Part 4: Reading Revelation Responsibly

Victory Life Durant — Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Link to a downloadable PDF:
2025-08-27 – Introduction to Revelation 1-3, Part 4

Scripture Reading

Revelation 2:12–29 (ESV)¹² “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. ¹³ “ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. ¹⁴ But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. ¹⁵ So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. ¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ ¹⁸ “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹ “ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. ²⁰ But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. ²² Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, ²³ and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. ²⁴ But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. ²⁵ Only hold fast what you have until I come. ²⁶ The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, ²⁷ and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ And I will give him the morning star. ²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Introduction

The book is entitled THE REVELATION (singular), not “revelations” (plural). All that follows in this letter is from Jesus and ultimately about Jesus.

Hermeneutics: the science and art of interpretation of the Scriptures

5 Interpretive Strategies

Five Interpretive Strategies for Revelation:

1. 1. 1. Predictive (“Futurist”)

The “predictive” interpretive strategy often focuses on decoding Revelation as an “end-times” handbook.

The hallmark of “classical dispensationalism” has been its commitment to a literal interpretation of prophetic Scripture.

When this view is taken to its extreme, it presents a very pessimistic perspective on history and our role in its unfolding. Despite all our best efforts and attempts at converting or reforming the world, before the end, the antichrist will emerge and gain control of human affairs, the world will “go to hell,” and the only ending to this catastrophe is Jesus’ return.

One weakness of this view is that it presents a very pessimistic perspective on history and our role in its unfolding, and generally avoids the reality of the “now/not yet” nature of the Kingdom of God (“inaugurated eschatology”).

Five Interpretive Strategies for Revelation:

1. 1. 1. Predictive (“Futurist”)
      2. Preterist (“In the past”)

The preterist interpretive strategy seeks to take the historical interpretation of Revelation seriously by relating it to its original author and audience.

The weakness of the “preterist” interpretive strategy is that it has a tendency to strip the Scriptures of their theological teeth, which can remove the element of it being “God’s word.”

The last three interpretive strategies can be separate, but each plays a significant role in interpreting Revelation and can be woven together into a three-strand cord of hermeneutics.

Five Interpretive Strategies for Revelation:

1. 1. 1. Predictive (“Futurist”)
      2. Preterist (“In the past”)
      3. Poetic (“Idealist”)

The poetic (theopoetic) interpretive strategy focuses on the book’s mythical and poetic language, considering all decoding approaches “violations of the genre and language of Revelation.”

The poetic (theopoetic) interpretive strategy focuses on the book’s mythical and poetic language, emphasizing the genre of the language. Eugene Peterson is a more recent and strong proponent of this approach, referring to it as…

Revelation is a “theological poem” that “does not primarily call for decipherment…but that it evokes wonder, releasing metaphors that resonate meanings and refract insights in the praying imagination.” ~ Eugene Peterson

“I do not read the Revelation to get additional information about the life of faith in Christ…Everything in the Revelation can be found in the previous sixty-five books of the Bible…The truth of the gospel is already complete, revealed in Jesus Christ. There is nothing new to say on the subject. But there is a new way to say it. I read the Revelation not to get more information but to revive my imagination.” ~ Eugene Peterson

For this interpretive strategy, Revelation is to evoke a prophetic and apocalyptic imagination, using poetic language to help us see with new eyes.

Revelation is viewed from this perspective as representing “an apocalyptic dramatization of the continuous battle between good and evil,” with no significant need for historical connection to any social or political events.

Five Interpretive Strategies for Revelation:

1. 1. 1. Predictive (“Futurist”)
      2. Preterist (“In the past”)
      3. Poetic (“Idealist”)
      4. Political

The political (theopolitical) approach focuses on “criticizing injustice, promoting transformation and justice, or both.”

The fourth interpretive strategy can be called the political (theopolitical) approach, but can be distinguished from the dispensational interpretation of political engagement. Dispensationalism can view political engagement as the mechanism by which the end times are activated. However, stepping back from that perspective, the simpler “political” interpretive strategy aligns Revelation’s genre of “prophecy” with that of the Old Testament prophets, employing the language of comfort and protest.

