The way of imagination

“The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation…Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Rev. 3.14, 20-21)      The paradox of the kingdom of God.   The book of Revelation is clear – it is precisely by dying for their faith that the martyrs “overcome” the “beast”, the “world” and all the enemies of God.   Jesus showed us the way to true victory – by giving up his life on the cross, he defeated the “principalities and powers” (cf. Col. 2.14-15).   Despite the fact that everyone – including the disciples – believed that Jesus’ death was a defeat and proof that he was not the Messiah after all (cf. Lk. 24.19-24), the New Testament consistently insists that the opposite wa...

“After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice… said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.” (Rev. 4.1-3)      Concerning heaven.   As far as the Bible is concerned, heaven is not far away.   “God’s dimension”, if you will, is just behind a curtain that is sometimes drawn back so we can glimpse what’s going on “behind the scenes” (“Revelation” is the translation of the Greek word apocalypto , i.e. to “unveil”, to “uncover”).      Whether it’s Abraham welcoming three strangers to lunch and later realizing that one of them is “God” (and the two others are angels: Gn. 18-19), or Jacob dreaming of a ladder reaching up to God’s abode and then awaking...

“I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given ;   they cried out with a loud voice, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?” They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete …of their fellow servants…who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.” (Rev. 6.9-11)      The book of Revelation was written for Christians who were both at risk of being actively persecuted for their faith and who had to follow Christ in the midst of an empire whose ideology was the very antithesis of the truth of the kingdom of the One true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, “who is seated on the throne” (cf. Rev. 4.2, 9-10; 5.1, etc.).   “John”, the author of the book, himself in exile “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” and who ...

  “ I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance , was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus .” (Rev. 1.9)      The book of Revelation was written for Christians who were both at risk of being actively persecuted for their faith and who had to follow Christ in the midst of an empire whose ideology was all-embracing and all-demanding.   Rome understood itself to be endowed with divine legitimization – whatever served the glory of the empire was thus “good”, “right” and “just”.   However ruthless the means to acquire this “glory” – whether genocide or what amounted to the wholesale theft of the economic resources of conquered lands – they were justified so long as they served the end of propping up the myth of Rome’s eternal destiny to rule the earth. [1]      In contrast to this Roman imperial ideology, John spells out the G...

“These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.” (Rev. 22.6)      The book of Revelation was written for Christians who were being persecuted for their faith in Christ.   The book is addressed to “the seven churches of (the Roman province of) Asia” (i.e., modern Western Turkey).   Of course, in the first-century Mediterranean world, the all-encompassing reality with which everyone was “invited” to come to terms with was… the Roman empire.   At various times during the first century, the imperial establishment perceived the church to be a threat, and decided to (try to) eliminate it.   “John”, the author of Revelation, himself in exile “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” and shares with the members of the 7 churches “the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance” (Rev. 1.9), writes to these Christian...

“Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this.” (Rev. 1.17-19)      A new world.   As we have said, Easter was the launch of God’s new creation.   On the cross, Jesus defeated sin and death and as he vacated the tomb, Jesus walked into a new world – one in which the power of death had been broken.   And yet, as those Christians thrown to the lions might have wondered, “The power of tyrants to kill at will seems to be unaffected by Jesus’ having established the kingdom of God “on earth as in heaven” (cf. Mt. 6.9-10), thus ushering in God’s new world…”   How to reconcile this apparent paradox?   If we are the followers of the living One who reigns over the world from “the right hand of God” (cf. Ac. 2.33; 5.31; 7.55; Rom. 8.34), then how is it t...

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me.” (Paul addressing an angry mob in the courts of the Jerusalem Temple: Ac. 22.3-5)        A new world.   Easter is the launch of God’s new creation.   On the cross, Jesus defeated sin and death and as he vacated the tomb, Jesus walked into a new world – one in which the power of death had been broken.   The God of life never abandoned his project of creating a world ruled by humans who reflected his glory into the cosmos, a cosmos destined to be filled with the divine glory as the waters cover the sea (cf. Gn. 1.1—2.3; Habakkuk 2.14).   Since the entrance of sin into ...