The Theology of The Book of Revelation by Richard Bauckham
At
Risen Life Church we are about to begin a preaching series out of the book of
Revelation. Anytime I tell someone
that we are going preach Revelation their ears perk up and a million comments
and questions ensue. “What is your
eschatological position?”, “Wow,
that’s bold to preach such a complicated book!”, “I am very excited to hear
what you all have to say!”, “Who do you think the antichrist is?”, “Do you
think we are in the end times?”
You know the drill.

Bauckham’s
book is high level, in fact the General Editor, James Dunn, comments in the
preface that the series in which this work appears is “directed at those who
already have one or two years of full-time New Testament and theological study
behind them” (xii). Lots of the
theology that is presented in the volume is what I would call, “frame-work”
theology. Bauckham is hitting the
major emphasizes of the book of Revelation and giving you the theological
framework in which to plug all the parts and pieces that we so often get
ourselves entangled with when we go to interpret and understand the book of
Revelation. But here is the
brilliant thing about this book, though it is dealing with big and deep theology,
it is so well written; every page communicates Bauckham’s message with
ease. The book is also a
delightful length, only 172 pages.
I would encourage anyone wanting to understand the book of Revelation to
read this book.
Bauckham
begins his book by highlighting one of the most important features of the book
of Revelation, how it pulls back the veil on the throne room of God and shows
God to be the one sovereignly in control of all things. Furthermore, by nature of God being sovereign
it is right that He is worthy of worship.
John gives us as readers a new perspective on our situation in life, and
particularly that of the seven churches in Asia, by setting our world within
the broader context of God’s universal purpose of overcoming all opposition to
his rule and establishing his kingdom (31). As we stare down the barrel of our culture and general
opposition of the world to the things of God, John says to the churches and us,
“Don’t worry, God is in control and will complete His purpose and will bring
this rebellious world into submission.”
This is a very sobering and yet comforting thought for believers.
Bauckham
builds on the sovereignty of God that is so foundational to the book of
Revelation and then highlights how John unambiguously shows that Jesus belongs
to the fullness of God (56-57). Or
in other words, Jesus in the book of Revelation is shown outright to be
God. A comparison of Revelation
1:8 with Revelation 1:17 along with a comparison of Revelation 21:6 and
Revelation 22:13 show the same titles being applied to both God the Father and
Christ the Son (57). And these are
not just any titles; these titles in the Bible were reserved for God the Father
throughout until they are applied to Christ in Revelation. Bauckham goes on to show how the
worship of the slain Lamb in Revelation 5:1-14 further illustrates the point
that Jesus is part of the Divine since He is worshipped alongside God. This is just scratching the surface of
the Trinitarian theology that flows out of Revelation. Even from the outset of the book,
Revelation depicts the Trinity, as seen in Revelation 1:4b-5a (23). When we find ourselves struggling to
understand or defend the Christian doctrine of the Trinity let us look to
John’s words in Revelation that speak to the issue in no uncertain terms.
Beyond
the major statements about God and Jesus found in the book of Revelation
Bauckham works at the central message of the book. He identifies the main message of the book coming from Revelation
11:1-13. Bauckham believes Revelation
is a message to the churches revealing the role they are to play as prophetic
witnesses to the nations (83).
Here is what he says:
God’s kingdom is to come not simply by saving an
elect people who acknowledge his rule from a rebellious world over which his
kingdom prevails merely by extinguishing the rebels. It is to come as the sacrificial witness of the elect people
who already acknowledge God’s rule brings the rebellious nations also to
acknowledge his rule (84).
Furthermore,
We now see that this redemption of a special people
from all the peoples is not an end in itself, but has a further purpose: to
bring all the peoples to acknowledge and worship God. In the first stage of his work, the Lamb’s bloody sacrifice
redeemed a people for God. In the
second stage, this people’s participation in his sacrifice, through martyrdom,
wins all the peoples for God. This
is how God’s universal kingdom comes (101).
Now
Bauckham spends many pages working out this central idea of the churches
witness in a pattern after Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, but I think
it is important to speak to a few points of application that come from
Bauckham’s thesis.
First,
if the message of Revelation is to reveal to the seven churches in Asia and us that
we will participate in and win the nations through our witness to the truth of
the Gospel and self-sacrifice even unto death in a pattern after Christ’s work
then this should radically reorient the way we look at our world and our faith
in this world. We should not be
surprised when we face great trials, persecution, and cultural pressure against
Christianity. Revelation calls us
to embrace the fact that this life may not end well for us. Let us be careful to blame God for our
troubles when in fact he has warned us about what is to come and faithfully
witness to the truth of the Gospel until the end.
Secondly,
this alters the way we have popularly thought about missions and
evangelism. Many have pointed
Matthew 24:14 and said that we will triumphantly preach the Gospel to the
nations and after many have been saved Jesus will come back and we will live
happily ever after. But if
Bauckham’s thesis is true, then it makes the end of all things more imminent
since the nations come to faith as the church is apparently defeated in
martyrdom. But as Bauckham points
out, this is exactly the way Jesus saved the world, through apparent defeat,
and our partnership in that apparent defeat will preach the Gospel to the
nations and then they will come in.
As we begin to face more and more cultural defeat and increasing
persecution as the faithful church, let us realize the end is near and this is
God’s plan to preach the Gospel through our defeat which reflects what God did
in Christ. I am afraid many
evangelicals if they rightly understood Revelation would have to severely
reorient their eschatology in light of Bauckham’s thesis of a church witnessing
through suffering and death after the pattern of its Savior.
Bauckham’s
thesis concerning the witness of the church is heavy lifting, but not all of
Bauckham’s book is. Throughout
Bauckham also drops more easily attainable thoughts, particularly in the realm
of hermeneutics. Of John’s imagery
in general in Revelation he says, “He is painting pictures which each portray a
valid aspect of the truth” (103).
This ideal is great guidance for anyone thinking through
Revelation. Similarly concerning
prophecy in general he gives these guidelines: prophecy discerns the
contemporary situation in which it was written, it predicts a future situation,
and it demands a response of its hearers (148-149). I have often heard the first two ideals on prophecy,
sometimes said as forthtelling and foretelling, but I think it is very
important to include the need for a response to prophecy not only historically
but now. One of my only criticisms
of Bauckham’s book is that I believe he seems to lean toward seeing most
prophecy as only fulfilled in its historical context (in the case of Revelation
that was for the churches under the rule of Rome) and the prophecy for us is
applied as general guidance only.
I would like to think that with all prophecy there is an immediate
fulfillment and a future fuller fulfillment. Though Revelation may have been fulfilled earlier in history
we know that there are aspects of it that have yet to happen at all (such as
the New Heavens and New Earth) which lends credence to the fact that at least
some other parts of the book must also be speaking of future events even though
they had a historical fulfillment.
But to be fair, even though some events will have a dual fulfillment, we
should be careful to not see within the picture John is painting something more
literal than the truth he intended to communicate.
There
are many, many pieces of theology to discuss out of Bauckham’s book. Suffice it to say, I wanted to give you
a taste of the way he has dealt with Revelation. Again, I highly encourage anyone who wants to engage in a
serious study of Revelation to read this book. Bauckham helps us to see the book of Revelation as a
literary whole and as the capstone of Christian theology it is meant to be for
the churches as we look forward to the parousia.
Bauckham,
Richard. The Theology of The Book of Revelation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 172pp. $30.99
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