Top 12 of CiHD: #3

For a summary of what I’m hoping to accomplish in this blog series (the first week of every month of 2018), I recommend reviewing my explanation here.

This month in the Top 12 Blog Posts at Covered in His Dust, we’ll look at the third-most-viewed post. And again, like last month, there is a little bit of a disclaimer. If I would have been true to the “twelve most-viewed posts” on my blog, then nine out of those twelve posts would have been posts on the book of Revelation. Instead of making this series a review of my thoughts on Revelation, I chose to pick the most viewed of my Revelation posts, which happens to be my introductory thoughts and a great place to have a conversation. You can read the original post here.

In this series, as we look at each post, I want to ask three questions: why, what, and what else? Why do I think these posts got so many views; why were others drawn to them? What do I hope people found when they got here; what do I hope they heard? Finally, what else have I learned about this; what else would I say about these ideas?

WHY THIS POST?

I don’t think there is any reason to doubt or wonder why this post (and apparently eight others) made the list. We have an infatuation with the book of Revelation. I mean, just let the idea sink in. One of the most recently written sections of my blog is on the book of Revelation. The series has only been up for just under two years, yet the posts on Revelation overwhelmingly dominate the most-viewed list.

I’m not sure there has ever been a book of the Bible so ripe for sensational reading (and mis-reading), more misunderstood, bringing more anxiety, and usurping the rest of the teaching of Scripture like that of Revelation. As I allude to in the original post, it would seem that there are two dominant groups in terms of studying this book. Either you feel like the book is so crazy and confusing that you refuse to engage it — or you are obsessed with the future forecasting, absolutely certain that you are reading it correctly, and you are so committed to your interpretation that you will undoubtedly break fellowship with other believers over its content.

It’s ridiculous. And both extremes seem unbelievably foolish and destructive to me.

WHAT DO I HOPE THEY FOUND?

I hope the reader found an objective and respectable hermeneutic grounded in critical thinking, legitimate history, and backed by biblical scholarship. If the reader was a member of the “I Don’t Read Revelation” camp, then I hope they were given some tools and a little hope that, in fact, this book is worth giving a second chance.

If the reader was a member of the “Revelation or Bust [Someone’s Face]” camp, then I hope they realized their position was more asinine than they’ve realized and were able to be honest about the unbelievable complexity of the book and the problems we have to face when we interpret it. All in all, no matter the reader, I hope we always approach the Bible with a sense of reverence and humility, while still being unintimidated by the task.

WHAT ELSE WOULD I SAY?

If I were to say something in addition to what I’ve already written it would be an encouragement to truly examine the way we approach and interpret the scriptures. Brothers and sisters, it matters. And I’m not saying it matters because of some childish commitment to orthodoxy. I’m saying it matters because of the implications.

Around the same time I wrote this series, our church was preaching through a series on the book of Revelation. It was insane. While I enjoyed the series immensely, my comrade Aaron Couch swears he will never preach through the book again. I saw things in people that concerned me deeply.

First, I saw people absolutely gripped with fear. If we know anything about the other 65 books of the Bible, we know this is not the posture that the gospel, the Church, or God is supposed to invoke in others. However, we’ve cloaked the discussion of the “End Times” in so much doomsday, apocalyptic, fire-breathing, demonic nonsense that people can’t even think straight when they start thinking about the return of Jesus and “the end of the world.” How did we get here?

And second, I have never seen so much rage come out of people that I have had fellowship with for years. All of a sudden our relationships were in jeopardy, our friendships rendered meaningless, and many found other churches. The only thing that even begins to rival the work of this book is the topic of politics (an issue I won’t even begin to touch here). We have some serious idolatry issues in these areas. Its horribly out of whack. We can talk about racism, loving our enemies, the glory of the empty tomb… and we get nothing. Nobody is sweating or has spit in their beard. Nobody is leaving the church and writing emails laced with profanity. But you mention some other idea about Revelation…

We are followers of Jesus. We should have a Christocentric theology (meaning that our theology should center around Jesus). Nothing should be more important than the teachings of Jesus. Not politics. Not eschatology. Not philosophy. Not Torah. Not Paul’s letters. And not Revelation. Not crazy YouTube videos about how some unaccountable Messianic Rabbi is convinced he broke the “Bible Code” and figured out the date the world comes to an end. Not some slick presentation on Blood Moons and the ancient Jewish calendar. Not the current events and how they line up with misinterpreted prophecy.

