The Bible and the book of Revelation are worlds unto themselves. Filled with interactions and relationships, with dialogue and argument. Rather than trying to apply Scripture to our “world,” we do well to recognize that our “world” is wrapped up in the world that is Scripture.
Revelation is strange and often scary. It is often taught as a handbook on how to escape this world with all its brokenness and failure. But it is quite the opposite. Instead, it teaches us something much more hopeful. (St.) Eugene Peterson says,
There is not so much as a hint of escapism in St. John’s heaven. This is not a long (eternal) weekend away from the responsibilities of employment and citizenship, but the intensification and healing of them.
We enter heaven not by escaping what we don’t like, but by the sanctification of the place in which God has placed us.
Temple, light, nation, and tree: In the midst of Revelation’s excess of images and metaphors, a picture emerges of how God is at work in our world, in the present, in our hearts, and in the world.
Some of the ideas around the Temple can be found in this Bible Project Video.
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