveness and into the glorious future.
Well, those were my first impressions. There was so much in just those three chapters! What do you all think?
Comments (3)
I think it depends whether by “contemporary hymns” you mean hymns written recently or hymns still sung these days.
If you mean the latter, then there are plenty of victorious hymns — think “How Great Thou Art” or Handel’s Messiah (“Bleeeesssing and honor and glory and…”) or even “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
If you mean the former, though, perhaps “Battle Hymn of the Republic” sheds some light on why we don’t see so many victorious hymns/songs of worship being written. I’d wager that since the death of Christendom, people feel less rousingly victorious all the time, or at least less rousingly victorious than they did back when everyone was (at least nominally) Christian. In a post-Christian, pre-Kingdom world, maybe people just don’t get the sensation of victory in the same way they used to.
Not that I think that’s such a bad thing. I think it’s pretty important that the Church recognize that we are a people in diaspora who /haven’t/ yet won. We know that Good wins in the end, but in the meantime, perhaps we need to be reminded that our work isn’t finished here.
Or maybe it’s something entirely different. It could be that in this touchy-feely, self-help era, people just don’t like Sousa marches the way they used to.
Interesting point about the study of Revelation and how difficult it is to approach. I see Samir’s point about keeping the work going in this middle period and not sitting back to allow the ultimate scene to play out now, but I also see the necessity of having the victorious Christ included integrally into the whole picture. Something I have trouble conceptualizing is Jesus in the present sense. I get it in the future and the past, but present is still hard for me to wrap my head around when I really think about it. That’s he’s really alive–now? He is. And I guess with that is included the present kingship of Jesus. The future king Jesus, I get. But thinking about the present king Jesus forces me to rethink what’s really running my life.
Back to the victory–perhaps victory is a much more fleeting concept now. Things can be undone or fixed much more quickly. There’s less of a sense of permanency or of any sort of absolutes in society. Maybe that affects how we view the concept of victory as it relates to Christ.
On another note, a Bible study group I attended during high school went through Revelation for a good chunk of time, analyzing it closely. However, we were looking specifically at the aspect of worship that is so vividly pictured in Revelation rather than the tumultuous events that are described. It might be interesting to keep an eye out for how worship is specifically presented as you get further into the book.
PS: Yay, Sousa marches!
[...] For Part 1 in Anne’s series working through Revelation, click here. [...]