JESUS AND THE VIOLENCE OF REVELATION

Dear FF
You asked what I thought about Jesus leading his followers into bloody conquest of
God’s enemies in the Book of Revelation. I’ll try to demonstrate a “hermeneutic of the
cross” as applied to this question. By that I mean the conscious attempt to relate the
teaching of Revelation back to the cross in a meaningful way, working with the
assumption that the cross ultimately governs everything else in scripture. I will try to
show the relevance of the cross to the battle stories of Revelation.

THE GREAT BATTLE OF REVELATION  19

I begin with the climactic battle in chapter 19. In this chapter, the victory celebration
precedes the battle (19:1-10). Before the battle begins in verse 11, the conquering hero is
already covered with blood (v13), but not the blood of his enemies. His garment is
soaked in the blood of his own demise. The carnage beginning in verse 17 results from
the use of a sword that comes out of the hero’s mouth, not a sword held in his hand. The
sword is his powerful word (also in v13), and this word of truth destroys the enemy on
contact. The enemies fall down as quickly as did the temple cops who confronted Jesus in
the Garden of Gethsemane according to John’s gospel when Jesus spoke the “I AM.” His
holy presence is sufficient to devastate his foes when revealed in its true glory. There is
nothing here about Jesus’ followers shedding blood.

EARLIER DESCRIPTIONS OF THE BATTLE IN REVELATION 12 and 7

If we go back to chapter 12 (v11) we find those who follow the conquering lamb use the
same weapon as their leader in chapter 19. It is a word of testimony from their mouth.
When we go back further to chapter 7 (v14) the conquering army wears the same uniform
as the commander-in-chief, a robe dipped in the blood of the lamb. If we make the cross
the hub of our interpretive method, then to interpret these texts nonviolently is the way to
do justice, both to the to cross and to the context of each respective chapter. The cross
defines out understanding of the whole. The one who conquers is the one who died rather
than those who killed. Earlier in the same book in 1:5 and 5:9 salvation comes by the
sacrifice of the lamb, not by the death of the unbelievers. When unbelievers are punished
with death, it is not by any sword other than the word that comes from someone’s mouth,
whether the Word of God (Rev. 19:13) or the word of testimony to Jesus (Rev. 12:11).

THE OTHER VIOLENT PASSAGES IN REVELATION

How do we understand those other violent passages? Here are the main examples:

8:7-8– Hail and fire mixed with blood comes down from heaven and a burning mountain
falls into the sea.

9:3-5– Locusts like scorpions

9:13-20– Smoke, fire, sulphur. This sounds like it could be the smoke, fire, and sulphur
of war, but verse 20 says clearly these also are plagues, not human warfare (perhaps
volcanoes exploding worldwide)

11:6 & 13– Water turns into blood and plagues ravage the earth, while an earthquake kills
thousands.

These judgments appear to be overwhelmingly environmental. They reflect the plagues of
Egypt. Rev. 11:5 is the only reference we see so far that appears to involve humans
killing humans (fire from the mouth of the two witnesses), certainly not a sufficient case
for the great eschatological “mother of all battles” (ref Saddam Hussein) so many
evangelicals are looking for, and is not a case for the Lamb of God suddenly turning into
a violent monster and ordering his servants to butcher all the evil people in the world at
the final end. Also fire coming out of the mouth may be another metaphor for the
powerful Word that comes from the witnesses elsewhere. There may be violence, but
no follower of Jesus is asked to participate in the violence.

THE VIOLENCE OF GOD

People object to God being violent. I find these objections uninformed and perhaps a little
arrogant. If anyone has the right to be violent, it would be the Creator by virtue of being
the Creator. Of course in this case, his goodness can be questioned, but there has to be an assumed
moral order in the first place to even discuss the question. Here the cross again is central.
If there ever is justification for violence, one needs a flawlessly good person to be in
charge of it. The Lamb who absorbed the harshest violence within himself and did it for
our benefit—yes, this Lamb has earned the right to be the Lion and do violence if and
when it is appropriate, and he alone can be trusted with this authority. Of course, we still
need to define the nature of that violence and how it is exercised.

The end of chapter 19 is violent. Those who opposed the Rider on the white horse are
killed by the word (the sword v 21) of his mouth. This is a one-man show by Jesus
himself. The revealed presence of God destroys everything opposed to God, because the
light of truth is unbearable for those opposed to it. If God were to allow sinners to avoid
the violence of their own choices, then God would have to diminish himself to being
something less than God and less than truth. Here again the cross is central, because in
the incarnation God did diminish himself, but not at the expense of truth. Those who do
not allow Jesus to stand between them and the violence will have to bear the
consequences themselves. Apart from faith in him there is no escape from this violence.
Violence is a violation, and the Creator does not violate what he created. But his holy
presence destroys whatever has become vile. It turns the violence back on those from
whom it originated.

At the end of the millennium in chapter 20 death and hell are thrown into the lake of fire
(v14). I propose that hell and the lake of fire are two different entities. The one destroys
the other. When one considers how often the presence of God is described as fire in the
Bible, the most reasonable explanation for this verse is that the lake of fire is nothing
other that the full glory of the presence of God. To enter the lake of fire is to enter the
blaze of the living fire of God’s presence unprepared. The presence of God is light and
life for those who receive forgiveness, and heat for those whose burning shame and
accusing conscience prevent them from seeing God as Jesus has revealed God to be by
his death on the cross and his resurrection.

The violence in the book of Revelation is self-inflicted, and God’s judgment is the
abandonment of those who reject him to their own preference and its consequences,
which includes both ecological disaster and the ravages of war. When Satan is kept
locked up during the millennium in Revelation 20 there is no war. As soon as Satan is
released back into the world, he deceives the nations and war resumes (20:7-9). This
suggests that belief in the necessity of war is precisely the issue in which Satan has
deceived the nations, and lines up well with my exegesis of Deuteronomy 17: 14-20 in
The Old Testament Roots of Nonviolence.

I propose this to be the best explanation for the violence in Revelation. Three witnesses, Moses, Jesus, and John in the Revelation agree on this issue when we make the cross the hub of our interpretative method. That’s how I answer your question about the violence in Revelation. Write me back or leave a comment if you wish to continue the conversation.

In Christ,
Brother Philip

References
Re 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead,
and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our
sins by his blood,
Re 5:9 And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its
seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from
every tribe and language and people and nation.
Re 6:10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until
you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”
Re 6:12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun
turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,
Re 7:14 I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out
of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.
Re 8:7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with
blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a
third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Re 8:8 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all
ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood,
Re 11:6 These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time
they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike
the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.
Re 12:11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Re 14:20 They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of
the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.
Re 16:3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like
that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died.
Re 16:4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they
became blood.
Re 16:6 for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given
them blood to drink as they deserve.”
Re 17:6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those
who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.
Re 18:24 In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have
been killed on the earth.”
Re 19:2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who
corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his
servants.”
Re 19:13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.