We can describe in detail what happens in Revelation, but the far more difficult task of determining what sense we should make of it remains. The imagery of the text, with its symbols and metaphors, suggests a new vision and a new practice, one that removes prejudice and blindness to Gods purposes. It demands that we allow ourselves to be interrogated by those images and disturbed by a different way of looking at things, like the visually impaired person who puts on glasses and finally sees things clearly, or the adventurer who finds the mist disappearing from the mountaintops to reveal a vista different from any that may have been imagined. If we allow ourselves to be challenged by this text instead of rushing to explain everything in Revelation and to organize the images into a precise eschatological scenario, we may begin to discern that the vision of the millennium might disturb our complacency. While one can understand a reluctance to take sides in contemporary political struggles, the New Testament itself is not neutral. It does take sides. The writers look not only to the future, but also to the present, which becomes a moment of opportunity for transforming the imperfect into the perfect; history and eschatology become inextricably intertwined. In the words and life of Jesus, the present is proclaimed as decisive in Gods purposes, and he is the messianic agent for change. Paul took upon himself the role of the human agent, whereby the eschatological purpose of God, to bring the gospel to Gentiles, was completed. If a veil lies over the timing of any future age of perfection, we may be tempted to avoid taking any decisive action. Such reserve is an understandable part of resistance to the notion that a perfect understanding of reality is available. A reading of both the Old and the New Testaments excludes the extremes of both revolutionary activism and political quietism. In the apocalyptic tradition the seer is enabled to see the vague outline of the whole course of history. Until the historical process has come to fruition, we are obliged to remain faithful to the ways of God and to seek to take upon ourselves the yoke of the kingdom, both individually and corporately. This will require, as Revelation makes clear, a cost for those who hold out for a better way. And it will be necessary to resist, and wrestle with, the principalities and powers—whether of state, church, group, or nation—that would dominate and impoverish humans. --CHRISTOPHER C. ROWLAND, New Interpreters Bible Vol. XII
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 05:45:34 +0000
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