LETTER I
Dear Linus,
It occurred to
me that one way in which we are strikingly similar is in our response to a
subject, a problem, an issue. As I observed my response to you bringing up the
subject of The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John, I realized this, for I have
been pondering Revelation and your discussion with Boris ever since your spoke
of it and thinking of a thousand follow up elements. True, we did not go into
the subject in any depth, but you lit the fuse.
What I mean by
our similarity is that when I bring a project or problem to you, whether
regarding health or a home improvement project, I can expect a chain of follow
up thoughts from you. For example, when I raised the issue of replacing our
rear deck, you went into high gear in your consideration of the project;
preparation, material selection, the best fasteners, how to measure the project
and lay it out, tools to use, to name just a few things we discussed over a few
weeks, up until the time you (and Boris) arrived to blessedly carry the project
forward to completion.
Once I asked you
about a home repair problem over the phone (I can’t recall what it was) and you
gave me your initial thoughts. When we finished our call Vickie, who was
listening said, “He’ll get back to you once he’s given it more thought.” Indeed,
you did, a few times. This is the way you are when I bring something to you,
and this is the way I am when you bring something to me. Our conversations have
a life of their own, and any one conversation may contain threads from many
past conversations. I often lament the fact we live so far apart, but if we
lived close to each other we might never leave the coffee shop!
I live in
Revelation, just as I live in the entire Bible, it is my biosphere in Christ
for it is the Word of Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ with both an
upper case “R” and a lower case “r.” All of the Bible is the revelation of
Christ Jesus, I see Him everywhere, I meet Him everywhere, He lives in me
everywhere, I live in Him everywhere. Everywhere I seek to partake of His
Divine Nature as I meet Him in His Word (2 Peter 1:4).
I see our
journey Home in Revelation, in fact I see that this very day we are to live in
that Holy City with the Father and the Son as our One and Only Light, with God
as our Temple, with transparency as our Way of Life. I see us living as the
Tree of Life in Christ, for the healing of the peoples. But I am getting ahead
of myself, my point is that Revelation is very much “already – not yet,” I live
in Revelation today, I will live in Revelation tomorrow.
As I pondered
your chat with Boris, one of the first things that struck me is that if you
don’t know what you’re reading you won’t know how to read it. The other thing that
I thought about was whether Boris could even begin to understand Revelation
because it was not written to him (more on this below).
We have so
paganized Revelation that these things are a challenge. “Paganized!” you say.
Well, we are
friends and I can write to you as a friend. Yes, I do mean “paganized.” We are
like ancient pagan priests observing the entrails of animals to discern the
future, having an insatiable desire to satisfy our appetite for knowing the
future, for being ahead of the curve, for having special knowledge, and for
drawing a crowd.
Let’s be honest, there are “Christian” ministries who keep followers tantalized with End Times teaching rather than teaching them to follow the Lamb of the Bible, the Lamb of Revelation. While Revelation teaches us to lay down our lives for the Lamb and others, these ministries offer a steady dose of self-preservation. While Revelation teaches us to participate in the ironic victory of the Lamb (it is both ironic and irenic as we lay down our lives), these teachers would have us align ourselves with world powers and earthly forces and conquer through violence and natural power and might and national and political and economic and cultural authority. Our victory is ironic in that who would think that we conquer through dying with Christ (Romans 8:35 – 39)? It is irenic in that we conqueror peacefully (James 3:17 – 18).
Well, as I said,
you are my friend and I will write plainly.
“The Revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things
which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His
bond-servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of
Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw” (Revelation 1:1 – 2).
Three things
immediately strike me about the first two verses.
1.
This is about Jesus Christ; it is the unveiling
(the revelation) of Him.
2.
This revelation is given to His bond-servants
(or slaves).
3.
It is about things “which must soon take place.”
If we understand this in the natural sense of the word “soon,” then it actually
means “soon,” it does not mean hundreds or thousands of years later than
“soon.” I will come back to this.
