Could the cry "Come out of her My people" (Rev 18:4) not be needed more today than it was when John penned the Apocalypse? The book of Revelation begins and ends with the affirmation that God is the world's true Lord, not Caesar. In telling this story, John lays out for us the fact that Christ's kingdom is not like the kingdoms of the world. The kingdoms of the world rule by force and at the expense of the masses and for the benefit of those in power. Jesus's kingdom, however, comes through love. In Christ's kingdom, power is demonstrated by laying down one's life for one's enemies. Jesus, of course, demonstrated this kind of love on the cross, and he calls us to do the same. We have nothing to fear. After all, Jesus was dead and now he is alive and he has the keys to Death and Hades. Unfortunately, many interpreters have come to believe that the devastation and destruction depicted in the book of Revelation--in particular, in the accounts of the Seven Seals and the Seven Bowls--are God's end-times wrath. But have we ever stopped to consider that this portrait of God is fundamentally at odds with the gospel? And with Jesus's call for us to love one another even as he loved us? The book of Revelation tells a different story.
