Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple

by Scot McKnight

In other words, they stand in need of the repentance that springs from grace.

The believers of both Sardis and Laodicea were confident in their way, but Jesus says they are not following the way of the Lamb but the way of the dragon.

In summary, we find that common readings of Revelation do not connect the sins of the seven churches with Babylon, in part because too many think of Babylon as some future empire and in part because it follows some fifteen chapters after the letters to the churches. Here we have two mistakes in one: we need to bring Babylon back into the picture and r...

We need to discern signs of disordered love for God and others; distorted gospel teachings; corrupted worship of God on the throne, the Lamb, and the Spirit; and the presence of behavior that wanders from the way of the Lamb.

Revelation is about worship, and dissident disciples worship the Lamb.

Christian eschatology is the alternative to Babylon’s eschatology. Christian eschatology formulates hope in the midst of lament, petition in the face of the dragon, and it knows from the incarnation of Christ that God is with us all the way to the hideousness of crucifixion. Christian eschatology enables us to grow through resilience and allegiant witness into the shape of the Lord who is the Lamb. Christian eschatology, contrary to Christian nationalism, progressivism, and pessimism, assumes evil, does not explain it away, and knows what lies beyond and in front of us. Christian eschatology turns us away from both progressivism and pessimism, not by denying progress or working to improve life, and not by pretending harsh realities don’t exist, but by trusting the God of promise who broke the power of death in the resurrection of the Lamb and who also promises that someday new Jerusalem will descend, and justice will finally arrive on the earth.