Thursday, October 28, 2021

End Times, Always – The Book of Revelation and the Mark of the Beast

It's not Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine and it's not mandated vaccine passports. 

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The Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse of John, describes a heavenly vision that John experiences, a vision that offers a heavenly perspective on the actualities of life in John’s cultural context. The word apokaluptō or apocalypse, means “to lift the veil” or “to reveal.” It’s to do with seeing from a divine rather than earthly perspective. Bizarre and unusual imagery is used in order to shake the reader up and force them to see things in a new light, in a manner that might not otherwise be apparent.

The Revelation of John, sent as one letter to seven churches, is written to particular people, facing particular issues, and with a particular message. It's prophetic in that it calls two different types of Christians to renewed faithfulness in God and to live as faithful witnesses to the one who is The Faithful Witness. Christians who are being persecuted and who are suffering under the oppression of the Roman Empire, and also, Christians who are prospering through compromise and inappropriate allegiance to the Roman cult of Empire. Both are being called to faithfulness in their fidelity to the Lordship of Jesus and the eternal Kingdom of God. They are to reject the lordship of Caesar, the temporary Empire of Rome and the cult of empire worship that comes with it.

Revelation promises that faithfulness will be rewarded, justice will be given to those who are oppressed, oppressors will be judged. God's kingdom will come, his will done on earth as in heaven. Those who are faithful to Jesus will, in the restoration of all things, be restored to the priestly roll of image bearers they were created to be – faithful representatives and worshipers of God. There will be no more tears, heaven and earth will be wholly united, and the dwelling place of God will be with humankind.

Roughly speaking chapters 6 through 19 are a commentary on the Roman Empire, and as Scripture all empires. Empires are inherently evil, only every temporary, and exist in contrast to the eternal Kingdom of God – a city whose gates will never be shut – and where all will be made well.  As Revelation unfolds the message is essentially; don't worry, God’s good judgement will come, faith, hope and love will prevail, resurrection life, renewed creation around the corner – hold fast to faith in Jesus. The prayers of the righteous will be heard, the Roman Empire will not have the final word, no empire that exalts itself against the knowledge of God will be the final word. All will be set right under Christ.

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Revelation uses all sorts of fantastic imagery, mostly plucked from the OT, to unveil and reveal this truth in the face of the might of the Roman Empire. In Revelation 6 we read about seals being broken and judgement being poured out, we read of the 'four horsemen of the apocalypse,’ with one of them on a white horse with bow and arrow. It isn't a timeline of future events, it’s the announcement that the Christian oppressors, the Roman Empire, is destined to pass away. We have four seals, four horses, four riders, four different types of judgement and consequences. They serve as a symbolic literary function and are likened to the four different coloured horses patrolling on the Lord's behalf in Zechariah 1:8-11.

Metallica sing about it in their song Four Horseman. Horsemen are drawing nearer, On leather steeds they ride, They've come to take your life. On through the dead of night, With the four horsemen ride, Or choose your fate and die. Pestilence, for what you have to endure, And what you have put others through, Death, deliverance for you for sure, Now there's nothin' you can do. And on it goes. I think that is what is known as Scripture in Song.

I'm not sure what Metallica thought they were singing about or their fans thought they were headbanging about, but essentially it is this; Revelation uses the imagery, the four riders on coloured horses, bringing destruction, to underscore the point that eventually the Roman rule will collapse. The Parthian's were an unconquered people and a major threat to the Roman Empire, they had archer warriors who rode white horses – the only known mounted archers known of in the ancient world. The imagery of a white horse and an archer were a threat to the Empire. The point being that the Empire will fall, not necessarily to Parthia and then not that Parthia will reign forever, but ultimately because all Empires are destined to fail and only the Kingdom of God will prevail. Four seals, four judgements on Rome, invasion, conquest, famine, pestilence, plague, death. All realities that come with 1st century warfare and conquest. So yeah, good stuff Metallica. Hallelujah. Revelation 6 through 19 are full of this kind of wonderful imagery. Ok, chapter 13.

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Revelation 13:1-3
The dragon stood on the shore of the sea.
And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.  One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.

The dragon is a picture of ultimate evil that exists behind any manifestation of evil.  In regard to the beast, John is borrowing some imagery from Daniel 7. Daniel sees four beasts; like a lion, like a bear, like a leopard, and a fourth that was more terrifying than the others. These beasts represent, in Daniel, the successive empires with whom Israel was confronted. The Babylonian Empire, the Median Empire, the Persian Empire, and Alexander’s Macedonian (or Greek) Empire (the most terrifying).  In John’s vision, Revelation pictures Rome as a conglomerate of all four of these beasts. This is the Beast from the sea we read about here in chapter 13, something worse than Daniel experienced.

The seven heads represent successive emperors and Rome built on seven hills. The ten horns with crowns represent smaller regional powers under the authority of the larger Beast (the Empire). Thus, the Beast is a symbol that embodies evil empire, it comes from the sea, the place of chaos and death. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. Emperor Nero was fatally injured – and he does die of his fatal wound – but it isn’t the death of the Empire. The Empire is healed and continues.  turns out not to be the end of this beastly Empire.

Revelation 13:3-4
The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast and its military might. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?"

Wow, the pax romana, the peace of Rome! No one can bring peace on earth like Rome can. The emperor is the prince of peace. Worship and the question, “who is like the beast, who can wage war against it?” is a parody of faithful worship to God. Who is like our God, there is no other? Psalm 86.

The Beast goes about doing what the beast does... an Empire that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. But like every Empire, it only has an allotted time, it will not last forever.

