Power and Purpose

The Book of Revelation for Today

Lackey

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498289177
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The book of Revelation is confusing to read. Images of beasts, trumpets, plagues, and even dragons fill its pages. In his book, Power and Purpose, Russ Lackey guides readers on an adventure through the harrowing pages of Revelation in a clear and accessible way. Along the journey, issues such as economic and political injustice, ecology, evangelism, and synthesizing faith with everyday life are raised with the hope of Christ woven throughout. The main question of the book is not how does a person escape this world, rather, who is the Lord of this world? Christians who pick up Revelation with this question in mind do not try to escape society, rather, they work to reform it. Doing this they discover that true power and purpose comes from Christ, the Lamb who was slain. This is a must read for anyone desiring to better understand the book of Revelation.

Cycle 4

Allegiance

Revelation 12–13

The Battle Rages

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. (Rev 12:10)

The old hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” is built on the assumption that we are in a war. This might seem strange to hear. It’s distasteful to some today that this once-beloved hymn has been eliminated from many hymnals. So many of us rightfully have been taught that the heart of Christianity is love: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). War seems to be the opposite of love. It is not, however much it seems like it is. As a result, Christians do not really know how to handle military language. We wonder if hymns like this one or “Lift High the Cross” are appropriate for worship. Many preachers even steer clear of battle language.

In some ways, the shift away from military language is good. In the past, military imagery has been used to advance vicious political and national ideologies. However, military metaphors can be useful in understanding faith. Theologian Sarah Hinlicky Wilson explains, “Faith means war—not against the frail bodies of our brothers and sisters made in the image of God but against the sin within and the powers without.”72 Military language assumes a battle. There are clashes in this world that must be fought: class struggle, human trafficking, addiction, exploitation of the poor, and many more. Think of those caught up in the sex trade. They are prisoners of war and need liberation from their captors. Even Jesus used that same military language in his very first sermon when he promised to “liberate the captives and the oppressed” (Luke 3:18).

A great battle occurs between God and the devil in the second half of Revelation. In the war, the major warriors for evil include the beast, the false prophet, the harlot, and many hideous creatures. In such a battle, the temptation is to stay on the sideline and be a spectator like the crowds who traveled out of Washington to observe the carnage from a Virginia hill looking over the First Battle of Bull Run in the American Civil War. Revelation will not let us do that. Everyone must choose a side. The good news is that God wins this battle. The difficult news is that we have been drafted to fight.

The Accuser is Cast Out

Revelation 12 begins with eyes directed to the sky. John sees a woman clothed with the sun and moon, wearing a crown of twelve stars. This majestic woman is pregnant with a child who is to rule the nations (see Ps 2:9). The child is Jesus. Though his birth should be celebrated, it is not, for danger looms as a great dragon is seeking to devour him. You can tell the dragon’s intention of claiming authority by the seven diadems he wears. It wants to be seen as the ruler of all and thus wears the diadems.73 Standing in its way is the child.

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. (Rev 12:1–6)

The dragon waits with anticipation to devour Jesus (Rev 12:4). Thankfully, once Jesus is born, God intervenes and takes him to heaven (Rev 12:5). In the split-second interval between his birth and rescue in this picture, the book of Revelation compresses the entire life and ministry of Jesus: birth, ministry, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension.74 What is important is not how Revelation tells history, but rather the immediate consequence of Jesus’ birth. Instead of Christmas carols being sung and the happy exchange of gifts, a great war spreads across the heavens.75

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...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Cycle One: Life
• Cycle Two: Worthiness
• Cycle Three: Evangelism
• Cycle Four: Allegiance
• Cycle Five: Slavery
• Cycle Six: Newness
• Afterword
• Bibliography