Sermon for Sunday, January 13, 2008

THE BOOK OF REVELATION AND THE LEFT BEHIND BOOKS

1^st in a series on Confronting the Controversies

By

Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture: Revelation 14

Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people.⁶   He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water." ⁷  Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." ⁸  Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, "Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, ⁹ they will also drink the wine of God's wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.¹⁰  And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name." ¹¹  Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus. ¹²

I got an email this week that has a collection of sayings from children and teenagers. I want to share a few of them with you. Only the last two will relate to the sermon topic but the others are worth your while also.

A fifteen year old wrote: If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be—until the looting started.

A thirteen year old wrote: Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money.

From another thirteen year old: I bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.

From a five year old: When I go to heaven, I want to see my grandpa again—but I hope he has lost the nose hair and the old man smell.

The final two relate to today’s theme.

A ten year old writes: My younger brother asked me what happens after we die. I told him we get buried under a bunch of dirt and worms eat our bodies. I guess I should have told him the truth—that most of us go to hell and burn eternally but I didn’t want to upset him.

I am not endorsing these statements as theologically accurate-I am simply reporting them—but I think there are some people who look at the book of Revelation and would say something like that ten year old is saying—you only have bad things in store for you and that God is very angry and judgmental.

The last one is my favorite. It is from a fifteen year old: I believe you should live each day as if it is your last—which is why I don’t have any clean laundry, because, come on, who wants to wash clothes on the last day of their life!!!

Last days—the end of the world—those have been understood by some writers to be the themes from the single most controversial book in the whole Bible, a book that almost did not make it into the New Testament — the book of Revelation.

The misinterpretations and misunderstandings of this book pervade our culture. The mayor of the Louisiana town of Reeves, LA was quoted in a news magazine last week after the town finally received a new area code from the phone company. He said that the former area code was a black eye and a stigma for his town. What was the former area code? It was 666!

What most people know about the book of Revelation is from some very popular books written over the last 50 years, books that have fascinated people who are interested in what they call Bible prophecy but books that I believe distort and pervert the message of John’s revelation. The first book was “The Late Great Planet Earth” by Hal Lindsey and sold more then twenty million copies. In that, Lindsey predicted the end of the world and the angry return of Christ in about 1988.

The more recent books are of course the Left Behind series of books by fundamentalist authors Tin Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins. This series has sold over 50 million books and tapes in the adult version not to mention the children’s books and a movie from the first book. The thesis of the novels is that many people have been taken from earth up to heaven in the rapture and the novels focus on those who are left behind. The anti Christ figure mentioned in the novels has something to do with the United Nations and the natural disasters following the rapture are seen to be sent from God.

These novels have attracted much attention but they are right in line with an interest in prophecy and the end times that has gone on for centuries in one segment of Christianity. There have been countless attempts to predict the end of time and they have been wrong. Some of those datings have been quite embarrassing for the so-called prophets/predictors. In 1844 in Ohio a minister named William Miller predicted to his 50,000 followers that the world would end that year and that the predictions of Revelation and other apocalyptic passages in the Bible would come true. He was wrong of course and many of his followers left but that dramatic failure to predict the end times—something even Jesus says he does not know in Mark 13—has not stopped hundreds or thousands of other leaders to make similar predictions and for people to be fascinated with end of the world scenarios.

This end times obsession has not only sold many novels, it has brought a dangerous influence even on American foreign policy in the past fifty years. Christian fundamentalists were so happy to see the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 because they believe that the existence of Israel is a prerequisite for the return of Christ and for the end of the world.

In fact, this is the same group that does not want any Mid-east peace talks to succeed including the efforts by President Bush this week because that will mean that Israel will have to give up control of the West Bank to the Palestinians and in their mind, it is imperative that Israel control all of its historic land promised by the Bible because when that happens, Christ can return. President Bush has done exactly the right thing this week by insisting that Israel give up its occupation of the West bank and that there be a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but some of the strongest resistance to his efforts will come from the religious right who take the words from Revelation and other apocalyptic passages very literally.

The book of Revelation is full of incredible imagery and symbolism and is difficult for us to read because the type of literature was more familiar 2000 years ago than it is to us. The writing is full of numerical symbols such as seven which stands for completeness. The author talks in code: language about the anti Christ, a beast with horns, the city of Babylon and the number 666. There is a good explanation in your insert of some of those symbols. The number 666 stands for Nero Caesar. The beast and Babylon represent the abusive power of Rome. The writer of the book, John, lived in exile on the Greek Island of Patmos and the time in which he was writing is very important for us to understand the message of his revelation. (I am going to give a very brief summary from a mainstream Christian perspective; the better summary can be found in the last chapter of Marcus Borg’s book “Reading the Bible Again for the First Time” and the second book quoted in your insert, “The End of Time” by Dr. Craig Hill. You will also get a reasoned and balanced introduction to Revelation in level four of the Disciple Bible series.

