Ponder Anew 1!

David R. Larson            Loma Linda, California 

Last week I reported to this Sabbath School Class that the search engine I often use at home recently located 381,717 web sites that discuss Revelation 13. I am happy to report that this number has been increased by at least one! I know this to be true because during the past week I posted my own thoughts regarding this portion of Scripture. There are now at least 381,718 web sites that discuss it!

Last week I also indicated that the search engine I usually use at home recently found more than 200,000 web sites that discuss "The Mark of the Beast," the topic from the second half of Revelation 13 which is our assignment for this morning. I hope to increase this total by at least one as well! With so many people around the world sharing their thoughts and feelings about these matters, the rest of us should feel free to do so too!

Those who post their views on the Internet identify many things as "The Mark of the Beast." Social Security numbers in the United States have long been among the most popular candidates. Others point to the bar codes we increasingly find on the items we buy and sell. There are even pictures of the "Mark of the Beast" on the Internet! 

Often these are photographs of tiny computer chips—each one about the size and shape of a single grain of rice—that can be safely implanted just under the skin to store vital information to be scanned when needed. These chips can provide emergency personnel one’s name, address, telephone number, Social Security number and essential medical information, all of which may help them save one’s life in a crisis. Instead of seeing their therapeutic value, some view these chips as a dangerous fulfillment of prophecies in Revelation 13!

Professional commentators differ about the "Mark of the Beast" in harmony with their general approaches to the book of Revelation. Preterists find the fulfillment of its prophecies in the time of its author, during the rule of the Roman emperor Domitian near the end of the first century of our era, but perhaps about 30 years earlier during the reign of Nero. From this point of view, the sea-monster of Revelation 13 is the Roman Empire and the land-monster is the cult of emperor worship that then flourished in Asia Minor, the region we now call Turkey. 

Futurists hold that many of the prophecies of Revelation will be fulfilled when human history as we now know it ends. Some futurists hold that the sea-monster of Revelation 13 is the Roman Empire, others don’t. Most hold that the land-monster is a symbol of tyranny that is yet to come. 

Those of us who are Seventh-day Adventist Christians have often been historicists who hold that the prophecies of Revelation survey all of human history, from before its beginning until after its end. We have often seen the sea-monster as a symbol of the coercive fusion of religious, political and economic power that the Roman emperor Constantine and others have made their studied policy. We have often thought of the United States as the land-monster, a beast that appears at first like a lamb but speaks and acts like a dragon. 

As the term is used in this context, idealists are those who do not try to pinpoint the fulfillment of the prophecies of Revelation in particular episodes of actual human history. They see its figures as psychologically and sociologically illuminating symbols of the struggles between good and evil, justice and injustice, that occur almost always. Although there are other approaches to the book of Revelation as well, these are some of the primary ones.

Considerable discussion is now taking place in some Seventh-day Adventist circles as to whether it is still appropriate for us to think of Constantinianism as the sea-monster of Revelation 13 and of the United States as the land-monster.  Some of us hold that these are the only legitimate interpretations, others of us contend that these interpretations are no longer appropriate, and still others of us try to mediate these differences. Because I believe that the mediating positions are the most promising, I offer the following three observations.

First, we need to develop the virtue of hermeneutical humility. No one alive today can be absolutely certain about everything John the Revelator had in mind when he wrote these prophecies on the island of Patmos many centuries ago.  Humility is therefore in order.  Contrary to what we sometimes think, to be humble about our interpretations is not to be devoid of thoughts and feelings about the text and a willingness to share them. It is to recognize how finite and fallible we all are, and therefore how willing we should be to listen to others and to consider what they have to say.

Secondly, we would do well to develop the virtue of hermeneutical memory.  Thinking of Constantinianism as the sea-monster and of the United States as the land-monster has often been politically helpful for those of us who are Seventh-day Adventists, particularly for those of us who are Americans.   Picturing the United States as a gentile lamb in some ways, but a ferocious monster in others, has made it easier for us be grateful to this nation for the freedoms it provides while also being wary of its temptations to be imperialistic abroad and oppressive at home.  

