I think I found the United States in the book of Revelation
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These days, everyone seems to want to find how the book of Revelation lines up with what’s going on right now. And there seems to be a special interest in the role the United States plays in the End Times. After a lot of searching, study, and prayer, I believe I’ve found what everyone has been looking for.
Some context…
I was a freshman in high school when our Sunday School class asked our leaders if we could study the book of Revelation.* We were told ahead of time that studying Revelation was going to require a lot of background study of Old Testament books like Daniel and Ezekiel, so we’d have enough context to understand the complexity of John’s account of the vision he experienced.
Boy, did we go into an in-depth study. They gave each of us a three-ring binder and dozens upon dozens of handouts. We conducted the scriptural gymnastics necessary to conclude that we were, in fact, living in the End Times and that these were the Final Days. The Antichrist had probably already been born – we even theorized that he could have already ascended into power somewhere.
Of course, he was probably Russian. I mean, the Soviet Union had crumbled and the Russians were always the bad guys. But then again, I’m sure there was a time during that study that I was convinced that Saddam Hussein was the Antichrist. I mean, these were the days of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.
A tangent (kind of)…
I was gone the evening the coalition began bombing Baghdad. I’m pretty sure I was at Scott and Corri’s for our weekly Discipleship Group meeting. When I got home, mom and I talked about the news that the war had begun.
“Right when the news broke,” mom said, “someone rang the doorbell. I opened the door and there were two men who were trying to spread the word about their church.” I guess they were from one of the newer local churches. They weren’t necessarily evangelizing. Just getting to know their neighbors.
“I mentioned that the bombing of Baghdad had started and they looked at each other and said, ‘This isn’t why were were out here talking to everyone tonight, but this sounds like a fulfillment of a prophecy in Jeremiah.’ Something about shooting arrows at Baghdad.”
Take up your positions around Babylon,
Jeremiah 50:14 ^
all you that bend the bow;
shoot at her, spare no arrows,
for she has sinned against the Lord.
I guess you could say that stealth bombers and fighter-bombers could look like arrows to a prophet who had a vision some 2,600 years ago. But…you know…Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, and others had captured Babylon over the years. There are several times when the city wound up in ruins.
Back to Revelation…
Cross-referencing biblical prophecy with the evening news was a bit of a hobby. When you try really hard, you can read just about any news story into some type of fulfillment of a U.S.-centric apocalyptic message. I remember one of our Sunday School teachers suggesting that the fantastic beasts described in biblical prophecy could actually be descriptions of helicopters and other weapons of war, because John and other prophets didn’t have the language to describe what they saw in their apocalyptic visions, so they explained it the best they could.
While that does make sense, it also allows the reader to come up with all kinds of explanations and theories and conspiracies to prove that we’re living in the End Times described in Revelation right this very minute.
Jumping through all the hoops and making all of the mental leaps in order to prove that the United States was the holy remnant that was going to stand firm against the Antichrist and the Beast and the Dragon, who were obviously under Soviet Russian influence…it was exhausting to pull all the strings and make all of the necessary theological and logical gymnastics to support this conclusion.
So…where’s the U.S. in the book of Revelation?
I think Jesus’ message is very clear to Christians in the United States. You might think he’s talking to us when he addresses the church in Philadelphia. I mean, there is a Philadelphia in the United States, after all. And that’s where they signed the Declaration of Independence! It makes complete sense. Right?
And then look at what Jesus says to the church in Philadelphia:
“Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.”
Revelation 3:10 & 11
You’ve kept the faith…
You won’t suffer. That’ll be your reward…
Others will suffer, though….
Jesus is coming soon…
Stay strong…
That’s it! That’ll preach, right? It’ll sell lots of books! You can probably even make a movie or two about this. Because God’s not dead and you don’t want to be left behind on the late, great, planet Earth. I wish we’d all been ready.
USA! USA! USA!
Nevermind the fact that this church was actually in modern-day Turkey.
Did you see what I just did there? I totally wrapped Jesus in the American flag. A lot of preachers do this exact thing. So do people in the pews. And it’s dangerous. Because when we make mental leaps like this, we can justify anything we or our country do “in the name of Jesus.”
We’re more like another church in Revelation
It saddens me to say this, but if we’re really, honestly, truly looking in the book of Revelation for a message from Jesus to the American church, it’s his message to the church in Ephesus.
The message begins with a positive statement – “I know your deeds…you cannot tolerate evil.” That’s pretty commendable. And that’s a reputation for many churches in the US today, right? We’ve done a good job of trying to separate ourselves from wickedness. I’ve heard many sermons about sin, fleeing from sin, and pursuing holiness. You hear that a lot in American churches.
But then Jesus continues…
“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”
Revelation 2:4 & 5
Why do I think the American church, as a whole, has forgotten its first love? Well, the Gospel of Matthew does a pretty good job of explaining how we remember our first love.
In Matthew 24, Jesus talks about wars and rumors of war and all kinds of juicy End Times stuff. In the following chapter, he discusses the Last Judgment, where all nations will be gathered together and he will separate the sheep (his followers) from the goats (those who are not his followers). He welcomes the sheep into the Kingdom. Here’s what he says to the goats before he kicks them out…
“For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”
Matthew 25:42
And then the goats asked “When? When did we see you like that?” Surely if they’d seen Jesus, they would have recognized him. Surely they would have ministered to him if he was somehow in need.
Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
Matthew 25:45
In other words…
Love your neighbor.
That’s it. That’s the message.
Friends, we have some repenting to do. We need to spend less time trying to connect the dots of the End Times and spend more time loving our neighbors. That means loving those who don’t look like us, act like us, think like us, or believe like us. It also means loving people who don’t have it all together and are living messy, messy lives. Loving others also means loving people who don’t deserve to be loved.
You can focus on winning the argument. You can take a stand for your freedoms. And you can create your own checklist of do’s and don’ts so you can decide who is and isn’t part of the family of God. You can read all of the Christian books and blogs and listen only to Christian music and tweet every day that you’re a Christian. You can get caught up in all the things that have to do with Jesus and yet forget to love him. Because loving Jesus means loving others.
I believe we have forgotten our first love.
And that’s the message I’ve found to the United States in the book of Revelation.
Endnotes
*I have a hard time trusting any preacher or scholar who refers to this book of the Bible as “Revelations.” It is very clear in Revelation 1:1 that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ to John. There’s only one revelation. You might think I’m being picky here, but I’m not. If someone keeps calling it “Revelations,” please proceed with caution.
^Scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version. You can buy your own copy of the NRSV (or other translations) at Bibles.com.
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