Does God Delight in Violence? A Fresh Look at the Love of God in the Book of Revelation

Introduction

The book of Revelation and licorice often receive the same response—people either love it or hate it. ¹ And those who detest the apocalypse typically point to its violent imagery as the primary reason for their response. ² Revelation contains more violent images than any other New Testament book, beginning with the four horsemen of the apocalypse, moving through the remainder of the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments, and culminating in images of final judgment. Sprinkled along the way we see the two witnesses spewing fire that devours their enemies before being killed themselves. We hear of a dragon plotting to murder a woman, two diabolical beasts and torment for those who follow them, the great winepress of God’s wrath, along with the abominations of Babylon and the destruction of the great city. We read of wars, swords, the fiery lake, and eternal torment. It’s not the kind of book you want to read to your five-year-old before bedtime unless you like dealing with nightmares.

Some scholars concur and for this reason have trouble finding the love of God in the book of Revelation. For example, American philosopher C. S. Peirce laments about the Bible and Revelation in particular:

Little by little the bitterness increases until in the last book of the New Testament, its poor distracted author represents that all the time Christ was talking about having come to save the world, the secret design was to catch the entire human race, with the exception of a paltry 144,000, and souse them all in brimstone lake, and as the smoke of their torment went up for ever and ever, to turn and remark, “There is no curse anymore.” Would it be an insensible smirk or a fiendish grin that should accompany such an utterance? I wish I could believe that St. John did not write it. ³

Feminist scholar Tina Pippin notes that “the irony of the grotesque burning of the Whore is that the Christian utopia is itself an oppressive world [for women] . . . But in the Apocalypse narrative, gender oppression is left untouched by the sword of God.” ⁴ Revelation, according to Pippin, is a “misogynist fantasy” that “means death to women.” ⁵ Friedrich Nietzsche characterized Revelation as “the most rabid outburst of vindictiveness in all recorded history.” ⁶ Greg Carey concludes that Revelation seems to attribute violence directly to God and to Jesus and may even foster a desire for violence among its audience. ⁷ I could go on, but you get the idea. How can we understand Revelation to promote the love of God in the face of such violent imagery?

Reading Revelation Responsibly

A large part of the answer lies in how we should read Revelation. But let’s begin with how not to read Revelation. One of the most common approaches among evangelicals over the past few decades is represented by the popular Left Behind series, which attempts to read Revelation in a literalistic manner, and this includes the book’s violent imagery. And since, according to Loren Johns, nearly half of all evangelicals living in the US claim to have read some part of the series, there is little doubt that Left Behind theology has shaped how the average evangelical reader views Revelation. ⁸ For Left Behind authors LaHaye and Jenkins and their sympathetic readers, God uses violence to teach people a lesson. The Bible prescribes such violence and that’s all that matters. We are to understand God’s love primarily as his wrath. Case closed. Here are some excerpts about the image of the sword coming from Jesus’s mouth described in Revelation 19. These come from book twelve in the series, entitled Glorious Appearing: The End of Days. They don’t say the sword literally comes from Jesus’s mouth, but as you will hear, the effects of this invisible sword on unbelievers are still quite literal:

“Tens of thousands fell dead, simply dropping where they stood, their bodies ripped open, blood pooling in great masses” (12:204). And with every word from Jesus, “more and more enemies of God dropped dead, torn to pieces . . . The living screamed in terror and ran about like madmen—some escaping for a time, others falling at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ” (12:205). “For miles lay the carcasses” (12:205). Jesus’s word “continued to slice through the air, reaping the wrath of God’s final judgment” (12:208). “Splayed and fileted bodies of men and women and horses” lay everywhere in front of Jesus, who “appeared—shining, magnificent, powerful, victorious” (12:208). “Tens of thousands of foot soldiers dropped their weapons, grabbed their heads or their chests, fell to their knees, and writhed as they were invisibly sliced asunder. Their innards and entrails gushed to the desert floor, their blood pooling and rising in the unforgiving brightness of the glory of Christ” (12:226). “They screamed and fell, their bodies bursting open from head to toe at every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord” (12:286). “And Jesus killed them all, with mere words” (12:258). ⁹ Very sharp words.

