Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation

by Michael J. Gorman

John also considers himself inspired (22:6), one who has received and communicates the Spirit’s message (2:7, 11, etc.), but, as noted above, this is the language of a self-described prophet, and John does not call himself an apostle or give any indication of having known the earthly Jesus. It is very unlikely, then, that John of Patmos is identical with the apostle John, son of Zebedee, even though many early Christian writers made that connection (though the reasons for doing so remain unclear).

Whether we think the Gospel of John is the work of the apostle, a community dedicated to him, or some other figure, Revelation is almost certainly not by the same writer(s). Although there are some similarities in themes and theology between the Fourth Gospel and Revelation, the differences in style and theology are dramatic. (This is no recent scholarly conclusion, the differences having been recognized already by Dionysius of Alexandria in the third century.)

The precise identity of John is therefore elusive. Yet Eugene Pet...

out that in one sense his identity is clear. In addition to our recognition of John as witness and prophet, Peterson rightly calls him a theologian, poet, and pastor who is “Go...

Another epithet for the author of Revelation has been John the Seer. This is appropriate for someone Peterson calls a poet. He writes: A poet uses words not to explain something, and not to describe something, but to make something. Poet (poētēs) means “maker.” Poetry is not the language of objective explanation but the language of imagination. It makes an image of reality in such a way as to invite our participation in it.35 As for the date of Revelation, most scholars situate it toward the end of the reign of the Emperor Domitian (ruled 81–96). A few would place it a little later, early in the reign of Trajan (ruled 98–117). Some have argued, however, that either the entire book or a briefer, earlier version of it originates in, or shortly after, the time of the Emperor Nero (ruled 54–68). The best guess, in my view, is the traditional dating to the time of Domitian, as stated by the church father Irenaeus of Lyon in the late second century. One chief reason many scholars hold to this date (rather than a date during or just after Nero’s reign) is that it appears that Jews, and thereafter Christians, began calling Rome “Babylon” only after the fall of Jerusalem in 70. Furthermore,

Summary: A Hybrid Genre We have seen in this chapter that the label “hybrid genre” is appropriate because of Revelation’s own self-identification in the first few verses and because of its literary character, which Frank Matera summarizes for us: As an apocalypse, it reveals what “must soon take place” (1:1). As a prophecy, it testifies to the Word of God and Jesus Christ (1:2). As a letter, it addresses seven churches in the Roman province of Asia (1:4).36

We will therefore consider Revelation as a hybrid of these three—apocalypse, prophecy, letter—and more. This is what John the poet, prophet, visionary, and theologian has left us. Questions for Reflection

See the table in Howard-Brook and Gwyther, Unveiling Revelation, 80; and Rowland, “The Book of Revelation,” 524–28.

Wright, who calls apocalyptic “the subversive literature of oppressed groups” (The New Testament and the People of God,

Bauckham, Theology, 38. Schnelle says that “the seer develops

a powerful ethic, an ethic of resistance and endurance, which excludes every opportunistic accommodation to prevailing culture” (Theology of the New Testament, 764). deSilva even calls Revelation “a specimen of first-century (post)colonial

resistance literature” (Seeing Things John’s Way, 321). 31. “It is a large mist...

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.

It was promised by the biblical prophets and guaranteed by Jesus’ death and exaltation, and it is set to arrive as soon as the evil and blasphemous empire is judged and removed.

This perspective on the situation is important in many ways, not least because readers of Revelation sometimes think that the Roman empire (and perhaps its similar imperial descendents) is evil and worthy of opposition because it persecutes the church. But Richard Bauckham rightly insists that “it is not simply because Rome persecutes Christians that Christians must oppose Rome. Rather it is because Christians must disassociate themselves from the evil of the Roman system that they are likely to suffer persecution.”3

The target of Revelation’s prophetic critique is imperial idolatry (civil religion) and injustice (military, economic, political, and religious oppression), and specifically Rome’s imperial idolatry and injustice. But since Revelation is almost certainly not a response to a systematic, state-imposed persecution or widespread mistreatment of Christians by the masses, it is better read as a response to “ordinary empire,”4 to the everyday evils, injustices, and misguided allegiances that are daily with us. Revelation is a powerful wake-up call to those who have taken for granted beliefs, commitments, and

