What is your experience of the book of Revelation? Were “the visions in Revelation” read “as a kind of screenplay for the end times” (1)? Have you seen (or made) charts explaining how and when the end will happen? Read Left Behind? Compared current events with the bowls in Revelation? This was Dean Flemmings experience, and, really, it isn’t rare.
Many throughout church history have wondered what to do with this book. Luther wasn’t sure if it should be included in the biblical canon, and it was the only book Calvin didn’t write a commentary on. Even John Wesley, utterly despaired over trying to understand the book. So at least everyone is in good company (2)!
Many (though not all) popular interpretations of Revelation look at what Revelation means to those who live in the future without understanding what it says to us now. Flemming, on the other hand, offers a missional reading of Revelation. His thesis is “to show that Revelation is not about scripting future events but revealing God’s great purpose to redeem and restore the whole creation, including people, through the mission of the slain Lamb. At the same time, Revelation seeks to shape and equip Christian communities to participate in God’s saving purpose by living as a foretaste of God’s coming new creation now, through their lips and through their lives” (3).
What evidence is there to read Revelation “missionally”?
Flemming, who identifies himself as standing in “the theological tribe of the Wesleyan holiness confession within the broader, historical evangelical tradition,” offers three important assumptions for a missional reading of Scripture:
- “God is a missional God” who is “engaged in a loving mission to bring salvation to all people and to restore the whole creation;”
- Scripture bears witness to God’s mission in the world;
- God has called the church to participate in the divine mission, and Scripture seeks to equip God’s people to do so within their specifc life settings.
According to Flemming, before we associate mission with missionaries, mission begins with the Triune God and “God’s massive purpose to bring wholeness and redemption to the entire creation,” which includes people from every nation, and what “God’s people are called to be, do, and say” (6). And John’s visions don’t merely foretell the future; they are meant to shape God’s people and how they live out their witness as God’s people.
A Summary of Foretaste of the Future
Flemming explores Revelation thematically, instead of verse-by-verse.
Chapter 1 we see that Revelation is an apocalypse, a prophecy, and a letter, so each of these parts helps us understand its message. Through symbols, Old Testament imagery, and cultural examples, John challenged believers to see the world differently and live faithfully to the real King. Revelation was written to real churches facing real struggles and still applies to Christians today.
Chapter 2 begins with the throne room scene (Rev 4–5), Revelation is primarily about God, who he is and what he is doing in the world. God, powerful and holy, is neither distant nor uncaring. His mission comes from his love, and his desire is to restore what has been broken, which includes both rescuing people and restoring all of creation.
Chapter 3 brings us to the central figure of God’s mission—Jesus. The church goes out and acts only because Jesus was the Lamb who was killed. His victory came through sacrifice and giving himself in love. Flemming connects the Lamb to the Passover, Isaiah’s suffering servant, and the heavenly throne room and shows that Jesus’ death reveals how God works. Because the Lamb-King will return and restore all things, Christians should reflect his character by serving others with humility and self-sacrificial love.
Chapter 4 focuses on God’s people, a community called to participate in God’s mission. Revelation shows us seven churches who struggled with sin and persecution. Jesus calls his people to repentance, perseverance, holiness, and faithful witness, which is meant to show God’s future new creation now.
Chapter 5 brings us to a Christian’s mission as witness, which includes everything believers do, say, suffer, and endure. Because Jesus is our greatest example of a faithful witness, the church must follow his example. According to Flemming, the two witnesses in Revelation 11 represent believers who remain faithful in the face of opposition. Christian witness may involve suffering, but it also includes standing against injustice, helping the hurting, or endurance through difficult trials.
Chapter 6 tackles the issue of God’s judgment and how that relates to his mission. Although Revelation’s judgment scenes are difficult to understand because they are so violent, they are not the acts of revenge. They show that God defeats evil, brings justice, and restores what has been damaged. These scenes call the world and church to repentance by warning them against following the powers of Babylon and the beast.
Chapter 7 brings up the important task of worship. Revelation begins and ends with worship, which is a correct way of seeing the world according to God’s truth. All of our efforts are done because God is King. Worship keeps our focus on God instead of Babylon’s dead idols.
Chapter 8 mixes religion with politics. Following Jesus affects public life, and Christians must recognize false power and resist it. Revelation challenges systems that demand ultimate loyalty through power, wealth, or control. The images we read of Babylon and the beast represent ways that human societies can oppose God through idolatry and injustice.
Flemming rightly rejects both avoiding public issues completely and supporting political movements without careful thought. Christians ought to live according to the values of Christ’s kingdom instead.
Chapter 9 brings us to the New Jerusalem, which represents God’s plan to restore, not escape from, creation. God’s presence comes to earth, the nations are healed, the curse removed, and creation restored. According to Flemming, the church should demonstrate the values of God’s kingdom through reconciliation, justice, healing, and faithful community. The nations are not destroyed but healed and gathered together before God’s face.
Chapter 10 summarizes Flemming’s overall argument that Revelation should be read in light of God’s ultimate missional purpose: making all things new and healing the nations. Because believers know how the story ends, we should live differently in the present. Instead of trying to decode future events, we should read Revelation as disciples seeking how to be faithful.
The Chocolate Milk
Flemmings emphasis that Revelation is not primarily a timetable for future events is, I think, quite right. One can still have a future-oriented reading while still agreeing with much of what Flemming says. However, I think he is correct that John was giving a theological vision of God’s mission, the Lamb’s mission, and the church’s mission.
Because of this, his thematic arrangement helps us to see how mission actually pervades Revelation. For a book like this, this helps us to see Flemming’s thesis much more clearly than if he took a verse-by-verse approach. Many would likely end up losing the forest for the trees. Along these lines, Flemming neither reads Revelation on its own separated from the canon of Scripture nor within a certain movement like Revelation Within Judaism. Here it is placed within the wide canon of Scripture from an evangelical stance. Flemming places his work within global Christianity rather than only the Western church or academia, leading to some critiques, some helpful, some not, of the Western world.
The Spoiled Milks
While the emphasis upon mission as a theme in Revelation, it cannot be the controlling theme. Revelation begins with “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1), “the story of the Lamb who was slain to redeem people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to serve him as a kingdom people and as priests in the world (Rev 1:5–6; 5:9-10)” (210). But how for does this mission go? Are all restored? It seems to be that Flemming holds out the possibility for such an idea (pp. 199–200), but it is difficult to know for sure.
Even a text like Revelation 20:15 seems to be read symbolically. Rather than interpreting “anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” literally, it as an image of God’s judgment used to bring repentance to all. As Flemming writes, “Judgment in Revelation, then, represents not the revenge of an angry God against sinners but the passionate pursuit of a just God who seeks repentance, worship, and wholeness for people from every nation” (pp. 135–136).
Recommended?
Flemming writes for “preachers and teachers, students, and laypeople who desire to read the Bible more faithfully” (12). Employing the missional perspective is a helpful angle on interpreting Revelation, because it is a theme that is easily forgotten in the midst of the book’s dramatic scenes. While I disagree that it is is the primary theme/message, this is a helpful resource that focuses our attention on the God who saves through the Lamb-King as illustrated through his new creational people.
Buy it on Amazon or from IVP Academic
Lagniappe
- Author: Dean Flemming
- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: IVP Academic (August 2022)
Disclosure: I received this book free from IVP Academic. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html.
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