Misreading Revelation and getting it right
God wages war by way of the cross, not with weapons of mass destruction
There’s a lot of confusion among Christians about the meaning of the book of Revelation and the End Times in general. From movies that depict “the rapture” and God-initiated apocalyptic destruction, to (my favourite) post-apocalyptic zombie thrillers, our culture—both Christian and secular—remains fascinated with how the world will end.
A popular belief that has (unfortunately) crept into the mainstream of churches today is the idea that Jesus will wage a bloody and brutal war against the nations (who follow the anti-Christ) in the End Times. This isn’t surprising, considering the violent images that Revelation paints.
At His second coming, Jesus is described---symbolized---as a bloodthirsty warrior who wages war, a crusader sent to strike down the enemy nations with a weapon of mass destruction.
Some scholars and pastors argue that we should read Revelation literally and futuristically—implying that Revelation was written to be an exact prophetic forecast of future events about the End Times. Thus, it’s no surprise that some people believe Jesus will literally come back as a bloodthirsty warrior bent on vengeance.
But is this a responsible way to read Revelation? Probably not.
We learn in the opening prologue of Revelation that what we are reading is “the revelation from Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:1) and “the testimony to Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:2). In other words, Revelation is from and about Jesus Christ. Jesus acts like a compass---He points us in the right direction---for reading Revelation. Therefore, the Person and work of Jesus Christ should be our starting point for interpreting what we find in the book of Revelation. And from what we know about Jesus in the Old and New Testaments, He is the God of suffering and merciful love. Not a violent warrior bent on destruction. To read it with any other compass—be it futuristically or literally—will lead us astray. And it has for many.
One major characteristic of apocalyptic literature, the genre Revelation falls under, is the use of symbolic language. When we understand this symbolism, we will be in a better position to make sense of Revelation. Still with me? Let's take a look at a few passages that are often misread by Christians, keeping in mind this use of symbolic language.
Revelation 19:13 – Whose Blood?
In Revelation 19:11-13, Jesus is depicted as a warrior riding on a white horse whose robe is "dipped in blood." As noted earlier, some scholars and pastors propose that the blood on Christ’s robe is the blood of His enemies. However, this interpretation raises both theological and textual problems.
From a theological standpoint, if Revelation testifies to the Person and work of Jesus Christ (as it says it does in Rev. 1:2), this image of Jesus shedding the blood of His enemies clearly does not line up with the Christology of the New Testament. Agreed? And from a textual standpoint, Bible scholar J.R. Yeatts tells us in the Believers Church Bible Commentary: Revelation, that "the tense [of the Greek word] indicates that the dipping [of blood] is the permanent result of the onetime event of the cross of Christ."
The blood on Jesus’ robe is His own blood. Thus, the warrior Christ is actually the crucified Christ. The blood on Christ’s robe symbolizes His blood shed on the cross.
Revelation 19:15 – A Weapon of Mass Destruction?
Jesus is depicted as a bloodthirsty warrior is Revelation 19:15: "Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations" (Rev 19:15). We are told by John that Jesus, the rider on the white horse, "judges and wages war” (Rev 19:11) against “the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies” (Rev 19:19). In the end, the rider kills His enemies with this sword that is coming out of His mouth (Rev 19:21). Taken literally, the sword Jesus uses is nothing short than a weapon of mass destruction. However, when we understand that the sword coming out of Jesus’ mouth symbolizes the Word of God, we are no longer led to believe that Jesus is an unstable and bloodthirsty warrior.
"[T]he beast and the kings and their armies are defeated not by violent or military might," says J.D. Weaver, author of The Nonviolent God. Rather, "They are undone—defeated by the Word of God. This passage is another symbolic representation of the victory of the reign of God over the forces of evil that has already occurred with the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is by proclamation of the Word, not by armies and military might, that God’s judgment occurs."
Jesus: the best "compass" for reading Revelation
The Word of God speaks the truth about Jesus Christ: He is "the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15). If God’s essence is love, than, we can agree with Bonhoeffer on two points. First, we can proclaim with him the greatest truth about Jesus: "Where Jesus is, there is God’s love." Second, we can agree that God’s love is not indifferent to sin. Rather, through the cross of Christ, God’s love "experiences and suffers the reality of the world in all its harshness." The cross is evidence that God takes the world’s sin extremely seriously.
So, just because this "Jesus-compass" for reading Revelation leads us to "conclude that God is not the kind of being who commands genocide, instantly annihilates people, or judges nations by subjecting them to the horrors of war," says author and Old Testament professor Eric Seibert, "does not mean that [we] believe God is a spineless deity who could not care less about how people behave."
On the contrary, God deals with sin, suffering, evil and death by fully absorbing their assaults through His all-encompassing love on the cross. God’s character is revealed most clearly in the Person and work of Christ. Indeed, God’s "way of being in the world is not that of a genocidal despot," says author and theology professor C.S. Cowles, "but of a creative, life-giving, life-enhancing servant. He is omnipotent Lord, but his sovereignty is the sovereignty of self-emptying, cruciform love."
God wages war by way of the cross.
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