Parish of Central Saanich - St. Mary's and St. Stephen's

Lent 2016 Bible Study Series "Perspectives on Life from the " The Rev. Dr. Brett Cane Mondays at St. Stephen's - 7:00 p.m.; Wednesday at St. Mary's - 11:00 a.m

Study #1:"Seeing Things from God's Perspective" Revelation 1:1-20 (Daniel 7:9-14)

Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, through your servant John you have given us a revelation of your glory; help us now, by your Holy Spirit, to let that vision enter deep into our souls, that we may be faithful witnesses to your mercy and truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Introduction

As we approached the year 2000, there was a lot of "Millennium Fever" and then, more recently there was the 2012 Phenomenon speculating about Mayan prophecies having to do with the end of the world.1 Various groups and individuals were predicting the end of the world and taking advantage of the situation. For example, for the Millennium, the Mount of Olives Hotel in Jerusalem wrote to 2,000 Christian groups in the U.S. asking, "How would you like to be staying at the Mount of Olives Hotel the day that Jesus returns?” (The hotel is run by Palestinian Muslims!). Evidence that interest in prophecy is still high is that on the world wide web there are millions references to the book of Revelation! It is the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, which contains so much of the material upon which people often base their speculations.

But to many people, the book of Revelation is a closed book – mysterious and complicated – almost non-understandable. So they have left it to certain “experts” to decipher which has resulted in what I call "Christian Fatalism." Hal Lindsey,2 wrote over 30 books about the end times, extracting from Revelation what he felt were detailed predictions about current events. Another popular author, is Tim LaHaye who wrote (from 1995-2007) the "Left Behind"3 best-

1 See Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon: "The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or otherwise transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012. This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, and as such, festivities to commemorate the date took place on 21 December 2012 in the countries that were part of the Mayan (Mexico, , , and El Salvador), with main events at Chichén Itzá in Mexico, and in Guatemala." 2e.g. Hal Lindsey, The Late, Great Planet . (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1970), which, in 1991, surpassed Pilgrim's Progress as the best selling book of all time (apart from the Bible). 3 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behind Page 2 selling series of 16 books (later turned into four films and even into a computer game) which speculated what the end times would be like. For example, down through the ages, people have identified the as the Pope, Napoleon, Stalin or Hitler, to name only a handful. In the ten-headed beast of prophecies in Daniel and Revelation people have recognized the European Common Market - when it had only ten members, of course! Coupled with all of these attempted identifications have come countless predictions of the date of the end of the world. In spite of the fact that Jesus said, that "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32), even Christians have joined in the speculation. Up until now, of course, these predictions have had one thing in common - they have all been wrong! On the , one secular website lists over 100 failed prophecies of the date of the end of the world, another lists 200.4 Here is one I came across personally; in the "Weekly World News" of August 18, 1998 the headline ran, JESUS WILL RETURN TO EARTH ON NOVEMBER 12, 1999 (about 2 pm), "as agreed to by the world's greatest prophets", , Edgar Cayce, Sitting Bull and Isaiah (!).5 It is informative that the article has been deleted and the cover changed in their archives from the original edition. Revelation is not a book of speculation about timetables and dates to do with the end times.

Why are people so eager to have a timetable of the end? In times of stress and unusual change people seek stability through fatalism. It is no mistake that over the last fifty years, interest in , tarot cards, fortune-telling and the like has increased dramatically. "If everything is laid out in the stars, then I don't have to be responsible, do I - it is all set out, predetermined. I can't change things, so that reduces my anxiety level." Now Christians know they should not be involved in such things as fortune-telling and the like, so what do we do? We look to speculative, predictive prophecy. If we can get Scripture to tell us when the end will come and whether Osama Bin laden is the Antichrist or not, then we feel a little more like things are in control! This is what I call "Christian Fatalism". This is the exact opposite of the purpose of the book of Revelation.

Over the seven weeks I am giving this Bible study series, I hope to show you that looking at Revelation as a cryptic guide to the timetable of history is missing the entire point of the book. Today, we will lay the foundations for our series by taking an overview of this mysterious piece of writing with special reference to chapter 1. The overarching theme of both this study and the book itself is: "Seeing Things from God's Perspective."

