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Home , Apocalyptic literature

1 & St. Columba Church, StC April 3, 2016

Today’s passage from the beginning of the inspires me to offer a few words about the popular misinterpretations of this last book in the . Written at the end of the first century, probably by a man named John on the isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, Revelation was the last book accepted into the , and some denominations do not acknowledge it or read from it. Eleanor and I were able to visit the isle of Patmos and tour the cave where John is reputed to have lived and worked. It is a cold, dark, gloomy place. We were able to put our hands in the cleft of the overhead rock from which John received the from God by means of a voice “like a trumpet.” Living in such a place, it is no wonder John produced such strange visions. Book of Revelation falls into the category of Apocalyptic literature, books which deal with “the end times,” a genre of literature very popular among Jews and Christians at that time. The in the OT falls into this category. It is important when reading and studying this book of the Bible to recognize that it is , not prediction. Prophecy, all the prophets of the OT, John the Baptist in the NT, always speaks about the present time, not a future time. No one, not even Jesus, as he himself asserts, can predict the future. The Book of Revelation is about Here & Now, not there & then. Prophecy calls people back to God while speaking against oppression. Revelation concerns Roman persecution of Christians at the end of the century; who is named 666 is a direct reference to Emperor Nero. Presenting a series of visions, the book was written symbolically (in code), in case it should fall into the wrong hands. Figuring out the symbols, the code, two thousand years later, does present quite the challenge.

The big problem with the Book of Revelation is the popular misreading of the of Christ, commonly known as the Rapture, the belief that Christ 2 will return twice, first to “rapture” true believers up to heaven which will inaugurate a time of on earth, before Christ returns again to defeat the forces of evil and establish the . None of this Rapture theology is found in the book of Revelation. The word ‘rapture’ doesn’t appear in Revelation or the Bible at all. Rapture theology is a myth invented in the early 19C by a Presbyterian Scottish minister, John Nelson Darby, based initially on the visions of an imaginative teenage girl. Darby created the story by piecing together various passages of scripture. Darby’s fictional vision of the end times has been popularized further in our time through novels and movies, the series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, which are basically adventure thrillers filled with escapism and violence—50 million copies sold, a profitable end-times industry. I have encountered several people and situations involving rapture theology. One of my former students, in seminary now for the ministry, was enthralled by the Left Behind novels when I taught him in grade 11. He seemed a little surprised when I told him they were fictional and not to be believed. I wonder what he thinks of them today. I used to teach a wonderful coming of age story by Canadian author Timothy Findley which had subtle references to rapture theology which went over the heads of most students, but in one class, an evangelical student saw the signs in the story; he seemed a little taken aback when I praised his knowledge but also told him that none of it was going to happen. One year a student had a huge sticker on his binder which read, “Jesus is coming. Look busy.” Ridley College had a young Attendance secretary for a short while, and when she came to my classroom to find a student, she was surprised at the small number of students and asked me, “Has the Rapture occurred?” In my early 20s I attended a leadership camp and there was an old maintenance guy who claimed he knew the exact number of meals we would enjoy before the battle of . I knew even then how to recognize a kook. As Richard Rohr commented recently, people are more often stupid, than sinful. 3 Rapture or end times belief has been the subject of countless cartoons and satires, for after all, predictions of the end of the world have so far been 100% wrong. My favorite is a comic routine by the British group Beyond the Fringe, when just as a group of doomsayers are waiting on top of a mountain to be raptured up to heaven, a deep voice inquires, “Have you got the picnic basket?” Rapture theology would be laughable if it didn’t pose such a dangerous influence on international, particularly USA, foreign policy, especially with regards to the middle East. Right wing people and organizations are working deliberately to bring about events as laid out by Rapture proponents. Forty percent of Americans believe in the Rapture. No less a person than President Ronald Reagan “wondered about biblical prophecy coming to fulfillment in the violent events of the Middle East: [he said] ‘I turn back to your ancient prophets in the OT and the signs foretelling Armageddon, and I find myself wondering if—if we’re the generation that’s going to see that come about . . . those . . . certainly describe the times we’re going through.’” Political analysts have demonstrated the role of prophecy belief in the US march toward war in Iraq during the Bush administration. It would be funny, if it weren’t so frightening. Barbara R. Rossing in her book The Rapture Exposed, concludes, “The Rapture is a racket. Whether prescribing a violent script for Israel or survivalism in the United States, this theology distorts God’s vision for the world. In place of healing, the Rapture proclaims escape. In place of Jesus’ blessing of peacemakers, the Rapture voyeuristically glorifies violence and war. In place of Revelation’s vision of the Lamb’s vulnerable self-giving love, the Rapture celebrates the lion-like wrath of the Lamb. This theology is not biblical. We are not Raptured off the earth, nor is God. No, God has come to live in the world through Jesus. God created the world, God loves the world, and God will never leave the world behind!”

She goes on to explain that “Today’s Christian fixation on Armageddon and war is a sickness…” Rapture theology appeals to people’s lust for vengeance, blood, guts and glory, the desire for victory. Ignores Christ the Lamb and emphasizes Christ 4 the Lion, the warrior. Christ is presented as a Lion once early in the book; throughout most of the book of Revelation he is presented as a Lamb. This ideology, espoused so dramatically by the Left Behind series, has essentially hijacked Jesus’ message, taken advantage of a culture of fear, and rationalized voyeuristic primal urges that enjoy wrath and war. The popularilzed violent vision of Rapture theology is in direct contrast to the of Christ which was a non- violent movement against oppression, which sought peace on earth, not as Rome imposed it, through the sword, but through love and service to one’s neighbour. And a close reading of the Book of Revelation reveals that it develops just that theme, as Rossing subtitles her book, “The Message of Hope in the book of Revelation.” I took a course at seminary on Revelation and the course and its professor, a Jesuit priest, were Wonderful! Yes, the book is about the end times, but we are always living in the end times. It presents a vision of what we pray for every time we say the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come, on earth, as it is in heaven.” The overture to the book of Revelation, the passage we read this morning, places emphasis on our mutual priesthood, the mission of all God’s followers: “the ruler of the kings of the earth. . . . who loves us and freed us . . . made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion.” “made us to be a kingdom, priests serving . . . God”: the kings of this earth are bent on making us warriors, or consumers, but it is a very rare ruler who encourages us to serve, to serve our neighbours, to free them from whatever bondage is holding them back from justice and dignity, from the full expression and joy of their humanity. All the citizens of this world are invited to be part of Christ’s kin-dom. Our task as God’s royal priesthood is to expand the kin-dom, not with the sword as so often in the past, but with ploughshares—justice, freedom, generosity. And that ultimately is the vision presented in the Book of Revelation.