It's the end of the world as we know it....

Ah. the book of Revelation!

Duh, duh, dunnnnnn!

Armageddon, a rider on a white horse, a great red dragon, the mark of the beast... it stirs up apocalyptic nonsense in our heads and really we wonder if God was so good and normal beforehand, why does he get so weird when it comes to the end times?

And when is the end of the world? 1984? nope. Y2k? evidently not? 2012? I guess we'll wait and see.

I approached Revelation not so much with fear but with frustration. I've heard this book taught from so many different points of view. I have heard the teaching of Israel being God's chosen race to the end of time and 144,000 of them are chosen to rule and reign. I have heard people get in arguments over this book. And I have been made to feel really stupid in the past because I just. didn't. get. it. I know Jesus wins and all, but why the craziness?

After studying this book, I see things in a whole new light. The way we approach the Bible in SBS is to lay aside all the things we've been taught or what's been interpreted to us before and just let the text speak for itself. It's been really refreshing because you don't have to be a genius or a theologian to study the Bible. In fact...most everyone who read the books of the bible for the first time were neither of those things either. In fact, the majority of them were illiterate. But this is a bit of a tangent....

Revelation is apocalyptic literature. This means that it is written in a certain style and form and follows certain rules of this kind of literature. I had never really thought about this before, but it should be one of the main things we grasp when interpreting this book. It is structured in cycles looking at one event but from many different angles...it's like creating a 3D movie: a lot of different cameras are set up from different angles so when all put together it creates a picture with greater dimensions. This is the book of Revelation. So, it is not a chronological book but is looking at the return of Christ from many angles. Also, in apocalyptic literature, numbers are symbolic according to the Jewish mindset to which this book was written. Too often we have chosen which ones we like to be symbolic and which we take literally. So, I won't express all my interpretations and views of this book because it might spark debate which is not the intent of this post.

The intent is to say, I was REFRESHED by this book. One thing that really stood out to me is that Jesus appears among the lampstands. The lampstands are symbolic for the church and the crazy thing is that he is among them. His presence is their promise to endure, to stay strong, to keep preaching his word. Then when the Bride appears, the New Jerusalem, what is the defining feature is that the dwelling place of God is now with man. We just started Genesis this week and the fulfillment of what happened at the fall, the separation of man from God because of their sin, God then promises that he will bring a redeemer. Eternity comes with the promise of God's presence; that is a GOOD promise. This is the promise that we can hold to. God wants to be with us for eternity. His goal is to be with his Bride.

Another thing that struck me was in chapter 22 it says, the Spirit and the Bride say come. God is calling people to himself, but the church's job is to do the exact same thing. This is our job until Jesus returns, to extend an invitation to the world for the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Spirit and the Bride have the same goal. To be together for eternity, and to invite others into that.

Amen! Come Lord Jesus!