Re:Verse reading–Revelation 1 (day six)
Certainty is the last word some would associate with John’s Revelation. For most it is difficult to understand, with very little feeling certain about it, and yet that is exactly the tone that is set for us in chapter one. We can be uncertain all day about the exact play of the events described in Revelation, but its’ intent is the exact opposite. All of our hope, the church’s hope, rests in the certainty of Jesus the risen one, the Alpha and the Omega.
That is how Jesus wants us to feel when we read chapter one, indeed much more than that, that is how he wants us to feel as we live in this broken world waiting for His return. It is certain. Will the church suffer? Yes. Will Judgement come? Yes. And will he finally and completely make all things new? Yes, it is certain!
Will the church suffer? It’s happening now! Christians are being imprisoned, tortured, and martyred all over the world in Asia, Middle East, Africa, India, Pakistan, Russia, etc.
Absolutely it is, perhaps more than any other century or generation. The rhetorical question was levied at the much more “comfortable” church in the west. We often have notions that we are going to be whisked away before it gets “really tough.” I don’t find evidence for that in Scripture.