Nothing before Jesus. Jesus came so we would be one (John 17) and that through this oneness the world would know who He is. Jesus came to teach us how to chase down prodigal sons and welcome the sinner. Jesus came to tell us how to appropriately read everything else — including Torah and the book of Revelation. Jesus came to teach us how to forgive and live at peace. Jesus spoke very little about how the world would end.

I think that was on purpose.

CHURCH HISTORY: AD 1800 thru AD 1925

NB: For readers who missed it, I suggest going back to review my setup to this section on church history to know about my disclaimers. For the graphics used in this post, the timelines are not to scale, and the dates represented are not intended to be exact. They are meant to be visual aids for understanding the larger conversation.

As the age of revolution changed the cultural setting for Christendom, there was a new push to get our bearings as a faith movement. For almost 1400 years, the world of Christendom had enjoyed being the privileged default of culture. If you unplugged the western world and plugged it back in, the default setting would have blinked “Christian.” But now, with the rise of the Age of Enlightenment, Christendom’s white-knuckle grip on theology, creeds, and doctrinal truths did not age well. As the world became more and more knowledgable, more and more educated, more and more literate — simply affirming creedal beliefs wasn’t holding a candle to the scientific method.

But before we talk about science, one has to talk about the this new culture of independence and the impact it had on our own shores in America. The movement of culture away from Christianity had a positive effect for Christendom as a whole. In an effort to regain what was being lost, Protestant believers fell into what is often referred to as the Second Great Awakening (the “First” Great Awakening is usually attributed to the rise of Methodism in the mid-1700s, which we discussed previously). This great time of ‘revival’ was ushered in throughout North America and Europe through what we commonly know as “camp meetings.”

These revivals became a time for denominations to come together and enjoy fellowship, worship, and preaching. Such a focus and desire to experience true confession and repentance would lead to great times of spiritual revival and movement. Many attribute the rise of Pentecostalism to these experiences where the Holy Spirit seemed to be poured out in abundance. What is widely accepted as the first camp meeting was held in Kentucky in 1801 and would set the stage for an invigorated and passionate movement of Protestant parishioners.

This same awakening, coupled with the cultural movement of America toward freedom and independence, led to the jettisoning of denominationalism. As many denominations were attempting to hold onto their imperial moorings through the use of creeds and belief statements (think of a more colonial version of ‘church membership’), entire groups began kicking against colonialism as it was experienced in the North American church. The Stone-Campbell movement (also known as the Restoration Movement) was started when Barton Stone, a recently ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church, was asked to sign the Westminster Confession before he could receive the Eucharist. Appalled by the use of Confession and doctrine in this way, Stone joined others with similar encounters to restore a sense of the faith experienced in revivals (a faith they associated with the early church in the book of Acts) to Christianity in America.

It is not a coincidence that other movements started at this time, as well. Driven by the same disgust in the direction of Christianity, Joseph Smith received his calling (Mormonism) at this point in history, and we see the work of Ellen G. White, John Darby, and Charles Russell (Jehovah’s Witnesses). Note that all of these movements are capitalizing, albeit unintentionally, on a newfound culture of freedom and independence to start new, revived expressions of a faith they felt was corrupted and dying.

On the scientific front, things are not turning out well for any form of Christendom trying to hold on to the doctrinal confessions and creedal understandings of their faith. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin began his famous work and Karl Marx was pursuing new political ideals; both seemed to work against a Christian worldview. While many of these ideas were critiqued within the Christian worldview, some critical thinkers in Christianity were affirming certain components.

The need for social vigilance was championed by people like William Booth, the Methodist pastor who founded the Salvation Army. Booth would become one of the lead thinkers shaping Christianity’s social consciousness around the turn of the century, giving rise to what we would call the social gospel. While the term has a negative connotation in most conservative evangelical circles, the movement was simply trying to recapture the practical and misplaced emphasis on caring for the poor and marginalized in our increasingly industrialized world where the gap between the rich and the poor was rapidly increasing. These were some of the same things that modernity — in all of its socio-polical growth pains — was trying to articulate, as well.

