If you want to pastor faithfully in the midst of cultural and political turmoil, then consider teaching through the book of Revelation.
Modern evangelicals tend to have an allergic response any time someone brings up Revelation’s significance for “the times we live in.” Don’t worry. I’m not about to suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, that a particular politician is the harlot of Babylon, or that the locusts of Revelation 9 are really Apache helicopters. I didn’t grow up reading Left Behind, but I’ve seen my share of “biblical” apocalypse movies. I’m not interested in following those sensationalized readings of Revelation.
If you’ve got a newspaper in one hand and Revelation in the other, you’re probably seeing things in Scripture that simply aren’t there. Revelation isn’t a play-by-play of 21st century American politics. In short, if you want Revelation to inform your understanding of our culture’s crises, don’t get Left Behind.
At the same time, modern evangelicals can learn something from previous generations’ preoccupation with apocalyptic literature. After all, God gave us Revelation to challenge our temporally-obsessed, earthly perspective of the world. It lifts our eyes beyond political powers, pandemics, elections, and economic crises to
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