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March 19 - April 30, 2024
Evangelism during the divine disciplines has harvested the fruit of faith, and everyone in new Jerusalem belongs there, and everyone who belongs is there. Everyone loves the Lord, and the Lord showers his endless blessings on everyone.
every time we experience the presence of God in Christ through the Spirit, we glimpse the new Jerusalem. Every time. Babylon is now and temporary; new Jerusalem is now and eternal.
Rome—that is, every Babylon throughout history—will be replaced by new Jerusalem.
For all Rome’s undeniable splendor, it could never rival Jerusalem for those committed to the God of Israel. Jerusalem was the one and only city of God and was profoundly anti-Rome. As Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther have said, “New Jerusalem is a territory carved out of empire that embodies an alternative social reality.”
New Jerusalem is the promise given to the faithful in the seven churches.
Life in Babylon for followers of the Lamb plays out in a battle zone between the dragon and the Lamb.
Those committed to the Lord of lords do not wage war as the Romans do.
They worship the One on the throne and the Lamb, and anyone worshiping God and the Lamb is being transformed into an agent of the Lamb’s peace and justice, which is the way of life in new Jerusalem.
He did not write so we would speculate on when, where, and for how long.
God will be with us eternally, and we will be with God eternally, and we will be together with Jesus—the Morning Star—eternally.
Justice will be the way of the Lamb for all. Peace will be the way of the Lamb for all.
And here is the tragedy of tragedies: the cross became the symbol for his military might, his palace, and his churches. Constantine became “their redeemer, saviour and benefactor” (1.39) even though in truth he was a brutal warmongering emperor whose goal was dominance and whose method was power through intimidation and violence.
Nor are we saying that he never acted with benevolence and tolerance. We do not deny that he built some wonderful churches (like Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre).
What is clear, however, is that the man with a cross for a banner was a bloodthirsty man who defaced the way of the Lamb as he ruled in the way of the dragon. Violence, empire, and power would forever mark the churches that bound themselves to the state.
The relationship of churches to the state can often be a first indicator or warning sign of Babylon’s presence inside the church.
These songs, he tells us, gave “listeners the spiritual energy that would one day destroy” slavery.
In other words, these songs are songs for dissidents. So are John’s.
I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
I know your works; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Revelation tells Christians to be witnesses, not warriors. —Thomas B. Slater,
Jesus calls the seven churches to an allegiant witness to the lordship of Jesus Christ in their various public expressions as they encounter in Babylon a variety of stressors and oppositions to the way of the Lamb.
but more fundamentally it is about what one says about what one believes or has experienced.
were often economically, socially, and even physically abused when they took it upon themselves to stand out and stand apart from the expected show of deference to Roman lordship,
in a context of Babylon breathing the dragon’s breath all over the seven churches, the message of this book is for the Christians to recognize Babylon, to speak up and to speak out, and to stand firm in the way of the Lamb.
In Revelation believers are called to be allegiant—faithful witnesses—to Jesus as Lord in whatever situation they find themselves.
Instead of a discipleship that teaches us to discern Babylon among us and shows us how to live in Babylon as dissidents instead of conformists, these speculative questions teach Christians how to wait for the escape from Babylon.
By making future-focused judgments central to reading Revelation and treating Babylon as a world-class city of the future or giving the USA and Israel a central role in the divine plan, this speculative method teaches adherents to trust in the wrong things—especially the false safety of the all-powerful American military.
This gives us insight into how Babylon thinks: it thinks of itself, for itself, about itself, and everything revolves around itself.
It either draws others into its circle and under its power, or it works to silence, exploit, and kill all rivals. Opposition prompts rage. Discerning eyes detect Babylon by its arrogance.
Arrogance is the way of the dragon and the way of the wild things.
And finally, there is rage and retaliation when criticized.
Economic exploitation, as we find in the mind-boggling disparity of income in the USA, is a sign of Babylon.
We need a moral revolution in the economic sector. Babylon has made its home in the American economy.
The way of the Lamb is the way of peace, through peacemaking and reconciliation. It means dropping the sword and beating that sword into a garden tool. Blessed are the peacemakers, Jesus said, and he meant it.
Christian nationalism is: A cultural framework that blurs distinctions between Christian identity and American identity. . . . It is undergirded by identification with a conservative political orientation (though not necessarily a political party), Bible belief, premillennial visions of moral decay, and divine sanction for conquest. Finally, its conception of morality centers exclusively on fidelity to religion and fidelity to the nation. This is Christian nationalism—Christianity co-opted in the service of ethno-national power and separation.
Again, you may wonder what all this has to do with the book of Revelation. To quote the apostle Paul, “much in every way!”
Revelation is written to shape disciples of Jesus into dissidents who can discern the dominant influence of empire (Babylon) and who have the courage to follow the way of the Lamb in a world run by the dragon.
As she puts so well, “Fear had been at the heart of evangelical postwar politics—a fear of godless communism and a fear that immorality would leave Americans defenseless”
But while the rogues change, it is fear upon which evangelical leaders always trade.
What we all need, conservative or progressive (see appendix 12, “The Progress of Progressivism”), is a lens for detecting Babylon’s corruption that impacts the whole American church. And along with that, a lens for hope.
It is not our aim to take sides among the two major approaches to Christian engagement in politics (conservative and progressive). Rather, we are urging Christians to comprehend what is happening in this cultural moment and find ways to discern the good and the bad on both sides.
Today, some American Christians are worshiping false gods and their politics have replaced their faith. After forty years of partisanism, their knees have grown accustomed to bowing before the dragon and his wild things as they walk arm in arm—both unconsciously and consciously—into Babylon. There is much we, as American Christians, can learn from Barmen and Barth.
Too many settle for the way of the dragon, justifying it as the “way the world works,” and others hide behind the difference between our public and our spiritual/private life.
Thinking proximity to power will make the church more influential is as likely as the corner shop thinking Amazon will be the source of that business’s flourishing again. Babylon tolerates no rivals.
Power, one might think, is a neutral energy. In some world it might be, but in our world, power is not neutral. Power in our culture exerts power over for the sake of power for one’s agenda.
Our churches have not discipled people in the last forty years in Christoform power but have instead discipled them into playing Babylon’s power games.
A dissident disciple does not trust in politics but in the Lamb who is the Lord.
The strangest words in the church ought to be the words “authority” and “power.”
Those who are attempting to climb up into authority are destroying the church and making themselves lords over the church instead of using the power of Christ for others.
Instead of doing good as witnesses, we grabbed for power. Instead of witnessing to Jesus, we have become known for political allegiances, so much so that our politics are reshaping our witness into a corrupted witness.
