The Book of Revelation—South of the Border
Image source: Wikipedia
March 25-28 I had the opportunity to speak at the Mexico Missionary Reunion gathering at a delightful resort setting in Oaxtepec, Mexico. I had never been South of our border and wondered what awaited me. I was delighted to be able to share with the missionaries and church leaders the discipleship theme emphasized in the Book of Revelation. The men and women were gracious and encouraged me to develop the thoughts and put them in a book.
During one of the breaks one of the Mexican church leaders came up and remarked to me his frustration about dealing with those preachers and teachers who use the newspaper headlines to understand Revelation. I shared with him that one of the analogies I use in evaluating certain approaches to Revelation is the Rorschach Ink Blot tests often used by psychologists. Patients are asked what they see when looking at ink patterns. The blots really do not resemble anything. Indeed, the answers by the patients tell the therapists more about the patient than about the image. I told my brother that many people tend to project their own idea onto biblical texts rather than see what is actually there. At the end of the week as my hosts were driving me to their residence, we drove through the miles and miles of streets of Mexico City and I passed numerous newsstands. I don’t read Spanish but as I glanced at the various headlines I wondered something. If a Mexican preacher used the newspaper headlines and stories in Spanish to understand Revelation and if a preacher from the USA used newspaper headlines and stories in English, would they come to the same conclusions or would they be projecting their own ideas onto biblical texts?
As for me, I continue to project the ideas of the Old Testament onto John’s visions.
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Like most people when i first became a Christian i read Revelation way before i read the OT prophets. Once i studied the prophets i was amazed at how much language John uses from them in Revelation. I think you got the right idea ha.