Covid, Vaccines and Revelation: Pt II Dungeons and Dragons, Metal-heads and Emperors.
In Part I we looked at the book of Revelation, grounding it in the earth of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). See here (link). In this second part we dig a little deeper into the symbolism of Revelation and its relevance to that first audience.
Most people (at least in the Western world) have some knowledge of the symbols of Revelation. Symbols like 666, the four horsemen, the beast and ‘the end of the world’ have seared themselves into our popular consciousness. These tropes have gained attention via music, literature and even film. Both the genre of metal in music and horror in film have been particularly instrumental in sustaining this mythology around Revelation.[1]
There is a certain irony when a large audience of ‘non-Christian’ people are fed bad Christian theology by ‘non-Christian’ bands and film producers. I was told as a young Christian to stay away from heavy metal and horror films. Now, it’s quite amusing to see that such media has a lot in common with the future-dispensationalist theology[2] I was exposed to at the time. When we compare them all we realise that they are all rather fantastical.
These tropes have been communicated by Christians, Pastors, metal bands, metal fans, horror producers, horror fans and popular fiction alike. Each, every bit as speculative and misinformed as the other. I wonder, in whose hands is this more damaging. Those who use it to entertain, or those who use it to spread suspicion and fear?
As was laid out in Part I, scholarship does not see the majority of symbols of Revelation predicting some future event. Neither does it prepare us for a cataclysmic clash causing us to be ever watchful and (if we’re honest) slightly paranoid about the world’s events around us. Instead, they were for the original audience: the churches in Asia Minor yet they still have an important message for us today. So, on that note let’s take a sprint through Revelation. It is impossible to cover everything, but I will try to pull out the main themes to give a sense of how the book tracks.
As we flick through Revelation the first three chapters give us the context of the original audience -seven churches in Asia Minor (see Part I). From here things start getting weird so grab some popcorn. In Revelation chapters four and five the curtains are pulled back and we’re swept up out of the dust, dirt, and earth into a heavenly dreamscape full of symbolism. This world, we are warned by scholars, may not be the ‘literal heaven’ but it is John’s divinely orchestrated vision.’
Chapters four to five situate us in ‘God’s throne-room.’ It introduces us to an important interpretive key and symbol: -the blood-stained slain lamb. The slain lamb is Jesus, who laid down his life for creation. In these chapters this slain lamb is the only being able to open the scroll. The scroll represents the mysteries of how God will heal and redeem the world. The slain lamb is the only one who can enact this plan. God’s mystery is only accomplished through Jesus’ self-sacrificial love, dying in our place (absorbing rather than issuing out violence). Israel wanted a lion, but instead they receive a sacrificial lamb.[3] It is only by attuning ourselves to the slain lamb that we can interpret what we are about to witness, through the eyes of sacrificial love.
Chapters six to ten introduce us to the seals and the four horsemen[4] (not the semi-aquatic mammal but wax seals you’d find on a letter). The seals reveal, in highly symbolic language, the fate of Rome. Remember, our keys to interpretation are context (the seven real churches in the Roman empire) and the slain lamb. The seals unleash the contents of the scrolls of Rome’s fate. Interestingly, although Jesus opens the seal, it is the creature that says, ‘come’ to the impending disaster Rome will face. This is one of the same creatures, worshipping God from Chapters four and five.[5] These creatures are said to symbolise creation connecting Rome’s fate to earthly rather than heavenly choreography.
The seals and four horsemen simply communicate the typical atrocities that came with war in the 1st Century: invasion, conquest, destruction, famine, pestilence, plague and death. It was inevitable that a conquering nation like Rome would face disaster at some point.[6] The ‘take home’ message for the churches in Asia Minor was that Empires come and go but God’s throne will always stand. Even Rome will not last forever and will end up losing at its own game. Therefore, take heart and stay loyal to the slain lamb and not the power and violence of the Empire.
Then skipping a few chapters (sorry limited word count) we find ourselves in chapters twelve to twenty, meeting some dragons and beasts face-to-face. This is no LARP, or Dungeons and Dragons convention, nor have we stumbled upon a literal telling of the future. Instead, we are witnessing a symbolic narrative to reveal ultimate reality and encourage the churches in Asia Minor.
Starting in chapter twelve we see the real enemy coming into focus. The real enemy is a trinitarian counterfeit. An unholy trinity. A three-fold alliance of a dragon, an earth beast, and a sea beast. The dragon symbolises the primordial source of evil we call Satan or the devil. The evil that drives all evil. This is made clearer in the ‘alternative nativity’ scene in chapter 12: 1-10 (use this reading in your ‘lovely’ Christmas day service just after singing Away in a Manger).
In typical Jewish prophetic idiom, this ‘nativity’ scene merges past events that do not align chronologically. Instead, it builds a single cohesive theological narrative. The child is Jesus, and the woman is both Mary (physical mother of the Messiah) and Israel (the chosen lineage of the Messiah). With a swing of its beastly tail, we are introduced to the dragon who takes a third of the heavenly creatures with him (demons).
The woman and her Christ-child are carrying the purposes of God for the world. The dragon is doing its best to snuff out those purposes before they can get under way. The dragon is hell-bent on undoing God’s plan for creation (the scroll) –destruction is the dragon’s game, and the dragon will use whoever can fulfil that need.
Enter the beasts! That could have been a sweet Bruce Lee reference if I’d said it about the dragon! Like the bosses (Dons) of the Mafia, the dragon hides in the shadows fulfilling its plans through ‘puppet’ intermediaries. The first sea-beast is a ‘puppet’ of the dragon, and the Earth beast is a ‘puppet’ of the sea-beast. An unholy chain of command.
