Around 2005, I was the dean of the Jr. High church camp in North Dakota. one afternoon after I finished my stuff I went out to look to see what the youth were doing as it was there free time. I really didn't see them by the beach or basketball court or wandering around. I asked the counselors at supper where they were at. They said they were in their dorms studying their Bibles. "Wow!" I thought, "I have inspired them to study the Bible. This is great!" "What were they looking at?" I asked. "The book of Revelation," they answered. "Oh no!" I couldn't do anything that evening, but the next morning I brought it up with the group and asked them what they found. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they discovered we were living in the end times because the events of today were matching up with the prophecies made. I talked to them about that in every decade, if not every year since this book was written, someone, some church, or some group has interpreted it to mean that this was happening now and the end of the world is coming soon.
Sometime around my college years, I found a pamphlet, maybe from Jehovah Witnesses, interpreting that we were in the end times. I asked my dad about it because I was a little shook that our church didn't talk about this, and he was pretty short and blunt, "What makes you think that they have it right? Sounds like nonsense to me." There are many who believe that this book is about the present or a time in the future. There are many, especially in mainline churches, who wish this book wasn't in the Bible and do their best to ignore it. In my first church, we were coming up on the year 2000, the Y2K bug, and great uncertainty, so we decided to study this book. What we discovered was that during the time around 100 AD, or CE, there was a great persecution of the church, Christianity was being blamed for earthquakes in Rome and anything bad that happened that the Roman rulers wanted to deflect responsibility for (sound familiar?). So John, a leader in the church, but whether it was the disciple, an apostle, or a new leader, it is hard to say, was sent to a prison island that had open sulfur pits, not the healthiest of places to live. It was on this island, or after leaving it, he wrote to the churches in Asia Minor about their current situation. He couldn't openly speak against the Romans or the Caesar so he talked in code. So instead of talking about Rome and its corruption, he talked about Babylon, which those who studied the Hebrew scriptures and those familiar with Isaiah and Jeremiah would understand.
Here are my three takeaways from the book of Revelation that we can apply to any decade and to our current situation. First, no matter how bad things get or how things look, God and love and goodness and compassion will win in the end. Imagine plagues, not hard to do, stars falling from the sky and great monsters wiping out whole cities, but that is not the end, God's kingdom will prevail. Second, the key for this scripture is in the second and third chapters in the instructions to the churches John is writing to. What you don't find is John telling them to hoard food, gain land, and arm themselves. He tells them to love more, be generous, let their worship match their actions the rest of the week. He could have written it to the churches in Cook County, "You are great and known for this, but that you must work on. Do not fear, but live with compassion for God's grace is with you." There is no extraordinary rules or preparations that the churches must make because of all the terrible stuff happening or what's to come. Third, we find in this scripture that there is a great multitude from every tribe, nation, and language that will come together. It isn't that some countries and peoples have conquered others and have earned the right to come before God, but that God brings all of the world together.
Yes, the book of Revelation is vague enough that we can look at the world events from any time over this past 2,000 years and plug in the who and the what and believe we are living in the end times. One thing we will not find in the Bible is the word, 'abortion'. It is not in the Bible because, first of all, they believed that life began and ended with breath. Without breath, the body was not truly alive. Especially back in those days, there were lots of miscarriages, still births, and many children didn't make it to the age of 5. There were abortions as well, but no where in the Bible was there explicit condemnation or the forbidding of abortions. Why I bring this up is that our evangelical and conservative brothers and sisters hail this as the great sin of our nation, this is why are nation is fallen and why the nation will be great again if Roe vs. Wade is overturned. But, however, there is no scripture, verse, or chapter in the book of Revelation or anywhere else in the Bible that has the word abortion in it. If we want to talk about the morality of abortion, maybe we should focus on Paul's writings when he wrote, "All things are legal, but not all are beneficial." I am not going to get deeply into this except to say that the overturning of Roe vs. Wade is not a victory for Christ, but rather a hardening of the heart to those in difficult circumstances whether it be rape, incest, finances, or the health of the mother. Banning abortion is not bringing the kingdom of God into our nation, but only adding more burdens to those who are suffering and in need.
In our time of pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and in our culture wars here in the United States, it is a mistake to paint everything with a broad brush of good vs. evil. It would be better to look through the lens of compassion versus fear. Do we fear the other, the action, that nation and try to control or destroy it? Or do we have compassion and work to bring the other, this action, and that nation to a better and healthier place? In the book of Revelation, those who follow Christ are not called to take up arms or fight against the enemy, but to focus on love, helping, and centering themselves in the kingdom. We are called to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. We are called to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. We are called...
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