The secular aspect of this cultural growth curve is known as secular humanism, and after we finished fighting World War I (it’s interesting how war always hinders progress), Christendom in North America turned its attention to fighting these secular ideals. Like a lit powder keg, the famous Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, led to eruption of Christian “fundamentalism.” Christians immediately saw themselves in a culture war with secular humanism. The problem is that this rings incredibly reminiscent of the mistakes we made with Copernicus and Galileo. It seems we may be in danger of misidentifying our “enemy” and the truth we should be fighting to preserve.

But with all the splintering and division of Christianity, it becomes harder and harder for us to learn from our mistakes.

CHURCH HISTORY: Telling a Story

We left our last conversation (and finished our study of the Scriptures) with this nagging question: What happened?

Now that we are done with our study of the God-breathed Text, we are entering a very sticky and dangerous realm of my own personal thoughts and opinions. While my thoughts and opinions have certainly been at work in the previous discussion, I have taken solace in the fact that we were working on a discussion centered around the life-giving biblical narrative. But this question is incredibly important, and as a Bible teacher who works with college students, I’m deeply convicted that if we don’t wrestle with these questions, we have done a great disservice to our study of the Text.

One of the things we talk about at Impact Campus Ministries is what we call “Message, Mode, and Milieu” — an idea introduced to us through the dissertation work and leadership of my personal friend, mentor, and former ICM president, Bill Westfall. When we speak of Message, the idea we are trying to communicate is that we need to have an understanding of “the whole story of God and His invitation to join” that story. There is no way we can adequately address this invitation if we don’t have an understanding of what happened in between the world of the Bible and the world you and I traverse today.

Because of this, I would like to wrap up our study by engaging that now. It is important to know a few things.

1) I am not a historian or an expert in the field of church history. Have I studied church history considerably? Yes. Am I an expert? Not at all. I am indebted to the work of real experts, some of whom I’ve been able to study with personally, and some I have only read from a distance. Please don’t quote me as a source in this regard. I am simply trying to take some of the things I have learned and think critically with all of you. Nothing more; nothing less.

2) Every historian, whether they are an expert or not, tells a story. There simply is no such thing as an unbiased rendering of history. Each one of us sees history through the lens of our own culture, language, experience, opinion, and conviction. I want you to know up front that I will be taking the parts of history I believe tell the story in the most useful manner for our culture in this place and in this time. It is completely intentional and biased. But please, do not ever believe anyone who doesn’t affirm that. All renderings of history have a story to tell, and all historians are storytellers. We should not run from that, but embrace it. And we should allow it to challenge us to think critically about our past(s).

3) My intent with this last portion of our study is not “the history of the church.” I will not even begin to deal adequately with any portion of church history in a comprehensive way. I will not be doing a study on the reformers, or the desert fathers. I simply want to take a broad look at where we’ve been and how our Christian world has been shaped. This means I will be overgeneralizing at times. I will try my best not to do this in a misleading or disingenuous way, but I want to stay within the scope of my intent here.

In this regard, there are many, many great sources for church history. I would recommend books like Constantine’s Sword and Bruce Shelley’s Church History in Plain Language. These recommendations do not mean I agree in full with these works or their many nuances, but they are a great way to get started.

Now, as I pointed out, the early Christians seemed to believe the return of Christ was imminent. Were they wrong? I don’t believe they were.

As I said earlier, I believe Jesus taught us about a proper three-part understanding of the coming of the Age to Come. I do not believe there is a fixed date for which Jesus’s return is set. On the contrary, I believe God is inviting us to partner with Him in restoring a broken world. At some point, as this “redemptive arc of history” is bent closer and closer to the intent of God, God will snap the last few pieces into place — maybe just as the apocalyptic prophets paint the picture, or maybe differently.

This understanding runs congruent with the Jewish understanding Peter seems to promote in 2 Peter 3.

You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

Apparently the “day of God” is not fixed, but stands in relation to us. Our obedience somehow speeds up its coming. And just as we saw in the end of our study of the New Testament, this commitment and radical obedience by the early believers was working. I don’t believe they were wrong to think the coming of Christ and the new heaven and new earth — prophesied by Isaiah, re-announced by Peter, Paul, and John — were speedily approaching.

But then something happened…

We seemed to lose the plot. I want to look at what that something might have been. Join me as we begin to walk through the last 2000 years.

