Scot McKnight is on the podcast! His new release Revelation for the Rest of Us hit home for me. Turns out, Scot and I grew up in church communities that were teaching similar things about this mysterious book. The “literal” interpretations of Revelation often led to great (and scary!) speculations about what the end of the world might look like. Scot challenges that the text found at the end of our Bibles requires an entirely different kind of reading than the one that inspired films and book series predicting violent martyrdom and leaders who could be named the antichrist around every global election. How should we read Revelation? What did the original hearers and readers understand about John’s message? Tune in to this conversation to hear a helpful perspective.
Mentioned in this episode:
Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple by Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett
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I was raised in a denomination that was A-millennial. During high school I briefly veered into Dispensationalism and then in Bible college, I returned to A-millennialism. We were taught that Revelation was not to be interpreted literally and that the Millennium was NOT the point of the book. From that point on, I never believed in The Rapture or any kind of Rapture theory. I recently read something, I can’t remember, where, but the author said our true Rapture is the delight here and now of knowing God and being caught up in His Kingdom. I certainly agree with Scot’s view that the USA is just as likely a Babylon to be rejected as anywhere else. Having spent some time looking at Roman ruins in the Holy Land and learning about the culture, it’s easy to see why the culture and society was so offensive to the Jews. Yet too many American Evangelicals lack that same spiritual sensitivity.