Interpreting Prophetic Literature

Is prophecy about the future, the present, or the past?

I have a “Word” for you...

     Sometime ago, in fact 27 years ago, I went to a prayer meeting here in KC. It was early in the morning. After the prayer meeting a man who attended the meeting, who sincerely felt that he was led to give me a word of prophecy, approached me. He stopped me and said: “Johan, I have a “word” for you. It has been revealed to me that you are going to go back to South Africa and you are going to meet up with 3 men and together God is going to use you in a powerful way.” That was it, and off he went. It is interesting to note that my house was on the market at that time. As I reflect back on that “word” given to me, all I can say is... I am still waiting for those 3 guys.

     What is it about us that we are so easily captivated by those who think they know history in advance? Could it be, that as a human race, with all the turmoil around us, we want to feel secure. We want to know what is going to happen to us. This is why fortune-tellers, tarot readers, psychics, mediums, sorcerers and witchdoctors are so popular and have been around for a long time. However, the Bible warns against a neurotic interest in the future and escapist fantasy into the future. In fact, the Bible forbids trafficking with people who make predictions and are into clairvoyance. (Deut. 18:14-15). And yet, in spite of this warning, there are those who persist in wanting to read Revelation primarily through the lens of prediction.

     A much overlooked factor in reading revelation is that the letter from John is not addressed to the Christians in North America who live in the 21st century, but to the Christians of the seven churches in Asia. Futuristic interpreters usually assume that Revelation's message will become clearer as the final days approach, and yet there are many scholars who believe just the opposite. They are convinced that Revelation's message would have been clearest to those who lived in John's own time. So, instead of looking for clues by combing recent headlines or news broadcasts, these scholars would rather study the language and literature of the ancient world. What these scholars are saying is that Revelation is not a coded collection of secrets that will finally become intelligible at the end of time, but it was an open book right from the beginning designed to communicate with the Christians who were alive in Rome at the time of John’s writing.

     And this is where I believe we will find our best clues into the nature of prophetic literature.

So, what shall we make of Prophetic literature?

• A common way to misunderstand prophecy, and especially the prophecy of revelation, is to suppose that it means prediction. But that is not the Biblical use of the word. Prophets are not fortune-tellers. The prophet is the person who declares, “Thus saith the Lord.” right here and now. The prophet says that God is speaking now, not yesterday and not tomorrow. 
• We see throughout the OT and NT that prophets speak words of comfort and/or challenge, on behalf of God, to the people of God in their concrete historical situation. 
• Some believe that Revelation is like a WWF wrestling match. Before the two wrestlers crawl in the ring, the outcome is already decided. We just have to wait till the end of the match to know who wins. God’s mind is made up. History is already plotted from beginning to end. Prophetic literature, however, is more like the World Series. The outcome is up for grabs. How each person plays makes a difference in the outcome. It really matters what we do. 
• Prophetic literature calls for ethical responsibility, holy living, and repentance from sin, and social justice. The outcome of history is not in the hands of a boxed-in God. The future belongs to a God who makes covenants with people and is free to respond to what we do. God is free to come in mercy or judgment. God is free to bring this present evil age to an end now or later. This prophetic style is seen very strongly in the letters written to the churches. 
• The prophets were convinced that a covenant making God works in history and through his people to accomplish His purposes. It is important to note that John doesn’t see salvation sweeping in from outside of history. John wants the readers of the seven churches to know that salvation is already present... in history. The true Savior of the world is the slaughtered Lamb whose Kingdom is already unfolding.
• One of the strong characteristics of prophets is that they always try to connect the God of the beginning with the God of the end. That is, they communicate consistently that God cares about his creation and wants to redeem it and not destroy it. We see this very strongly in Revelation. John wants to communicate that God is going to finish what he started. John speaks of a God who makes all things new. Those in the first century were encouraged to follow the Lamb into the new creation and this applies to us as well. Of course, this rules out a God who blows the planet to pieces or rain asteroids down on us. 
• Given the presence of false prophets like Jezebel, we can determine the authenticity of a prophet's message if the prophet promotes faithfulness to God or whether it leads people away from God. The preface to Revelation says that John wants people to respond to his prophecy by "keeping" it (Rev. 1:3). 