REVELATION: Mother and Dragons

We are now prepared to get into the twelfth chapter of Revelation, so let’s dive right in:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

Now that we realize John is consistently and constantly placing Text into context, we want to think of the Hebrew Scriptures and ask the pressing question, Who is this woman? The answers to this question don’t tend to be quite as futuristic and far-fetched. Most Christian interpretation will sit solidly on this being a direct reference to Jesus. I don’t believe that is incorrect, but let’s make sure we are keeping the larger picture in mind and exhausting the possibilities; as we’ve seen, this will help us catch more of the depth of John’s point.

The woman could be a reference to Mary and Jesus. There appears to be an element of this meant to employ a more literal picture in the apocalyptic imagery. She gives birth to a child who is snatched up to heaven and to his throne. Then she escapes into the wilderness. At that point, the image seems to break down if we continue to hold to Mary as a more literal character in this story.

The woman could be the nation of Israel. As we’ve noted before, Israel is very often referred to as a bride. The people of God will be the ones who give birth to the Messiah. We might think of that famous passage about a branch coming from Jesse’s stump. This would make more sense in that she wears a crown of twelve stars and gives brith to a child who will shepherd the goyim (Gentiles).

The woman could, in a very similar fashion, be the early Church (both Jew and Gentile). This would also make sense with the reference of twelve stars, and both this and the previous option would make much more sense in regards to fleeing into the wilderness. This particular option is not as clean of a connection when it comes to giving birth to the child.

There are other options, as well — even the idea that the woman is Eve. This would also make great sense; the picture becomes more and more metaphorical, but it seems to allude to Genesis 3 and the declaration that the woman’s seed will defeat the serpent. Of course, this prophecy would be in the mind of Jews for all of the aforementioned options.

Next, who is the dragon? If we stay true to our hermeneutic, this is an easy question. Our hermeneutic (the only one I believe makes sense) says these are not vague references to the unknown future, but instead — in keeping with the apocalyptic genre — well known images that help communicate the point into the current context. The dragon represents the empire of Rome. Or, to go back to our earlier language, the dragon represents Empire.

Finally, the woman is on the run and in hiding for a season. This is the same reference to 1,260 we saw before — an apocalyptic way of saying a significant amount of time, but it won’t last forever.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Now, some may say, “Ah ha! The dragon is Satan! Why are you picking on Rome?” But as we’ve seen in our study of Pergamum, John has no problem connecting and equating the devil and the empire of Rome. John understands that Rome (in general) is the personification of evil and the main agent doing the work of what they would call “Satan.” This is not unique to Revelation and can be found in many other apocalyptic writings in the period of Roman oppression.

It should also be noted that these references continue to be full of links to the Hebrew prophets. The reference to the dragon being thrown down to earth would make any Jewish reader think of Isaiah and Ezekiel, who prophesied about the king of Tyre and Babylon, two other world powers of their day that relied on their pride and arrogance. These would be fitting connections to make to Rome. Again, we have Text to context.

And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

We see more Text to context in that the woman is given two wings of an eagle (“Remember how I carried you on eagles’ wings,” in reference to their deliverance from Egypt [another world power]) and flown into the desert (God said through Jeremiah that He remembers how Israel “followed me through the desert like a bride”). When the dragon pours forth a river like a flood, what do we think of? Noah? The Exodus? Both?

And as the dragon goes to make war against her “offspring,” one cannot help but remember the same passage in Genesis 3 and the declaration that we know how this story is going to end. The chapter (in Revelation) ends right in the middle of the contest between the dragon and God’s people, but the message from Pastor John is clear: “We are in a great spiritual battle. We must stand our ground and continue to walk in righteousness. We’ve been here before and we know how this story ends! Persevere. Overcome.”

REVELATION: Two Witnesses, Two Lampstands, Two Olive Trees

Revelation 11 is one of those chapters where we really get to put our growing knowledge of apocalyptic literature to work. It’s full of numbers, images, and references that make our heads spin. While it typically offers confusion, hopefully we have learned to ask a new set of questions to help us sort it out and put it back into its appropriate context. Let’s begin:

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

First, this setup is a repeat of the prophesy of Ezekiel (check out chapters 40-42), and it won’t be the only direct reference to the major prophet. If this observation is beginning to sound like a broken record, it’s because you’re now starting to notice what should be apparent as we read apocalyptic literature! I know that I’ve said it before, but I really want to help us see this and be reminded appropriately of its significance. John is trying to pull his readers (especially his Jewish readers) back to the message of Ezekiel and let them be encouraged by a prophet who has come before.

