We need to mention the book of Revelation as the Gargantuan Green Gorilla in the room when it comes to what our future is going to be like. Let’s face it, a vast majority of believers look at this book-of-the-end and point to undeniable worldwide chaos and disaster before the King returns to set it all right. Matter of fact, many of the headlines from the previous article are read through this lens as necessary to make way for future prophecies to come to pass.
Frankly, the most important aspect I’d ask you to consider with me is this – if your doctrine regarding eschatology and the end times is a paintbrush, what is the painting of God’s character/nature that must be true for your doctrine to be true? Now, hold this picture up to the Light and take a long, hard look. How does your portrait of Christ emerging from your interpretation of Revelation compare to what we’ve discovered about the Eternal Christ before the Creation, the Lamb Slain from the foundation of the world?
Remember again that the 1st century religious folks most familiar with the scriptures expected a Messiah that would return and lead a bloody overthrow of His enemies, and this “portrait” of God was what Jesus demolished to the utter shock of the scholars.
This central issue of the Eternal Character and Nature of God was what opened up the book for me when He humbled me enough to recognize I had more to learn. I’d rather not bank on my own interpretations and conjectures regarding this – my attempt here is to let the Voice of the Crucified Christ rise above all others when it comes to what this amazing piece of literature is saying to us.
So, what is this controversial book primarily about? Let’s dive in, verse 1.
The Apocalyptic Revelation of Jesus Christ
Rev 1 [This is] the revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries]. God gave it to Him to disclose and make known to His bond servants certain things which must shortly and speedily come to pass in their entirety. And He sent and communicated it through His angel (messenger) to His bond servant John, 2 Who has testified to and vouched for all that he saw [in his visions], the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The word Revelation (Ἀποκάλυψις) in the Greek means “Apocalypse” or, “Unveiling” . . . so our introduction is that this is the Unveiling of Jesus Christ. More than the symbols, the timelines, and the detailed charts/graphs thousands have used to explain the book, it is meant to throw back the curtains and show us the Christ as He takes center stage in the Grand Story.
I grew up embracing a futurist view of the book of Revelation, that it was a prophecy about how the end times were going to unfold – thinking it was the only biblically faithful perspective – not realizing that this particular interpretation had come into popularity only recently in church history, and not being familiar with any other alternative perspectives that remained faithful and true to the scriptural texts. I had only been taught one particular way of seeing the end times, the mainstream view since the mid 1800’s, from when I was small – that of a lightning-fast vacuum-like catching up (rapture) at some point of the saints, and an anti-Christ figure rising up during a tribulation period and wreaking utter havoc across the earth. This would be followed (I was taught) by a holy army led by Christ Himself that would wipe out His enemies with a sword, leaving rivers of blood in His wake. The only question for discussion, in my understanding, was the placement of the rapture and the details of the millenium in context of the Great Tribulation – pre, mid, or post.
But how does this forecast align with the portrait of Christ we find prior to the Creation?
Observations in Light of the Cross:
Masterful Subversion
This narrative I grew up believing eventually began clashing severely with my growing understanding of Christ’s Unconditional Love for ALL people including His enemies, and the Hope and Desire He spoke about regarding His expanding Kingdom – which then forced a deep dive into some serious study. I found myself arriving at a Calvary-infused perspective as a result . . . Here are 4 images in Revelation that helped unlock a different way of framing the book:
Subversion 1: The Roaring Lion is a Lamb An announcement is made of the Lion of the tribe of Judah (as a Lion rips apart his victims, so too at face value the reference to Christ), but this announcement is that that He has already overcome and conquered (before any ensuing battle occurs). John, in the vision, then turns to see a Lamb as if it had just been slain, and not a Lion. Yes, this One is certainly a King, with all power and authority – but it’s the WAY He became King that is so shocking. This Ruler overcomes, not by might and power OVER . . . but by love and forgiveness and power UNDER . . . This King is “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” From that point on, the Lion is no longer mentioned – but the Lamb is mentioned 29 more times, thus making it the primary symbol as the narrative proceeds.