“complacency about Rome was the crisis.”5

“The visionary world portrays the clash of powers in extraordinary form in order to evoke the kind of faith and resistance needed to follow the Lamb in ordinary life.”6

Furthermore, the target of Revelation’s critique is not limited to Rome. “Babylon” means Rome, but it also means something more than Rome. Indeed, the absence of the word “Rome” from Revelation is significant, even if Rome is in view. The absence of the word forbids us, so to speak, from limiting Revelation’s significance to the first century.

“Any society whom Babylon’s cap fits must wear

it.”7 Thus Revelation is also a critique of all idolatries and injustices similar to those of Rome, throughou...

As a prophetic summons to first-commandment faithfulness, Revelation is both a call to worship the true God and a call to forsake all false deities. These two aspects are connected, and both appear in sharp relief at the beginning and the end of Revelation, as well as throughout the book. “Worship is so important in the book of Revelation,” writes Mitchell Reddish, “because John rightly understood that worship is a political act.

Through worship one declares one’s allegiance, one’s loyalty. . . . [Public worship] is a statement to the world that the church will bow to no other gods.”8 His words are echoed by Udo Schnelle: [I]n worship, the community of faith realizes its new identity under the lordship of the Lamb and under the conscious, intentional rejection of the claims to lordship made by Babylon/Rome. As the place where the new being is repeatedly practiced, worship is also a locus of resistance against the anti-God powers, and, since the Apocalypse was read out in worship, also a place of hearing, seeing, learning, and understanding/insight.9

Christian hymns and identified as the music of heaven.

“The text [of Revelation] throbs with theopoetic energy, expressed in its numerous songs of praise and worship.”10 Revelation identifies for us six such hymnic texts:

Revelation is simultaneously a presentation of the divine drama that is celebrated in worship, and therefore also a summons to enter the story and mission of God, the missio Dei. We will return to the subject of mission later in this book; for now we consider briefly the story that is woven into John’s vision.

Dramatic Narrative with a Liturgical Purpose No one can read Revelation without sensing that it tells a story, even if that story does not have a merely linear progression.14 There are major and minor characters, there is conflict and resolution, there is even a plot. Some have even likened Revelation to an ancient drama, complete with Greek choruses that burst into (liturgical) song, providing commentary on, as well as respite from, the dramatic action. We get the sense

A better way to proceed is to recognize that Revelation actually consists of several overlapping, simultaneous, and inextricably interrelated stories. Five such narratives are particularly important, and they are all narratives of God’s faithfulness and purpose, or mission: Creation and re-creation. This is the story of the faithful, missional, creator God bringing humanity and all creation to its proper end: reconciliation, harmony, and eternal joy in the presence of God. Redemption. This is the closely related story of the faithful, missional, redeemer Lamb living, dying, reigning, and coming again to carry out the creator God’s mission and create a faithful, missional people. Judgment. This is the story of the faithful, missional God and the Lamb bringing an end to evil as a necessary means for the purpose of re-creation and final redemption. Witness: the suffering pilgrim church. This is the story of a faithful, missional people on earth who have been redeemed by the Lamb and empowered by the Spirit to worship and bear witness to God and the Lamb in spite of danger and persecution. Victory: the church triumphant. This is the story of the faithful, missional people who worship God and the Lamb now and forever in their presence, the appropriate reward for their faithfulness even to death. These five narratives reveal the major characters, the conflict, and the plot of Revelation that we find in the visions and other sorts of texts throughout the book. They constitute the...

the words of the prophecy of this book.” (22:7) Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. (22:14)

absence of sound can be equally important” (see 8:1; 18:22–23).17 The scent of incense (5:8; 8:3–4) is central to

Nearly all interpreters of Revelation recognize that the entire book is a critique and parody of the Roman Empire and of the cult of the emperor that was rampant in the Roman province of Asia in the second half of the first century. Although the word “Rome” does not appear in the document, Rome is portrayed symbolically as Babylon, that great enemy-city of God’s people.19 Revelation parodies and criticizes both the oppressive nature of imperial power and the blasphemous claims made about it. This twofold critique is directed in a focused way

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.21

but it was particularly important for Rome to capture the hearts

and minds of common folk,

and that was done especially through the media: processions, games, spectacles, statues, the standards c...