But then John moves toward a conversation about two witnesses. I can remember where this conversation took me as a young adolescent who was enamored by the Left Behind series. Theories point toward these fantastical ideas of two individuals who will play a special part in the end times. The problem is that not only are such quick assumptions and conclusions ignorant of authorial intent, they also ignore the context of the passage. Any Jew in the first century who spoke of “two witnesses” would have immediately thought of the two witnesses dominant in Jewish history — Moses and Elijah. You might remember our study of the Transfiguration.

This idea of two authorities bearing witness to the coming of a new Kingdom was far from a new idea. Is this relevant to our interpretation of Revelation? I would certainly think so! But then the passage goes on to give us even more detail:

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.

Immediately I notice the reference to these two witnesses having the power to shut up the sky so no rain would fall. And who was it to do such a thing? Elijah. And if you remember from our teaching, who was Elijah quoting when he “bound God to His Text”? Moses. It would seem that John really is working with this idea after all. But not only this, John gave us more details about these two witnesses. In reference to them (John uses “these,” the first word in the passage above), John says they are the two olive trees and the two lampstands. We’ve spoken before about how olive trees and lampstands symbolize the community of God’s people.

One of the things John keeps doing is pulling out visions of two where you would expect there to be one. Instead of there being 12 elders, as you might expect (symbolizing God’s people, the 12 tribes), there are 24. Not only does this match up nicely with the context of the Roman world, but I personally believe it alludes to the “other half” of God’s people. We have noted all throughout our study of the New Testament that the dominant issue being dealt with in the early church is the inclusion of the Gentiles. I believe John throws in multiple references of a “doubled” communal number to point out that God’s people includes both Jews and Gentiles. There are 24 elders, there are two olive trees, and there are two lampstands.

This also means John is inferring that the unified body of Christ — Jew and Gentile together — serves as God’s witnesses in the world. They have power beyond what they know — power to bring life or destruction. Their testimony, lived out as a people, will be as powerful as the testimony of Moses and Elijah.

And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

It seems as though their witness and testimony is useless, because they appear to be destroyed — killed and left for dead. Fitting to the context of the original hearers/readers? Absolutely. This is the world they live in; but John is encouraging them to overcome. He says that later, after three and a half days (exactly half of seven — a Jewish and apocalyptic way of saying, “a significant time, but not forever; there is an end”), they are resurrected and taken to God in the clouds. Rather than being a futuristic recipe for rapture, this is another reference to Elijah.

My point is this: it is not reasonable to believe the early readers of Revelation saw this as a futuristic rendering of “things to come,” but instead an obvious play to things past. They realized the message of encouragement John was sending their way.

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
    who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power
    and begun to reign.
The nations raged,
    but your wrath came,
    and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
    and those who fear your name,
    both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

And with that, John brings us back to the Great Games, where the two kingdoms are locked in what seems to be an endless struggle and competition. Who will win? John the Baptist announced to us that the Kingdom of God had arrived. Jesus picked up the same banner, telling us the Kingdom was among us. In fact, John says, we do find ourselves in that era where the two kingdoms coexist. But there is coming a time when those kingdoms will be put to the test and judgment will be rendered.

John says that time has now come. Will God’s people stand sure and persevere? This is the question of John’s apocalyptic letter.

REVELATION: Lukewarm Laodicea

** It should be noted that almost all of my material on Revelation has been influenced directly by the teaching of Ray VanderLaan and the main sources that were mentioned toward the beginning of this series. It is not my intent to claim credit for their incredible work. The original lesson that influenced my teaching here can be seen in VanderLaan's series through Focus on the Family titled "That the World May Know" **

And now we come to our final “letter” in Revelation — the letter to Laodicea. We’ll start with a little bit about the cultural backdrop of Laodicea.

Laodicea sat in between two other cities, Hierapolis and Colossae. Hierapolis was a major attraction because of the natural mineral hot springs that flowed from the cliff face there. The water was renowned for its incredible healing properties (even to this day) and was a great place for people to come for vacation or rest. Colossae, as we’ve seen before, was off the beaten path and not on the main road. It was known for its colossenus, which seems to have been a special red wool people made robes and coats out of, and the city also had a freshwater spring providing a constant source of cool and refreshing water.

