The whole idea of “heaven” seems a bit remote sometimes. Pearly gates and golden streets seem abstract. We can’t help but imagine the never-ending tedium of our childhood Sundays when we here the word eternity. The idea of “no more tears” seems like a good plan, but our vision of the New Jerusalem has been trivialized by popular culture. We need a vision to stir the heart and honor the mind, to combat the Challenge of the Trivial.
Read More…

Tags: Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, Pearly Gates, New Jerusalem, City of Zion, Shangri-La

They say that more than any biblical book, Revelation speaks to marginalized and powerless people, to anyone familiar with struggle. Scholars call it the literature of the oppressed. It was originally written for those whom South African theologian Allan Boesak calls “God’s little people” — communities of people who struggled (and continue to struggle) under oppression.
Read More…

Tags: Peter Gomes, Martin Luther King Jr., Sojourner Truth

Political cartoons can provide welcome relief for our weary brains. They can make us laugh if we understand the meaning but more than that, they provide sharp and serious critique, making us rethink our assumptions about the way things are. The word pictures in Revelation work in much the same way as political cartoons. John uses them to expose the shortcomings of first century society to the scrutiny of his readers, and his cartoons still apply all these years later.
Read More…

Tags: New Jerusalem, Babylon, Political Cartoons, Josh Garrels

Many people, myself included, grew up in fear of the Rapture. The modern book series Left Behind have fueled this fear, and the theology behind them is dangerous indeed. For starters, the word “rapture” is not even biblical, and the interpretation of the Bible on which these books are based is fiction. As Barbara R. Rossing (author of the excellent book The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation) put it, “God is coming to heal the world, not to kill millions of people. God loves the world, and God will never leave the world behind.”
Read More…

Tags: Rapture, Left Behind, Historical Interpretation, Metaphorical Interpretation

John’s descriptions of the seven visions he received are over the top and you get the sense he can’t quite find the words either. As the Christians in Ephesus listened to Revelation read aloud in the worship service, they got a sense of another dimension of reality. Their eyes were opened to see the world differently.
Read More…

Tags: Really Real, Plato's Cave, Ultimate Concern, Revelation 4, Rescuing Revelation