Throughout our history as Seventh-day Adventists, this combination of political gratitude and political wariness has often served us and others well.  To be sure, sometimes these attitudes of ours have moved in pathological directions; nevertheless, in most cases they have saved us from being entirely cynical about the United States, on the one hand, and completely naive about it, on the other.  For these and related reasons, I am reluctant, very reluctant, wholly to refuse the possibility of thinking of Constantinianism as the sea-monster of Revelation 13 and of the United States as the land-monster.

Third, it would be a good thing to develop the virtue of hermeneutical creativity.  This will require us to distinguish, and then properly integrate, what any passage of Scripture meant to those who first wrote and read it and what it now means to us today.  It is possible to go astray in both directions.  One the one hand, some modern interpreters put so much emphasis upon the objective meaning of the text in previous times that they neglect its subjective meaning in our own.  On the other hand, some postmodern interpreters make the opposite mistake by leaving the impression that the text can mean for us whatever we want it to mean.  Neither of these approaches is helpful in the experience of a living and growing community of faith.

The postmodern writers I find most insightful indicate that the relationships between the interpreter and the text are something like those between a therapist and a client.  The therapist listens very carefully to what the client says.  The therapist also tries to understand what the client may be communicating without actually verbalizing it, perhaps even without being fully aware of everything he or she is conveying. 

Some unskilled therapists listen only to what the client actually says.  Other inadequate therapists attribute many thoughts and feelings to the client, even when there is no legitimate basis for doing so.  Skilled therapists help their clients understand what they are truly communicating, even when these clients do not express themselves in explicit thoughts and words.  

Likewise, according to the analogy, interpreters of Scripture study what the text said to others in the past and also what it might be saying to us in the present.  In the relationships between the therapist and the client, and in those between the interpreter and the text, the factor that distinguishes good interpretations from bad ones is the genuine link, the true connection that increases understanding and positive action, between that which is explicitly stated and that which may be communicated in other ways.  

Neither of these without the other, not even both of them haphazardly, arbitrarily or capriciously related, can carry the day.  Only both of them integrated, or dovetailed, in mutually illuminating and instructive ways can do so.

A quick illustration from Scripture:  When we compare certain ancient Hebrew prophecies with how the some of the New Testament writers said they were fulfilled, we are perplexed if we presume that a text can always mean only what it meant to those who first wrote and read it.  It certainly appears to us now that the New Testament authors sometimes found things in the Old Testament that those they quote probably did not fully have in mind, if at all.  Careful examination reveals, however, that usually there is a discernable and mutually enriching connection between what the Old Testament meant in its time and the meaning the New Testament writers find in its words.

Another illustration, this one from our own lives:  When we sing lines such as, "Go Down Moses, Way down in Egypt land, Tell old Pharaoh, 'Let My people go!'" we experience a fusion between what the Exodus meant to the Israelites centuries ago with what it means to African Americans and many others today.  The experienced and integrated synthesis of these two episodes, the one in the past and the other in the present, helps us to understand both events more fully and to live our lives more successfully.

What, then, are the links between what Revelation 13 meant in its time and what it might mean in ours?  That the dragon, the symbol of the demonic according to chapter 12, is alive and well, something we ignore or deny at great peril.  Also that the dragon is a splendid delegator, one who is effective in human individuals and institutions that foster discord and destruction.  And that political forces are evil when they combine with religious and economic powers to force people to worship in particular ways.

Many notice that the view of political power in Revelation 13 is more negative than the one in Romans 13.  This is probably because John the Revelator and Paul the Apostle were looking at different aspects of the same issue.  Paul's point was that political power is good when it restrains evil and when it appropriately punishes wrongdoers.  John's point was that political power is evil when it collaborates with religious and economic forces to oppress people.  We need to hear both the affirmations of Romans 13 and the warnings of Revelation 13.  One without the other is incomplete.  

The messages of Romans 13 and Revelation 13 strike me as especially timely this morning.  The horrific events of September 11, 2001 made those of us who are Americans more aware of how vulnerable we are and of how much more we need to do to protect each other.  There is a danger, however, that, when doing what we must do to become more secure, we will violate the civil liberties of our nation's honorable citizens and guests who do not always think and act like the majority does.  

The good news is that we do not have to yield to this temptation.  The bad news is that if we do, we will truly act like the land-monster of Revelation 13, we will truly conduct ourselves like the beast that looks like a lamb but speaks and acts like a dragon.  

May we all do all we can to prevent this horror from overtaking us!