REVELATION
Strictly speaking, Revelation doesn't have anything to do with the physical Kingdom Jesus would have set up if we had allowed him to; but I think a few words about the book are in order, now that it seems that a case can be made for the present order's being a "contingency plan" on God's part.
The reason is that Revelation is a poetic Theology of history; and since it looks at the whole of history from the divine point of view, the study I have made can shed a little light, perhaps, on what it is saying.
I have made an extensive commentary on the book part of The New Testament: An Idiomatic Translation; I do not intend to reproduce it here, but merely make remarks that indicate how to read Revelation in the light of what has been said so far.
The first thing to notice about the book is that it is a poem, not a cryptogram. Granted, the numbers and the images are symbolic (the lamb representing Jesus, his horns power, his eyes knowledge, three and nine standing for God, four for earth, and so on); but it is really the emotional force of the often bizarre imagery which conveys the meaning the author intends. You have to know what the symbolism represents in order to appreciate the work; but knowing this is not really to catch the meaning. You must, armed with this knowledge, read it and let it "work" on you the way any great art object does; and when you are through, you understand through the emotions something that is not conveyed in any other way.
Thus, for instance, when you see John weep and then hear that the "lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has won the right to open the scroll and break its seven seals," and then you see "surrounded by the throne and the four animals, and surrounded by the elders, a lamb, standing as if slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into the whole world," this lion-lamb strikes terror into your heart. No little animal this that you would want to pat on its curly head. And in fact people call to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb!" It is the emotional impact of the imagery which conveys the idea of both the meekness and the overpowering force of Jesus.
But the poetic nature of the book has another aspect to it: it means that its message applies in every age, because every age has something that the symbolism esthetically attaches to, whatever its reference in John's time. And its basic message is that the Christian community will be apparently conquered by secular forces, and its defeat will be its victory over those very forces.
What I am saying is that in every age there will be a beast numbered 666 (someone using secular authority to usurp God's, and--the number--the object of God's wrath) and a small beast (secularism as a religion) which tries to force everyone to worship the beast; but in every age--in every country, for that matter--the beast will be a different person or political power. Nero was the "prime analogate" for the beast, and the name "Nero Caesar," if written in Hebrew characters, has a numerical value of 666. It does not follow (and need not, because this is a poem) that each age's stand-in for Nero will have a name adding to 666, nor that everyone whose name (or name and title) adds up to 666 is the one in that age who is Nero redivivus. John had to reveal to his contemporary readers who he was referring to in such a way that he would conceal the information from the Romans (and so avoid charges of treason and further persecution); but that particular need for cryptogrammatic utterance is not there for subsequent generations, even though the basic problem might remain throughout history.
One thing further that needs to be clarified before my comments make sense: It has been taken for granted by practically all Biblical scholars that seven is the number of totality or perfection, on the grounds that it is 4 + 3, or "earth" + "God." On this view, six (= 7 - 1), as the number of the beast, is imperfection striving to reach perfection and failing.
I think this is wrong, on three counts. First of all, these two numbers would then be the only numbers in the work arrived at by addition or subtraction, and not multiplication. Secondly, if 7 were the number of perfection, why is the heavenly Jerusalem full of the number 12 (4 x 3), while sevens, used throughout the rest of the book, do not appear there at all?(1) Thirdly, six is 3 x 2, a much more logical way of reckoning the number than 7 - 1, and more consistent with the way other complex numbers are arrived at (even such numbers as 1260); and the number is perfectly consistent with a creature that sets itself up as God. But it turns out that from the words repeated six times or multiples of six times (including "angel" = 66), the number seems to imply the wrath of God. On this showing, the beast is not only the anti-God, but is the subject of the wrath of God, which certainly fits his role in the book. "Beast," incidentally, is used 38 (= 19 x 2) times, and 19, a prime, seems to be reserved for words like "woman" and "blood," which can be either good or bad depending on the context. This would mean that political power is not of itself evil; it is only so when it sets itself up in place of God--as it inevitably does in practice. But then what of seven? The obvious Theological reference for seven is the seven days of creation in Genesis; and so that is what I think the number means. Thus, things that occur seven times, or some multiple of seven times, are things that occur throughout history, according to God's plan of creation-salvation.
And this is why I think Revelation is a Theology of history. It is a poetic look at the multiple meanings of what history (creation) is, until it reaches its fulfillment in the New Jerusalem, when there are no more sevens, and God and the world come to rest at the end of evolution.
