Revelation of John 2 - Reason and Images ...

Thursday, Dec 17, 2009. I have watched the film “The Da-Vinci Code” recently. It is a film about symbols and religious madness, about secret societies fighting each other, killing many people while trying to find or protect the holy grail. And it has many claims about the history of these societies and the history of the church. It is interesting to compare the various claims made in the film with the reality of the bible - and also with this biblical book which we are reading currently, with the revelation.

First of all: What is behind the blossoming fantasy of the author Dan Brown? There is not much substance in it, it is fantasy, not based on any reality. I like people who have a lot of fantasy - and in this sense I like the film, even though its statements are a real nonsense and the film does not show any understanding of the Christian message itself!

It is different with the images in the revelation. They tell the story of the early church in images. For example chapter 12, the woman and the dragon. The woman is the church, the people of faith. A child is given to the woman, it is about to give birth. That is the Christmas story from a different perspective. The dragon is an images for the devil - and he is understood as a reality in the bible. Jesus was persecuted, from early age on to his death at the cross. The fight of the dragon against the woman mirrors the struggle of the early church and the cruel persecutions which have taken place.

One of the things which bother me most is that both the film and our difficulties with the revelation show that our modern education did not provide enough material and training for a sincere understanding of the bible. We develop so many things, we bring people into space, but we are not able provide enough education to understand one of the main books of our culture, the bible.

Knowledge about the images used in the revelation should be general knowledge. We should all know the key facts of our history, should know about the councils of the church and how those biblical books were chosen, which build the canon today. The revelation uses images, but it is a book full of reason and love, full of grace and tenderness in the middle of cruel struggle. We will talk about the images of the river of life. We need to read the images of peace, of the new Jerusalem, where all people are friendly and supportive towards each other, where truth reigns.

There is a lot to do. Our world is full of struggle. There is too much war, too much suppression, too much hunger. We cannot say that the fight would be over, the fight for peace, for truth, for humanity. The real fight continues - and proves the revelation to be correct in its judgment. It combines strong images with a deep, sound and realistic reason! [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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