THE BOOK OF REVELATION, PART III:

brittbryan1001
Jun 8, 2024
7 min read

A look behind the curtain.

The End is near!

No, not the end of the world. And hopefully I have made it clear by now that we're not meant to apply Revelation imagery to our modern political scene, and that "End Times" and "Rapture-esque" theories are actually not biblical...

What I mean is this is The End of the three-part series on the book of Revelation. In Part 1, I explain how we have misunderstood this book to our great misfortune, and why I think it's so important for us to get it right, even if that means we must update our beliefs, despite the discomfort that might evoke.

Then Part 2 "reveals" (if you read it, you get it...) five of the most common misunderstandings about Revelation and outlines the first two ways we misread it (we should read it as a letter, not a map; and it's symbolic, not literal).

So, to wrap up this series, let's talk about the final three misunderstandings of the book of Revelation.

#3: IT’S BATTLE IS COSMIC, NOT EARTHLY

In John’s vision, there is a battle…just not a battle that results in the world’s destruction at some point in the future. Rather, it’s something going on presently; we are just unable to see it for ourselves, so John is revealing it to us.

It helps me to think of a gender reveal party. (And I want to be sensitive to the real and important discussions about the word “gender,” but just want to be clear I’m not inserting any opinion about that here. I am using this analogy because it helps make my point.)

The parents and friends and family don’t know if the baby is a boy or a girl, but that does not mean that the biological sex has yet to be determined. The doctors and nurses know, and so does the baker who made the cake. And once the parents cut into the cake or pop the confetti-filled balloon, NOW they and all their party-goers are "in the know," as well. It’s a boy!

It's like a curtain was pulled back to give them all inside information. In other words, there was something going on all along, but not everyone could see it.

In the Revelation of John, he is pulling back the curtain so we can get a glimpse of what’s going on “behind the scenes,” which is a cosmic battle between good vs evil. And the entire point is that this battle ends with God’s final victory as good defeats evil once and for all. (More on that in misunderstanding #5.)

So, the “Revelation” that is unveiled is NOT a battle that leads to the destruction of the world, but a battle that ends with Jesus as the victorious Lamb of God; the Messiah who sits on the throne and says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Rev. 21:5)

#4: IT’S ABOUT THE RENEWAL OF THE EARTH, NOT THE DESTRUCTION

I think this is the most misunderstood aspect of the book of Revelation; that the earth will be destroyed in an Armageddon-like event and Jesus will take some people with him up to heaven and the rest will be “left behind” to experience a time of tribulation and/or to end up burning in hell forever.

See, many people make the mistake of thinking the natural pair to heaven is hell. It isn't. Heaven is always mentioned in connection with the earth. It’s the heavens and the earth that were separated in the beginning.

Revelation gives us a vision of the restored union of heaven and earth, which has been healed from the pain humans have inflicted throughout history. The vision John describes is one of God's plan for new creation...like the Garden of Eden 2.0, linking back to page one of the Bible where humans were created to partner with God. (Watch this Revelation video from The Bible Project for a more complete explanation.)

The bottom line is John did not write this as a secret code for us today to decipher the timetable for Jesus’s return. He wrote it as a symbolic vision intended to challenge and bring hope to the first Christians.

And so, the challenge for them then, as it is for us today, is that every human kingdom becomes Babylon (or Rome) if we let it, so we must stay vigilant and not submit to those kinds of kingdoms. And the hope this letter offers is a reminder for us to hold fast. Because one day, Jesus will return and usher in the new heavens and the new earth and will deal with evil forever and will vindicate those who have been faithful.

When that will be, no one knows. But one thing is perfectly clear: we cannot read events occurring in 2024 America backwards into Revelation to try to predict the end of the world. First, because that is not the letter’s intent. And second, because Jesus does not come back to earth to destroy it, but to renew it.

*The excerpt in this photo is from an EXCELLENT article by NT Wright, who explains this far better than I can. But what I have tried to do in this series is put it in more simple terms, since NTW can be a tough read.

#5: IT’S A BEGINNING, NOT AN END

Even if we do get hung up on and confused by the seemingly strange and twisted plot of this book, at least we do know how it ends. It ends with a clear victory that ushers in the reign of cosmic peace. No more battles, no more evil (Rev. 21:3-4). It is a return to the beginning, to the Garden of Eden, to the time before evil entered the world.

But unless we know the story of Genesis, we simply cannot appreciate the beauty of Revelation, because these books are bound together with threads that weave together the entire story of the Bible and of human nature. Garden of Eden imagery is all over the place in Revelation, to hammer the point home that in the end, things will finally be as they were intended, as they were in the beginning.

Because in the beginning, there was the Garden and it was good. God’s original design was for us to help Him tend and grow the Garden. But we thought we knew better and tried it our way for a while, resulting in separation from God and exile from the Garden.

But the hope of Revelation is that when the time is right, the Garden of Eden will be restored and expanded into a Garden City - a new Jerusalem - where all humans and all nations work together in peace and harmony alongside God.

And so an interpretation of Revelation whose message is one of destruction of the world and the humans God created, is fully at odds God’s intended design and desire to dwell and co-reign with us as we care for the earth and one another.

We miss the whole point if we see Revelation as “the end,” because the truth is, it will be only the beginning.

A final point to make on this topic: How do we reconcile all this with Matthew 24, where Jesus specifically talks about what will happen at “the end of the age” preceding his return?

By understanding Jesus was quoting from the prophets (mainly Isaiah) and again, was illustrating that generations will always have to deal with the rise and fall of their own “Babylon.” (Recall from Part 2 that Rome was the Babylon of Jesus's day.)

The point is that earthly kingdoms will vie for our attention and we must reject those kingdoms and remain faithful, until the FINAL fall of “Babylon.” When the cosmic battle will be over and the renewal of earth will be ushered in, and the heavens and the earth will be joined together again.

Well…if you made it to this point, congratulations!

To recap, Revelation is...

Not a map, but a letter.
Not literal, but symbolic.
Not describing an earthly battle, but a cosmic one.
Not about the destruction of the world, but its renewal.
Not the end, but the beginning.

It really does just come down to a simple concept, which is that Revelation should not cause us to be afraid of the end, but should inspire us to have great hope. Hope that even in this life, we can always begin again, that God can breathe new life into our situations here and now. We do not have to wait for heaven.

Because when Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected, he began this new era already. Biblical scholars refer to this as the “now and not yet.” And so while we are NOT YET in the time of the new heavens and the new earth, we are invited to join God’s kingdom NOW, to live on earth as it is in the heavens.

And I believe the main takeaway from the book of Revelation is to consider what that means for how we live our lives today. For me, it means we can live with purpose and hope for now, as we await the promise of paradise for all eternity.

Okay! We have finally arrived at the end of this series on the book of Revelation. So, that's curtains.

For now...

NOTES/BOOKS MENTIONED:

This blog series was not just me reading Revelation and interpreting it myself, but has been based on the scholarship of legit biblical experts. And while this might be hard to believe due to the length of this series, I have barely scratched the surface! So, my hope is that this was enough to spark an interest in Revelation for those who have struggled with its meaning and will lead to further study.