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 “...

  “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...

  “A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth…   And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a scepter of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne…” (Rev. 12.1-5)      There seems to be a deliberate “non-violent hermeneutic” being utilized by the New Testament authors as they quote the Hebrew Scriptures.   Psalm 2 is one of the most frequently quoted Psalms in the NT to refer to Jesus’ messiahship (cf. the voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism, Ac. 4.25-26, etc. ). [1] Breaking with the pattern of omitting violent elements from biblical quotations, Revelation is the only NT book to quote Ps. 2.9 (Yahweh’s anointed will break the nations with a “rod of iron”; cf. Rev. 2.27; 12.5; 19.15).   ...

  “To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end, I will give authority over the nations, to rule them with an iron scepter,     as when clay pots are shattered—   even as I also received authority from my Father.” (Rev. 2.26-28; cf. Ps. 2.9)      The second Psalm is one of the favourite Psalms of the New Testament, i.e. it is often quoted by the NT authors.   Psalm 2 describes “the nations” and “the kings of the earth” [1] who plot against Yahweh and his anointed king in order to liberate themselves from their rule (Ps. 2.1-3; cf. Rev. 1.5, 11.15).   This Psalm reflects, perhaps, the situation of the kingdom of Israel during the reign of Solomon [2] (cf. 2 Sam. 7.12-16) when Israel’s territory had expanded to include several surrounding nations and when rulers came from far and wide to pay tribute to Solomon in Jerusalem (cf. 1 Kings 4, 10).      In response to the conniv...