Okay, I won’t beat around the bush: the article that follows is lengthy. But...I think it will help serve us well, dear saints, as we jump into our new worship series on Revelation coming in June 2024. So, I encourage you to take some time, read through this article. Think about it. Pray about it. Read it again. Do some of your own research. And then, let’s let God fill us with the hope and reassurance that these texts bring to each of us, our church, our community, and the entire world.
THE ‘LEFT BEHIND’ WAY
“I think prophecy in the twenty-first century is having an identity crisis. We seem to think that prophetic texts in the Bible are the predictive forecasts of wild-eyed people who didn’t bathe properly but saw the future with astounding clarity. And, we seem to think that we have the task of figuring out what they meant by all of their symbolic language, so that just before all of the predicted calamities come down on the world, we can be rescued by the “rapture” and will not be “left behind” to suffer through it...For reasons biblical and theological, I think we are wrong on both counts” (Dr. D. Mark Davis, Left Behind and Loving It).
For many people who grew up hearing or watching televangelists, the only version of ‘the end of times’ preached from the pulpits of prophetic preponderance took on the shape of the ‘rapture-tribulation-second coming’ scenario marked by sure and certain fantastical events as they were seemingly described in scripture. All of the symbols within the apocalyptic literature were on the verge of being decoded, unmasked, and understood by the wise and powerful theologians of broadcast and cable television, and thus the future-telling predictions exploded in the latter half of the 20th century.
The viewpoint above is a result of Dispensationalist Theology, fashioned in the early 19th century. This theological lens helped shape the “Left Behind” or “Rapture” theology that took pentecostal & evangelical churches by storm in the mid and late 20th century.
Dispensationalism is a way of interpreting scripture & history as ‘divided into multiple ages or "dispensations" in which God acts with his chosen people in different ways’ (Vern Poythress, “Understanding Dispensationalism”). It presumes a ‘literal’ understanding of biblical events & time frames which, when taken to its full extent, reimagines Biblical apocalyptic literature apart from its author’s original purpose. What matters are the literal events, time frames, and chronology.
To the dispensationalist, we are living in pre-millennial times. In other words, before a period of time in which they believe Christ will reign on earth for a thousand years. Also, in this theological frame, there will be what is often called a ‘rapture,’ a word not found in scripture but nevertheless referring to a time when Jesus will supposedly take away all believers to be with him while everyone else will be left on earth for years of torturous life.
The dispensationalist might wonder if we are near that time of Tribulation marked by hardship, war, famine, & struggle. Of course, in each generation, different events have been interpreted as proof that we are near this terrible time: the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, 9/11, and, yes, even the state of the world today. We must be close! Look at the signs! It is just as predicted! To the author of Revelation, his predictions of such things would have been framed by the Roman persecution of the Church and the burning down of Jerusalem and the temple during the Jewish revolt some 25 years before his composition. To the author, it was in his generation that the vision was in motion.
In a similar way, some dispensationalists have interpreted Revelation to point toward the European Union or United Nations as the supposed ‘one world order’ as mentioned in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. More proof that we are closer than ever to the end!
The symbology of apocalyptic literature, to the dispensationalist, can be decoded and lead to inevitable, pre-prescribed outcomes. How many times have preachers and religious leaders gone so far as to predict the time and date of Jesus’ 2nd coming only to be proven inaccurate? How many conspiracy theories have arisen assuming the ‘mark of the beast’ is our social security numbers, or our credit card numbers, or the mark of the Roman legion. To the original author of Revelation, it is most likely the “Beast” or ‘antichrist’ could have taken the form of the Emperor Nero.
Unfortunately, the dispensationalist view removes apocalyptic literature from its original context. It turns a vision into a roadmap, poetry into prose, & symbols into forecasts. It looks for more than what was intended by the authors: a linear, literal timeline and foretelling of events. Where the original intent of apocalyptic texts was to bring hope and help, the contemporary Church, under the influence of dispensational theology, has sown fear and fiction. Biblically literate peoples throughout the two millennia of the Church would have seen our contemporary idea of ‘literal’ apocalyptic events and said, “Are you kidding me!?”
Some scholars attribute the height of dispensationalist (“Left Behind”) theology emergence in the late 20th century to the need to put butts in pews; a revival using the age-old tactic: “show ‘em what they need to fear, and you’ll get ‘em in.” It worked for old school missionaries after nations were conquered. Fear, afterall, is a great method of controlling the masses.
ANOTHER WAY?