The white mineral cliffs of Heirapolis

When the major earthquake of AD 60 hit the area, Rome sent money to rebuild Hierapolis and Laodicea, for obvious reasons. Colossae was not integral to the stability of Rome, so they received no money. Not long after, the city vanished from history. Hierapolis accepted the money and rebuilt their city. Laodicea, however, chose to reject the money and rebuild on their own. There’s no evidence their rejection of assistance was viewed as an insult, but Laodicea also served as one of the major mints/banks for Rome, and in the late first century they printed local coins that bore the phrase: “We did it ourselves.”

If you visit the ruins of Laodicea today, you find the remnants of an ancient arena (from the first century). Seating roughly 60,000 people, the arena served as a regional center for gladiatorial combat. The best of the best gladiators in the world were centered in Laodicea, and people would come from all around to watch them engage in combat. The Roman military even used the location as a training station. As the gladiators created new weapons and became experts in them, the Roman military stationed itself in Laodicea to learn from the experts how to use the new weaponry.

The arena at Laodicea

Because of the large and constant military presence, one of the things the region was known for was the soldier’s demand for a meal. According to Roman law, a soldier could knock on your door at any time and demand a full-course meal. Some of the other cities in the region (like Hierapolis, which had to entertain the soldiers who were on leave) actually wrote to Rome and asked them to loosen the demand on local citizens. Soldiers were always stationed there, and getting a knock on your door was a routine draw on the residents in a way that wasn’t common in other places. While some cities complained, Laodicea never did. Just as their coins said, they were proud to be able to take care of themselves with no assistance from others.

In a similar way to the colossenus wool from Colossae, Laodicea was known for its black wool that was used to make what they called traumata. They also exported a famous eye salve, using mineral mud from Hierapolis and making a medical treatment known to heal blindness. It was also the home of a famous orator name Zeno. He had three children (one son and two daughters) who all ended up marrying royalty from different areas, becoming king/queens.

Finally, the one negative thing Laodicea was known for was its water. There was not a good water source at Laodicea. The hot mineral water of Hierapolis combined with the cold spring water of Colossae to make a lukewarm, somewhat destructive water. Attempting to pipe water in from 35 miles away (which they still do to this day, I’m told), their ancient systems did not work, and they struggled to find good drinking water. There are now remnants of a fountain in Laodicea, which has been replumbed multiple times as the pipes clogged with crusted mineral deposits.

The ruins of the fountain at Laodicea (notice the white mineral deposits)

Now, to read the letter from John:

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

“… you are neither cold nor hot. … because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” I can’t tell you how many youth group lessons I sat through where this passage was used to spur us out of apathy. “Quit living on the fence!” they would say. “Get in or get out! God would rather have you against Him, than have you on the fence.” This well-intentioned lesson could not have missed the point more. The teaching here is clearly pulling on two things that are beneficial and useful. The hot mineral water of Hierapolis brings healing, and the cold spring water of Colossae is refreshing and life-giving. Be something! Be useful! But don’t be useless — some poisonous combination of both that makes you good for nothing.

“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ ” This is a great depiction of the attitude of the ‘we-did-it-ourselves’ Laodiceans.

“I counsel you to by from me gold refined in the fire …” — as opposed to the mint and banking institutions of Laodicea,

“… white clothes to wear …” — a contrast to the black traumata of Laodicea,

“… salve to put on your eyes …” — and a reference to the famous mineral salve they exported.

“I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” John references the practice of local soldiers who would come knocking at the door, demanding a meal. Jesus will come knocking, but he makes no demands; should you choose to open the door, he will dine with you and invite you to sit and dine with him (something you would never do with the soldiers).

“… I will give the right to sit with me on my throne …” Some have suggested this could be a reference to Zeno and his children, who went on to sit on thrones.

And where does the material come from? We could look to Isaiah 55:

“Come, all you who are thirsty,    come to the waters;and you who have no money,    come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milk    without money and without cost.Why spend money on what is not bread,    and your labor on what does not satisfy?”

We could also turn to Isaiah 65:

“Whoever invokes a blessing in the land    will do so by the one true God;whoever takes an oath in the land    will swear by the one true God.For the past troubles will be forgotten    and hidden from my eyes.”

In Hebrew, the phrase “one true God” could also be translated “the God who is amen.” There’s a shared usage in the Septuagint, and the context of Isaiah 65 (even the reference “hidden from my eyes”) will play into the teaching here to the church at Laodicea.

