When will the end come? The book presents a gathering pace and I suspect the initial hearers would have been left a little breathless and seriously distorted. Apocalyptic language (such as stars falling) with what would have sounded like allusions (or even descriptions) of contemporary events and add into that myths (for example Nero is alive and coming again!). The problem then, and now, is we can easily adopt a world view that is shaped by our context. Our view of the world needs to be submitted to a confusion (liminal space) so that we can see differently. One aspect in Revelation is that of gathering momentum. (I add some emphasis to the texts to show the increasing momentum.)
Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder (Rev. 4:5).
Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake (Rev. 8:5).
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple, and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail (Rev. 11:19).
And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake, such as had not occurred since people were upon the earth, so violent was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine cup of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found, and huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, dropped from heaven on people, until they cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague (Rev. 16:18-21).
Each time the basic text is repeated the greater the drama!
We see the same with the unfolding of the seals, trumpets, (thunders) and bowls:
- The seals release destruction and death over ¼ of the earth 6:8
- The trumpets affect ⅓ of the earth 8:7-12; 9:18
- The bowls without limits
In between the trumpets and the bowls are the 7 thunders:
And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down” (Rev. 10:4)…
Had they been released would they have impacted ½ of the earth?
This increasing impact again indicates the picking up the pace.
I am back to where I began these posts. There is a common tendency to dissect the text with a ‘this is that’. I consider it totally fails to read (or listen) to the text until our whole world is turned upside down. We want to know what it means… but I think the purpose of the book is re-orientate us through a process of disorientation! Fascination with a series of events should give way to an engagement with heaven so that throughout the ’42 months’ of our lives we become (small) agents of holding back the work of the thief that is summarised as ‘stealing, killing and destroying’.
Eschatology is not speculative; it is engaging as we flow from what has already been finished!
Not sure if I will push on with chapter by chapter (cos of course I understand every last detail!!).