The Book of Revelation Reveals the God who is Faithful from Beginning to End

Thus we come to the end of the biblical narrative, the final book in the New Testament, Revelation.

Revelation is an enigma to Christians. It’s more often read as a prophecy of damnation inducing terror to those who have not had their names “written in the Book of Life” (Rev. 20:15) than in any sort of connection with the rest of the Bible. Motifs of dragons, destruction, and the end of the world run throughout; interpretations linking these to Germany, Russia, Iran, or any other nation opposing the rule of the rightful Christian nation of the United States of America abound.

Yes, I’m being sarcastic. I no more believe that the United States are the chosen people of God than the Crusaders were the deliverers of the Holy Land from the tyrannical pagan Moslems or the Spanish were the God-ordained purveyors of the true faith to the Americas. I realize that I’m putting myself out there to the firing squad, which hammers my point home all the more— namely, that we love to interpret the Bible in the ways that serve us best.

The ways in which Revelation has been used to promote religious superiority in the two thousand years since its writing is a prime example.

Its descriptions of great tribulation are co-opted to pit those who believe the ‘right doctrine’ about salvation against those who are ‘lost.’

The lake of fire drives terror into the hearts of listeners as they are given the choice whether to “repent and be saved” or “be tormented day and night forever.” By this, I am referring to Jonathan Edwards’ famous message, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” not the message of Revelation itself.

The depictions of God raining down judgment by hail and brimstone on the kings of the earth who fled in terror from his wrath have been used by preachers time and again to inspire more fear in their listeners.

And this is what we call the hope of salvation?

Friends, we have missed the point of Revelation altogether if this is what we glean from it. We have ripped it from the biblical narrative and have molded it to fit our political, economic, social, and religious agendas. We have adopted a theology that looks far more like medieval Catholicism with its practices of penance and indulgences used as a “get out of hell free” card.

So what, then, is the point of Revelation, and how does it fit with the broader biblical narrative?

Remember how we discussed that the movement of following Jesus was decidedly Jewish at the start and how Paul was instrumental in broadening this message to the Greeks and other non-Jews (see last week’s post)?

Right, so when we read Revelation, we must read it in the context of this early group of believers who were scattered across the Roman Empire and consisted of a mash-up of Jews and Gentiles, men and women, and masters and slaves. The Apostle John is credited with the writing of Revelation, and he writes to the seven churches of Asia Minor (what is now modern-day Türkiye).

Lesson number one when reading the Bible: Consider the context.

The Bible was written firstly to a people of a time and place far different than our own. A surface reading of the Bible will not yield a good understanding of Scripture because it is too easy to rip it from its original context and meaning… hence, the many ways that Revelation has been used inappropriately by church leaders, preachers, and presidents alike.

The context of Revelation is the Roman Empire at the end of the first century AD. The reigning emperor was Domitian, who made Nero’s persecution of Christians seem tame. The imperial cult—emperor worship—was on the rise, and Christian persecution rose along with it as Christians refused to worship the emperor or proclaim Caesar as Lord. The political and social climate toward Christians was hot and hostile.

The audience to which John was writing, as we’ve already mentioned, was a hodgepodge of Greeks, Jews, and other nationalities of the Roman Empire who had been conquered and scattered across the Mediterranean. However, Revelation possesses strong Jewish-inspired prophetic language. Read the prophetic books of Daniel and Ezekiel, and you’ll see what I mean. The context of these books is the Jewish exile to Babylon, and they describe weird and fantastical creatures who worship at the throne of the living God, rivers of rushing water, gardens and trees, temples and cities, and a return of the Jews to their promised land.

Sound familiar?

It’s almost like John was comparing the diaspora (scattering) of early Christians to the Jewish exile, and the beast of Babylon to the Roman Empire.

Oh, that’s exactly what he’s doing. He says so in Revelation 17:

Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery: Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth. I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. (Rev. 17:3-6)

John is not hiding the connection between Babylon and Rome, or the scattering of the Christians to the Jewish exile. Yes, he says, you are just like the Jews who suffered at the hands of the oppressive empire of Babylon.

Too often, modern-day Christians have identified with the suffering Christians of the first century and said, “That’s us! We are suffering, but don’t you worry, our enemy will have their piece by the end of it. We will be victorious and they will die in flaming torment.”

To be fair, that is kind of what the visions given to John are saying, but with a far less vindictive spirit. The point, I think, is that the God who created the world, delivered his people in Exodus and Exile, and who came to earth as a man to live this human life and die for it will have the final say in the end.

