Revelation, the final book in the New Testament, is considered an apocalyptic text – a word that is commonly understood to mean “the end of the world,” but which, in the original Greek, refers to “unveiling” or “revealing” – hence the book’s name, Revelation. The name almost seems ironic, since it’s hard to say for certain what is being revealed in this text. Revelation is an extended spiritual vision full of vivid and strange symbolic imagery. Biblical scholars and theologians have widely differing interpretations of how these visions might relate to the world we know.
In her book The Rapture Exposed, Lutheran theologian Barbara Rossing offers an interpretation of Revelation grounded in a deep and thorough study of the text and its original context. Rossing notes that in Revelation 21, humanity is not gathered up from earth into a better home. Rather, the New Jerusalem is seen “coming down out of heaven from God… [with] a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 21:2-4).
This message is excerpted from the Bible study “Holy places” by Meghan Johnston Aelabouni in the September/October 2023 Gather magazine.
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