We might even suggest a looser connection with Proverbs 3:

My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline,    and do not resent his rebuke,because the LORD disciplines those he loves,    as a father the son he delights in.

Blessed are those who find wisdom,
    those who gain understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver
    and yields better returns than gold.
She is more precious than rubies;
    nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
    in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are pleasant ways,
    and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;
    those who hold her fast will be blessed.

There would be numerous prophets to give us the following idea, but Hosea 12 might be the clearest in this context:

The merchant uses dishonest scales    and loves to defraud.Ephraim boasts,    “I am very rich; I have become wealthy.With all my wealth they will not find in me    any iniquity or sin.”

And the famous reference of “spitting/vomiting you out of my mouth” is certainly not unique to Revelation and could be pulled straight from Leviticus 18:

“ ‘The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.’ ”

Or Leviticus 20:

“ ‘Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you.’ ”

What I love about the history lesson of Laodicea is that they received a sharp rebuke from God through John in Revelation. I think we often assume (at least I do) that these churches didn’t learn their lesson and were punished. However, the church in Laodicea would end up becoming quite a presence in the world of Asia Minor. Archeologists have recently uncovered a church with a brilliant mosaic referencing Polycarp, John’s first disciple.

May we learn the lessons we need to learn and let the Lord discipline us as a child He loves. May we wake from our slumber and sloth to seize the calling to be useful in God’s Kingdom.

REVELATION: Waking Up in Sardis (part one)

We now turn our attention to the next church that receives one of the letters in Revelation — the church in Sardis. We’ll be using the same hermeneutic for Johannine apocalyptic literature that we studied with the letter to Thyatira. This hermeneutic is built on the idea of John’s simultaneous and two-sided approach to what we’ll call “Text to context.” John takes the Text of the Hebrew scriptures and applies it to the context of the Greco-Roman world of Asia.

Let’s start by pulling apart some of the context. Sardis was an ancient city (founded by the Hittites or earlier) that eventually touted a population of over 100,000 people. Its main economic staples were agriculture, purple dye made from a regional oak tree, and gold mined from the mountains. The city was built around two mountains, which was unique to Sardis, as these ancient cities were almost always built around one mountain known as the acropolis. On the top of the acropolis you would often find the most important buildings and city centers you would want to protect. It was much easier to protect a mountain, forcing your enemy to fight uphill both literally and metaphorically.

The acropolis of Sardis

But Sardis also had what was known as the necropolis, which you might guess by the etymology means “city of the dead.” While other cities would have had a necropolis located just inside or outside the city gates, Sardis had a second mountain — the twin of the acropolis — used for their elevated city of the dead. Whether this led to a fascination with death and the dead, or whether it was a fitting aspect of their surroundings, Sardis was known for its fascination with death and burial. Even as one looks at the horizon around Sardis today, there are hundreds of pyramid mounds that dot the landscape in addition to the necropolis. Each of these mounds represents a tomb of someone very wealthy or noble.

The necropolis, sitting roughly 60 degrees to the right of the acropolis picture

A major theme we have noted before about first-century Rome was the many earthquakes scattered throughout history. There were major earthquakes recorded in AD 17, 19, 21, 24, 29, and 60. The earthquake of 60 rocked Sardis so hard that the acropolis broke into thirds. One third of the mountain fell away to the backside of the city, another third fell forward and buried more than 300 acres of the residential portion of Sardis, and the final third remains standing today.

We should pause here to realize that such a disaster would play a large part in the writings of Revelation. Consider chapter 6:

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

Or Revelation 16:

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.

My point is that these passages are not primarily some cryptic reference to the “end times,” but are a direct play on the immediate context of the readers of Revelation. But as we’ve seen, if we’ve been paying attention, we should also have learned to ask, “Where is this in the Text?” John is getting his material from the Tanakh and applying Text to context.

Look no further than Hosea 10 (and some could even point to others):

Samaria’s king will be destroyed,    swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.The high places of wickedness will be destroyed—    it is the sin of Israel.Thorns and thistles will grow up    and cover their altars.Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”    and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

But there continues to be much more. The city was known as Sard, Sepharad, and Sardis at different points in its history. Once Sardis became the land of the Phrygians and Lydians, many legends arose. The first Lydian king was named Gugu and the Hebrews always referred to him as “Gog”; he was followed by the next king, Magog. Creosus is probably the most famous of kings in Sardis, and there was legend of Creosus’s gold. With all of the gold mined from the hills of Sardis, Creosus must have acquired quite a treasure store; since this treasure was never found, legend has it that Creosus hid his gold somewhere in the mountains, or even in his tomb.

