So you think you know Revelation?

Besides the four gospels, a book of history (Acts) and a number of letters, the New Testament contains one book of mostly apocalyptic prophecy—Revelation. It’s a lot like the Old Testament books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, but with some elements of a letter. No other book has confused so many people. Ben Witherington, in The Living Word of God, addresses the literary qualities and conventions of this puzzling book to show how badly treated it has been over the ages. His claim is that Revelation “has been stripped of its historical context and rhetorical setting.”

The author starts by distinguishing the kind of prophecy that exists in Revelation. It is a visionary prophecy much like Zechariah, Daniel, and Ezekiel. It may have elements of predicting the future, but that is not the main point. Instead, John uses a rhetoric which is clearly metaphorical and symbolic. For example, he mentions a person whose number is 666. This individual appears a lot like Nero, who was persecuting Christians in John’s day, but he is not named in the book. The key to the book is this use of coded language that made sense to people of his time, not to us today unless we are willing to put in a lot of study.

Witherington is upset that people claim Revelation is all about today's world. He says that "we must contend with the ridiculous ideas that this book was written especially for late-20th-and early-21st-century Christians, and no one could possibly have understood the book before now, since it's all coming to pass right now." Instead, chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation clearly say that this book was written for first-century Christians in western Asia Minor. John believes that "the sort of things he is writing about are already happening and will continue to happen right up to the point when Jesus returns." So, Revelation is relevant for all the ages since its inception.

Witherington is especially exasperated with those who look to Revelation for confirmation of the theory called "the rapture." He says the book does not speak of a pretribulation rapture of the faithful. Instead, it focuses on suffering and martyrdom of the believers. Witherington claims this idea of "the rapture" did not really exist in Christian history before the early 1800s. It is a recent idea that has become huge in evangelical circles, but the author calls it unbiblical. He asks the reader to consider 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, where the return of Christ is compared to the actions of a king who comes to a city. A greeting committee comes out of the city to meet the dignitary (dead and living Christians rise to meet Jesus in the air); all then proceed back into the city (the Earth). They don't leave the city and depart to the king's domain (the view the rapture would require as an analogy). Witherington says this picture would have been clear to people in Paul's time when he wrote Thessalonians. He's pretty blunt in his assessment of this popular rapture business: "there is no such rapture theology anywhere in the New Testament, or in the Old Testament for that matter. The consistent witness of the New Testament is that Christians will continue to be martyrs throughout every church age."

The author sums it all up by saying we should not use Revelation for specific detailed prophecies of our times. Instead, the book gives us general warnings about the kind of events that will happen, which are common to every age of human history. His approach is useful to help us focus on living well rather than being tossed about with the latest end -times speculations.

Do I agree with his statements? Well, maybe. I read Hank Hanegraaff's The Apocaplypse Code that echoes the same skepticism toward the rapture. I just wish pastors and writers would be honest enough to preface their comments on Revelation by saying, "You know, there are a lot of ways of taking this book. i'm presenting one, but you should read up on the others and make up your own mind."