Revelation 10-15
As much as I enjoy listening to this drama played out, I must confess that I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about. There were times in which I remembered hearing Beowulf in Olde English--some of the words were familiar, but the meaning was lost!
That is the great mystery of this book! You need a program to know who the players are--and therein lies the rub. With the program you get a theology laid on top, someone's idea, speculation on what in the world John is talking about (or as one person mentioned to me who would never post it on the church blog, "whatever John was smoking!") I know we do that with all scripture, but this book seems especially prone to that danger.
How is one to read this text? Is it a blueprint for the future, spelling out the way things will be? That is how so many have interpreted this book. Countless hours are spent figuring out just exactly who Babylon is, and where this temple is to be built, and who these angels are. We need to remember that their speculation is just that--their speculation! (How is that for a Baptist reading?!) As far as I know there isn't THE Definitive Interpretation on the Book of Revelation available. Oh, many will tell you that there is, and it always strangely has something to do with some enemy of the country or their political persuasion. I tend to be wary of the blueprint reading, can you tell?
Or is it apocalyptic poetry--a story that ranks up there with the Mad Max movies, or Independence Day or one of those movies in which the world is threatened but is saved at the last minute?
Or do we just throw up our hands and avoid this book no matter what?
I think all of these are used at times--and I confess to using all of them. But even then, I have to remember that at the very core "I don't know." At least not the details. But then, maybe the final day will answer all these questions! We will see.
2 comments:
There are times when I am tempted to just throw Revelation out of "my" Bible, I'll admit. It's so scary, especially as it's interpreted on this recording, with the horror movie voices and the eerie music and stuff. As I told you tonight, Don, it helps me a little to remember what Dr. Goodman said about Revelation (like so many things). He said that if someone from another time and culture far removed from ours tried to read American political cartoons, they would be dumbfounded. What is the deal with the elephant and donkey? And who's this guy in the tall hat and white beard? What does it all mean? For us, they make perfect sense, because the symbols are second nature to us. The symbols in Revelation were, at least in my professor's interpretation, just as familiar to its original readers. But across thousands of miles and a couple of millenia, that symbology is lost on us!
So is it irrelevant for us? I have enough faith in the process of divine inspiration of both the writing of the books and the choosing of the canon to think that it wouldn't be in here if there was absolutely nothing for the church today to gain from it. But I'm with you, Don -- mostly I am just confused by it! Parts of it I think I get, at least on one level. The woman with the crown of stars who was about to give birth, I'm thinking that woman was Mary, right? But what a strange way to tell the story. It reminds me more than anything else of one of the Native American stories about why the world is the way it is. A lot of the rest of what I heard today left me mystified and creeped out, and really really hoping that it's not a "blueprint for the future" as some have thought. Like you, I'm wary of anyone who says they have that "definitive" interpretation, too.
I'm no theologian, but this section sounded like allegory to me. With Jesus Christ as the newborn child and Mary as the mother giving birth, mankind the red dragon waiting to devour the child... I loved this! It's great theater! It's commentary about what had happened in John's lifetime. It also sounded a lot like my bad dreams - full of overblown problems about which my subconcious is worrying, full of repetition (every creature seemed to have seven heads and ten horns!), and riddled with nonsensical happenings.
I enjoyed the Left Behind series - but only as well-constructed fiction. This does not sound like prophecy to me!
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