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| Traditional Christian Apocalyptic |
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| Reimagining Christian apocalyptic using Process Theology |
I. Introduction: Why Revelation Needs Reinterpretation
For generations, the Book of Revelation has been misread as a literal forecast of destruction - a final divine war plan. Especially in evangelical circles, Revelation has morphed into a horror story of rapture, wrath, and punishment. The literalist lens creates:
- A theology of fear, not freedom;
- A theology of coercion, not compassion;
- Often justifying power, empire, and exclusion in the name of a violent God.
- A call to resistance against domination systems,
- A poetic vision of divine lure toward justice, and
- An open invitation to co-create a new world.
II. A Very Short Process-Based Summary of Revelation
Revelation is not a forecast of destruction, but a symbolic protest against empire and a call to faithful co-creation with God. It envisions love's ultimate triumph—not through violence, but through persistent, transformative presence.
III. Key Themes in a Processual Interpretation
**1. God’s Power as Persuasive, Not Coercive**
Revelation presents Christ not as a warlord but as the Lamb
slain—a symbol of radical vulnerability. The power of God is not displayed
through domination but through the invitation to love. The Lamb's 'victory' is
not a military conquest but the triumph of relational fidelity.
**2. Symbolic Protest Against Empire**
The apocalyptic imagery is not predictive but poetic.
Babylon is Rome—and every empire like it. The beast is a symbol of imperial
force, economic domination, and religious manipulation. Revelation's drama
urges readers to 'come out' of these systems, not to wait for their collapse.
**3. Hope Without Guaranteed Certainty**
Process theology does not teach predestined outcomes.
Instead, it sees the future as open and becoming. Revelation is a vision of
what could be, not what must be. The New Jerusalem is a lure—a divine
possibility calling creation forward.
**4. Freedom within the Process of Redemption**
Love does not coerce. Even in judgment, Revelation does not
depict God as cruel, but as one who reveals the true nature of all things. The
apocalypse ('unveiling') is the peeling back of falsehoods so truth may
shine—inviting transformation, not demanding it.
**5. A Call to Cosmic Renewal, Not Cosmic Erasure**
Revelation ends not with the annihilation of the earth but
its healing. “Behold, I make all things new,” not all new things. The new
creation is not a replacement but a renewal. The eschaton is not escape but
embrace.
IV. Dialogue with Classical Views
- Literalism turns Revelation into a fear-based map. Process reads it as a vision of hope.
- Classical theism sees God's sovereignty in unilateral action. Process sees God's power in participatory becoming.
- Traditional eschatology implies divine coercion. Process insists on divine invitation.
- Evangelical frameworks lean on divine violence. Process theology emphasizes divine love.
V. Scripture as Poetic Lure
Revelation is not a newspaper headline from the future. It is a theological vision composed in apocalyptic imagery, political resistance, and pastoral urgency.
Like dreams or parables, it conveys deep truth through
metaphor.
- “Every knee shall bow” is not a divine threat, but a poetic aspiration.
- The beast, the dragon, and the throne are archetypes.
- The scrolls and seals are cosmic metaphors.
To read Revelation faithfully is to read it processually, not literally.
VI. A Creed for Reading Revelation in Process
We believe the Book of Revelation is not a timetable of
terror but a vision of divine love resisting empire, inviting all creation into
the journey of justice, beauty, and peace.
We believe God's power is persuasion, not domination, and
that the Lamb reigns not by violence, but by witness, vulnerability, and
persistent love.
We believe that every image in Revelation invites us to
become co-creators of a renewed world, where God makes all things new—with us,
never without us.
VII. Conclusion: Apocalypse as Revelation, Not Ruin
The word "apocalypse" means unveiling, not
catastrophe. In process theology, the Book of Revelation is the unveiling of
what *could be* if love wins - and what happens when it is resisted.
It is not the end of the world. It is the divine lure toward
the world's rebirth.
Revelation, reimagined, becomes a manifesto of hope, resistance, and transformation—one in which God calls us to join the procession of the Lamb in building the New Jerusalem (sic, a cosmic metaphor not a literal Jewish city) here and now.
Appendix A - Diagram
|
Theme |
Classical
Reading |
Process
Reading |
|
God's Power |
Coercive
Sovereignty |
Persuasive
Love |
|
Future
Outlook |
Predetermined
End |
Open &
Becoming |
|
Salvation |
Guaranteed
for Some |
Hope for All |
|
Violence |
Divine Judgment
& Wrath |
Divine
Vulnerability & Lure |
|
Reading
Method |
Literal
Forecast |
Symbolic
Protest |
|
New Creation |
Replacement |
Renewal |
What dangers arise from reading Revelation as a divine war manual?
Section II–III: Process-Based Vision
What does it mean to describe God's power as persuasive, not coercive?
How does reading Revelation as poetic protest shift our understanding of its symbols?
Section IV: Dialogue with Classical Views
How does process theology challenge the idea of predestined finality?
In what ways does process theology make space for human freedom and divine persistence?
Section V: Scripture as Poetic Lure
How can apocalyptic imagery be understood symbolically rather than literally?
What role does metaphor play in revealing theological truths?
Section VI: Creed
What key affirmations stand out in the creed? How might these reshape a community’s eschatology?
Section VII: Conclusion
How does reimagining the apocalypse as an unveiling of divine love affect our present engagement with the world?
What does it mean to co-create the New Jerusalem in the here and now?
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