"There never has been a book provoking more delirium, foolishness, and irrational movements, without any relationship to Jesus Christ," concluded Jacques Ellul, author of a commentary on Revelation. Readers tend to fixate wildly on details, mainly because John relied so heavily on symbols to express his meaning in this book.
Creatures covered with eyes and sprouting horns, eagles wheeling in the sky, molten mountains hurtling into the ocean - such rich imagery excites frenzied attempts to explain every word. John interprets some symbols for us - "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches" (1:20) - and hints broadly at the meaning of others, such as the four horsemen in chapter 6. But many questions remain unanswered. For example, do the major visions describe consecutive periods of history, or do they foretell the same events from different angles?
Look at the Broad Picture
Artists find that symbols communicate with special power. When Picasso painted his massive Guernica, he attempted to express what had happened in war-ravaged Spain on April 28, 1937. He created a work of art, not a photographic record. The painting does not communicate the tragedy at Guernica, but artfully, symbolically.
In a similar way, John poetically renders human events so strange and climactic as to be otherwise inexpressible. If he had wanted to, God could have revealed a precise timetable of future events, but instead Jesus warned specifically against such speculation about the future. In keeping with that approach, Revelation does not so much outline future events as hint as the cosmic significance that goes on behind history. |
