Bible: Revelation

Impact

The impact of the book of Revelation has been great in the past two thousand years, sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. Too many people have used it as a timetable for predicting the future, especially the imminent coming of Jesus, and fomented rebellion among people, particularly poor peasants in the Middle Ages, which generally led to their death. In the modern era, too, many charlatans have convinced people that Jesus was coming because the book’s images were being fulfilled in the modern age. As noted, major predictions of this event focused on the possible return of Jesus in September 1988 and again in September 1996.

The book has also been used positively, when it is not taken too literally. When theologians or social reformers seek to inspire change and reform in society by painting the dire consequences of what might happen without change, an appeal to the imagery of these texts often provides cogency and inspiration to their rhetoric. Such rhetoric, for example, inspired Americans who sought to abolish slavery in the nineteenth century and work toward civil rights in our society in the twentieth century. Some contemporary authors maintain that Americans and those in other first world countries need to see ourselves in the imagery of the beast and the third world victims of globalization in the oppressed believers of Revelation. The book should inspire us to disavow our own modern “Roman imperialism.”

Ultimately, the book has had a significant impact upon authors, poets, musicians, and especially painters. Images such as the four horsemen, the beasts, and the heavenly city have inspired artistic portrayals—stained-glass windows, woodcuts, lithographs, and paintings. It should not be forgotten that the book itself is a work of art, and the frequent insertion of hymnic material is testimony to this. Biblical scholars define this book as being both apocalyptic literature and liturgical art from the first century CE.