     In conclusion, Eugene Peterson reminds us that the prophetic word eliminates the distance between God’s speaking and our hearing. He says: “If we make the prophetic word a predictive word we are procrastinating, putting distance between ourselves and the application of the word, putting off dealing with it until some future date.” There are, to be sure, references to the past and implications for the future, but the predominate emphasis of the prophetic word is on the now. There are predictive elements in some prophecy (and some in Revelation, like the anticipation of the new Heaven’s and the new Earth), but they are always in service to a present message.

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Questions to ponder:

1. How do you discern a prophetic word? Is it truly a "word from God" or someone's well intentioned belief?
2. If someone was to share with you a predictive prophetic word, how do you think it would affect your life? Would it impact your view of the present and/or the future? Would it be a blessing or a distraction?

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Up Next: Where is heaven?

Come be a part of COMMUNITY

• Join Us For Worship - Join us Sunday mornings at 8:30 or 10:45 as we continue our journey into the fascinating book of Revelation.
• Watch Live Online - Can't be with us in person? Be a part of COMMUNITYonline and join our live webcast Sunday mornings at 10:45. Click here.
• Watch Past Sermons - Missed this week's sermon? You can watch it here.
• Wednesday Evening Q&A - Join us Wednesday nights at 6:30 in the Gallery for a deeper look at Revelation
• Ask Pastor Tredoux a Question - Submit questions to Pastor Tredoux here.

Revelation Unveiled

     This summer at COMMUNITY, I have embarked on a very invigorating and adventurous path, that is... to spend ten Sundays on the Book of Revelation. I have taught on end time Eschatology at Mid-America Nazarene University, but I have never preached on it. So you can say that I have officially entered into “The Danger Zone.” You remember that song from the movie Top Gun?

     I am sure like many American’s, I have grown up with a real fear of Revelation. Especially after I saw the movie “The Thief in the Night,” which came out when I was about thirteen years old. It literally scared the hell out of me. (no pun intended) I remember many times coming home from school not finding anyone, and my immediate thought was that my family was raptured and I was left behind.

     Even so, I am sure that you would agree with me that Revelation is one of the most powerful texts in the Western World. Some find the book scary, others alarming, and for some, confusing and even dangerous. And I have to agree. Who can forget the modern-day Branch Davidians incinerated at Waco and the Heavens Gate community, who committed mass suicide thinking they were joining a spaceship?

           

     Many have set dates for the return of Christ only to be disappointed. So, why study Revelation? Can Revelation be understood? Is it good news or bad news? Is it primarily about Christ or the antichrist? Does it concern the past, the present, or the future?

     I hope you will discover with me, over the next ten weeks, that Revelation is not about the antichrist, but about the living Christ. It is not about a rapture out of this world, but about faithful discipleship in this world. I hope that at the end of the book we will not find ourselves in millennial debates, but find ourselves on our knees worshipping the Lamb.

     So, here are a few things for you to consider as we begin our journey with Revelation...

First things first... putting it in context

     One of the rules of Biblical interpretation is that we consider the historical context and audience to whom the text is addressed. This includes the author, the time the text was written, the specific literary genre used, as well as the reason for writing the text. So here is a quick answer on the first three:

• Who is the Author? Most scholars don’t know who John is. Some have thought that John is one of the disciples, but most scholars believe that he is a traveling prophet or the bishop over the seven churches that he is writing to. 
• When was it written? Most scholars have placed the writing during the reign of the Emperor Domitian from 81-96 A.D. It was a relatively peaceful time in the Empire with little persecution of Christians during this time.
• To whom was it written? What is often overlooked is that John is sharing this Revelation with the 7 churches of Asia Minor. It was not written to the church of the 21st century. It is important to know that it had a profound meaning to those who received this letter from John.  They understood what he was talking about. His letter to the churches was all 22 chapters.

What is the literary style of Revelation?

