The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn

Author:Scott Hahn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780385504805
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2002-06-17T16:00:00+00:00

THREE

Apocalypse Then!

THE BATTLES OF REVELATION AND THE ULTIMATE WEAPON

THE FINAL CONFLAGRATION. The Battle of Armageddon. Revelation's most sensational publicity, over the last generations, has come from its images of combat. For its war is not just any war, but the ultimate war, and it is terrible indeed: “demonic spirits . . . go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle” (Rev 16:14). John describes a world war that is simultaneously an otherworldly war: “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon” (12:7). Angels pour out the chalices of God's wrath, and strong armies retreat in fear. Casualty counts run high, and the tribulations extend even to God's people. Darkness seems to have its day.

Futurists such as Hal Lindsey have claimed that these details correspond literally to a battle that the world is fast approaching at the turn of the millennium. In a similar vein, some Catholic futurists discern a unity of witness in the vision of John, the predictions of Fatima, and events in the news today.

I do not rule out the futurist interpretations of Revelation's battles. Perhaps all of the apocalyptic details will play themselves out, in one way or another, when God brings on the close of this age. Yet I do not believe that the futurist reading should be our primary focus when we read the Book of Revelation. The predictions, after all, may be of urgent concern to those who are living at the time of the final battle. But this we can never know for sure. Generations of futurists have gone before us, and died, wasting precious years on obsessive worries that Napoleon, Hitler, or Stalin was, at last, the beast foretold.

Beastly rulers come and go; futurist scenarios arise and dissipate like smoke rings, as last year's future fades into history. Revelation's other “senses,” however, remain with us, with a constant urgency, a personal call.

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