Blood Moons, Babylonian Whores, and Reading Revelation Rightly

Last updated on: September 1, 2017 at 1:36 pm by Brandon D. Smith

Blood Moons, Babylonian Whores, and Reading Revelation Rightly 2017-09-01T13:36:18-05:00 Brandon D. Smith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I recently wrote a piece for First Things on how we view Revelation in light of current events and our broader understanding of the biblical narrative. Here’s a snippet:

The Book of Revelation contains vivid imagery, wild analogies, and rhetoric rife with end-times judgment. John’s enigmatic vision has tempted many people to treat Revelation as a code to break, and to look around the world for “signs of the apocalypse.” We wonder whether Black Hawk helicopters are locusts, rare eclipses over China are the infamous “blood moons,” Catholic popes are Babylonian whores, and Barack Obama or Donald Trump is the Antichrist (depending on your political convictions). When we do this, we assume that Revelation was written solely to us and applies directly to our situation. That assumption is problematic, to say the least. But most importantly, any fearful chart-making and number-decoding distorts the point of the Book of Revelation—distorts the fact that it is a hopeful document, not a dire one.

Read the rest of the article over at First Things.

—

Stay in touch! Email me at [email protected] or connect with me on Academia.edu.

Biblical Interpretation

Biblical Interpretation

Previous Post

August 14, 2017

Jesus, Jonah, and Doubting God

Next Post

August 28, 2017 Why Did the Book of Revelation Outlast Other Early Christian Apocalypses?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academics Apologetics Baptists Biblical Interpretation Biblical Studies Blog News Books Christian Life Church History Culture Ecclesiology Eschatology Gospel Interviews New Creation News Politics Science Scripture Sexual Sin Social Media Spiritual Discipline The Smorgasbord Theology Trinity Word Matters Podcast

Select a Month September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the youngest king of Judah?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Hezekiah Asa Josiah Jehoshaphat

Books by This Author Books by Brandon D. Smith

See All Titles »