     This is a more difficult question and if we can get this right, we have the best change to unpack some of the mysteries of Revelation. Scholars agree that Revelation use both the Apocalyptic and Prophetic style of writing. It is then critical for us to understand this particular form of writing. This will give us the filters we need to make sense of all the bizarre symbols and weird language used in Revelation. So lets look first at the Apocalyptic Style of Writing:

• Apocalyptic Genre: What is fascinating is that the Apocalyptic style of writing had a 400 year history going all the way back to the Persian empire. This style of writing was very familiar to the author of Revelation. In fact it is used throughout the book of Revelation.
• One of the most common characteristics of A.G. is that it is filled with dualism... like lamb vs. the beast, light vs. darkness, or God vs. Satan. It is filled with imagery and symbols that should not be taken literally. We should be asking “What do these synbols mean?” Symbolic numbers is also a strong characteristic of the Apocalyptic writing style. I mean, who doesn’t want to know what 666 really means?
• Over it’s 400 year history, the A.G. usually surfaces during oppressive regimes or empires. It is written when things are going bad. This is why this style of writing is usually very pessimistic. They have seen so many failed attempts to change the systems of oppression, that they don’t think God can work from within history to accomplish His purposes. A new future will then have to come from outside –of –history. However, it is important to note that John doesn’t see salvation sweeping in from outside of history. John wants the readers of the seven churches to know that salvation is already present... in history. The true Savior of the world is the slaughtered Lamb whose Kingdom is already unfolding.
• In verse 4 John calls Jesus the one “who is, who was, and who is to come. This is a strange way to use the tenses. We usually go with past, present, future. But John puts the present first and goes backward and forward from there. This points to a much-overlooked factor that has to be considered when we interpret Revelation. It is the time factor. Scholars indicate that the time orientation of the Roman world was more focussed on the present. That is, they thought that the duration of their present time will remain that way forever. Therefore the mindset was that the present drives what is forthcoming. The future is already in the process of becoming. When you compare this idea of time with us, Scholars would describe our time worldview in the USA to be more future oriented. That is... the future drives what is present.
• It is also a common feature of the Apocalyptic style of writing that the author repositions himself earlier in time and talk about the past as if it is in the future. Because of its apocalyptic genre, we see that John writes of the cataclysmic events of the previous generation, such as Nero’s persecution of the Christians. 54-68 AD. He writes about the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. He even goes as far back as the time in Egypt when the Jews were slaves and the time in Babylon when the Jews were in Exile.

Unlocking Revelation

     This brings me to the key to understand the book of Revelation. In order to reveal, to rip the cover from the way things are, John is saying to the 7 churches, I want you to know what the Spirit has revealed to me about the real reality of the world we live in.. I want you to see two worlds. I want you to know that the victorious Christ is already present...he is the real deal. The New Creation is already underway. Everything else is fake. The true reality is the one who is and who was and who is to come ... Present , past, future.

• The key to understand Revelation is that John wants the 7 churches to know that Jesus, the Lamb of God, not Caesar, is the true Emperor of the earth.
• Revelation is a very daring, very creative, absolutely dangerous proclamation that Jesus Christ, not the Caesar, is the true Emperor of the earth. (It is this message that will either get you crucified or exiled. The Roman Empire did not allow descend)
• That’s what Revelation is up to. Revelation is a theatrical prophecy in the Apocalyptic genre of how Jesus, the Lamb conquers the Beast, whom John portrays as Rome.
• John speaks of Rome as Babylon, the Beast, the great whore. John was afraid that the Christians in the seven churches are being lulled to sleep into embracing Roman Civil religion. John is reminding them.... Remember Rome is a beast. Rome is not just evil when it is persecuting Christians; Rome is evil in peacetime as well. It is idolatrous!

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Questions for you to ponder:

1. What is your first thought when thinking about studying Revelation? Fear? Excitement? Trepidation?
2. Does understanding the context and literary style of Revelation challenge or support your current interpretation?
3. 2000 years from now how will cultures interpret our modern day symbols? Will they understand the fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11, Facebook?

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Up Next: The Unique Nature of Prophetic Literature!

Come be a part of COMMUNITY

• Join Us For Worship - Join us Sunday mornings at 8:30 or 10:45 as we continue our journey into the fascinating book of Revelation.
• Watch Live Online - Can't be with us in person? Be a part of COMMUNITYonline and join our live webcast Sunday mornings at 10:45. Click here.
• Watch Past Sermons - Missed this week's sermon? You can watch it here.
• Wednesday Evening Q&A - Join us Wednesday nights at 6:30 in the Gallery for a deeper look at Revelation
• Ask Pastor Tredoux a Question - Submit questions to Pastor Tredoux here.