Regardless of what some people might think, the dispensationalist view has never been the only theological lens for reading scripture - including the apocalyptic texts - as a means to understand eschatology (the theology of the last things). In fact, it’s a rather recent creation that our Reformed denomination rejected from the outset.
Eschatological texts include poetry, symbols, references to other scriptures and stories, analysis of the present time within which the author composed his/her work, and prophetic vision toward the future. The purpose of such texts were to bring hope and reassurance, not to scare the pants off the reader. To this end, the poetic language is not meant to be taken as literal pronouncement but to always point toward and reference the hope that is to come; that which all of scripture has pointed toward from its inception. To interpret poetry literally almost guarantees misunderstanding. The dispensationalist, while acknowledging the author’s use of poetry, sacrifices the literature’s intentional ambiguity in poetry in order to accommodate a literal, episodic narrative.
In contrast to dispensationalism, Reformed churches stood on what was called Covenant Theology. In this theological lens, apocalyptic texts can only be read in light of the covenant of grace in Jesus Christ. All of scripture is viewed in light of what God has been doing all along, namely redeeming and rescuing the cosmos.
Paul S. Karleen, a dispensationalist describing covenant theology puts it this way: “There is a soteriological [regarding salvation] unity in the covenant of grace; it joins all God’s people across the testaments; to ask if we are to take the prophets literally is to ask the wrong question; the issue of the interpretation of the prophets is not one of literal versus spiritual/metaphoric/figurative but of the relation of the OT and NT, which is determined by the Covenant of Grace.”
Covenant theologian, Gerhaardus Vos, in one of his best pieces of writing, reinforces this idea that the Covenant of Grace is THE grand, unifying theme that connects and shapes all of scripture including apocalyptic literature:
“...the leading principle of the covenant...is nothing but the open eye and the clear vision of the Reformed believer for the glorious plan of the grace of God, which arouses in him a consciousness of the covenant and keeps it alive, and which causes him to be so familiar with this scriptural idea and makes this train of thought so natural to him. How else could he receive and reflect the glory of his God, if he were not able to stand in the circle of light, where the beams penetrate to him from all sides? To stand in that circle means to be a party in the covenant, to live out of a consciousness of the covenant and to drink out of the fullness of the covenant” (Paul Martin Henebury, PhD, “The Eschatology of Covenant Theology”).
In other words....it’s all about grace. It is THE hermeneutic [lens] for interpreting scripture, how we connect the OT & NT, how we live every day, and, yes, how we interpret and understand eschatology and apocalyptic literature. It begins and ends with the covenant of grace.
Anthony Hoekema (1913-1988), another covenant theologian, writes in a similar vein: “Amillennialists [covenant theologians who do not ascribe to a thousand-year period of Messianic kingdom on earth] do not believe that sacred history is to be divided into a series of distinct and disparate dispensations but see a single covenant of grace running through all of that history. This covenant of grace is still in effect today and will culminate in the eternal dwelling together of God and his redeemed people on the new earth” (Anthony Hoekema, “A Brief Sketch of Amillennial Eschatology”).
While amillennialism is not the exclusive eschatological view of the covenant theologian, it does give us an example of how the covenant of grace shapes the interpretation of apocalyptic literature. It is not about literal time periods and ages (dispensations). It does not assume God simply acts differently in one episodic narrative to the next, but it is about a fulfillment of God’s promises in God’s time. In this approach, dwelling on the details of apocalyptic texts in a literal sense misses the point. It does not account for the theme that permeates all of scripture: namely God’s grace.
So while the dispensationalist seeks to poke at and decipher every literal detail in apocalyptic texts, the covenant theologian leans on the words of Jesus, “It is not for your to know the times or the seasons the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:7) and on the grace that defines the nature and being of God and of humanity. For the dispensationalist, the literal language of Revelation in particular is harsh, hard, terrifying, and brutal. It points toward death and destruction as God lays out God’s final plan for creation. To the covenant theologian, the poetic language harkens back to previous biblical stories, symbols, and metaphors that
remind us of God’s grace & mercy, pointing us, not at destruction and death, but cleansing, renewal, and rebirth. To the covenant theologian, eschatology is not about the end of all things, but the redemption and renewal of God’s good creation.
Okay...that’s probably enough background to wet your appetite, or...it’s more than you bargained for.
Either way... are you ready for this worship series on Revelation??!!
If you answered, “Uh...not anymore,” then that’s a great place to start: with an open heart and an open mind ready to listen anew. In this brief series, we will not have time to cover much of the book of Revelation, but it is my hope that we can begin to think through and process this text with a more keen eye toward grace and with the hope that these texts offer the world.
With Grace & Peace,
Adam