The Revelation…

Give me a minute. When most people discuss the idea of the book of Revelation it gets scary and/or weird.  You start wondering who is the anti-Christ and what does 666 mean? So please; give me a minute.

First off, I would just like to wonder…

…does this make sense to anyone?  (I didn’t think so)

Yesterday I had the great honor to go to my parents Sunday school class.  It was awesome, I met a man name Aram and his under-the-breath comments kept me laughing the whole day.  The lesson for them was on Revelation 13.  Their teacher went down many different paths to discuss this chapter.  He even went as far as to allude to the anti-Christ as Barack Obama.  Wow.  So that spurred me to think about Revelation today.

So here’s what I’ve been thinking on.  Revelation is (should be) one of the most celebrated and feared books in our Bible.  It is the story of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do.  Today we have spent most of our time trying to distinguish and define the allegory portrayed.  Maybe we should take a step back.  In Revelation (all rapture, dispensationalism, pretribe, posttribe, lame talk ends here) we get a condensed form of the Gospel.  It is countless presentations of the fact that there is an enemy who violently pursuing this world.  The enemy is dangerous and sly, and seeks to destroy.  This enemy brings sin, destruction, and death.  But then, there is Jesus.  Revelation tells us that this enemy is no match for God.

“The kindom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever” (11:15)

Ultimately, God is victorious.  God has made His mark on our hearts and he is faithful to rescue us.  God will and has already destroyed sin when He sent His son to the Cross.  And Revelation is both a reminder and a promise.

So I beg you.  Read the book, don’t get caught up in the allegory, but celebrate and worship the fact that on earth, under the earth, and in the heavens, our God reigns.