Revelation is therefore a theopolitical text. It makes claims about who is truly God and about right and wrong connections between God and the socio-political order; it challenges the political theology of empire and the religious ideology that underwrites it; and it reveals God and the Lamb alone as the true Sovereign One, source of all blessings, and proper object of worship. Moreover, Revelation tells us not only who is really sovereign but also what kind of sovereignty the true God exercises, namely what many have called nonviolent and non-coercive “Lamb power”—to

the allegedly violent scenes in Revelation are understood properly as symbols or metaphors, not as examples of literal military violence carried out by God and the Lamb.)

Richard Bauckham rightly connects the apocalyptic and visionary character of Revelation to its critique of Rome, calling Revelation “a set of Christian prophetic counter-images to the images of imperial Rome.”28 Pablo

Faith (= loyalty to Caesar/Rome) Keeping the Faith of Jesus Eternity They [the saints] Will Reign Forever

Furthermore, a recent thematic issue of the theological journal Interpretation was entitled “Revelation as a Critique of Empire.” In the opening article in the issue, Craig Koester notes that the empire addressed in Revelation consists of three inseparable components, all of which are challenged by the book: political domination, religion in which the political order is identified with the divine, and economic networks that favored the elite and permitted human exploitation.32 Revelation is therefore a “visionary critique” of “the beastly side of empire,” the “deification of human power,” and “the seamy side of commerce.”33 Most of these interpreters also draw connections

between aspects of the Roman empire and forms of empire today: the global capitalist economy and the powerful political, military, and economic reality that is the United States of America. These two are not unrelated, as many people outside the United States have observed. Pablo Richard, for instance, has written that [i]n the last twenty years we [in Central America] have experienced the cruel and terrible experience of Whole Market Empire, governed in a beastly way by the political and military bureaucracy of the United States of America. . . . Our countries live in oppression and exclusion by an economic, cultural, and military system of globalization led by the United States government operating as an imperial, arrogant, and cruel power.34

These are strong words, and not everyone will agree with them, though numerous significant North American interpreters of Revelation have drawn similar conclusions. Mainstream biblical scholars who have taught Revelation in places as varied as South America and India have found their students connecting the beast of Revelation 13 to the U.S.35 More popularly, but no less insightfully, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove recounts his experience of America as Babylon while traveling in the actual land of Babylon (Iraq) with Christian Peacemaker Teams during and after the 2003 U.S. invasion of that country.36 Howard-Brook and Gwyther draw sophisticated parallels between Roman and contemporary manifestations of empire in “global capital,” in which the U.S. of course participates, but according to them neither the U.S. nor any other nation is the world’s dominant empire any longer.37 Is the United States an empire? That depends on several factors, including one’s definition of empire. I would offer the following definition for consideration: An entity that has come to widespread (global or nearly global) dominance through deliberate expansion by means of the extreme exercise of some form(s) of power—economic, political, military, and/or religious—resulting in the creation of colony-like clients of the entity and of enemies who perceive the entity as oppressive. Howard-Brook and Gwyther cite the following as evidence that the United States has at least had “imperial earmarks”: “slave labo...

whether the U.S. ever was or is an empire, and even whether empire is inherently evil.39 And of course many will argue that no U.S. president has ever been called a god,40 even if his military successes have been seen as the fruit of divine calling and blessing, and even if the succession of military, political, and economic conquests accomplished by the U.S. is said to have produced an American superpower with various kinds of outposts and client states around the world. It must, at the very least, be conceded the United States is perceived as an imperial power by many people in many parts of the world that have been affected by American military, political, and economic power. We should not, however, allow arguments about the precise nature of empire, or its embodiment in the American context, to keep us from hearing Revelation’s sharp critique of the status quo. It is more important for us to see Revelation as a critique of secular power wherever and however it expresses itself oppressively, and especially as a critique of such power that is deemed sacred and granted devotion and allegiance. This manifestation and sacralization of power is undoubtedly part of the American situation (and also part of the experience of other nations). Thus J. Nelson Kraybill has recently written a study of Revelation entitled Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of Revelation. He writes perceptively that although “no Western nation has outright ruler wors...