The fact that the series of septets of disasters (the seals on the scroll of history, the trumpets, and the bowls of God's wrath) dovetail into one another, with the seventh seal introducing the scene of the trumpets and so on, is an indication that these are not successive events, but different perspectives on the whole of history up to the end. This is reinforced by the strange sequence of tenses one sees in the book, often written off as bad Greek mangled by one who did not know the language. But such sequences, going from future to present to past, as in the scene of the two witnesses in chapter 11, are (a) less likely for one who does not know the language, since he would be prone to keep a given tense once he adopted it, and (b) too systematic and located too precisely to be the vagaries of one who had no grasp on Greek verbs. What they do is confuse the sense of time, mixing up the past, present, and future--which is just what one would want to do if he was writing from a perspective which was true at all times throughout history.
If we look, then, at the book, we find first the letters to the seven communities in Asia (minor), indicating various attitudes people had taken toward the good news in relation to the secular world, and comments on how God views those attitudes. The fact that there are seven such letters indicates that these attitudes prevail throughout history, and are subject to the same rewards and punishments.
Then John is taken to heaven, with the 24 representatives of the Old and New Treaties, and also the four animals that represent nature; and the first thing he sees in God's hand is a scroll, completely covered with writing, but sealed with seven seals, which no one can open except the standing-slain lion-lamb, who represents Jesus. The word "scroll," not incidentally, appears 21 (= 3 x 7 = God's action upon history) times in the book; and it clearly represents the facts about creation or history, which Jesus reveals.(2)
When the lamb opens each of the first four seals, one of the four animals calls out "Come!" evoking the vision of one of the horsemen; and operative words used during these curses are "horse16" are "victor's wreath8," "saber4," "wine8," "land of the dead4," and this horseman is given control over a fourth of the earth; and the sixth seal introduces the vision of the four angels controlling the earth's four winds at its four corners. Clearly, a plethora of fours. Thus, one can conclude that what John is trying to tell us here is that from one point of view, the disasters that happen on earth are the result of the laws of nature.
The next series of curses come from angels66, who are given seven trumpets6; and the disasters destroy a third of the earth, turn a third of the sea into blood, killing a third of the "creatures with souls," embitter a third of the rivers, darken a third of the sun and moon and stars, and take light away from a third of the day and night; and then the eagle introduces three woes upon the earth. Obviously, this series is in terms of threes. The conclusion from this series is that, from a different perspective, one can look at those same disasters of the first series as the result of the wrath of God because of sin.
At this point (the sixth trumpet--the one representing the wrath of God, of course), history splits in two, with the two witnesses and the 3-1/2 (half of seven) days21 (21=7x3; i.e. God intervening in history), the 42 (7 x 6 = God's wrath throughout history) months6 (= 3-1/2 years), and the 1260 (either 103 [persecution], 13 x 20 [evil x earth (4) x punishment (5)], or 62 [wrath of God] x 5 [punishment] x 7 [history]) days21 (also = 3-1/2 years).
That is, there is a turning-point in history, occasioned by Jesus' appearance, who is clearly indicated by the death of the witnesses in the "great city . . . where their Master was crucified."
And when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, there is the appearance of the woman robed with the sun (symbolizing the Church) who gives birth to the male and is taken away from the python into the desert for the 1260 days; there is the war in heaven in which Satan is driven out and thrown to the earth, the appearance of the beast and the smaller beast, the false prophet, and the victorious lamb upon Mount Zion. The earth's harvest is reaped, and then there appear the angels with the bowls12 of the seven last curses--which are "last, because in them God's fury10 is brought to completion."
These, which are a slightly modified version of the disasters of the previous septets, are now in terms of 12 (completeness: earth-heaven) and 5 or 10 (persecution, punishment). The imagery is also that of a battle between the forces of the lamb and those of the beast, with the defeat of the beast assured.
And what this means is that there is a third way of looking at history because of what happened to Jesus: that of a battle between God (especially in the person of Jesus, after his appearance) and secular authority, which attempts to take over God's place in people's lives.
It is significant for our purposes that the imagery here is ambiguous; in one sense, John seems to be talking about the Christian half of history; but the numbers and other aspects of the images seem to indicate that what he is saying deals with the whole of history, even before Jesus.
