Danny Taylor: Skinny Guy Thinking it Through

In the book of Revelation, things happen in a sequence of seven: seven letters written to seven churches, seven seals on the scroll, seven trumpets of judgment and later, seven bowls of God’s wrath.  Chapters 12-15 show another sequence of seven.  There are seven “visions” each introduced by either “and behold” (12.1), “and I saw” (13.1; 13.11; 14.6; 15.2), or both (14.1; 14.14).  The “visions” John sees are bizarre and make you scratch your head and say, “What in the name of everything good and holy is going on here?”  I would like to focus on the images of chapter 12 in particular, and it might be helpful to see the visions like a political cartoon. Below is a political cartoon that was circulated—I’m assuming—somewhere near the beginning of the United States’ involvement in World War II (I have made several unsuccessful attempts at identifying the artist and publication; if you could help out, I would greatly appreciate it!). It doesn’t take long to ...

The end of chapter 11 and the beginning of chapter 12 mark the unofficial halfway point in the book of Revelation, and so I thought I would take a brief intermission before continuing. When you have been studying trees for so long, sometimes it is helpful to step back and remember to look at the forest.   So as we step back and look upon the book of Revelation up until this point, you notice very quickly that events happen in a sequence of “sevens.”  There are seven letters written to seven churches, each letter with appropriate words of warning and encouragement (chs. 2-3).  Jesus takes a scroll containing God’s divine plan of redemption and judgment, breaking its seven seals (chs. 4-8.5).  Seven trumpets blow, announcing God’s judgment on the earth (8.6-11.19), and later in the book, seven angels will pour out seven bowls of God’s wrath (ch. 16). In chapters 12-15, there is another sequence of “Seven”, although the sequence is not as easily identified as ...

A lot of mimicking happens in the book of Revelation, some of it good and some of it bad.  This is true in life, where some forms of copying are good and some are not.  “Plagiarism” is a dirty word, and for good reason.  Taking something that someone else wrote and pretending that you wrote it is a form of stealing; an attempt to trick people into thinking you did work when you actually didn’t.  There is also something devious about an “impostor,” someone pretending to be another person.  It is an attempt to trick people into thinking you are somebody you actually aren’t.   Those are negative forms of mimicking , and later in Revelation, dragons and beasts mimic God in ways that deceive others.  The devil is portrayed as an impostor, tricking followers into thinking he is divine and worthy of worship.  However, in Revelation 10-11,  more positive forms of mimicking take place. My wife is a wonderful woman in every possible way....

In order to get a clearer picture of John’s Apocalypse, you have to read Revelation in one hand and the Old Testament in your other hand.  So many of the symbolic images and pictures are directly derived from Old Testament passages that to ignore it is to set yourself up for misunderstanding and confusion.  One of the more overlooked texts John uses is Exodus.   In some sense, the Trumpet judgments of Revelation 8 and 9 are God’s way of answering the prayers of the saints offered up in 8.1, when God silenced heaven for half an hour so that he could hear their concerns, namely, “How long until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”  He has, indeed, heard their cries and begins the process of answering them, in the same way he heard the Israelites’ cries from Egypt in Exodus 3.7-8: The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.  I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned a...