A few years back you may remember a sensational news story about a group of Christians who had cracked the code and figured out the date of Christ’s return. Promoted by his network of 150 Christian radio stations, president of Family Radio, and on air personality Harold Camping made a bold prediction that the rapture would occur on May 21, 2011. Camping had made several failed predictions in the past, most notably in September 1994 and March 1995 – but something about the 2011 prediction set off a media firestorm. Perhaps the cultural climate was finally right for such a discussion, or perhaps it was the unprecedented amount of money spent promoting this revelation that generated public interest.
In 2010, a woman in Colorado Springs made
news by purchasing advertising space in her locality, promoting the alleged
Rapture date on a number of park benches. After that, more than 3,000 "Judgment
Day" billboards were erected in locations across the world, including the
Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Lesotho,
the Philippines, Tanzania and the United States. Some people adorned their
vehicles with the information. Many who believed in the prediction took time
off work to prepare for the rapture; while others spent their life savings on
advertising material to publicise the prophecy. One retired transportation
agency worker from New York was reported to have spent $140,000 of his savings on
advertising![1]
Not to be outdone, Camping and the Family
Radio network spent over 100 million dollars to spread the news of impending
judgment and doom. Basically stripping the company’s assets bare and selling
off a number of stations to finance the PR campaign. Everyone needed to hear
the news.
And then May 21, 2011 rolled around. And
nothing happened. No earthquakes, no judgment, no rapture, no end-times events.
Just a whole lot of confused and disenfranchised, and now very, very poor
people left wondering what happened. In the following week the Internet was
abuzz with mockery, defensiveness and some really funny memes.
Such are the dangers of an irresponsible
approach to the book of Revelation.
Many people throughout history including Father
of the Reformation, Martin Luther, have been perplexed, angered or even
anti-revelation. With regards to its place in scripture it barely made it into
the canon, and has been functionally de-canonized throughout the ages by it’s
relative absence from the lectionaries of both the Roman Catholic and
protestant churches and it’s complete absence from the lectionary of Orthodox
churches. Evangelicals have had an equally unhealthy relationship with the
book, either becoming dangerously obsessed with symbols out of context or flat
out avoiding it for fear of controversy and confusion. In other words, it’s not
just Family Radio that has stumbled into the mess of John’s Apocalypse.
Churches have been divided, communities have been broken, denominations have
been torn apart and people have been terrified by the words contained within
this book.
So in light of the dangers of
disillusionment, mockery, obsession, division, and just plain confusion that
come with the preaching of this text, why on earth would I as a pastor just
completing my first year in this congregation want to dive into this book that
has derailed and destroyed so many ministries throughout the years?
Because
in this day and age we need the true message of revelation more than ever.
Revelation is a work of literature in a
genre that we call “apocalypse.” Contrary to colloquial usage that word does
not mean destruction, but rather it means the revealing of secret things. And
just like every other book in the canon of scripture, while it may have been
written for us, it was not originally written to us. John did not sit down and
write a manual for the church of the 3rd Christian millennium to
deal with the end of the age – rather he wrote a letter to seven named churches
in the Roman province of Asia. Seven churches that were dealing with problems
much like the problems churches today face, and yet at the same time they faced
problems that are completely foreign to us.
And so for the next seven weeks we are just
going to peer into the book of Revelation and look at only two of the
twenty-two chapters of this mysterious book and ask the question, what is the
Spirit saying to the churches – and what does that message teach us about
ourselves today.
But before we get into that series this weekend I just want to lay
out a few ground rules for our time together, and the inevitable discussions we
will be having after the services and throughout the weeks between messages in
this series.
- Don’t be afraid
- Don’t get caught in the lie that Revelation is all about the past – and that as a result the teachings are dull historical footnotes that have little relevance to us. This might be one of the most important pieces of scripture for the church to read and understand in the entire Bible.
- Conversely, don’t get caught in the lie that Revelation is about the future. That it’s the tale of some great future threat and that we need to live in constant vigilance and fear of the rise of the antichrist, the beast and the tribulations described in this document. The otherworldly imagery of this book is pointing to a very grounded and applicable and present reality.
- Don’t make the mistake that people like Harold Camping made, and waste your time looking for correlations in people, places or events. Jesus made it clear in Matthew 24:36 that no one – not even our Lord himself knows the day that the Father has appointed for his return.
- Don’t even think about talking about the rapture in conjunction with the book of revelation – because even if you believe in some event called “the rapture” the scriptural basis for that belief comes from Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians and it is not mentioned or even alluded to in the book of Revelation.
- And while we’re on the topic of what is not in this book – don’t ever say "Revelations" the English name of the book is “Revelation” singular. Every time you call the book Revelations a biblical scholar somewhere dies. Don’t be a part of the problem. J
Lastly, and most importantly (because every list to do with Revelation must have seven points) – open your
ears to hear what the Spirit is saying not only to the churches, but also to
our church. This is a message for the people of God living in a hostile
culture. God is speaking through this book and we need to heed the words of
Jesus: “He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
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