Some thoughs about apocalypse

Apocalypse is the language of human despair. As a literary form it was quite popular in the last few centuries before the birth of Christ. And no wonder. God’s Promise as lived by Israel was seemingly less and less impressive as each year went by. For hundreds of years, the rump state of Israel had been occupied by the Greeks and then the Romans. They were enslaved in all but name, and the prospects for freedom were dim indeed. It is out of this horror that apocalypse flourishes. This style of writing and story telling becomes very popular whenever people lose hope, when they can no longer see a way out, when only God coming down from Heaven and taking care of all the evil and starting all over again is the only conceivable answer.

Well God heard those cries of helplessness and did something about it. That something is Jesus Christ. There is no logical necessity of their being an apocalypse after the World changing Resurrection. And God’s Power to take care of the causes for apocalypse longing is shared with believers through the Holy Spirit. In truth, after the Resurrection, any vision of an apocalypse is a statement of disbelief — it says that the Cross is not enough, and that neither Jesus Christ nor Christian Disciples are able.

OK, what about Revelation you ask? Good question. Revelation has always stuck out like a sore thumb in the New Testament. Most likely, God’s Answer in Christ was simply “too good to be true” for some early Christians and they could not see in this answer that God had done all that needed to be done: that when you are born again from above you perceive the World and Life in such a different way that one really is living in that new Heaven and Earth for which so many apocalypses yearn.

I believe Revelation has a major purpose which can be easily lost in all of its apocalyptic language. God won the ultimate victory over evil on the Cross. But as long as there are unbelievers, evil can still fight a rear guard action, and can still cause plenty of misery. Revelation acknowledges this reality. It tells us that there will be a beast and false prophets in every generation. In this last century we have witnessed many: Hitler, Stalin, and on a more local level, racist vigilantes and anti-gay crusaders. What Revelation also tells us, is that in each generation, God crushes that evil. It may not always happen in ways that we can see or in ways that we would like, but it happens. As such, Revelation’s ultimate message for believers is: “God’s got your back.”

So the next time someone starts talking about getting ready for the end-times, just remind them that Jesus already took care of it for you, and that you’re more concerned about living Abundant Life than living in fear of someone else’s apocalyptic fantasies.