Reading Revelation with an Anabaptist sensibility

Ted Grimsrud—August 7, 2023

[This is the first in a series of four blog posts on the book of Revelation. This one will introduce a peaceable-Revelation reading strategy for the book. The following three will offer an interpretation of Revelation based on that reading strategy./

Is there a way to read the book of Revelation as a peace book? To read it as a Jesus-centered book? To read it as source of encouragement and hope? What happens when we read Revelation with an Anabaptist sensibility? In a series of posts, I will show that indeed Revelation can be read as a peace book. In this first one, I will sketch what I mean by reading with an Anabaptist sensibility or, one could say, with an Anabaptist reading strategy. In the three posts to follow I will run through the main themes of Revelation and its peace theology to show the fruit of such a way of reading Revelation—a fruitful approach for non-Anabaptists too!

In a nutshell, I read Revelation like I read the rest of the New Testament, maybe most similarly to, say, the book of Romans. I read it as an Anabaptist. Actually, what happened when I started to make a list of the important assumptions I make about Revelation, I realized I was making an Anabaptist list—and that I probably would say that these are the assumptions I have about the entire Bible. I won’t argue that this is a list that is drawn directly from the 16^th century Anabaptists so much as that this reflects an Anabaptist sensibility, an Anabaptistic way of reading the Bible. I’m not trying to reproduce the way certain Anabaptists read Revelation in the 16^th century so much as present a reading based on a theological perspective in the 21^st century that is informed by what I understand to be Anabaptist convictions.

So often, people treat Revelation as if it is something different, something unique to the Bible with different assumptions—maybe most obviously that Revelation is predicting the future rather than speaking to the people of the first century. But I think we should read it in its own context—I would call it a “historic-symbolic” rather than, say, “future-prophetic” approach. Let me share my list—first, I will name the assumptions and then I will briefly explain what I mean by each one: I read Revelation as (1) Jesus-focused, (2) present-oriented, (3) blood-drenched, (4) Empire-resisting, and (5) discipleship-directed. I’ll explain:

Jesus-focused

As I read them, the opening words of Revelation establish the book’s focus: “The revelation of Jesus Christ.” A key issue is how we should understand this reference to Jesus. I believe that we should take it very seriously as a guide for how to read the entire book and that we should recognize that this is the same exact Jesus that we find in the gospels, not some “apocalyptic” Jesus or post-resurrection, cosmic Jesus who somehow ends up with different approaches to human life and dealing with brokenness and evil.

We find references to “the Lamb” throughout Revelation I understand these to be references to the Jesus of the Gospels. So, when we read different things about the “Lamb,” we should understand these to be allusions to Jesus. The sense that “Lamb” evokes is mainly a sense of gentleness, of self-giving love, and of solidarity with other vulnerable ones. We do have a few somewhat complicated allusions, most notably to “the wrath of the Lamb.” We will need to read carefully in order to discern who this reference to wrath is consistent with the portrayal of Jesus in the gospels.

Another, perhaps less obvious, image that also alludes to the Jesus of the Gospels is the term “blood.” I think in most of its uses in Revelation, “blood” can be seen as a closely linked image with Jesus’s gospel message of “take up your cross and follow me.” “Blood,” that is, in Revelation quite often conveys the sense of Jesus’s life and teaching that led to his cross—and his intent that his followers imitate that life and teaching. All this is to say, Jesus is the bringer of healing love in gospels—and in the book of Revelation. What it meant for Jesus to bring healing love including say no to the Empire’s ways of domination. The “blood” image powerfully conveys the idea that gospel-guided love will by definition include saying no to the Empire’s ways—even to the point of shedding one’s blood as a consequence. To start the reading of Revelation with this thought in mind changes how one reads everything else.

Present-oriented

A big question when we take up Revelation is what we understand its time orientation to be—that is, is it mainly oriented toward the future, making predictions, setting a blueprint for the End Times (this we may call the “future-prophetic view” and it is very popular among many Christians)? Or is it hard to say because the book is so problematic—Revelation being simply too confusing or mean-spirited to be worth our time (the “problematic view”)? Or, and this is what I believe, is Revelation written in and for a specific historical time and place—of great value to us if we understand the message it provided for that context and discern ways to apply the message to our time and place, recognizing especially the use of symbolism to convey the message (the “historical-symbolic view”)?