The John who wrote Revelation was not the same writer of the other books in the New Testament with an author named John. This writer lived about 100 AD. He lived in a time when Christians were being persecuted and tortured for their faith. Christians refused to worship the emperor as divine and they were suspected of treason. They were being arrested and even executed. They were tempted to give in and worship the emperor and the Roman pantheon of gods—to conform to the practices around them and compromise who they are, give up their faith.

John is telling them three things—these are in your insert:

• In spite of how it seems, Christ is Lord and Caesar/beast is not.
• God will soon act to overthrow the rule of the beast and its incarnation in Caesar
• So, persevere, endure, be confident, take heart, have faith!

As we mentioned, John the Revelator uses fantastic imagery and symbols to make his point, and those symbols have been so misunderstood.  Writers have said that the mark of the beast is the bar codes that came to be used forty years ago and that the beast was the European common market, or that the beast was the former Soviet Union.

The intense controversy about John’s letter—that is what it is, a letter—continues with the issuance of the left behind books. I looked at Amazon for customer reviews of the first Left Behind book and found 2200 customer reviews ranging from fascination with prophecy to disgust for the distortions. One of them noted that if people expect to be raptured and taken away into heaven when Christ comes back, they may be surprised because what the actual book of Revelation states is that only 144,000 men will be taken into heaven—that is MEN, and not men and women, and these men are only those who have never been with a woman.

The two books listed as resources by Dr. Hill and Dr. Borg tell us that Revelation is not about some events to happen in our time; it addresses events that were about to happen shortly after the time of the author. Rome was cruel and abusive. The empire crushed people. But it did not last. John is right. Finally God’s ways prevail and mighty Rome falls.

When we take groups of people to Israel and Greece, we are able to stand in crumbling Roman amphitheaters and other places where Christians who had been arrested were thrown to the lions. We also are in some Roman theaters where some, after some restoration, are still used as venues for music and drama today. We usually in each country talk about the book of revelation and about John’s promise that God will prevail in the end. And then we sing a hymn to say that Rome was wrong and John the Revelator was right.

And in one of those trips we went by boat to the beautiful Greek island of Patmos and visited the cave—now an Orthodox church—where John resided when he received his visions from God and where he wrote them down. We will make that trip again next October when we take the next group to Greece and where we will get the chance to be on Patmos again as well as the islands of Rhodes and Mykonos.

I believe that John was writing for his own time and his own situation when he was talking about Caesar and Rome in symbols and code language. I also believe that he has some messages that apply to us as well.

The first part of his letter is addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor who have various strengths and weaknesses. Some of them are still fired up and passionate about reaching other people. One of them in Laodicea is lukewarm instead of being fired up, and John the revelator takes them to task as he should take any congregation to task if it has forgotten its purpose. Those congregations are addressed in the first section of the book.

Let’s talk about the picture of God that is in the last part of this book. How do you see God—as an angry vengeful judge or as a compassionate parent who accepts us where we are and helps us grow and change? More importantly, how did Jesus see and teach about God? Most of Jesus teachings are not about God as angry judge and are certainly not about God thirsting for the blood of sinners—though that last image is present in the book of Revelation and is certainly present in the Left Behind books. That vengeful image of God is partly why Revelation almost did not get into the Bible!

There are two other positive messages here. One is the message of encouragement from this man who was exiled in a cave on the Island of Patmos. He tells people who are down and out that the end of the story is not written yet and that God will take your suffering and turn it into peace and joy. It is a universal message that is still important. God is bigger than whatever turmoil and crisis you are facing—so don’t give up, don’t lose hope, don’t compromise yourself or lose your faith and your integrity. It is a great message for each of us today and John was right—God prevailed against the beastly behavior of the Roman Empire.

Finally, there is the question of the second coming of Christ. The Left Behind books talk about a vengeful Christ who will bring destruction to the earth and blood will flow as high as a horse’s bridle. The message seems to be, Jesus is coming soon and you better be ready or you will be in bad trouble. How consistent is that with the rest of the Bible?

What does it mean to talk about a second coming when so many leaders over the past 1900 years including St. Paul have expected an imminent return of Christ and have been mistaken?

Jesus himself has something to say about that in the last part of Matthew’s gospel. What does he say about where we will see him now? Jesus says that whenever we care for those who are hungry or thirsty or need clothing or in jail or lonely or an outsider—when we care for those persons we are seeing and caring for Christ.

I believe that the point of the message about the return of Christ is that we be sure we are ready each day and that we are living each day fully and not wasting our lives.

And I believe Christ is returning every day and that if we look carefully, if we look low enough, we will see him. And I believe that by serving him, we will find abundant life here and now as well as in the life to come. Amen.

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