I begin my upcoming series on Revelation with a quote from a former mega-church pastor that I want to look at with you in more depth.
In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.
— Mark Driscoll, Relevant Magazine, Interview in Issue 24
If you're unaware—I was—"pride fighting" was a mixed-martial arts fighting championship that ran between 1997 to 2007. Also, if you're unfamiliar with the specifics of Revelation, Jesus never holds a sword in the book—the sword is always said to come out of his mouth.
Then there's the comment about being unable to "worship a guy I can beat up." Not only is this a troubling example of the toxic masculinity still rampant in the Church, it ignores the fact that Jesus was literally beaten up by Roman soldiers before being crucified for crimes against the Roman Empire. Part of the reason Jesus is worthy of our worship is that his love for us caused him to empty himself in humility even to the point of death on a cross (see Phil. 2:6-8).
A literal reading of Revelation always presents us with an end-time Jesus who is a near-opposite of the incarnate Jesus of the Gospels. If we're to take Jesus' nonviolent stance in the Gospels seriously—and not have him pretending to be nonviolent—then we need to learn how to read Revelation in a way that reveals a nonviolent God.
Coming up for Patrons
My series on Revelation begins on Tuesday with A Revelation of Jesus. This article will introduce how we can read Revelation as a book of peace rather than of violence by understanding the three claims made in the opening verses.
- The revelation is of Jesus Christ.
- The author says he is a prophet.
- The book is actually a pastoral letter.
If you want to read Revelation in your Bible as we go along, you only need to read up to chapter 5 by the end of March to keep in step with what I'm writing.
Until next time,
Steve