This isn’t a thing of terror at all. It is a comfort because if this is the kind of God who would walk with his people through thick and thin through the entire biblical story, then this is the kind of God who will continue to walk with his people when they suffer under oppressive emperors. The Creator continues to live and reign over his creation.

The choice offered in Revelation is whether to align oneself with God and his people or to reject him altogether.

This is the same choice offered all the way through the Bible. It is not meant to separate us who are faithful and them who are not. Instead, it offers a vision of a new Creation, a new Jerusalem, a new Temple, and a fully new Humanity, and invites us to participate in it.

Let’s walk through a few examples from Revelation.

Firstly, John opens with these words,

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. (Rev. 1:1)

Modern-day Christians get rather hung up on the last part of that sentence without considering the significance of the first part. After all, we want to know what will soon take place, don’t we?

I’ll say it again: That’s not really the point.

The point, instead, is that this is a revelation of Jesus Christ.(1) That is, it reveals Jesus Christ. So the main emphasis of the letter is to reveal Jesus Christ. It’s not primarily about the visions of the future; it is Jesus Christ revealed to the confused, persecuted church of the first century.

The relevance of this is lost to most of us. Consider for a moment what it was like to live at that time: Jesus Christ had lived, died, and risen again some sixty years ago. The hearers of the letter are all second- or third-generation believers. Only John remained from the original twelve disciples who walked with Jesus.(2)

The churches had circulated the letters of Paul and the early copies of the gospels, but the question remained: What does it look like to follow the Way of Jesus when we are being persecuted socially, economically, and sometimes militarily for worshipping Jesus instead of Caesar?

John’s letter is the answer to this question, and he pulled from Jewish prophecy to describe his visions of redemption, salvation, and life together with Jesus.

After specific exhortations to each Asian church, John wrote his beautiful and weird visions of a slaughtered Lamb being worshipped by “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”” (Rev. 5:13)

The Lamb, of course, is Jesus; this imagery derives from the sacrifices and worship from the Torah and is connected to Jesus by John the Baptizer (c.f. John 1:29, 35).

Later in Revelation, Jesus is described as a victorious warrior king who strikes the nations and judges with justice and makes war (Rev. 19:11). Unfortunately, this passage has often been used to justify Christian warfare in Jesus’ name. I would argue again that this is not John’s point. Rather, the emphasis is on Jesus as rightful ruler and king, the God-man who is able to bring all of creation together in union with God as per the creation mandate, and as Israel failed to do on their own. Jesus fights the battles against evil and death (and remember, he’s already won!).

This letter to the Asian churches reveals Jesus Christ, the God who defeats sin, death, and conflict completely.

Secondly, three cycles of judgment come forth from the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls. Entire studies and commentaries have been written on these, so I won’t go into too much detail except to outline the general pattern here:

The first four signs depict progressively worsening judgments not unlike the Egyptian plagues.
The fifth sign shows the effects of stubborn rebellion against God and the plight of the suffering faithful.
The sixth reveals judgment on those who continue to stubbornly rebel.
The seventh describes the completion of God’s judgment—the heavenly temple is opened, the throne of God is visible, and the presence of God is made known with lightning, thunder, earthquake, and a great storm, not unlike God’s presence on Mount Sinai (Ex. 19).

Do you see the callbacks to the Exodus? The early believers certainly would have.

Listen up, says John. I know it’s hard and the oppression is severe, but God will deliver you just as he delivered Israel from Egypt.

With plague after plague, God judged the nations and kings of the earth just as he judged Pharaoh. With each judgment, the kings and nations were given opportunities to repent, but like Pharaoh, they hardened their hearts, choosing instead to worship their idols of money, security, and power (Rev. 6:15-17, 9:20-21, 17:1-2). They wept and wailed for the destruction of their great city, the archetype of Babylon (Rev. 18:9-20).

The judgment cycles are far less about the end of the world than we’ve assumed. Instead, they continue to proclaim the same narrative that we have heard from the beginning of the biblical story—we have a choice to choose God and life, or to choose ourselves, rebellion, and death.

Those who are faithful experience judgment as God’s justice to the oppressors. They hear this message as a call to persevere through hardship because God will see it put to rights.

Those who are rebellious and insist on exploiting others experience judgment as God’s wrathful fire of purification. They hear this message as one of death as it destroys everything they held dear. And yet, just as in the Exodus and Exile, there is more than a hint of God’s grace. God is patient, destroying only a portion of earth and sea. He is merciful, allowing the kings of the earth (an idiom for those who are rebellious) time to repent and return to God’s presence.

