Influence of Revelation
Early Church Liturgy
In Otto Piper’s essay, the focus centers on connecting passages from Revelation to liturgy in the early church. His main point shows a relationship between both angelic worship and scripture interpretation as derivatives of John’s theology throughout the whole book. Specifically, its influence can be seen directly in various acts of worship demonstrated before the throne of God; there are 24 Elders3 together with the innumerable multitude4 of people that are shown joining the four living creatures and the angels in the praise and adoration of God. A scene such as this would be considered outlandish compared with the rest of the New Testament, but that is precisely why it is so impactful. There is nothing quite like it, or even anything in the same ballpark. It’s message is very unearthly and highlights the divine nature of Jesus. Nevertheless, there were practical interpretations and applications on earth. Piper interprets the multitude (also the 144,000 sealed) as the total believers in God’s covenants. These believers took part in both angelic worship5 (not alluded to anywhere else in the Bible) and scripture interpretation which was a highly contested issue during the early years of the church. As a result, the theology in the Book of Revelation despite its seemingly inapplicable passages actually played an important part of forming the Church today even if not every practice survived into 2017.
The Branch Davidians
The Book of Revelation paints a harsh picture that sits in direct opposition to the tone of the New Testament. After experiencing a merciful, loving God throughout the Gospels and Letters, it concludes with a fiery depiction of the eschaton that harkens back to severe nature of the Old Testament. Revelation particularly influenced a group known as Branch Davidians, an offshoot sect of Seventh-Day Adventists; they understood Revelation’s teachings in a literal, cult-like manner which actually caused the schism between sects. They believed that in order for Jesus to return on earth, they first must reestablish the actual Kingdom of David in Israel with the “144,000 sealed1.” In order to recreate this Kingdom, they believed an apocalypse of fire would engulf the earth slaying everyone, including other Seventh-Day Adventists, and the only remaining people would be the “...great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples2.” Of course, this innumerable multitude equated to 144,000 believers who will escape apocalyptic death for the Branch Davidians and serve David under his new kingdom. This was the fundamental belief of the Branch Davidians. They interpreted Revelation in an incredibly radical manner inconsistent with the rest of the New Testament. Their belief was very much letter-of-the-law which contradicted the spirit of Jesus message entirely. Nevertheless, the bold proclamations in Revelation 7 resonated heavily and played a large part in their theology. Additionally, a key belief of theirs foretold that fire would not only kill non-sealed peoples, but would also cleanse the 144,000 who were chosen. David Koresh, their leader, took this as grounds to purify his small religious community in Wako, Texas. Consequently, their fire and brimstone belief lead him to lighting their whole compound on fire in hopes of prompting a fiery apocalypse. Unfortunately, this caused the death of 76 followers without any second coming of Jesus.
Sources:
Sources:
- Newport, Kenneth G. C. 2009. "A baptism by fire": The branch davidians and apocalyptic self-destruction. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 13 (2): 61-94.
- Piper, Otto A. 1951. The apocalypse of john and the liturgy of the ancient church. Church History 20 (1): 10-22.