The first emotional response to reading the book of Revelation is likely to be fear, more than anything else. As it happens, Revelation is discussing the end of the world as well as how God will unleash the final judgment upon the world. To make matters worse, there have been plenty of authors and scholars, even some schools of interpretation, persuading the general public to see such fear as something rational and justifiable.
Michael Gorman’s Reading Revelation Responsibly is an excellent treatment of what went awry in many Americans’ reading of Revelation in light of its national history and socio-political context, as well as of Gorman’s own proposal to amending such misdirected reading, given whether such proposal is apropos of the matter at hand is a different issue. Furthermore, one of the great strengths of this book is that Gorman makes a strong case that the American civil religion, i.e., a subtle yet inextricable union between American nationalism and Christian church, might be the primary culprit of reading Revelation in such a wrongheaded way. (I think this is Gorman’s gift to American readers reading Revelation.) In this review, I will trace out Gorman’s insights into how Revelation has turned out to be a book of fear, how we might rescue ourselves out of such fear, and how American civil religion is working to promote such fear.
There are a number of imageries provoking people to fear. Dragon. Harlot. Beast. Two witnessed killed. Judgment through Seals and Trumpets and Bowls. Many seemingly gory descriptions of what will happen in God’s final judgment. No wonder all these will make us dread of God’s judgment, unless we are provided with an interpretive guideline regarding its genres, namely, that Revelation is an epistle, an apocalyptic book, and a prophetic book. Who would not tremble with fear in the face of all these horrid stories and imageries? However, unlike our gut response, the author of Revelation had written the book in order to encourage his primary audience, so that they could hold on to the gospel message. If so, there is a great cognitive dissonance between our response and theirs, which means that we have not grasped the intent for which the book was written. I am giving an example by examining one of our fears associated with numbers in Revelation. One could almost immediately think of the number 666. In Revelation 13, John says the following.
This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Rev. 13:18)
The context of Revelation 13 is a description of what the beast from the land. What has made many a modern audience become fearful of is not only the number 666, but also what are in the previous two verses.
“Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.” (Rev. 13:16-17)
These two verses were speedily widespread alongside the rumor saying that the world government will be established, engraving on everyone’s skin what’s called VeriChip as a substitute for personal ID and preventing anyone without it from buying or selling things. That there are tons of news report coming up as a result of googling VeriChip is directly reflective of how grave people’s fear has been in regard to reading Revelation in light of the news about VeriChip. However, Gorman makes sure that such fear is groundless, not based on a correct interpretation of Revelation. First off, the meaning of the number 666 in context has to be highlighted. Above all, getting the mark of the beast on the forehead is perfectly analogical to the Shema text in Deuteronomy 6:4-6, which says the following.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (Deuteronomy 6:4-8)
In other words, getting the mark of the beast does not mean at all getting certain external marked with VeriChip or something similar, but it refers to a state of the human heart refusing to listen to and obey God’s Word. Secondly, Gorman explains that in order for us to understand the meaning of 666 we have to first know of the ancient letter-number transliteration system called Gematria. To speak straightforward, it seems to be general scholarly consensus that 666 points to the Emperor Nero, which Gorman seconds. Why is this? Nero’s greek name, neron kaisar, is to be transliterated into NRWN QSR, each of which letter has a numeric value. If we add them all up, it amounts to 666. (N=50, R=200, W=6, N=50, Q=100, S=60, R=200). Thus, calling the meaning of 666 to be something else other than what John meant to convey here is tantamount to distorting John’s intent here. According to Gorman, this particular text could be extended into referring to any individual or institution demanding exclusive allegiance to it.
Therefore, as I will get into detail below, one of the ways to understand this text is a evangelical rebuttal against any type of nationalism (demanding exclusive allegiance to a particular nation and its agenda). In spite of such application, Gorman shows that many readers have turned the ancient Gematria into modern use, transliterating quite a few political leaders’ names into 666 (e.g. Hiter, if a=100, b=101, c=102, and etc, also Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagon, Bill Clinton, and others) Therefore, many have read this particular text to see the aforementioned political leaders as Anti-Christs, which in turn evoked fear of God’s judgment in people. Even so, calling someone anti-Christs cannot be farther than John’s original intention, and we have to avoid paying our wholehearted allegiance to any political system or individual. (Looking at this in Korean context, can one be called paranoid in being reminded of the recent unconditional support of some conservative Christian groups for the scandal-tinged president Park?)
