We live in a time of wars and rumours of war. Some are with real weapons. Some are with words. People are being killed and injured (both by real weapons and by words).
- Russia & Ukraine
- Israel & Gaza
- Israel & Iran
- Sudan
- South Sudan
- Myanmar
- the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh
- the Sahel region conflict in West Africa
- Haiti
- Central African Republic
- India & Pakistan
- India & China
- USA vs everyone who disagrees with them
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Over the last couple of days, with conflicts in the Middle East heating up, I have read people getting excited (sadly, there really is no other word) about the possibility of the end of the end.
Escapist thinking is on the rise.
If the world is going to end, or we are going to be raptured, or whatever your theological viewpoint is, then why pray, why work for peace, why speak up against warmongers?
I'm hearing all sorts of stuff about the Book of Revelation (singular, not plural) of the Book of the Apocalypse (meaning unveiling).
Eugene Peterson, in his excellent book on Revelation entitled Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination, reminds us that the book begins and ends with Jesus. Everything in between is also about Him.
Peterson's chapter titles tell us a lot. Every chapter title has “last word” in it. So in Revelation, we get the last word on Scripture, Christ, the Church, Worship, Evil, Prayer, Witness, Politics, Judgment, Salvation, and Heaven. And then, in the final chapter, we get, not surprisingly, “The Last Words.”
So John - the Revelator - is pastor, poet, and theologian. As we read, keep those three voices in mind.
Short version: Revelation is about how to follow Jesus in difficult times, until that day when everything is set right and God establishes the "new heaven and the new earth" Revelation 21:1.
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