The attribution of sacred status to secular power (normally the state and/or its head) as the source of divine blessing, requiring devotion and allegiance of heart, mind, and body to the sacred-secular power and its values, all expressed in various narratives, other texts, rituals, and media that reinforce both the secular power’s sacred status and the beneficiaries’ sacred duty of devotion and allegiance, even to the point of death.42 This definition of civil religion implies that it has three major dimensions: Ideology/theology: the sacralization of the state, including: (a) its power, prosperity, and peace; (b) its activities and accomplishments, especially in expansion and war; (c) its guiding myths and values; and (d) its past heroes and current leader(s); Commitment/practices: the corollary demand of solemn devotion and allegiance to the state as a sacred responsibility (including the willingness to kill and/or die for it) to be expressed in public rituals; and Syncretism: the reinterpretation of the culture’s dominant religious tradition(s) to incorporate this sacralization of the state and solemn allegiance to it; the mixing of religious faith and practice with political, nationalistic claims and practices. More broadly, then, Revelation is a critique of civil religion (first of all, but not only, Roman civil religion), that is, the sacralization of secular political, economic, and military power through various mythologies and practices—creeds and liturgies, we mi...

otherwise) are signs of divine blessing and protection, and in the common belief that God is on the side of the powerful. At the same time, however, civil religion is not exclusively the property of empires and superpowers; it is also to be found in former empires, would-be superpowers, ordinary states, and even poor, developing nations. Human beings seem to have a need to attribute a sacred, or at least quasi-sacred, character to their political bodies, their rulers, and the actions of those entities. One tragic but frequent result is the sacralization of one’s own people, whether nation, race, or tribe, and the demonization of the other. Out of such religion comes a culture of hatred and even violence. We know far too many examples of this in modern times. Civil religion does not require an established (state) church, religion, or cult in order to exist, or even to thrive. It can therefore flourish even in places where there is technically a separation of “church” and “state.” It can flourish whether or not the majority of the country’s inhabitants perceive the country to be a Christian (or Jewish, Islamic, etc.) state. The United States (where I make my home), for example, has its own form of civil religion. We may speak both of its ideology—actually, its theology—and of its practices, which are of course related. Parallels to some of these features of civil religion exist elsewhere. The Theology/Ideology of American Civil Religion in the Beginning of the 21st Century43...

myth is exceptionalism, the idea that the United States has a unique ...

that it is in some sense chosen. In American history this exceptionalism has manifested itself in such beliefs as the Puritan “city on a hill” (Matt 5:14), Manifest Destiny, and the identification of the U.S. as “the light of the world” (Matt 5:14; John 8:12; 9:5). Similar to and sometimes growing out of exceptionalism is American messianism, the notion that the U.S. has a special, central vocation in the salvation of the world, particularly through the spread of American practices of freedom and American-style d...

Arising from it is a myth of innocence, of possessing “an element of messianic inerrancy.”46 This third myth holds that America always operates in the world according to the highest principles of ethics and justice, and that wh...

vi...

Belief in an exceptional, messianic role naturally generates another sacred conviction (and associated practices), that of extreme patriotism, extreme love of country, and even nationalism, the belief that one’s nation state, in this case the U.S., is superior to all other nation states. “Nationalism” (as I am using it here) is extreme devotion to one’s country as “the greatest nation on earth” and therefore worthy of nearly unqualified—and sometimes thoroughly unqualified—allegiance. This devotion is often based on the conviction that the nation is chosen, blessed, and commissioned by God, its power and wealth being signs of God’s approval. The U.S. is “one nation under God.” Thus devotion to one’s count...