If so, the next question is, how do we understand God’s judgment, the main cause of people’s fear in the book of Revelation? Gorman devotes a whole chapter to responding to this question, and his contention is that ultimately speaking what we need is for the church community to be deeply in touch with her vocation from God and live according to such vocation. Concretely speaking, the following four are the primary interpretive principles of understanding God’s judgment, which Gorman seems to believe that if people follow these four guidelines, they will not fall into irrational fear of judgment.
- Revelation’s visions of judgment do not ultimately conflict with the central and centering vision of God and the Lamb in chapters 4 and 5 à This means that everything in Revelation has to be understood in light of the bloody sacrifices of Christ and his proclamation of God’s Kingdom. In particular, Gorman points out that the seemingly gory image in chapter 19 actually began with the one riding on a white horse was already blood-ridden even before the war began in 19:13, “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.” Gorman reads this verse to mean that Christ’s battle is not violent at all, but grounded on his work on the cross, for which the sword he was using is the Word coming out of his mouth in verse 15.
- Revelation’s visions of judgment on evil symbolizes God’s pen-ultimate(next-to-last) rather than ultimate(final) activity in human history. à I agree with this in part. Also, I am in agreement with Gorman’s expression of the human sin and God’s judgment as the two sides of the same coin. While such a perspective on God’s judgment smoothens the violent imageries in God’s judgment to be more suitable to the modern taste, it cannot completely tame it to modern mind, just as the massacre of Canaanites in the book of Joshua does not resort quite well with who God is as we know Godself even now. I am a bit pessimistic on the effect of such smoothening, ultimately speaking.
- Revelation’s visions of judgment on evil should be understood as symbols, rather than depictions, of divine activity. à My comments on #2 are my response to this, again.
- Revelation’s visions of judgments are not intended primarily for “Babylon,” but for the church. à This is to say that the stories of God’s judgment in Revelation is for the church to read and respond, rather than the world to read and fear. Again, this is not to say that the church is completely harm-free from outside persecution. For example, the two witnesses in chapter 12 were killed by the beast thrown down to earth, after which they were resurrected with an interval of three and a half days. God’s preserving of God’s saints will proceed like this, never completely keeping God’s people from physical persecution, to which I agree with Gorman’s interpretation.
In addition, I would dare to say that Gorman might agree with me, in claiming that Revelation’s comforting God’s people does not guarantee persecution-free environment for them. Rather, Revelation’s way of encouraging and comforting God’s people is to help them to focus their minds on God’s promise of final victory, rather than on what is presently taking place. Seen in this light, nothing much in terms of what might happen has changed. All God’s people will have to go through tribulations and suffering without much physical protection. Even so, they will be able to hold onto God’s promise in the midst of fierce pain and suffering, fixing their eyes on Jesus rather than anything else, which is the substance of what God’s judgment is all about in Revelation. In this light, no reading of Revelation pushing people to fear God’s judgment should be encouraged, let alone what is so common in book series like Left Behind.
Last but not the least, Gorman’s strength in reading Revelation is his highlighting of American civil religious tradition. As has been mentioned earlier, Revelation warns of nationalism. In case of America, however, Gorman says that telling true faith from nationalistic fervor is easier said than done, for the nation has had a significant overlap with the growth of Christianity in it. Gorman exemplifies the following.
-saying that war is “mission”
-expressing military work as sacred duty or honor
-phrases such as God bless America
-National Prayer Day
-A subtle accordance between Patriotism and Faithfulness to God (appealing to the founding fathers and other “heroes” of nation)
-understanding America’s “mission” to be working for world peace (not just itself, but employing Christian terms to promote such “mission”)
-Terms referring to God’s people in the Bible as applicable to America (e.g. light of the world, a city on a hill)
If one is given to thought that America is a vehicle through which God fulfills his purpose, then America and Americans become an exception to God’s judgment, resulting in demonizing whatever else groups and nations other than America. In other words, when we consider America a nation for God, then any love for America as a nation might be identified with the love of God, which is precisely what had happened to Israelites worshipping the golden calf, confusing their own image of god with the real God of Israel. Gorman is pinpointing on this, and he is right on it. Doubtless Gorman did not develop his arguments so much as to make this his primary contention, but it is very feasible to come up with the intimate relationship between nationalism, fear, and God’s judgment this way. I apologize for this review to arrive so late, and I am moving to a new series on Justification by Faith.
