Revelation Revealed: A Different Kind of Apocalypse

An Introduction to Our Eastertide Journey

---

Revelation Revealed:
A Different Kind of Apocalypse

An Introduction to Our Eastertide Journey

---

I still remember the fear.

I was a young adult soon after I became a follower of Jesus, sitting in a dark sanctuary, watching grainy Left Behind videos that told me God’s plan for the world ended in fire, blood, and abandonment. Revelation was the script. A terrifying one.

I was told this was the “good news.”
But it didn’t feel like good news.
It felt like a weapon.

And when I became a youth pastor, I used that weapon to hurt others.
And that is why I am writing this.

I am one of many, who have been hurt by this toxic theology, and have hurt others. And to the damage I have cause, my deepest apologies.

---

Many of us were handed a version of the Book of Revelation that was traumatic at worst and confusing at best. For some, it was used as a scare tactic. For others, it was simply ignored, too weird, too violent, too… toxic.

If that’s your story, you’re not alone. And you’re not wrong to be cautious.

But here’s the thing:
I love the Book of Revelation.
Not the way it’s been used.
But the book itself.

I’ve taught through it multiple times, slowly, carefully, reverently.
And what I’ve come to believe with my whole heart is this:

Revelation is not about predicting the end of the world.
It’s about unveiling Jesus.

And Jesus is not the destroyer-in-chief.
Jesus is the Lamb.

---

This Eastertide, the Revised Common Lectionary invites us into six weeks of passages from Revelation, each one part of the New Testament reading for the Sundays following Resurrection. That’s a rare opportunity. And I want to take it.

So in this Substack series, Revelation Revealed, we’ll walk through each passage, week by week. Not with charts and timelines, but with open hearts and grounded hope. Not to decode the future, but to discern what it means to live faithfully now. Not to fuel fear, but to cultivate healing.

Because this book, when read through the lens of Jesus, is about faithful resistance in the face of empire, about the triumph of love over domination, and about a renewed creation, not an obliterated one.

And I believe Revelation still speaks to our own weary, wounded world.

---

What Is Revelation, Really?

Revelation’s first word in Greek is apokalypsis, which simply means “unveiling.”

It’s not about hiding truth.
It’s about revealing it.

Specifically, the truth about Jesus, and through Jesus, the truth about the world.

This is a book written by a pastor named John, exiled on the island of Patmos for his faithful witness. It’s a letter. addressed to real churches in real cities under Roman rule. It’s also prophecy, not in the sense of predicting exact events, but in the way prophets always spoke: to challenge injustice, comfort the suffering, and stir people to hope and action.

Yes, the language is strange. The images are wild. The beasts and dragons and blood moons can make us flinch. But underneath all that, Revelation is meticulously crafted, symbol-rich resistance literature.

It’s a cry against empire.
A hymn to the Lamb.
A glimpse of heaven crashing into earth.

---

Why Reclaim Revelation Now?

Because we’re still living in empire.
Because fear-based theology has damaged too many people.
Because our world is aching for justice, renewal, and hope that’s deeper than optimism.
And because the end of the story matters.

Not just the final pages of the Bible, but the story we tell about what God is doing in the world. If we believe that God ends the story with vengeance and violence, we’ll become people who act accordingly.

But if we believe, as Revelation dares to whisper, that the end is a new beginning, a renewed world, where the home of God is with humanity, and every tear is wiped away, then maybe we’ll become people who live like it.

---

What to Expect

Each week of Eastertide, we’ll reflect on a different lectionary passage from Revelation. We’ll explore:

• Revelation 1:4-8 - The unveiling begins: Jesus the faithful witness

• Revelation 5:11-14 - The worship of the slain Lamb

• Revelation 7:9, 14b-17 - The comfort of God with every nation and every tear

• Revelation 21:1-5a - A new heaven and a new earth

• Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 - The city without a temple

• Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 - The final invitation: “Come”

Along the way, we’ll reclaim the symbols:

• The Lamb, not the sword

• The multitude, not the elect few

• The new creation, not escapism

• Babylon and empire, not nations and maps

And we’ll ask how this story shapes our lives here and now: in a world of political idolatries, ecological collapse, and endless war-making.

---

For the Wounded

If Revelation has been weaponized against you, this series is a gentle reclaiming.

If you’ve been told God gives up on the world, let this be a reminder that God moves in with it.

If you’ve lost hope that the Church can be anything more than a gatekeeping institution, come see the gates of the new city, always open.

This is a book for the wounded.
And it tells us: the Wounded One is on the throne.

---

Welcome to Revelation Revealed.

Welcome to Eastertide.

Let’s begin again, with eyes wide open.

---