So, when I say “present-oriented” I mean Revelation speaks first of all to the present of its author. We learn from it by taking that present seriously. In other words, we read Revelation in the same way we read, say, the book of Romans —or, actually, the rest of the Bible. I would add that Revelation chapters 2-3, the messages to the “seven churches of Asia,” are invaluable in helping us to understand the present of the book. When there are allusions to the future in Revelation, they are about the near future of its readers or very general with the direction of history in mind, not any specific events. Revelation does not claim to have special insight into some distantly future plan of God’s. The kind of prophecy Revelation contains (and the book does admittedly claim to be a prophecy) is similar to the kind of prophecy the Old Testament prophetic books contain—forthtelling the message of the gospel, not foretelling future events.

Blood-drenched

“Blood-drenched” is an admittedly gruesome and easily misunderstood image that needs to be correctly perceived to be useful. The blood image is common in the Bible (and in early Anabaptism) and points to a way of life. “Blood” speaks to the call to embody love that goes against the grain of the ways of the world—to practice compassion and to challenge injustice and domination. It led Jesus to the cross, and for many others it led to suffering and persecution. The sacrificial dimension of this image has to do with the kind of self-sacrifice Jesus modeled, a path freely chosen that witnesses, often in costly ways, to a path for life of compassion, nonviolent resistance to the domination system, and solidarity with one’s Jesus-following comrades. Blood in Revelation has little if any sense of an appeasing sacrifice offered to a judgmental God.

When we recognize that the almost overwhelming references to blood in Revelation invoke Jesus’s message, we will then be able to make sense of the various places where Revelation alludes to blood as a powerful force in the defeat of the powers of evil. The “comrades” of the Lamb defeat the Dragon (Satan) with “the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony” (12:11). The great city Babylon comes crashing down due to drinking the cup filled with “the blood of the saints and of the witnesses to Jesus” (17:6). The point is that Jesus and his followers conquer by means of their embodying the way of peace, even to the point of suffering and even death.

Empire-resisting

Revelation has a definite sense of urgency—the message matters a lot! A big part of the urgency has to do with the sharp contrast that the book draws between the way of Jesus and the way of Babylon (that is, Rome; that is, human culture organized as empires). As we read the messages to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3 carefully, and then the rest of the book in light of those messages, we will see that a major agenda in Revelation is that its readers engage actively in resisting the Empire. The contrast is present throughout the book: There are two ways of being in the world, the Lamb’s way and the Empire’s way. And a great deal is at stake in which way readers choose. Revelation’s agenda echoes Jesus’s agenda and Paul’s agenda. In all the cases, what is being advocated is not an overt revolutionary agenda that would overthrow the Empire through violence and replace it with a different territorial kingdom.

Revelation’s agenda is indeed political, though—in the broad sense of presenting a vision for the ordering of human social life. The politics of Revelation, that indeed do overtly resist the vision of life of the Empire, hope for a social order that is not state-centered, not sword-centered, not about domination. It is a politics that is oriented around connection, compassion, and equal worth and actively and overtly resists the demands for loyalty made by human empires. To embody such a politics is to be engaged in sustained resistance to the way of empire—an engagement that may be quite costly.

Discipleship-directed

Finally, Revelation cares deeply and intensely about how its readers live. Human faithfulness plays a much larger role in the drama of the book than has often been perceived. Revelation insists, as the Anabaptists did, that no one can know Christ unless one follows him in life. Revelation teaches throughout the importance of imitating Jesus’s way of life—we see this in chapter 12: the comrades conquer the Dragon (the evil Powers) with the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. More subtly, this message is reiterated in various ways in the visions that precede and that follow chapter 12.

As with the gospels and as with the writings of Paul, Revelation was written and circulated for the purpose of guiding Christian discipleship. As a result, the human role in the book is crucial. We are not simply pawns in the cosmic struggle between God and the Dragon. We are actors, with a task: follow the Lamb wherever he goes; and with a promise: our role matters, we do have power to follow and help with the victory. Thus, if we hope fully to understand the content of Revelation, we must read it as guidance for living in our world.

A concluding thought

Let me conclude with one more point about reading Revelation. I try to interpret the parts of Revelation in relation to the whole. I am more interested in considering the self-interpreting integrity of the book than in looking for outside sources for illumination—such as other ancient writings or historical referents, even including the Old Testament. The Old Testament a crucial source, but as a rule I look to the way the imagery is used within Revelation rather than basing my interpretation mainly on what the images meant in the Old Testament. I think it is more important to look for the meaning of particular words and images in the broader context of the book itself—words getting meaning from the sentences of which they are part, then sentences from paragraphs, and so on until the book itself as a whole is our key resource for interpretation. The big themes of the book are the most interesting content for me.

In the next three posts, I will provide a quick sketch of the content of Revelation. I offer a much more extensive exposition of this fascinating, challenging, and ultimately encouraging biblical text in my recent book, To Follow the Lamb: A Peaceable Reading of the Book of Revelation.