Meditations on Politics from Revelation

I haven’t posted in a hot minute so I figured I’d take the opportunity to get some of my thoughts out on paper. There’s been something I’ve been thinking about the past few days and I think it’s something we all need to hear and take to heart. I’ve slowly been re-working my way through Peter Leithart’s two volume Revelation commentary (would recommend!) and I’ve made my way to chapter 13 and John’s vision of the beast from the sea and beast from the land. Now, the following thoughts rely heavily on a preterist understanding of Revelation, i.e. that Revelation is primarily concerned with events in John’s near future, happening in the events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD70, a view that I don’t have room to defend here in this post, but can be done later if there is interest. Even if you disagree with Leithart and I on the direct referent of John’s visions, the application I want to draw is still salient so please stick around for that.

Leithart argues that the sea beast is Rome, specifically a Rome that is satanically inspired to begin persecuting the church, a shift from how we see Rome generally acting towards the church in Acts. He also argues that the land beast is some combination of the Herods, high priests, and unbelieving Judaism. I might detail his reasoning elsewhere but for now I’ll leave it at that. And so in Revelation 13 we see an unholy alliance between unbelieving Jews and the Romans to persecute the fledgling church; envy, greed, and hunger for power coalescing together to drive them to attack Christians, a filling out of what they cry during Jesus’ trial before Pilate: We have no king but Caesar! And now Leithart in his own words, discussing in the section leading up to this quote the mark of the beast and what the direct historical referent might be:

“The swipe is there regardless: Even if there is no reference to the commune, John still says that the land beast makes the land and those who dwell in it worship the sea beast. The background Caird provides sharpens an irony that is there in any case. Some of the leading priests of Israel become advocates of empire, little different from the local priests of the imperial temples.”

The unbelieving leaders of Israel, by allying themselves with Rome over and against Christians, had in essence become “advocates of empire” similar to the pagan priests and priestesses of the imperial emperor worship cultus. This is a staggering claim to make but it is borne out throughout the text of the gospels, Acts, and ultimately the text of Revelation itself. Those who falsely claim to be Jews are actually a “synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9 and 3:9), the locust scorpions torment those who dwell in the land and Leithart makes the argument that this represents the heresy of Judaizing that Paul so clearly refutes in Galatians, and ultimately we see the land beast get its power from the sea beast who gets its power from the dragon himself, Satan. There is much much more to be said on this and the rest of Revelation but I don’t want to get too far afield. Now to application.

We live in quite the historical time period. The internet only exacerbating countless issues that face us (I’m thinking primarily of the US since that’s where I’ve lived my whole life but this applies to every country). And Christians have various responses to those issues and various thoughts on the solutions to those issues. One issue I have seen from my own side, being a conservative, is a quite honestly idolatrous infatuation with Trump. I myself am not really a fan of Trump and have quite a few things I don’t like about him, but even if you do like him, you have to admit that the “Trump can do no wrong” crowd of evangelicals is concerning, even if only because it shows a wild disregard for any kind of consistent logical thought, although there are many other reasons. It displays, among other things, an idolatrous regard for the State. That somehow national salvation will be found in presidents and legal processes. This cannot be maintained. It is not only clearly unbiblical, but, through the lens of Revelation, it is in fact satanic. If we aim to cooperate with the State in such a way that we neglect the commands of Scripture; if we use unequal weights and measures, biased judgments, to judge if someone is good or bad; if we become, to use Leithart’s phrase, an “advocate of empire”, we have lost the plot. Insofar as we give vent to our envious, selfish, power hungry grasping for State control to seek personal vengeance, John’s vision reveals that we are being actuated by satantic power. Such is not the way of the Kingdom of God.

Then what is? What is the solution? Where is the US’ hope found? Nowhere else but the throne of God. Nowhere but the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our only hope is faith and repentance. Not power, not vengeance, not “owning the libs”, but the cross. We cannot ally ourself with Rome, with an evil and unbelieving State, and hope to bring in the righteousness of the Kingdom. We must call the State (and every other person) to faith and repentance. Repent and believe the gospel! Seek His face and live! He will turn away none that come to Him. He is our living hope. Christ is Lord, and Caesar is not. Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.