Subversion 2: The Robe is Bloody Before the Battle Begins The rider on the white horse is clothed with a robe dipped in blood BEFORE He goes into battle against His enemies. It’s not blood from His enemies. It’s His own blood, another reference to the Lamb that was slain. This is the constant, overarching theme throughout the narrative in Revelation.
Subversion 3: The Sword is Coming From His Mouth. I’d always heard that Jesus was coming back with a sword and filled with vengeance, to pierce through His enemies and spill their blood. I didn’t realize the sword was coming from His mouth as He rides in on His stallion, robe already bloody. Scripture aligns this reference to the sword of the Spirit, the Truth of the Word of God which He uses to confront deception and judge the nations. This is a huge subversion to the common image of the sword in the 1st Matter of fact, after this “fury of the wrath of God” is poured out, we find Jesus ruling over these same nations with righteousness and peace . . . not possible if He wipes them off the face of the earth.
Subversion 4: Saints Conquer by the Blood of the Lamb and Word of Their Testimony The theme continues around the example of the central Character – the Way of the Slain Lamb is the means to overcoming the enemy. It’s quite humorous, actually . . . a little Lamb wages war against the Dragon and the Beast and conquers them as the story moves forward.
The Revelation of Jesus in this light becomes a subversive guide to overcoming the enemy’s anti-Christ systems through the power of Calvary-Like Love – The Love of the Crucified and Risen Lamb. It highlights the landscape into which the Gospel is meant to explode and expand.
I would ask you humbly, as you consider this idea of a ‘cruciform’ framework, to keep FRONT AND CENTER the character and essential nature of Christ that we’ve seen displayed so far in His Story. This simple exercise of placing all mental portraits of God against the Cross-Framed portrait of Christ might call into question some of our long-held opinions we’ve lifted from the scripture. Now, it’s clear that the ‘scarlet thread’ running through the entire narrative is the never-changing character of God – holiness, judgment, wrath, mercy – that ALL flow from His Eternal Pre-Creation Essence demonstrated most clearly and beautifully on the Roman Death Tree . . . UNconditional, Relentless, Enemy-Forgiving Love.
The Slain Lamb is the Scarlet Thread that weaves its way through the scripture and forms the eternal pattern.
Though there is most certainly a war raging around us, it’s never to be fought against flesh and blood – but against the principalities and powers, rulers of darkness in the high places . . . as we wield righteous weapons designed to strike with deadly Truth and destroy enemy deception while planting seeds of Real Life. It’s unusually brilliant and shocking, actually . . . the Way of the Slain Lamb that’s to become the Word of our Testimony as we join together in His Kingdom expansion. The Revelation of Christ then becomes a prophetic critique against the way of violent Empire and the way of apostate religion, and boldly holds forth this subversive reality as the means to overcome these demonic systems by the power of the Cross.
Sad Contrast
The Kingdom of God has ALWAYS been demonstrated as vibrant and powerful in environments that offered resistance and even persecution for believers’ faith, as demonstrated powerfully in the first 3-4 centuries after Christ. Many gave their lives for the sake of the Gospel, men and women who “did not love their own lives, even unto death.” These were ones who believed that death had been defeated by Christ, and their passion to share the Story took them into perilous positions and dark dangers . . . but their testimonies demonstrated the power of God unto salvation, and the Kingdom expanded in formidable fashion across the earth.
In sad contrast, the Kingdom of Heaven has ALWAYS been displayed as mainly weak and optional in environments that are safe and manageable, overly friendly to Christianity. A significant and long-lasting shift occurred towards this end under Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, who found that giving church leaders money, influence and power made for a somewhat peaceful existence between religion and politics – while also allowing Rome to go to war with crosses on their shields.
Christianity was in process of succumbing to the ways of empire and to the deceptions of manmade religion, and over time became a safe and sanitized shell of what had first been an explosive, passionate, not-of-this-world Gospel. Ironically, the money, influence and power offered by Rome was interpreted by the Christian church as a blessing, when in the Gospel narrative these very same entities were clearly understood as temptations from the Satan when Christ was led into the wilderness. Interesting, isn’t it?
What the church sometimes perceives as “blessings” are often deceptions infused with enemy poison
Revival or “Vival” ?
