What Kind of Movie Is This?
Have you ever sat down to watch a comedy and it turned out the movie you chose was actually an action flic? There comes a moment when it dawns on you, this is not what I thought it was! As Dave Neumann pointe out yesterday, that often happens when Christians read the book of Revelation. Because we’re used to the gospels and the letters, which are pretty understandable in our era, we miss the genre (which category of literature) the book of Revelation is. It’s called ‘apocalyptic’ and there were lots of other books around the first century that had the same terrifying imagery is part of the style. It was meant to be highly symbolic and not meant to be taken literally. For example, does Jesus literally have a sword coming out of his mouth (uh, no, he doesn’t)? And yet, listen to this verse about Jesus:
In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. - Revelation 1:16
So when we read this book (and we’ll be looking at parts of it all this week), we need to remember not to take things literally and not to try to make a timeline out of it.
To help us orient this week to looking at the book of Revelation, ponder these questions:
What are one or two feeling words that come up when I hear we’re going to look at Revelation this week?
Knowing what I know now (whether it’s a lot or a little), what would I say Revelation is about?
What’s the best part of the book of Revelation?
What are my hopes about how the story of God would come to it’s fitting end?