When Cyrus and the Persians arrived, they went to lay siege to the city. Sardis was famous for having what was considered to be an impenetrable acropolis; it would never be defeated by enemy invaders. Cyrus solicited the help of the surrounding peoples to no avail, yet decided to lay siege to the city anyway. Perplexed as to how to defeat the city, Cyrus had stationed his troops at the bottom of the mighty acropolis. One day, as a Persian soldier watched, he saw one of the Lydian soldiers on the wall fall asleep; as his head bobbed, his helmet fell off and down the mountainside. As the astute Persian watched, he saw the soldier appear out of nowhere midway down the mountain, retrieve his helmet, proceed back up the mountain, and disappear. The Persian realized there must be a secret passageway. He was brought to Cyrus, who decided to mount an invasion under the cover of nightfall based on the observation. The secret passageway was found and, according to history, the Persians entered the city to find the Lydians fast asleep. The mighty, invincible Sardis fell.

That story would be impressive enough if it didn’t repeat itself. Later in history when the Seleucids arrived, they were also attempting to take the city when a solider noticed the enemy soldiers throw a dead donkey over the city wall. The vultures gathered and began to pick at the carcass, then fly up to the city wall and perch while they ate. The soldier surmised that section of wall must not be guarded, as the vultures would not perch there in the presence of soldiers. Again under the cover of nightfall, the Seleucids went over that wall and, to the shock of history students, found the residents fast asleep for a second time.

Consider the first half of the letter to Sardis.

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.”

Again we find the context to be perfectly fitting. “A reputation of being alive, but you are dead” — spoken to the city with twin mountains, a juxtaposition of their life and a fascination of death. But even more striking is the call to strengthen their defenses and “wake up” because the thief is upon them.

But of course: Where is John getting his material?

Consider that John’s reference to “come like a thief” (which he uses again later in Revelation) will be lifted straight out of Obadiah.

Wait, what? Obadiah? Why go to Obadiah for material?

Because Obadiah happens to be the only letter in the Bible (outside of Revelation) that mentions Sardis/Sepharad. Look:

People from the Negev will occupy    the mountains of Esau,and people from the foothills will possess    the land of the Philistines.They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,    and Benjamin will possess Gilead.This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan    will possess the land as far as Zarephath;the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad    will possess the towns of the Negev.Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion    to govern the mountains of Esau.    And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

And here is the reference from Obadiah that John is utilizing. Tell me this reference doesn’t perfectly fit the people of Sardis (for more help here, you may want to go back and refresh your memory on the teaching of Obadiah and the context of Petra):

“See, I will make you small among the nations;    you will be utterly despised.The pride of your heart has deceived you,    you who live in the clefts of the rocks    and make your home on the heights,you who say to yourself,    ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’Though you soar like the eagle    and make your nest among the stars,    from there I will bring you down,”declares the Lord.“If thieves came to you,    if robbers in the night—oh, what a disaster awaits you!—    would they not steal only as much as they wanted?If grape pickers came to you,    would they not leave a few grapes?But how Esau will be ransacked,    his hidden treasures pillaged!All your allies will force you to the border;    your friends will deceive and overpower you;those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,    but you will not detect it.”

And we might even turn to Isaiah for some Text to context:

“This is what the Lord says to his anointed,    to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold ofto subdue nations before him    and to strip kings of their armor,to open doors before him    so that gates will not be shut:I will go before you    and will level the mountains;I will break down gates of bronze    and cut through bars of iron.I will give you hidden treasures,    riches stored in secret places,so that you may know that I am the Lord,    the God of Israel, who summons you by name.”

One of the points I’m trying to stress is that Revelation is not primarily a look into the future — it’s a look in the opposite direction. We find ourselves ill-equipped to understand Revelation because we don’t know our Old Testament. Having decided it’s all secondary information, we have rendered our New Testament understanding and theology void of accuracy and power in our ability to interpret and receive John’s message.

But alas, I’m only halfway through the letter to Sardis!