In Rochester, NY (1830), pastors and leaders gathered together and rained down fierce skepticism on the humble preacher who confidently came to them, declaring that the people were ready for the Gospel. They pointed to demonic activity, resistant and rebellious hearts, and nothing at all hinting at the readiness of the region towards the things of God. After over 100,000 came to Christ in the following 9-10 months, someone in the media caught in the fervor that had gripped the town, approached Charles Finney and asked him to define the elements of revival.
“Reach down and draw a circle around yourself. Now. . . everything inside that circle is revival,” he replied.
Today, many believers seek revival through a variety of means, hoping against hope that God will come and show up in great power. Our model is that if we pray and worship fervently enough, fast for long enough, avoid sin frequently enough, and read the scriptures with enough discipline, then and only then will God be gracious enough to pay us a visit. In the New Testament, there weren’t “revivals” as we have come to define them in our generation. They simply lived out “normal” Christianity, and the power of God was ever-present for salvation, healing and deliverance. He was already in their midst! They weren’t struggling to get Him to come “here” from wherever else He “was”.
The phenomenal unveiling of Christ-in-you and you-in-Christ is the revival that we’ve been seeking
The mindset of most modern revival movements assumes ebb and flow, ups and downs, mountains followed by valleys . . . and the reason it hasn’t been sustained is that our minds are not renewed to normal Christianity as modeled by Christ and the early church. An aberrant Christianity hijacked in large part by religion and politics has become our average, safe existence within church, but it is in fact subnormal. In the early church, believers were chastised for “acting as mere humans.” (I Cor 3).
We need folks to think creatively about how the “ekklesia” – both the church gathered AND the church outside of the 4 walls – can more effectively become the Christlike-ones who think and act in line with His Kingdom 24/7. We are no longer chasing Christ, or looking to find Him in a tabernacle in the wilderness. He chased us, found us, and deposited Himself by His Spirit deep inside us so that we might be His Presence-Bearers – Tabernacles of the Christ.
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From modern advances in biology, we know that a new pattern of thought (like a 24/7 full-time life-time Kingdom-of-God mindset for all believers) takes approximately 4 years to be fully formed in the brain, creating essentially a new chemical and physical “infrastructure” that enables a completely new way of thinking. For years I was a student of the great revivals and awakenings throughout history, and nearly every example I’m familiar with has lasted for less than 3 years, most FAR less . . . insufficient time for thought patterns to align with a new definition of “normal” Christianity. It has also primarily been “led” by one, or perhaps a few, key individuals . . . and rarely passed along to be stewarded by the wider community on the receiving end.
But what if we as a Body can humble ourselves to drop our points of division, and agree as childlike-ones to be led by Christ above all else? To take in ALL of what He dreamed for us before the Creation, to hear the Faithful One ask us to Follow Him? To Love Unconditionally just as we have been Loved by God? This is what the scriptures refer to as the Renewed Mind (Rom 12) . . . a new reference point where we learn to think and process and dream from Christ’s Perspective, a place from which future generations can move the purposes of God to increasingly higher levels.
Consider for a minute the possibility that God, in His Sovereignty, has entrusted the future of the earth into OUR hands. Rather than believers waiting for Him to show up in Great Power, what if He’s waiting for us?!? Maybe He’s saying “I already showed up! You have my Holy Spirit dwelling within you now, the Dance of the Godhead expressed in your very depths. I’ve painted a picture for you of the End, my dream for the Cosmos. Keep this vision before you as you live your lives fully immersed in Me. Your lives are now My Whiteboard – I will fill you with possibility and hope and love if you will see the Story from My Perspective.”
Maybe we shouldn’t have something in our past as a reference point –
even the book of Acts, great as it was.
Perhaps we should be bold enough to dream of something unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.
Something that looks like Christ’s John-17 prayer . . .
A global explosion of grounded-in-the-Love-of-Christ believers
willing to follow their Rabbi Yeshua (the Spirit of Christ IN us) in ridiculous counter-cultural ways,
centered in His Gospel of love, forgiveness, beauty, justice and shalom.
Then . . . who knows?
Perhaps, we will experience global “vival“
Jude 24 Now to the One who can keep you upright and plant you firmly in His presence—clean, unmarked, and joyful in the light of His glory—25 to the one and only God, our Savior, through Jesus the Anointed our Lord, be glory and greatness and might and authority; just as it has been since before He created time, may it continue now and into eternity. Amen.
