An Apocalypse for Each of Us: Applying John’s Message to Daily Life

One of my favorite bands, Project 86, released their album Songs To Burn Your Bridges By in 2003. The music on this album is intense and broiling, shaking the room as frontman Andrew Schwab screams into the microphone. Most of the album’s lyrics revolve around the inevitable downfall of ‘empire’. This ‘emperor’ fancies himself a hero, but in reality he is an abuser, a manipulator, a destroyer. He offers us a magic potion to make everything better, but in reality it’s poison. Until the time comes when his empire is overthrown, Schwab vents his ‘lust for justice’, giving a voice to the outcry so many of us have over the evil things we see in the world but feel powerless to stop.

We caught you plotting murder
And now the tide is turning
We’ll light our souls, heat our bones
Upon your empire burning ¹Project 86, ‘The Spy Hunter,’ Songs To Burn Your Bridges By, 2003

The Apocalypse, set to music.

There are many Christians, at least here in America, who think we are living in the ‘last days’. Based on a certain interpretation of the book of Revelation (aka, the Apocalypse), a number of people anticipate the arrival of a world ruler within the next few years; someone like Hitler, but more crafty, subtle, and successful. This supreme Antichrist will rally the world against Christians and persecute the Church until Jesus eventually appears and violently wipes out all the bad guys.

Contrary to this expectation, it is largely agreed by scholars and theologians that the Revelation was primarily concerned with the Roman Empire of the author’s own era. John’s criticisms were aimed at Rome’s exploitative politics, religion, and economy, along with its increasingly violent response to the Christian population in Asia Minor in the late first century AD. Even the Old Testament book of Daniel, one of the more obvious influences on the Revelation’s symbolism, is widely thought to have been concerned with an aggressive culture-war brought on Judea by Antiochus Epiphanes in the early second century BC, rather than a distant ‘end time’ scenario as popularly thought.

When I discuss these ‘scholarly’ views on Daniel and the Revelation with my peers, they are often colored by skepticism: ‘If the Revelation is already fulfilled, doesn’t that mean Jesus’ second coming already happened? The end of the world occurred centuries ago? Why bother reading the Revelation if there’s nothing in it for us?’ While this is not really an accurate summary of the aforementioned views, let’s focus on that last question in particular: even if the Revelation was about people and events from ages past (or even people and events ages future), does that mean the book has no value today? Of course not. Although Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches was about issues they were dealing with in their time, we are still able to learn and grow by studying what Paul wrote to them. We can approach the Revelation the same way.

A common interpretation of the album I mentioned above, Songs To Burn Your Bridges By, suggests that the ‘empire’ Schwab condemns throughout the lyrics was really a cipher for Project 86’s previous record label. So the story goes, the label signed the band, hoping to roll in piles of cash, but when their 2002 album was subjected to excessive executive meddling, it barely crawled off store shelves. The label dropped the band just as quickly as they had signed them. What makes the lyrics from Songs To Burn Your Bridges By so compelling, in my opinion, is that the songwriter used such highly-charged metaphor and hyperbole to describe his experience. By leaving the imagery indirect and open, anyone can come along and apply it to something new. In a similar way, the scenery painted by the author of the Revelation is rich, but esoteric; righteous, but volatile.

The Revelation is one of just three New Testament books John Calvin never wrote a commentary on. The book’s interpretative difficulties may be the reason it is the only New Testament book excluded from the Eastern Orthodox Church’s lectionary—despite the author’s own exhortation that ‘blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear’ (Revelation 1:3). In an interview conducted by Joel J. Miller over at his blog on Patheos, it was implied the Revelation was left out of the lectionary because it was simply too contentious for the average reader. ²Joel J. Miller, Metropolitan Savas, ‘What an Orthodox bishop thinks you should know about the Book of Revelation,’ Patheos, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/joeljmiller/2013/06/what-an-orthodox-bishop-thinks-you-should-know-about-the-book-of-revelation/

On the other hand, Christians throughout history have often associated the Revelation with major events from their own eras. They could easily read their wars, plagues, and famines into the colorful visions. I don’t think it’s theologically healthy to constantly play Pin The Tail On The Antichrist, but the book’s imprecise nature is exactly why it has been so popular with people looking to make sense of catastrophes around the world. To fend of rampant speculation, one early Christian apologist, Irenaeus, warned against what saw his fellow Christians doing:

It is therefore more certain, and less hazardous, to await the fulfillment of the prophecy, than to be making surmises ³Irenaeus Against Heresies 5.30.3

While we should not be convinced the Revelation is a manual on how to find an aspiring Nicolae Carpathia, John’s prophecy does have limitless application. We don’t need to think the Revelator wrote about us in order to apply his message to our own contexts:

John’s opposition to Rome becomes paradigmatic for present-day resistance to modern empires. The anti-empire approach allows the modern interpreter to apply the text in ways that extend beyond most traditional applications. ⁴Dwight Sheets, ‘Something Old, Something New,’  Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is Not: Evaluating Empire in New Testament Studies, ed. Scot McKnight & Joseph B. Modica (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013), 198.

If the Revelation criticizes economic exploitation (Revelation 18), we might find ways to apply that to a consumerism blind to the dire conditions in sweatshops. A friend of mine fights to end human trafficking in Houston, a modern equivalent to ancient Rome’s own soul-selling enterprise (Revelation 18:11–13). Daniel’s criticism of military brutality (Daniel 7:7,23) might find a place in the context of modern nations that wage endless wars on those who challenge their country’s ‘interests’. And this is before we get into the more obvious examples of Nazi death camps, the Soviet Gulag, American internment camps, and so forth.

Regardless what we may think the Revelation predicts about the future, it is more immediately important for Christians to understand the book’s message. The Revelation is concerned with God bringing justice to a world plagued by abusers, manipulators, and destroyers, and it shows Christians partnering with God in this endeavor by ‘conquering’ in the name of heaven’s kingdom. Such ‘conquest’, though, will never be accomplished when it takes the form of violence. At no point in the Revelation are Christians commanded to engage in bloody warfare with their enemies. Instead, victory will only come when we ‘conquer’ the same way the Lamb ‘conquered’ (Revelation 5:5–6).

Once we’ve embraced unconditional, self-sacrificial love—having set aside our fear, hatred, paranoia, prejudices, and self-righteousness—only then will we be able to properly react to apocalyptic crises, whether they are personal obstacles or national tribulations. Instead of obsessing over which amoral politician will try to dominate the world, instead of stocking up secret bunkers because of a coup on the other side of the planet, and definitely instead of hoarding ammo to mow down waves of communists, Muslims, or whoever the scapegoat of the decade is, we must fight corruption and violence in the same way as Jesus: with self-sacrificial love.