All Powerful and Mysterious

Before we move on to the letters to the churches and into the visions of Revelation, it's helpful to get in one more round of preface.

John’s audience is likely one that is familiar with a class of Judaic literature known as “Apocalyptic.” Many Jews of the day believed that there were two “ages”: the present, which is bad and without redemption, and the second is God’s golden age, when his creation is perfect, and the time between the two ages is characterized by destruction. Apocalyptic literature deals with the sins of the present, the trials of the “time between,” and the promise of the golden age. It is composed of visions of the end times, and thus is cryptic because it is thought to be describing the indescribable (Barclay, 1976). Further, such literature was often written in times of oppression, and because of the Roman dominance during the time-period when Revelation was thought to be written, the literature had to be understood by its audience, but indecipherable to enemies. Revelation uses heavy Hebrew-text imagery and symbolism that had significance and was understood to those familiar with that literature. The style uses visions to symbolize future events, so direct literal interpretation visual cues can lead to trouble (Svigel, 2000). Other books of similar style were 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, 4 Ezra, and Assumption of Moses, 2 Baruch, Apocalypse of Abraham, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, as well as Christian apocalypses such as Ascension of Isaiah, Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Apocalypse of Paul (Brighton, 1999).

Apocalyptic writing is theocentric, but Rev is definitely Christocentric. For Believers, Revelation is more than “literary meditation on prophetic themes” (Brighton, 1999). Revelation is thought to be the prophecy of Jesus (through John) where John uses apocalyptic themes as long as they follow Hebrew prophecy and lead to the Christ–centered , triumphant–God ideas of Revelation. There is also the question of whether or not apocalyptic writing is esoteric and tells of present and future secrets, or whether it is more prophetic, with the purpose of influencing change of the listener/reader. Some of it is a little of both, but Revelation is prophetic in that it comes from God who desires that all people repent and believe the teachings of Christ.

The writing is not necessarily chronological (Greek khronos: time that is measured sequentially, as describing events in order; as opposed to kairos: time in terms of circumstances, such as “time to harvest”—much of time in Rev is kairos). Each vision discusses a different aspect of the time from Jesus ministry on earth to his second coming, a kind of spiral effect. More on this later.

So, Revelation seems mysterious to us; the young reformer Martin Luther wrote, “My spirit cannot adapt itself to this book” he could not see the book expounding on the Christ’s earthly ministry although he accepted it as scripture––“…we can profit by this book and make good use of it”, and later said, “Christ is nonetheless with his saints, and wins the final victory” (Barclay, 1999). The danger is that the book can be confusing and some dismiss it as not find reason to study it, and others think they’ve discovered some secret explanation or concept—but every generation since the first century has come up with different interpretations of the prophecies.

Jamaal 1:1
"God is all-powerful. Keep that Faith, make sure He is your Lord, your Father, and persevere over the trials of this world, and everything will be OK as you join the Father in heaven for eternity. As long as you can keep your jerk itch under control..."

-J

Onesimus

So, after a rousing offline discussion last week that started to lead back to the theme, or one of, the BoJ, "Jerks can't go (be) to (in) heaven...*" we return our** focus to something a bit less controversial***. Something that is a common theme throughout the Bible.

Chapter one, verse 1 of the Revelation of John leads us to our first aside. "To show his servants."

WILLING SLAVES, NOT SERVANTS

“Servant” from Greek doulos “slaves.” The connotation is often of one who has sold himself into slavery; in a spiritual sense, the idea is that of becoming a slave of God or of Jesus Christ voluntarily. The word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. The most accurate translation is “bond-servant” in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another (NET note). A slave no longer has a will of their own, their time and will belong to their master. We must surrender to God. People referred to as doulos, or the similar Hebrew ebedh, in the Bible include: Abraham, Jacob, Joshua, Moses, David, Elijah, and Paul, James, and Jude all proclaim themselves to be slaves of God (Titus 1, James 1, Jude 1).

What does this say about the greatest men in the Bible?

What about Onesimus? In Philemon (uh... Chapter 1... the only one), Paul sends Onesimus, a slave--presumably a bond servant, back to his master, Philemon, to whom he owes his servitude, and thus pay his debt. Paul sends Onesimus back to rectify his relationship with Philemon, and to receive forgiveness. Paul asks for Philemon to mark Onesiumus' debt as 'paid in full' by Paul. What metaphor does this remind us of? Do you think this is the message of Philemon? What is Paul doing?

See NET translation notes for more info on 'doulos.'
*Because, it wouldn't be heaven if jerks were there. Why do you think Jesus exhorts us the way he does, yo?
**The two of you reading this
***Slavery less controversial? Slow down Jamaal! But remember... focus on eternity here. (I don't want ya'll to think I'm pulling a Lou Holtz here.)

Pre-Introduction

OK. OK. OK. My memory isn't perfect and the joke goes further back than I remembered, but I'm going to completely forget that and hope those reading this, that would know better, will suspend disbelief until they forget. I'm also hoping that my mortgage company will trickle down a special deal for me so I get a piece of the pie and the Feds will forget.

I also recommend using several Bibles if indeed you're going to study Revelation; one that provides translation notes (NET is good), and another that you like.

A couple of other quick notes.

For some intro to the visual cues John uses it may be useful to read:

OT
Isaiah 62–66
Malachi 4
Daniel 12

NT
Matt 24–25
Acts 1:6-8

And if you're ready to dip your feet, try some non-canonical books like Enoch or Epistle of Barnabas, for examples. I wasn't going to go into the Quantum Physics yet, as I think people would liken me daft for jumping right into the possible extra-and-multi-dimensionalism of God just yet. It's not all blasphemous, I promise.