And this, of course, fits perfectly with the thesis of this study. Granted that Jesus was rejected (the "witnesses" killed), then the whole of evolution--at least as regards the earth--has been affected in such a way as to have within it, not only human disobedience to God's will, but the attempt by humanity to depose God from his throne: to deny his existence and take over his authority. What John is saying is that this rebellion is doomed to failure from the start, even though it will always seem to be succeeding, and even though it will create many martyrs. He also is telling us that the natural disasters that occur in this world are not only a following of the laws of (wounded) nature, nor merely natural laws that plus a punishment for the sin which wounded the nature, but also the conquest by nature's Master over creatures trying to set themselves up as the creators.
This could perhaps be illustrated by a modern example. AIDS is, as the AIDS activists rightly say, an infection by a virus, and so is something that follows the laws of nature. In this sense, those quite innocent of any wrongdoing can catch it (e.g. by blood transfusions); because, as John says, "If anyone is taken captive, he will go into captivity. . . . Here is the persistence and faith of the sacred people."
But AIDS is also God's punishment for disobedience of his laws. But there are at least three senses in which this is true: In the first place, if Adam had not sinned, there would be no such thing as AIDS. Secondly, if no one violated God's laws about sex and drug taking, then even if the virus existed because of Adam, then it wouldn't be in a position to be able to infect people. Thirdly, if individual people did not violate these laws, they would be extremely unlikely to contract the virus. So in those three senses we can consider AIDS a punishment from God, which is consistent with the fact that (a) not everyone who in fact violates God's laws catches AIDS (only a small percentage of the world and people are harmed by the disasters John imaginatively speaks of), and (b) some of those who do not violate God's laws catch it.
And finally, who can deny that AIDS is the result of the activism of those who recognize no God and set up their own choices as the ultimate arbiters of what is right and wrong, however unrealistic this might be? We find ACT-UP invading the Catholic churches and trampling on the sacramental Body of their Master--because the Bishops who preside over these churches presume to say that the way to avoid AIDS is to stop engaging in the kind of activity that puts you at risk of it. The people who are react so violently about this are furious that they can't do the thing that gives them AIDS and not get AIDS--because, after all, aren't we autonomous? "Autonomy," after all, is just a way of saying that I am the sole person who gives myself laws; I am God. Those who claim to be autonomous simply pretend that they are autonomous; and God, who gives authority to all laws, thwarts this attempt.
That is, John is saying that it is no coincidence that diseases such as syphilis and AIDS "happen to" occur at times when humans take the moral law into their own hands. God is not mocked, and he will not allow his creation to be mangled by those who wish to turn it into the travesty of "autonomy, self-creativity, and human fulfillment." There are facts about creation, wounded as it is, and these facts will defeat anyone who tries to deny them, even while they seem to be defeated by those very skeptics.
And in the end, the New Jerusalem will appear, when the final tally of those who are to belong to it is made complete; and God will say, "Now I am making everything new," and "what is in the spring of the water of life will be available to anyone at no cost"--that is, "the one who wins the battle will inherit this, and I will be God for him, and he will be a son to me. As for cowards, skeptics, the impure, adulterers, prostitutes, sorcerers, idol-worshipers, and every sort of liar, their fate is in the lake burning with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
Death, then, has been overcome by resurrection into a transformed world for those who persevere; but it has been transformed into a hideous perpetual dying, one might say, for those who were defiant.
John, of course, is not talking about the way things would have been, but the way they actually are, given the choices we have made, and the way they will in fact be, based on these choices. But his picture fits nicely into the reconstruction of the Kingdom we made, in the sense that it shows the responsibility we have for the world we now live in, and gives us the assurance that in spite of our perversity--indeed, even to some extent because of it--we have an unimaginable future facing us, not only where "every tear will be wiped away," but the joy of a bride on her wedding day.
As John has Jesus say in his Report, "When I see you again, your hearts will be full of joy, and no one will take your happiness away from you. --And that will be the day you have no more questions to ask me."
1. There are a couple of words repeated either seven times or a multiple of seven that appear in this section: honor7, tree7, and slave14; but these are completely overwhelmed by the words repeated twelve times, as well as the objects (gates, foundations, dimensions, etc.) twelve of which explicitly appear.
2. That this is not accidental can be seen from the fact that there is another small scroll (biblarídion), which is used 3 times (it is the one John eats, giving him a private revelation); and also the word bíbloj, which is used twice.