One In Jesus

Gorman cites three prominent elements of the Roman empire/religion from Warren Carter —

• The gods have chosen Rome.

• Rome and its emperor are agents of the gods’ rule, will, salvation, and presence among human beings.

• Rome manifests the gods’ blessings—security, peace, justice, faithfulness, fertility—among those who submit to Rome’s rule.

(Kindle Locations 1085-1088).

Gorman adds the following:

• The rule of the gods through Rome was accomplished by and manifested in violence, domination, and “pacification” that was hardly peaceful. The famous pax Romana was a sovereignty dependent on military conquest, enslavement, and other forms of violence.

• The emperor himself was worthy of praise, devotion, and allegiance. He was also worthy of having divine and quasi-divine titles such as Lord, Lord of All, God, Son of God, and Savior. …

• The imperial age is the long-awaited golden age, indeed the eschatological age, in which humanity’s hopes have been fulfilled and will continue forever.

(Kindle Locations 1098-1108). Continue reading →

Gorman explains the ethical background that is likely behind much of the
Revelation–

As Christian individuals and communities in Asia Minor interacted with family members, friends, business associates, and public officials who did not share their conviction that “Jesus is Lord,” the basic early Christian confession (Rom 10:9), these believers were faced with hard questions and decisions.

Should they continue to participate in social activities that have a pagan (non-Jewish, non-Christian) religious character? This would include most activities: watching or participating in athletic and rhetorical contests; buying and eating meat in the precincts of pagan temples; and frequenting trade guilds, clubs, and events in private homes, each with their meetings, drinking parties, and banquets. They would even have wondered, “Should we or can we go to pagan temples to do our banking or purchase meat? Should we acknowledge the sovereignty of the emperor when asked to do so at a public event in the precincts of his temple, or at another of the many events in his honor?”

Some believers continued to participate in such activities, while others did not. It was the latter group that created serious social conflict. Their confession of Jesus’ lordship and their separation from normal Greco-Roman religious, social, and political activity was seen by pagan non-believers—that is, by most people in their cities—as unpatriotic and atheistic.

Some of them were harassed unofficially, but some were likely excluded from guilds and others investigated by government officials. At least one of them (John) was exiled as punishment for his behavior. He says that his experience was not isolated, but part of a larger event of testimony and persecution. At least one of the faithful was actually killed, either by mob or by official action: Antipas of Pergamum (2:13). There may have been others.

Gorman, Michael J. (2011-01-01). Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation. (Kindle Locations 904-916). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition. Continue reading →

Gorman explains that the Revelation is a form of resistance literature, that is, an encouragement to resist the efforts of Rome to defeat Christianity, either through persecution or by corrupting the gospel with pagan teachings. That is, you cannot be a Christian and also participate in Emperor worship or other demands of the Roman pagan religions.

Calling Revelation “resistance literature” is appropriate because one of the primary prophetic purposes of Revelation is to remind the church, both then and now, not to give in to the demands or practices of a system that is already judged by God and is about to come to its demise. But Revelation is not just a document that stands against something. Like all biblical prophecy, it promotes true worship of the one true God, expressed not merely in formal liturgy but also in faithful living, the practice of having no gods besides God. Put more positively, then, Revelation is a summons to first-commandment faithfulness, a call to faithful witness and worship in word and deed. In other words, its character as resistance literature is actually secondary to, and derivative of, its more fundamental character as worship literature, as a liturgical text.

Gorman, Michael J. (2011-01-01). Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation. (Kindle Locations 716-723). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.

It’s easy to see the Revelation as resistance literature. Once that idea is voiced, it becomes obvious. Continue reading →

The Revelation repeatedly refers to itself as “prophecy.”

Many people assume that Revelation is a prophetic book in the sense of predicting, in rather explicit detail, “the way the world will end.” The most popular approach to Revelation, dispensationalism, both creates and reinforces this assumption.

A theological movement that began in the 19th century, dispensationalism holds that history is divided into various ages, or dispensations, each characterized by different ways in which God deals with humanity. With respect to eschatology, it includes the doctrine of the rapture, or the removal of true believers to heaven before the return of Christ, an idea unknown in Christian teaching before the 19th century.

Popular dispensationalism, disseminated by such best-selling sources as the Scofield Reference Bible, Hal Lindsey’s writings (e.g., The Late, Great Planet Earth), and most recently the “Left Behind” series of books and movies by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, interprets Revelation as portraying, in literal and linear fashion, the course of historical events.

Gorman, Michael J. (2011-01-01). Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation (Kindle Locations 666-675). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition. Continue reading →

Gorman suggests that the correct, over-arching perspective on the Revelation is
that —

… Revelation is (primarily) good news about Christ, the Lamb of God—who shares God’s throne and who is the key to the past, present, and future—and therefore also about uncompromising faithfulness leading to undying hope, even in the midst of unrelenting evil and oppressive empire.

Gorman, Michael J. (2011-01-01). Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation (Kindle Locations 456-457). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Rather than treating the book as though we are reading tea leaves or animal entrails, we should take it as serious theology, with lessons about how the work of Jesus affects the lives of his followers — how we should live and also how we should understand God’s movement in the world and his purposes. Continue reading →

Studying the Revelation is like picking a college football team. I mean, no matter which team you pick, you’ve picked against everyone who supports a different team. And people are very loyal to their teams — more loyal to their teams than to me, I’m sure.

In the land of Revelation, the “teams” largely line up in terms of when you think the Rapture occurs with respect to the Millennial reign of Jesus. Now, I grew up in the Churches of Christ in north Alabama, where we take our Revelation theories very seriously — so seriously, in fact, that we refuse to have one — which is, of course, the only safe choice that gets you into heaven. Foy Wallace, Jr. taught us all to be Amillennialists, that is, to deny a Rapture or a thousand-year reign of Jesus.

Moreover, Wallace taught us that the Premillennialists (Rapture first, Millennium second) are all going to hell, because some Premillennialists believe in the doctrine of a second chance. Some might even be closet Universalists. Therefore, hell. (If you disagree with Foy Wallace, Jr. on anything …) Continue reading →

So, in a weak moment, I agreed to teach a summer series at church on heaven, hell, and the afterlife. And I’ve covered heaven and hell several times here — so I thought preparation would be a cinch. Then I realized that someone might expect me to know something about the Revelation.

And I’ve never seriously studied the book — not in full. I’ve studied parts of it. But I’ve never actually worked my way through it. And, of course, people will have questions. And opinions. Lots of opinions. And so I figure I should work my way through the Apocalypse.

Now, I do know a few things about it. For example, it’s “Revelation” not “Revelations.” Singular. Every time.

And “apocalypse” doesn’t mean “the disaster that ends the world.” It means “revelation.” That is, it refers to something previously unknown being revealed.  Continue reading →