This past week a heckler was escorted from a speech by President Obama for calling the President ‘the Antichrist’. If you want to read about it or watch the video, here are some links.
I find this story very interesting for four reasons:
First, I passionately believe that the Book of Revelation was a spiritual-political commentary on the Roman Empire of the first two centuries. It was written in a Jewish style of literature called Apocalyptic. I do not think it is about our day nor is it about the end of the world. It is an inspired (and thus scripture) movement of prophetic imagination to call for (in hope) a preferable future.
but that is not how I was taught to read the Bible. I was taught to read it in one hand with a newspaper in the other (as they say). I was told that we could see events (like the Bear from the East) being fulfilled in the Soviet Union or Israel. I no longer believe this but am fascinated by those who still do.
Second, there is no such thing as the Antichrist. Now, scripture does speak about an antichrist spirit – it is all in the books of 1 and 2 John of the Bible and there are 4 references – none of them are what get thrown around these days. The idea of THE Antichrist is actually a horrible amalgamation of nearly every bad-guy in the Bible mashed into one. We take the Man of Lawlessness (from Thessalonians), the Prince (from Daniel) and a whole bunch of other baddies from the Old and New Testament and transform them into one galactically bad figured called THE Antichrist. In reality, there is no such thing.
Third, if there was such a cosmic bad-guy, do you think that you could just pay $250 dollars for entrance to a fundraiser and yell at him because he let gays into the military? Don’t you think that he would destroy you with like… I don’t know… beams of hell-fire from his eyes or something. You can’t just yell at the Antichrist and get away with it. What are you thinking?
Fourth, if this were the “End Times” and Obama was the Antichrist, then what would be the mark of the Beast? (referenced in Revelation 13:16) Ask yourself: what global system in place today requires you to submit and be qualified in order to participate (buy or sell) in the economy?
The answer: capitalism. If this is the “end times” that we live in, then capitalism is the that mark of the beast that you must submit to – which explains how a loaf of bread could end up costing a bag of gold. Yet, I don’t hear any of the Left-Behind style dispensational End Times Christians coming out against capitalism. Weird… it’s almost like we are reading our Bible through a cultural lens that is not very consistent…
So in the end, I’ll restate that the Book of Revelation was a spiritual-political commentary on the Roman Empire of the first two centuries. It was written in a Jewish style of literature called Apocalyptic that we are not too familiar with these days – which leads to a lot of misunderstanding. I do not think that it is about either our day nor is it about the end of the world. I think that more Christians should say this out loud so that it is clear – not all Christians think that way. 
Bo Sanders: Public Theology 
September 30, 2011 at 9:27 pm
herein is the problem. just about any Tom Dick and Jane could read the Bible, say, “aha ! I have a revelation from the Holy Spirit, hallelujah!”, write a book, title it with shocking, intriguing titles like “Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth”, or “Left Behind”, maybe even make movies, sell millions, make loads of dollars, and propagate a silly theology to a broad base of equally silly Christians who know better than to believe every word out of the corrupt mouths of fallen men, who have never walked with Jesus Himself, nor have any background and understanding of Jewish apocalyptic (which I know nothing of, either), instead of relying on the Holy Spirit and good old fashioned research.
No wonder lots of theologies and soteriologies and end-times doctrines are floating around out there, banging on each other, and mashing God’s peoples in-between to confused pulps.
As far as I’m concerned, I know I am a child of God, because the Spirit beareth witness with my spirit (words written to a Gentile church and therefore need no Jewish idiosyncrasy lessons), and that He wrote my name in the Lamb’s Book of Life from the foundation of the world, along with multitudes upon multitudes of other names of His people from all nations, tongues, and kindred, and so when it comes to the end-times, I am a Pan-ist.
Everything will pan out fine according to His plan.
I rest.
October 10, 2011 at 1:48 am
I have a question about your first point, in which you say “I passionately believe that the Book of Revelation was a spiritual-political commentary on the Roman Empire of the first two centuries………I do not think it is about our day nor is it about the end of the world.” By this belief, do you also believe that the book of revelation can also be disregarded by people of today?
October 10, 2011 at 2:11 am
You have asked the best question! and the one that I was HOPING that someone would ask 😉
The quick answer is NO. I do not thing that the book of Revelation is irrelevant or anything like that.
The book of Rev is not about our world today – but it is does show us HOW to relate to our world today.
It is a model. as it related to the 1st century world = we should relate to our to our world.
So it took a prophetic stance against the domination and injustice of its day. We should creatively do that in our day. It was imaginative in its critique of Empire… we should use that imaginative impulse for a similar critique. It used a familiar genre (apocalyptic) in it’s day, we should use genres that are familiar to us to do the same.
NOW in order to do this – we will have to KNOW about that world and that day.. so that we can see HOW the Book of Revelation related. Then we can use it as a template-inspiration-permission. that’s my 2 cents, what do you think?
October 10, 2011 at 8:32 am
I am most interested and fascinated by your fourth point, and follow up comment. This should be the focus of your posts rather than the lead up points. I did laugh at your third point, thought that was valid and funny. 🙂 But back to your fourth point, this is the most insightful and dynamic interpretation I’ve seen yet of Revelations. Could you expand on that? This could really fit in well with Anabaptist/Quaker/Mennonite Theology I think, and could go a long way into changing the ideas of those who don’t question the economic system of our day. Keep at it!
October 11, 2011 at 4:17 am
I am hesitant to think that the book of revelation was nothing more than a commentary; However I am open to the idea. Standing where I am now Revelation is not something that would be in a “regular-reading” schedule for me and my bible. I do like your idea of researching more into the day of John to be able to have a greater insight of connections between the past and today. However, I do believe that there will be something of an “end-times” how that comes to be I absolutely cannot say, but I do believe it will happen.
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On a side note I have to say that I love reading your articles because they are so thought provoking. I love being presented with ideas that are difficult to digest or at least make me think. So thank you very much for your insight and putting your ideas out there. It is much appreciated!
October 11, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Ean – first of all, thanks for the encouragement and feedback. I am really grateful for you joining in the conversation.
second, most people that i know would not say what I do about the book of Revelation.They would say either ‘it is silly and scary and of no value’ or they would say that it was revelatory (telling us how it will be). Now, everyone agrees that it was a political commentary, the distinction would be if it is ONLY a political commentary.
Third, I am writing about this again on Thursday… as I have gotten so much feedback on this article. It’s funny because I use to talk about this all the time – but the time is right to revisit it I guess.
Last, I will say in Thursday’s post that our hope for the future does not come from the prophecies of Revelation but from the Resurrection. It is here that I look to Wolfhart Pannenberg’s “Theology and the Kingdom of God”