4 www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrld.htm; http://zeus.ia.net/~criskity/index.htm (latter no longer listed); unfortunately, both authors mistakenly include as a failed prediction that of Jesus, “I tell you , some who are standing here will not taste death before the y see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 18:28) – the Kingdom did begin with the death and resurrection of Jesus and then came in power with the sending of the Holy Spirit resulting in the expansion of the Kingdom over the world all the way to Rome – and this within the lifetime of his hearers. See also http://www.rense.com/ufo5/endotheworld.htm for "'End Of The World' Prophecy Losers From 1701-1970". 5 Weekly World News, August 18, 1998 (as originally published); see http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl9.htm and http://www.discussanything.com/forums/showthread.php/89741-Signs-Are-We-r-in-the-End-Times for original text as verified by copies of the original edition in my possession. Page 3

Summary of the Book

First though, here is a helpful synopsis of the content of the whole book of Revelation given by the commentator Eugene Boring:

The risen Christ appears to John on the island of Patmos and gives him messages to be sent to seven churches in Asia (modern-day western Turkey). John is then caught up into the heavenly throne room, where he sees Christ open the sealed book. The seventh seal, rather than being the end, opens into seven trumpet scenes, the last of which again calls forth not the end but announces of the wrath of God. John beholds the plagues and devastation that result from the seals, trumpets, and bowls, climaxing in the destruction of Babylon (= Rome = corrupt world order). Then come the visions of the final triumph of God as Christ returns: the dead are raised, the final judgement is held, and the is established as the capital of the redeemed creation.6

From the opening verses, we note that even though the book is described as prophecy, it is written as a letter to be read out in the seven churches to whom it was initially addressed: "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it" (Rev. 1:3). To capture the full impact of the book with all its dramatic imagery, we will re-enact what those early Christians experienced by reading the book through in its entirety as a dramatic reading for four voices and chorus at our next session in the series in a weeks' time. In this way, we will gain an overview of what God is saying to us through his servant John as prophet, poet, and pastor.7 We look at these themes in reverse order.

John as Pastor

In verse 9, John describes himself as follows "I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus." John, writing to the group of seven churches in Asia Minor over which he has oversight, sets himself right in the midst of his people's suffering and struggles. Written in approximately AD 96 on the eve of a great persecution by the Roman Emperor Domitian, the situation of the early Christians looked bleak. They had been rejected by the Jews and were no longer under the legal protection they once had as a Jewish sect. They were rejected by the society around them as those betraying traditional pagan beliefs; this had political ramifications when refusal to worship the Emperor was interpreted as treason; it had social and economic ramifications when Christians refused to participate in the pagan practices of the commercial guilds. All this had led to sporadic persecution with the worst yet to come. The Christians felt like they did not belong.

In addition to all this there was the internal danger of compromise with the standards of the world, which was even more destructive because it meant the failure of the Christians in their basic mission which we will see was to bear witness to the truth about God. The Christians were under pressure to conform.

6M. Eugene Boring, Revelation, in "Interpretation" Bible Commentary series. (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1989), pg. 28. 7 Categories inspired by Eugene H. Peterson, Reversed Thunder. (San Francisco: , 1988), pgs. 2-10. Page 4

Christians were feeling marginalized, oppressed and tempted. How would they cope? John as pastor is given the Revelation to encourage, challenge, and support his flock.

 Encouragement: We see encouragement in the very first chapter: 1. First, from the past: When we hear, "Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come" (verse 4), we are taken right back to Exodus 3 (14) where God reveals his name to Moses from the burning bush as "I AM" - the same God who rescued the children of Israel from their arch-enemy, Egypt, with great power and strength against the political and military forces of the day is still active to deliver them in their difficulties (and us, in our situations today). 2. Second, in the present: But this power of God is now seen in the present in a new way - through Jesus Christ, "The faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth" (verse 5). Jesus is the "faithful witness" - the true prophet who has declared the full truth about God, his love and mercy. As the "firstborn from the dead," he serves as and sacrifice, the one who has offered himself for us and "freed us from our sins by his blood" (verse 6). As "ruler of the kings of the earth," Jesus is the king who has ultimate control over the forces of the . We are certain of all this because of Jesus' resurrection - as "firstborn from the dead," he has unlocked the gate to victory which we can know now, in the present, even though it will not be fully realised until the future. 3. Third, for the future: This is where we find our ultimate encouragement - John writes, "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him" (verse 7). Jesus will come back in glory to put all things right; even though he experienced ridicule and misunderstanding (as John's readers did and we do), he will be vindicated - and so will they be (and we will be). "Those who pierced him" will see the truth and "will mourn because of him" in deep regret that they were in the wrong and he was in the right. There is pastoral encouragement.

 Challenge: The pastoral challenge to faithfulness underlies the whole book but is brought to the surface in each of the specific letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor in the second and third chapters. Each of these messages serves as a localized introduction to the rest of the book. The broad form of each letter is that the individual church is first given one aspect of the vision of Christ from the first chapter relevant to their particular situation, then a commendation, a rebuke, a call to repentance, and finally a promise if they overcome. (This structure and linking is part of the significant evidence we shall continue to uncover as we go through the book that Revelation has been very carefully and creatively complied.) For example, in the letter to the church at Ephesus (2:1-7), Jesus is described as “him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands (verse 1; see chapter 1:13, 16). The Ephesians are commended for their deeds, hard work and perseverance (verses 2, 3), rebuked for falling from their first love (verse 4), called to repent (verse 5), and promised the “right to eat from the tree of life” if they overcome. From these letters we see that obedience and holiness are crucial to God's call to Christians to be his witnesses - a role central to God's plan for the world, as we shall see later. We will look at some of these letters in our study in three weeks' time. There is pastoral challenge.

