The way of imagination

       A Divine Revolution.   In their Communist Manifesto of 1848, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels said: “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains . They have a world to win. Working Men of All Countries, Unite!”      While the connection between the creators of communism and the book of Revelation might not be immediately obvious, make no mistake!   Revelation is a book about a revolution and a dream of a new world where there will truly be justice for all .   Revelation has been misunderstood, domesticated, and reduced to a “Christian cosmic horoscope”.   Strangely, Revelation has often been put forward as providing a vision of “the great escape” from the world into “eternity”, “heaven”, call it what you will.   Perhaps this is be

  “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it …Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life…and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations .” (Rev. 21.22 – 22.2)      There’s no way around it; the book of Revelation is full of violence.   Whether the violence is perpetuated by evil empires or by the Creator of all things, it is pervasive and vividly portrayed throughout the book.   One way of understanding this explosion of destruction is that Revelation is the ultimate expression of the biblical longing for evil to be judged and for righteousness t