The sea-beast was undoubtedly (drum-roll-please) Jacin... Donal… the Pop… No! The Roman Empire!
The seven heads represent Rome’s successive emperors. Rome is also famous for being built on seven hills.[7] If we follow the historian Suetonius then the order of Roman Emperor’s follow as such:
Julius Caesar
Augustus
Tiberius
Caligula
Claudius
Nero [‘the one who is’ (Rev. 17:10)]
Galba [‘has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while’ (Rev. 17:10). Galba reigned for only seven months.]
Interestingly, Nero was not well-liked and even had been given the nickname, ‘the beast’ by some of his peers. After Nero’s suicide, there was a popular legend that Nero had not really died and would return. Nero also had a near-death experience whilst racing in a chariot (cf. Rev. 13:3). Nero was infamous and developed a strong distaste towards Christians, scapegoating and torturing them for the great fire of Rome (64 ad).
Some scholars conclude that the number 666 is a Hebrew code called a "gematria" –this was the common practice of assigning numbers value to letters. Using this code 666 is the sum of Nero's name.
Another theory is that 666 is simply a play on the Trinity. Gregory Beale says,
” The repetition of six three times seems to indicate what might be called the “completeness of sinful incompleteness” found in the beast. The beast epitomizes imperfection, while appearing to achieve divine perfection. Three sixes parody the divine Trinity of three sevens. Sometimes the number seven is appropriate to apply to the Devil or beast in order to emphasize their thoroughgoing evil nature, severe persecution, and universal reign of oppression (e.g., 12:3; 13:1; 17:3, 9-11). The reason for using sixes instead of sevens to describe the beast in v. 18 is because of the repeated emphasis in vv. 3-14 upon the beast as a counterfeit Christ and the second beast as a counterfeit prophet. When believers successfully resist the beast’s deception, they avoid being identified with the essence of his name, which is imperfection personified.”[9]
The beast of the Earth which used the sea-beast’s authority were the local elites and dignitaries in Asia Minor who enforced the rule of the Roman empire. They 'came up from the earth', rising locally from the dirt, rather than coming across the sea from Rome like the first beast. They symbolically enforced the ‘mark of the beast’ on one’s right hand or forehand. In other words, they enforced that all would worship, trade with, and pay taxes only to Rome. This is metaphorical language that played on the well-known image in which slaves would be marked (tattooed). These marks, of the imperial cult, meant that one became the property of Rome. This ‘mark of the beast’ is a symbolic gesture of those who worship and serve the Roman Empire and who participate in worship of the Emperor.[10]
In Parts I and II we have seen that Future-dispensationalism has hi-jacked and generated the popular understanding of this magnificent and contextually bound book. The world has obsessed, Christian and non-Christian alike, over a false understanding of Revelation. We will not find current events in Revelation. We will not find vaccines, or ‘communist’ governments and a new-world order run by one global government. We will not face a cataclysmic end. There may be wars and rumours of wars and natural disasters but if we look in the mirror, what’s new? This is how we have always been and probably will continue to be. Broken human nature, selfishness and the quest for power will often end like that.
Although I have cautioned against reading current or future events in Revelation. There are some parts of the book that are future-focused. In my opinion, these are some of the best parts of the book. These are found in chapters twenty to the final chapter. These chapters speak of the return of Christ not via cataclysmic destruction (that has all happened to Rome already) but by ending the dragons influence on Earth and by renewing all creation and setting up a whole new way of life on Earth, where ‘‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev 21: 4).
These last three chapters were to inspire hope in the churches of Asia Minor (and us too). They show us that although nations, empires and governments can be corrupt, they come and go. More importantly, there will be a definitive day where life will be ruled by Godself. This rule will not be governed by violence (like worldly Empires) but through a slain lamb! Sacrificial love wins in the end!
Rev. Grant Ridout is an ordained Minister in the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa. Father of four, husband of one and Minister of St. Stephen’s Ponsonby, Auckland. He loves vintage suitcases, single malt whisky, justice, mercy and Jesus Christ.
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[1] Most notably Iron Maiden and their album, ‘The Number of the Beast’ which was itself influenced by the horror film franchise, ‘The Omen.’
[2] This was explained in Part I but in a nutshell it’s a brand of theology that sees Revelation as predicting some future cataclysmic event.
[3] There are quite a few contrasts in Revelation between what is heard/ said versus what is seen. It seems to be a rhetorical tool. E.g., they heard about a lion and saw a lamb, they heard an army but saw a church of martyrs.
[4] Another trope used widely by metal bands, e.g. Metallica, Aphrodite's Child.
[5] These living creatures represent the animal kingdom, creatures of creation, including humans with the human-faced creature being simply one among the others, alongside the king of the wild beasts (the lion), the biggest of tamed animals (the ox), and the undisputed king of the birds (the eagle). The numerous eyes symbolise watchfulness just like we see in Romans 8. “For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.” (Romans 8:19)
[6] For a history of the fall of Rome see https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Rome-End-Civilization/dp/0192807285
[7] “This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.” Revelation 17:9.
[8] Sourced from: https://lwccyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Nero-666.pdf
[9] Quote from: https://faculty.wts.edu/posts/why-is-the-number-of-the-beast-666/
[10] It was common place for the Emperor to be called, ‘the son of God’ and to be worshipped in cultic activity.