Eph 1 9He has enlightened us to the great mystery at the center of His will. With immense pleasure, He laid out His intentions through Jesus, 10 a plan that will climax when the time is right as He returns to create order and unity—both in heaven and on earth—when all things are brought together under the Anointed’s royal rule. In Him 11 we stand to inherit even more. As His heirs, we are predestined to play a key role in His unfolding purpose that is energizing everything to conform to His will.
Lord, make us into Living Containers of the Character and
Nature You revealed to us on the Cross.
May this our framework for
Everything.
In the End . . . God
Rev 21 3 Then I heard a mighty voice from the throne and I perceived its distinct words, saying, See! The abode of God is with men, and He will live (encamp, tent) among them; and they shall be His people, and God shall personally be with them and be their God. 4 God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, neither shall there be anguish (sorrow and mourning) nor grief nor pain any more, for the old conditions and the former order of things have passed away. 5 And He Who is seated on the throne said, See! I make all things new. Also He said, Record this, for these sayings are faithful (accurate, incorruptible, and trustworthy) and true (genuine). 6 And He [further] said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I [Myself] will give water without price from the fountain (springs) of the water of Life.
Let’s again recall the Pre-Beginning dream of the Holy Sanctuary of Three, the expansion of the Divine Fellowship to an extended family that spans the entire earth. Now the Story finally reaches its conclusion . . . God DOES in fact receive what He’s always desired, a people who rightly recognize as their Head, the King over all the Cosmos – the Eternal Christ our Slain and Risen Lamb, at whose name EVERY knee bows and tongue confesses Him as Lord to the glory of God the Father. Tears are wiped away . . . the enemy’s poisonous deception has been eliminated permanently. The Black-Hole-Reality at the End has drawn the Cosmos into its Glorious Finale.
Spend time here now! He joyfully makes His dwelling among His people, and the Great Dance in the Garden has now gone Global. What’s been taking place within us – His dreams captured on our inner whiteboards, veiled until now in so many ways – has finally been thrown wide open and fully expressed in Phenomenal Fashion out in the wide open fields of God’s Grace. The Cross of Christ represented by the Tree of Life in the Garden is now a Tree of Life that lines both banks of the river flowing from the Throne, providing a dozen different delicious fruits for consumption and leaves that heal the nations.
This scene, which has played out in our hopes and imaginations, is now before us and never ends. The beauty of this fellowship will no longer be constrained by time as we know it . . . In the End, The Beautiful One comes and makes His home among those He has hand-crafted in His own image for exactly this conclusion.
We will forever be drawn further and further into the Mystery and Depths of the Eternal Christ.
Hallelujah ! ! !
The Living GOD has a single, focused agenda for you,
which He has been relentlessly pursuing from before your birth.
He wants to set you free to be
Completely,
Unashamedly,
Yourself.
He paid a High Price to bring this about,
and He knows that anything in life (apart from Him)
that you pursue falls short of what He knows is
TRUE about you.
You are the object of a
Furious Love . . .
One that continues to invite you into
Deep, Abiding Relationship with your Maker,
Who longs to share His Love and Life with you.
This is what ultimately defines you. It defines every one of us.
We were loved by God before the foundation of the world.
He works with sustained determination to bring us to complete fullness.
It is already yours by grace, but He wants it to be yours
by experiencing it as your day-to-day reality.
The reason Jesus died for you is because
God absolutely refuses to go back on His dream for your life.
Your participation in this Great Love Dance matters to Him.
Your role in this Grand Story is unique and necessary.
There’s far more at stake than first meets the eye.
God, the Three-in-Love,
is so very different than you might think,
Better than you know,
Far More Beautiful than you can ever hope or imagine.
Expect to see a new relentlessness in the Father’s eyes
to reveal Himself in new ways in your life,
to transform you into the image of His Son by His Spirit,
to raise you up as part of a mature Body proportionate to its Glorious Head.
The circle of the Trinity has made room specifically for . . . you.
Christ is in you,
and you are
IN HIM.
This is your TRUE Identity.
Your REAL Life is Hidden with CHRIST in GOD.
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