Thirdly, the new city of Jerusalem is a new Creation full of trees, rivers, jewels, and precious stones. One need only read Genesis 2 and compare it to Revelation 21 to marvel at the continuity of the biblical story.

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. (Gen. 2:8-14)
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal… Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Rev. 21:10-11, 22:1-2)

A new Creation and a new City are established where the tree of life heals the nations and all are welcome into its gates. And look! Even the kings of the earth enter it and bring their splendour into it—an implication of their worship of YHWH instead of their idols and wealth.

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. (Rev. 21:22-25)

So we see that the message of Revelation is not one of terror, but of comfort to a suffering people as they wait for justice. John connects the plight of the first-century Christians to the plight of the enslaved Hebrews in Egypt and the captive Jews in Babylon.

This is not the end of the story, he says. There will be a new creation; there will be salvation for all; there will be life after death because Christ is the slaughtered Lamb who has defeated death.

Interestingly, the word salvation appears in Revelation only three times.

Once, as the great multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language worships God, saying,

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:10)

A second time, after the dragon and accuser who seeks to destroy God’s people is defeated.(3)

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
    and the kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
    who accuses them before our God day and night,
    has been hurled down.” (Rev. 12:10)

Then, a third time after Babylon the Great has fallen,

After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” (Rev. 19:1-2)

Thus, salvation is directly tied to God’s justice over the oppressive rulers, empires, and forces, and never once linked to religious or political superiority.

The earlier reference to every nation, tribe, people, and language uniting in worship abolishes this idea altogether. The fact that Christians have used the book of Revelation to boost their religious superiority is appalling and frankly no better than the rebellious kings of the earth who cling to their idols of gold, silver, and bronze.

Nor is salvation in Revelation linked to escaping hell (i.e., the lake of fire).

Instead, it calls up themes of deliverance and redemption from systemic slavery, captivity, bondage, and oppression.

Salvation is justice for the oppressed.

Salvation is a call to repentance for those who have stubborn and rebellious hearts.

Salvation is uniting in worship regardless of cultural and political background.

Salvation is the healing of the nations.(4)

All that said, can we see how using Revelation as a prophecy for the end of the world as we know it is a little bit ridiculous? Using Revelation to support our political and military views detaches the amazing, beautiful, wild, and wonderful vision of John from the rest of the biblical narrative.

Instead, consider how Revelation is the final chapter of the grand story of the Bible. Consider how John masterfully uses Old Testament imagery from Creation to Exodus to Exile to Jesus to encourage the discouraged church.

The message is the same: God is present. He hears and sees your suffering. He will deliver. He will save. Keep your eyes on God and stay faithful.

Revelation reveals the God who is Faithful from Beginning to End.

Footnotes

The Greek indicates the possessive: Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (apokalypsis Iesou Christou), literally the “apocalypse of Jesus Christ.” Note that apocalypse means revelation or in verb form, to reveal.
There is some dispute as to whether John himself wrote the letter or whether it was written by his closest followers. For the purposes of this essay, I’m sticking with the long-held Christian tradition that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved and who wrote the Gospel of John and the three Epistles of John, wrote Revelation as well.
Recall Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.” In ancient mythology, dragons and serpents were synonymous, referring to ancient chaotic powers. In the biblical narrative, the serpent/dragon is a recurring motif of the evil forces opposing God’s good created order. That the dragon is thrown down and defeated in Revelation is seen as direct fulfillment of the prophecy in Gen. 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Interestingly, the Greek for the word healing in Rev. 22:2 is not σωτηρία (soteria), which is also translated salvation or deliverance, but θεραπεύω (therapeuo), which is where we get the English word, therapy (c.f. Matt. 4:23-24, 8:7,16). Therapeuo emphasizes the natural elements of the process of physical healing, where as soteria emphasizes holistic deliverance and health.

More Resources

The Bible Project, “Book of Revelation Summary”.
The Bible Project, “How to Read Apocalyptic Literature”.
The Bible Project, “Dragons in the Bible”.
Biblehub, “Soteria”.
Biblehub, “Therapeuo”.

The Cross and the Quill is all about diving deep into various theological topics and considering how the biblical and historical context informs how we think about these things. If you liked this article, consider sharing it with your friends or subscribing to the newsletter below!

Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash

Featured