Biblical prophecy uses the language of comfort and challenge. Biblical prophecy will comfort those in suffering and challenge those who are too comfortable within the world’s systems and values.

This hermeneutic correlates with Abraham Joshua Heschel’s approach to the writings of the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Of them, he says,

“Indeed, the sort of crimes, and even the amount of delinquency that fill the prophets of Israel with dismay, do not go beyond that which we regard as a normal, as typical ingredients of social dynamics…To us, injustice is injurious to the welfare of the people; to the prophets it is a deathblow to existence: to us, an episode; to them, a catastrophe, a threat to the world.” ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel

Revelation, corresponding to biblical prophecy as a whole, helps us see from another perspective—namely, God’s perspective—what we would typically take for granted.

The strength of the “political” interpretive strategy is that it can give us eyes to see what we typically take for granted: God is in control, not the dominant empires of the day. This, in turn, fosters a positive view of the future, encouraging us as God’s partners to act in a way that establishes God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

The weakness of the “political” interpretive strategy is that it can incorrectly label every group as either oppressors or victims, and/or try to establish heaven on earth through human effort alone, dismissing or ignoring God’s divine action and authority.

Five Interpretive Strategies for Revelation:

1. 1. 1. Predictive (“Futurist”)
      2. Preterist (“In the past”)
      3. Poetic (“Idealist”)
      4. Political (“Idealist”)
      5. Pastoral-Prophetic

The pastoral-prophetic approach focuses on how Revelation is a document for Christian formation, calling the church to faithfulness “in the face of inevitable conflict with hostile powers.”

The fifth approach has the most appeal to me personally (while also acknowledging the value of other approaches, especially the trifold approach of the last three together), since it directly impacts my vocation and the role that Revelation has in fulfilling the church’s mission in the world. This reading approaches Revelation with a “timeless-but-always-timely” lens, rather than the too-narrowly focused lens of preterists or futurists.

Within the “pastoral-prophetic” interpretive strategy, bound with the previous two, we read Revelation “concluding that Babylon is not merely Rome, as the preterists might, and is definitely not some future reconfiguration of the Roman Empire in modern Europe, as some futurists would say, then it’s seductive, and oppressive power can be felt—and must be both named and resisted—in the political realities of our own day.” ~ Michael Gorman

Revelation is a “word to the church in the present” without ignoring the past or the future.

The Tension

Wrestling with the tension of the “now and not yet” as it relates to Jesus and the End:

“Any theology that does not live with a sense of the immediate return of Christ is a theology that takes the edge off of the urgency of faith. But any theology that does not cause us to live as though the world will be here for thousands of years is a theology that leads us into social irresponsibility.” ~ Tony Campolo

Citations and Read More

Craig Keener. Revelation. The NIV Application Commentary. pp. 53-54

Virkler, Henry A., and Karelynne Gerber Ayayo. Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation, Baker Academic, 2023. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/westernseminary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=30379423

Michael Gorman. Reading Revelation Responsibly. p. 64-68

Michael Gorman. Reading Revelation Responsibly. p. 65

Marvin Pate and Stanley N. Gundry, editors. Four Views On the Book of Revelation. p. 19

Michael Gorman. Reading Revelation Responsibly. p. 65

Eugene Peterson. Reversed Thunder. p. 7 and xiii

Eugene Peterson. Reversed Thunder. p. xi-xii

Marvin Pate and Stanley N. Gundry, editors. Four Views On the Book of Revelation. pp. 23-24

Michael Gorman. Reading Revelation Responsibly. p. 67

Abraham Joshua Heschel. The Prophets. p. 4

Marvin Pate and Stanley N. Gundry, editors. Four Views On the Book of Revelation. pp. 28

Michael Gorman. Reading Revelation Responsibly. p. 68

Tony Campolo. Interview, The Door (September/October 1993). p. 14