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 Support: Support comes throughout the book as it answers the key pastoral questions: not, "When will the end come," but, "What is the meaning of our suffering?" Not, "Will there be an end of the world?" but, in an impossible situation, "Is God Faithful?" The honour and integrity of God were at stake, not just "human longing for golden streets and pearly gates."8 The issue was as follows: God’s children in the past had suffered when they had disobeyed, but now, as God's children, they were experiencing oppression because they were faithful. This is the very question being asked, I am sure, by Christians being persecuted today by ISIS and related groups around the world. How could God's children experience oppression because they are faithful? The Book of Revelation gives the prophetic answer - the pastoral support - in dramatic poetic form.

John as Poet

To give the prophetic answer, God uses John as poet. To convey the message Jesus has given him, John creates a new world - like that of Narnia of C.S. Lewis or Star Wars of George Lucas or Star Trek of Gene Roddenberry. For Star Trek fans, if I speak about "borgs" and "klingons", "warp drive", and "beam me up" you know what I mean right away because it is part of a created world you are familiar with. Likewise, John builds a literary world filled with dragons, lambs, thrones, crystal seas, plagues, and so on. They all combine to form a comprehensive picture. To understand them we need to know the sources of this imagery. In Revelation John takes his images from the vision he receives from the Angel, the Old Testament, Pagan Mythology and Current Events.

 Old Testament allusions: For example, in Revelation, there are approximately 500 allusions to the Old Testament; out of its 404 verses, allusions are found in 278 of them! There are never direct quotations and some allusions are expanded and enhanced. For example, in chapter 1 we read about Jesus as the "son of man" described as follows: “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters" (verse 14, 15). Where have you heard this before? From the (Daniel 7:9f; 10:6). Only, there is a major change. The "son of man" of Daniel 7:13 is described in Revelation in the same way as the "Ancient of Days" of Daniel 7:9; this says something of major significance about who Jesus is - not only human but also God himself. Concerning who we are, John says in 1:6 that God "has made us to be a kingdom of to serve his God and father" - this is a direct quotation from Exodus 19:6 (quoted also in 1 Peter 1:9). In terms of the enemies of God and his people, John uses references to the cruel and exploitative political powers of the Old Testament, Babylon and Egypt, to refer to the then dominant oppressor, Rome: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!" (18:2). In chapter 11:8, God's witnesses are killed and "Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city – which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt – where also their Lord was crucified". We will see that just as John reallocated these figures to the oppressive power of his day, so we can see parallels in ours. We will come across dozens of other allusions to the Old Testament as we move through the book.

8 Boring, pg. 40. Page 6

 Contemporary events: John also uses allusions to contemporary events. Visions of the dreaded hordes from the contemporary Parthian Empire to the east would have jumped into the minds of his readers when they heard in chapter 9 that the sixth angel is to "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates" (verse 14) and "The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand" (verse 16). An equivalent for us would be the picture of threat of the USSR during the Cold War. In chapter 17:9-11, there are references to the current political crisis in the Roman Empire with four emperors in one year. Memories of the eruption of Vesuvius and major earthquakes of the first century9 give substance to John's five references to earthquakes such as in chapter 8, "Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake" (8:5 - see also 6:12, 14; 11:13, 19).

 Pagan mythology: John even references pagan mythology, to build up his literary world. In chapters 17 and 18 when John describes the fall of the current world order (i.e. Rome), the goddess Roma comes to mind, but John shows her as a seductive and corruptive temple prostitute - "The mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth" (17:3). His pictures of the serpent and dragon, "Another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads" (12:3) have Biblical roots (Gen. 3: 14-15, Is. 27:1) but are also found extensively in Pagan mythology such as that of the Egyptians, Greeks and Nordic peoples.

 Symbolism of numbers: A further way John creates meaning and significance is through the symbolism of numbers.10 For example, seven represents completeness, such as in the seven days of creation. Already in chapter 1 we read of the seven churches (verse 11) and the seven-fold Spirit of God (verse 4). The seven churches are not only literal but also represent the whole church, so the book is addressed to all Christians. The seven-fold spirit of God is not literally seven spirits, but the perfect, complete spirit of God symbolized by the seven- branched candlestick in Jerusalem temple. There is also significance in the number of times a feature appears. For example, God as "the alpha and omega, first and the last," occurs seven times in the book. Other numbers of significance we will learn about are four, which relates to the earth, and twelve, which refers to the people of God. "666" as the sign of is just short of completeness three times - in other words, totally imperfect, the ultimate loser - who he is we will reveal when we look at chapter 13!

