Poimen Ponderings

End of Days.  The Last Days.  Apocalypse.  Armageddon.  Revelation. Tribulation.  There are many words associated apocalyptic literature.  We have been to the seminars, we’ve heard countless sermons and teachings, there is a whole genre of movies, music, art, and books created on this idea that the world is coming to an end.  Has the Church missed the point of God’s rhetoric that graphically displays God’s wrath upon the earth?  What was the purpose of “The Late Great Planet Earth” book, “The Left Behind” books, and the “Thief in the Night” movie?   They were created to propagate a sense of fear among non-believers to scare them into Church.  Was this God’s intention when he inspired the author to pen the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ (the Book of Revelation)? 

Jumping into the time machine I keep in my basement (next to my cellulite desinagrator), lets flashback to 100AD – what did the early church and Jews think of these writings?  Could it be that these writers were merely describing what they felt was happening to them as they were trying to get a handle on life.  You know, attempting to put meaning to big picture events.

Was this rhetoric a function of God’s to persuade people to change to avoid cataclysmic events or to foretell about these events as warnings? Perhaps a little of both, but neither as the primary purpose. The foremost reason for apocalyptical literature is to encourage the believer of God’s promised Paradise.

Since not all apocalyptic literature is about doom, I would first want to identify the common overarching message.   To me, that message would not be gloom and doom, but of glory and peace.  The very point of the book of Revelation is to see the glory and power of Jesus Christ, His worthiness and sovereignty over all things in the universe.  Illustrations from Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel portray the Day of the Lord as being something to be feared and something to look forward too.  This literature is typically both a warning of God’s judgment, but even more, a promise of God coming kingdom of harmony.

I don’t put apocalyptic literature into the prophesy genre because the functionality of prophecy was not to tell the future, but to change the hearts of people.  I would be more willing to put apocalyptic rhetoric within the context of mysticism.