Verse 11… John sees a second beast. This beast represents the Cult of the Emperor or of the Empire, the imperial religion and propaganda that props up the war machine and the myths of the wonder of the Empire. The good news that the Caesar, the son of the gods, had brought peace on earth, the pax Romana. Every empire has its propaganda propping it up.

Verse 13… This beast does signs and wonders. Numerous sources report that priests in the cult of emperor would often stage signs and wonders. They would organise healings or moving statues or fire using machines and contraptions and actors. No surprise to John's audience, Jesus warned that false prophets would perform false signs in Matthew 24.

Verse 15… Some Christians were persecuted and killed for not giving divine honours to the Emperor, for refusing to worship the Beast.

Revelation 13:16-18
It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.

666 is the construction of Hebrew "gematria" – the practice of assigning numeric value to letters. 666 is just the total of Nero's name. Neron Caesar = Nrwn Qsr

N (nun)-50, R (resh)-200, W (vav)-6, N (nun)-50, Q (qoph)-100, S (samekh)-60, R (resh)-200. Sum = 666

As well, in 1st century Rome, folk would come up with nick names for famous people that also added up to their number. Nero had a nick name "he killed his mother" which added up to 666. So essentially what is happening is that the Roman empire, pictured as the Beast, and personified in Nero, one of the evilest of emperors. He killed his mother, kicked his pregnant wife to death, and had countless rivals executed.

The mark of the beast, far from being some future conspiracy, simply uses the symbolism of foreheads and hands, to symbolically represent thoughts, affections and actions that are marked by allegiance and loyalty to the Beast, to the Empire, to Nero – rather than to Christ and the Kingdom of God. Life in fidelity to the cult of emperor worship rather than the worship of Christ. It is the antitype to the Mark of the Saints seen in Revelation 7 and also Revelation 14. The servants of God are sealed in their foreheads (7:2-3), those with the Lamb had the Father’s name written on their foreheads (14:1). Revelation is a vision of unusual imagery to reveal something true, not something literal. You are marked by God via one’s devotion and faithfulness to God.

John is aware that to refuse to worship the Beast  (the Empire) is very likely going to place Christians in a predicament. Yet in all things, Christians are not to bow under the persecution of Empire nor live in compromised coalition with Empire – allegiance is to be to the Way of Jesus, the Kingdom of God.

Revelation 13:18
This calls for wisdom.

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Revelation, its largely about the inevitable demise of the Roman Empire and the victory of the Lamb of God. Its about the truth that the Kingdom of God will prevail, God’s dwelling place will be with his people, every tear will be wiped away, there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things will pass away. While this is the meaning of Revelation in John’s context, we also need to consider the significance of the passage in our own context. Here we can appreciate that Revelation serves as a commentary on all empires across all time, and in the in-between-time. Though the Roman Empire has passed away the old order of things has not. Empire’s prevail even though the Kingdom of God is simultaneously among us, and within us, here and now, but also now but not yet.

In a nutshell, this means is that there is always a beast, always propaganda, always an anti-Christ, always empires that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. There are always challenges to our allegiances to Christ, always the potential to be marked by the beast, always the potential to run into trouble for following Jesus, always the potential for difficulties, always the potential for catastrophe, and always endings. In other words; end times, always!

This calls for wisdom. We shouldn’t be so quick to label current events as the end times. We shouldn’t be so quick to label technology as the mark of the beast – credit cards, barcodes, QR codes, microchips, payWave, vaccines, or vaccine passports. That’s not the mark of the beast. We shouldn’t be so quick to label people as the antichrist – Henry Kissinger, Mickel Gorbichov, Ronald Reagan, Dennis Conner, George Gregan, Ashley Bloomfield or anyone else. We shouldn’t be so quick to label some left or right or centralist political party as the evil empire of the end of the age. Mostly all of the labelling, predicting and timelining is an exercise in missing the point.

While socially and politically we will experience realities that are the antithesis to the way of the Kingdom of God, certainly, it’s the internal empires we mostly have to watch out for. Empires of individualism, consumerism, narcissism, hedonism, and self-interest that are far more likely to trip us up. We have to be careful that we don't live in such a way that we embrace the mark of the beast via the affections, pursuits, and patterns of self-interest, self-rule, and self-worship that so easily creep into our lives. It is we who mostly end up playing the role of the antichrist, something we do when we displace Christ from the throne of our lives, whenever we force Christ to stand at the side rather than sit in the center of our lives.

While it might always be end times though, we take great comfort that at the same time, there is always a cross, always a Savioir, always Christ coming back to heal and restore and mend and put all things right. Christ will return one day, but Christ also returns every day when we make more space for the rule and reign of Christ in our lives, in our families, in our church. End times, always, but also the Second Coming of Christ always as well – healing, mending, restoring, renewing and re-creating lives. It always the Second Coming of Christ we make more space for Christ at the table.

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Revelation 22:1-5
Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life (water of life is the life sustaining presence of God, so what we are seeing here isn’t literal even though its true), clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations (nothing to do with COVID, the healing of the entire cosmos). No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads (they’ll be marked by their devotion and allegiance to God in faithful worship – not a Jesus tattoo). And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them (no more darkness, no more fear, no more unknown, faith, hope, love, peace, life and light to all he brings).

That’s good news. That’s Christian hope, not religious propaganda. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joys comes in the morning. Know that the dwelling place of God is among His people. Know that He will wipe every tear from every eye. Know that there will be no more death, our mourning, or crying, or pain – for the old order of things will pass away. There is no empire that will prevail, rather it is the Kingdom of God, and the rule of Christ that will reign eternal. Live as a faithful witness, to The Faithful Witness that is Jesus Christ.