In addition, Revelation is not a linear story; it is more like a web page on the Internet where you click on a button or line to give you further details about that subject. In this way, you can read to the end of the page and then revisit one aspect of it in greater detail. For example, in chapter 11 (verse 15-19) God's kingdom finally comes, but then this same battle and victory is given extended treatment in chapters 12 to 15, the details of which are then fleshed out even further in chapters 15 to 22. Therefore, the book is not one long, uninterrupted sequence of events, a literal depiction or timetable. Evidence of this is that if the earthquake which destroys Babylon in 16:17-21 were literal, then there would be nothing left for the later pictures of the downfall of Babylon in chapter 17(16).

9 For listing of first century earthquakes see http://newjerusalemcommunity.blogspot.ca/2011/01/earthquakes.html 10 Handout "Number System in Revelation", taken from John Richardson, Revelation Unwrapped. (London: St. Matthias Press/MPA Books, 1996), pg. 16. Page 7

In all these ways - use of Old Testament allusions, contemporary and pagan references, numeric symbols and recurring expansions - John wants to reshape our reality - to build a literary world with these symbols and devices which allow us to see things from God's perspective.

John as Prophet

This brings us to God's call upon John to serve as a prophet. At the beginning of chapter 1 we are told, "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy" (verse 3) A prophecy is not primarily a prediction. It is a "forthtelling" rather than a "foretelling." It is the Word of God given to encourage, to warn, to exhort. It describes God's intentions and actions based on his character - that he will live up to his promises and his nature. In this way John serves as a theologian and so his title "St. John the Divine," one who deals in the things of God. In Revelation, the vision John is given allows us to see things from God's perspective.

God is in charge: What do we see? First, that God is ultimately in charge. He is "The Alpha and the Omega...who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty" (verse 8) (As an aside, we also see that the title is equally ascribed to Jesus in verse 17: "I am the First and the Last" and 22:12, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last" - there is no doubt about Jesus' divinity in the Book of Revelation!11) The struggle between good and evil is shown at the cosmic level (defeating fallen angels, etc.) but this is not ultimately two equally-matched powers sparring off against each other. Evil will be dealt with by God. However, the bringing of the world to an end is not an act of divine frustration but the means of the redemption of the whole of creation. God must act and he will - God's justice will prevail. This is key for a politically powerless minority. "Response to the message of Revelation is an expression of faith in the faithfulness of God in a situation which gives no indication of it in this world; it is faith's ‘nevertheless’ when ‘therefore’ makes no sense."12 This is the message we need to hear today, whether we look at world events, crises in the Church, problems in our families or personal struggles. God is in charge, we can trust him even when everything looks so bleak.

Witness: This leads us to the second great message of Revelation. We know what God is like because we have seen him in Jesus, "the faithful witness" (verse 5). He bore witness to God through his life and especially his death and resurrection. God does not conquer through the oppressive and coercive ways of Rome and the world, but through self-sacrifice and suffering.

Now comes the surprise: the great mystery revealed in Revelation is that God will eventually bring in his kingdom using our witness (symbolized by martyrdom). Jesus, by his death and resurrection has conquered evil. We are conquerors through him. It is he who "loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father" (1:5, 6). So, armed with the victory of Jesus, we bear witness to the truth about God and call people to repentance that they might receive forgiveness through the death of the Lamb. Our role in the salvation of the world is crucial.

11 See also 1:2 - "the word of God" is paired up with "the testimony of Jesus Christ" and in chapter 5 where the Lamb stands in the centre of the throne in verse 6 and is worshipped in verses 8 and 13: ÈTo him whom sits onnthe trhone and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever." 12Boring, pg. 42. Page 8

Central to this truth of witness through suffering is God's mercy, that he wants people to be saved. This mercy is shown by the tension throughout Revelation between "the time is near" and "not yet." In the first chapter we read of "what must soon take place" (verse 1), and "because the time is near" (verse 3). God wants to rescue his people but wants to give all others the opportunity to repent through our witness - even though delay will mean further suffering for us. Thus, as we shall see, final judgement is postponed; the saints are told to wait (6:10, 11) until people have a chance to hear and respond to God's love through his witnesses (chapter 11). In this way, only the Father knows when the time is right for the end. God's justice will be met and his mercy will be served.

Conclusion

Revelation reveals God's perspective to us: in spite of appearances, he is in charge and will bring about justice. But also, God is merciful and wants all to have the opportunity to escape judgement. People will have this opportunity through our witness, which will be costly and hard. All this is a far cry from speculating on who represents the Antichrist or when the end will come. Our concern is to have faith that God is in control and to be faithful in our witness to his mercy and love. May God give us a new vision of his glory and mercy as we journey through the book of Revelation in the coming weeks.