Is the modern series a good guide to Revelation? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
“I wonder what I will write about for the blog.”
Then my mother calls.
“I’m going to be attending a series at my church on the book of Revelation and the pastor wants us to discuss if the Left Behind novels are a good guide to the book. What do you think?”
I think I know what I’m writing about.
You know my eschatology here. I am an orthodox Preterist. (The link uses an older title as I call myself an orthodox Preterist, but the meaning still stands.) That being said, I would hope even most premillennials and dispensationalists in general would ditch Left Behind, and considering how many years it has been since I have heard about it, that could be happening.
You know how many video games, movies, and TV shows are being done now for “modern audiences”? (Yes. I watch the Critical Drinker. How could you tell?) They’re an imaginary group of people that don’t buy anything but all businesses are rushing to please. I am not at all saying Left Behind is woke as it clearly is not, but it does come with the idea that the book of Revelation was written for modern audiences.
This is something I find puzzling. If this crowd assumes we are not going to be here for the events of the book, why are they written? To satisfy curiosity? For those who are left behind? Do they have any relevance up until that time?
It is my contention that the book largely describes first-century events but does so in apocalyptic language. This language used cosmic imagery in order to depict political happenings in the world. I will use a few examples to show how this works. Consider this from 2 Samuel 22 where David describes being caught in a situation where death was certain.
7 In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry came to his ears.8 Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations of the heavens trembled
and reeled because he was angry.
9 Smoke went up from his nostrils
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
10 He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
11 He rode on a cherub and flew;
he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness around him a canopy,
thick clouds, a gathering of water.
13 Out of the brightness before him
coals of fire flamed forth.
14 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the Most High uttered his voice.
15 He sent out arrows and scattered them,
lightning and routed them.
16 Then the channels of the sea were seen;
the foundations of the world were laid bare
at the rebuke of the Lord,
at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
Wow! What an amazing event! David needed help and YHWH Himself came down from Heaven riding on the backs of Gabriel and Michael and began shooting arrows and the whole foundations of the world were laid bare when YHWH blew His nose.
Bet you don’t remember that incident in the life of David!
Of course you don’t, because it didn’t happen that way. David is using poetic license definitely. YHWH never literally did this nor does David think He did or expect you to think He did.
Or look at Luke 3 talking about the ministry of John the Baptist:
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
Where my parents live in Tennessee, mountains are within range easily. You can see them. I guess this Scripture hasn’t been fulfilled. Even in Luke, we know about the Mount of Transfiguration and the Mount of Olives. Did this not happen?
Or is this apocalyptic imagery?
It certainly is, and this is the kind of language all throughout Revelation. If you read it in a literal sense, you miss what the author is truly trying to tell us. Let us consider a passage like Revelation 12 with a giant multi-headed dragon sweeping stars from the sky.
Now literally, if there was a dragon that big, considering stars are light-years away, this is going to be one mammoth dragon and if one of those hits us, game over. Or, you could consider it as a telling of the Christmas story. Jesus is born and the devil tries to kill Him immediately through the actions of Herod.
One fact about Revelation is that it assumes you have a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament. Go look through and see how many times the Old Testament is quoted. Hardly ever. Go look and see how many allusions you find and they’re everywhere. From the description of Jesus in Revelation 1, to the temple and heavenly city at the end of the book. All of this assumes you will be familiar with the Old Testament. Too many modern readers are not.
Next, it makes the text be all about us. The Scriptures include plenty about us, to be sure, but the text is all about God revealed in Christ. Our tendency is to think that we are that generation, which has not been thought by any generation in history. Well, unless you count all of them.
We also spend way too much time speculating on who the “Antichrist” is. (By the way, the word antichrist doesn’t show up once in Revelation.) It would be far better for us if we spent more time focusing on who the Christ is. I actually encourage people to read Revelation whatever your perspective and ignore eschatology except for in one area and read the book to address this. “Who does this book say Jesus is?”
I am thankful that more and more, I encounter less and less of this kind of mindset. I tried going through the Left Behind books, but I just couldn’t. I was listening on audio and I stopped at the end of one book and never really cared to get into the rest of it. It’s not even because it was bad eschatology. I have enjoyed several books where I disagreed with the worldview behind them. The books are just boring as literature and not worth reading.
Leave behind Left Behind.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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