Revelation!
One of the most controversial, intriguing, popular, misunderstood, and powerful sections of the Bible is the Book of Revelation. For good and bad, people’s entire lives are affected and even plotted-out according to the words the apostle John wrote in this body of scripture. If nothing else, Revelation is one of the biggest curiosities of the 20th and 21st centuries, drawing people within and without faith in Jesus into conversation about its meaning.
Starting Sunday morning, April 20, at 9:30 at 710 Park St., Dr. John Byron from Ashland Theological Seminary will be leading a short series exploring ways to read and understand Revelation. John will help set framework through which an honest, responsible pursuit of meaning and application can be made. Any young adult is invited and encouraged to attend.
In order to prepare for this series, John would like to share an article he wrote for a local paper. Even if you can’t attend the series, please read the article below to gain an understanding of the perspective he will be sharing. Feel free to converse on the article’s content by entering a comment below the blog post. I hope to see you on Sunday!
Here’s Dr. Byron’s article:
The Middle East Crisis and Bible Prophecy
John Byron Ph.D.
jbyron@ashland.edu
The current Arab-Israeli conflict has caused some Christians to wonder if this is the end of the world as we know it. Indeed, one only has to turn on the TV to find any number of televangelists declaring that this is the beginning of the end. These televangelists are sometimes billed as ‘prophecy experts’ who effortlessly weave together modern events in the world with apocalyptic elements found in the Bible. Each time the Middle East heats up another series of predictions, books and movies are made each connecting the politics of the region with the end of the world. The problem, however, is that when these events fail to occur they have to be reconfigured to explain why that last prediction was not incorrect. The fact is, there have been countless predictions made about the end of the world and none of them have been correct.
My reason for not viewing the current or any prior Arab-Israeli conflict as the end of the world is predicated on how I understand the nature of Bible prophecy. The major source used to predict end time events is the New Testament book known as Revelation. The reason Revelation is often used to predict end times events is because this is what it seems to do. But that is an oversimplification. Revelation represents a genre of literature found in antiquity intended to encourage those who were oppressed both politically and socially. The book of Revelation was written to a group of Christians suffering persecution under Rome and looking for a day when God would turn the tables on Rome and the evil in the world. This literature was intended more to give hope to people in their current situation rather than to serve as a 2000 year old road map to the end of the world. The book of Revelation is an historical document written to a particular group of people at a particular time in history. Moreover, we have a number of examples of this literature from antiquity demonstrating that Revelation is not unique. It is also a religious document that belongs to a certain genre of literature just as epistles belong to the genre of letter writing and gospels to the genre of biography. Since Revelation is particular type of literature, I interpret the symbolism according to that genre. Thus stars falling out of the sky, dragons, conquering armies, plagues and armies of demons or angels are all part of the world of apocalyptic literature. Just as a person going to a horror movie would expect certain elements to occur in the movie (blood, screams, scary monster etc), so to a reader of apocalyptic literature would expect these elements to be present. Therefore, I interpret none of it as predicting actual events but as symbolic descriptions of how the ancients perceived God working in the world. Apocalyptic literature was a way to deliver a message of hope that God would one day act on their behalf.
So is Revelation prophecy? Yes, the author identifies it as such. But the label ‘prophecy’ is not necessarily synonymous with predicting the future. In the Jewish and Christian tradition prophecy had more to do with what God was doing in the present age. Prophecy was more a critique of the people of God than a promise to annihilate their enemies. Even when future events were predicted, it was more about the imminent rather than distant future. Revelation fits this definition. Besides giving hope to persecuted Christians, Revelation is also a social critique intended to warn Christians not to become enamored with the Empire. It opens with letters listing the problems among some churches that seem to reflect their comfort level of living within the Roman social and political system. Revelation reminds the Church that the only true king is God not the Emperor. In the end, whenever that may be, one has to answer to God and not the Emperor.
So what does this mean for the modern Middle East conflict? We should not be watching in expectation for the end of the world by trying to connect the dots between Revelation and modern events. To do so is to betray a lack of appreciation for the kind of literature Revelation represents. I am uncomfortable with Christians who are quietly celebrating the current humanitarian crisis as the fulfillment of God’s end time plan. The teachings of Jesus promote peace and compassion not the celebration of war and death. Even if a Christian does believe that Revelation is a road map to the end times (which I do not) they should still be striving for peace. As Christians we should be working for peace between Jews and Arabs rather than finding theological satisfaction from the horrible ravages of war. I think a better use of Revelation would be to critique the Church and our comfort level within society rather than as a way to plot the world’s demise. Jesus said love your enemies, not plan their extinction.
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This sounds very interesting to me and very instructive to those who will benefit from Dr. Byron’s teaching. I’d love to hear all that he has to stay, but, will be involved in other commitments at that time. Thanks for pursuing this.