The Kingdom of God announced by Jesus is multidimensional
& all-encompassing. It is both a present and future reality with a focus
both on the individual creature & with the whole society. The “already but
not yet” idea or concept of the Kingdom of God. It embraces all aspects of
human life: physical, spiritual, personal & interpersonal, communal & societal,
historical & eternal. It encompasses all human relationships vertical and
horizontal – with our neighbor, with nature, and with God.
Book of Revelation was written between the 60s to mid-90s by
John on the Island of Patmos. It is written to the seven churches in Asia
(Minor). While in the Spirit John is directed to write to the seven churches the
vision which he subsequently sees and hears. The Christians in these churches are
reminded prophetically that Jesus Christ is coming again soon. They are
encouraged to persevere in their faith in the face of persecution, false
teaching, Jewish opposition, and spiritual discontent.
As can be expected in a book named the Revelation of Jesus
Christ the main subject of the Revelation is the God-man Himself: Jesus. Those
that read and hear the book are bestowed a blessing or a beatitude, "Blessed
is the one who reads or ears…takes to heart (1:3). Revelation contains more
prophetic material than any other NT Book. It contains the eschatological (end
time) victory of Christ over evil, sin, the Antichrist & the world system
itself.
It contains information on a tribulation or coming hardship,
the Parousia or second coming of Jesus Christ and along with him will come the Kingdom
of God. Revelation provides a great source of encouragement to an embattled
Church. It is clear that Revelation was divinely designed to prepare Christians
for persecution. It is clear John borrows phraseology, wordage and semantics
from OT (Daniel, Ezekiel – Isaiah)
Theology of John's Apocalypse
John’s book is a prophetic work which
concerns the imminent and inaugurated fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about the Kingdom in
Jesus Christ. The Apocalypse was revealed so that believers would be blessed by
having a heavenly perspective on redemptive history and consequently obeying
the commands of the LORD of history. John greets the churches on behalf of the
Father, the Spirit (seven spirits
before the throne), and the Son, whose redemptive work results in the
churches’ new status, all to God’s glory (v.4-8). In verse 5 the description is
a summary of Christ’s role: He
persevered as a faithful witness to the Father in the face of persecution even
to death, which He conquered, and then became the cosmic ruler. We then see Christ’s
death and resurrection (v5) established a twofold office – not only for Himself
(v. 13-18) but also for believers. Believers are clearly identified with His
resurrection and kingship by following His model especially by being faithful
witnesses by mediating Christ’s priestly and royal authority to the world. The
high point of vv1-6 and all of chapter 1 is this: The achievement of God’s
glory through Christ’s work and service of His people as kings and priest.
The Son’s kingship and the Father’s
sovereignty over history are emphasized as the basis of the church’s grace and
peace and the Father’s glory. In verse 1:7 we see our first Old Testament
reference to Daniel 7:13, “enthronement of the Son of man over all the
nations”. We also see Zechariah 12:10 in “God will defeat all enemies and
Israel will be redeemed after repenting of their sinful rejection of God and
His messenger”…“the one they have pierced”
Tribulation,
Perseverance & the Kingdom
We see right off the bat that there is a blessing resulting
from reading and obeying the Revelation. In the letters to the 7 churches,
Christ encourages the churches to witness, warns them against compromise, and
exhorts them to hear and to overcome compromise in order to inherit eternal
life.
John is commissioned to write to the churches because their
confidence is grounded in Christ’s installation as judge, priest, and ruler of
the church as a result of His victory over death. In verse 9 there are three
datives cases in the Greek: θλίψει/tribulation or suffering, kingdom/ βασιλείᾳ,
and perseverance/ὑπομονῇ with only one indirect article. This clues me into the
fact that John meant them to be seen together as a unit in some fashion. These
ideas frame the entire book of Revelation. It is no accident they are mentioned
in the introduction to temper the reader’s mindset. A mindset that was under
persecution in the original audience and later readers. We are later told that
when believers ‘endure’ in their faith, they are said to have ‘kept the word of
Christ’s endurance” Revelation 3:10.
The Apocalypse reveals that their reign, like Jesus’ initial
kingdom, consists in enduring and conquering not by compromising their faithful witness in the face of trials from the
power of evil (6:8) in this world. Believers gain victory in defeating sin in
their lives, and in beginning to rule over death and Satan by identification
with Jesus and Jesus’ reign in our lives. It is the very act of enduring and
persevering the allows the believer to conquer.
The “tribulation” is a present
reality (2:9) and will continue among the churches (The Church) in the near
future (2:10 “you are about to suffer”). As we all know from our own
experiences, difficult times call for faith and perseverance to face our
trials. It is this type of resolute and uncompromising faith that is necessary
to fight off false teachings, and to persevere in steadfast faith.
It is my belief that the symbols that appear in the letters
should be interpreted primarily in the context of the chapter 1. In other words, I believe there is a
reciprocal relationship between chapter 1’s vision and the letters to the seven
churches in chapters 2 and 3. Therefore, the historical background of the
churches and the OT literary background mutually interpret one another. This historical
context has the priority of our initial focus, since the selection of Old
Testament allusions are sparked by ideas from the historical situation of the
author and the readers. This of course does not mean there isn’t something more
here intended by the Spirit. As it appears to be my experience reading
apocalyptic works there is a “chain reaction” experience that takes place that
ends up setting off a series of other mental associations with similar
OT phrases or ideas which produces deeper insight.
No comments:
Post a Comment