What Revelation Reveals

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…” – Revelation 21:1 (NRSV)

Most of what we what we’ve been told about the book of Revelation is wrong.

For one, Revelation isn’t about the end of the world. It’s about God renewing the world after injustice and corruption have been destroyed (see verse above for the happy ending).

Second, the so-called “Antichrist” and “Rapture” are not found anywhere in Revelation despite what the wildly popular and totally bogus Left Behind books say.

Rather than a crystal ball, Revelation offered a coded message of hope to persecuted, at-risk, first-century Christians. To this day, those who have endured injustice tend to understand Revelation better than those who haven’t. Revelation is good news to the oppressed and tough news for the powerful.

In short, Revelation does not reveal the future. Revelation reveals us. Revelation exposes our privilege and proximity to power and, by God, offers a way out.

Prayer
Revealing God, thank you for promising to destroy all that is evil and oppressive in this world, including the tentacles of evil and oppression in me.

ddauthormattlaney2014.pngAbout the Author
Matt Laney is the Senior Pastor of Virginia Highland Church UCC in Atlanta, GA and the author of Pride Wars, a fantasy series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Young Readers. The first two books, The Spinner Prince and The Four Guardians are available now.