Wow! You can understand Johns’s conclusion that “the theology of the Left Behind series is more than a dangerous distortion of the gospel; it is a rejection of the gospel.” ¹⁰ For although LaHaye and Jenkins say the sword represents Jesus’s word, it seems to depict an invisible physical sword that quite literally slices unbelievers to death. And let’s be honest, to hide behind calling them novels simply won’t do since the average reader doesn’t read them as novels but as nonfictional descriptions of how things will really happen. ¹¹ In taking the violent imagery literally, they have transformed the meaning of these metaphors into something quite out of step with the rest of the book’s message as we will see.

Thankfully, the vast majority of evangelical scholars do not read Revelation’s violent imagery in a literalistic way. For example, they would understand the sword from Jesus’s mouth to represent his word (rather than simply depicting an invisible sword). This word does bring God’s judgment of and triumph over evil, but I think Dana Harris is right to say that “Revelation redefines violent images altogether.” ¹² Jesus judges and conquers through his life, teachings, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and return, rather than through gory physical violence. As a result, this kind of metaphorical language does not have to have a violent meaning or referent. It’s helpful to make a distinction between the literary world and the actual world here. Paynter reminds us that “not all the violence we encounter in the literary world of Revelation maps to actual violence in an actual future world. Violence in the literary world can have a nonviolent rhetorical effect in the actual world of the seer’s original readers—and his twenty-first century ones.” ¹³

Harris notes two approaches to reading Revelation’s imagery. ¹⁴ The first sees the image as symbolic and descriptive of some actual reality (e.g., the slain Lamb represents the crucified and resurrected Jesus). The second concludes that such images do not necessarily represent some literal equivalent but create new ways of seeing reality by transforming the reader’s imagination. One thing is depicted as something else (e.g., 3:12—Jesus will make the victor a pillar in God’s temple). Although I understand the difference between these two approaches to metaphor in theory, they are very closely related in practice, especially when we consider the multiple metaphors of Revelation and the overall message they communicate. ¹⁵ Nevertheless, we suggest that metaphors of violence must be interpreted in light of metaphors of love and cannot simply read on their own apart from the larger context. Bauckham spells it out when he contends that the Lamb conquers, though not by force of arms, and followers do share in that victory, though not by violence. ¹⁶ He says, “Revelation makes lavish use of holy war language while transferring its meaning to non-military means of triumph over evil . . . . There is no place for real armed violence, but there is ample space for the imagery of armed violence . . . . The message is not, ‘Do not resist!’ so much as, ‘Resist—but by witness and suffering, not by violence.’” ¹⁷

When considering metaphors of violence, it also helps to make a distinction between human violence and divine justice, the latter being God’s consistent response to human violence and injustice. ¹⁸ Miroslav Volf reminds us of this important distinction: “Preserving the fundamental difference between God and nonGod, the biblical tradition insists that there are things that only God may do.” ¹⁹

Divine justice is an essential attribute of God and leads to his judgment of human sin and violence. Harris writes, “Whereas goodness, holiness, and justice and I would add, love, are essential characteristics of God, God’s wrath and judgment are not, but are instead divine responses to human sin.” ²⁰ I’m reminded here of Lewis’s conclusion in The Great Divorce, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.” ²¹

Stevenson notes two essentials that make God’s judgments just: (1) there is a direct relation to crime committed, and (2) the element of choice—the delay of God's judgment gives opportunity for salvation to the oppressor. Their choice to reject God’s love by continuing in rebellion highlights the justice of judgment. ²²

Reading Revelation responsibly also means employing a host of interpretive guidelines spelled out in most of the standard evangelical hermeneutics textbooks. These include, for example, taking the literary genre of prophetic-apocalyptic seriously, grasping the historical context and discovering the message to the original readers rather than skipping over them to get to us, paying attention when John identifies an image, looking to the OT and to historical context when discerning the meaning of images, and focusing on the main theological message in each passage. ²³

A responsible reading of Revelation helps us see that God does not delight in human violence. Revelation uses imagery to shape our imagination and redefine what some people, rapture fiction writers included, mean by images of warfare, conquering, ruling, and the like. This certainly seems to be the case when it comes to the love of God as we will see. We turn our attention now to sketching the theme of God’s love throughout the book. It is important to consider how images of God's love counter images of human violence. We begin with the central character.

The Love of the Triune God in Revelation

The Love of Jesus in Revelation

Although some popular readings want to make Revelation primarily about the rapture or the Antichrist or Armageddon or another end-times issue, this book is primarily about Jesus. From start to finish it is the “revelation of/from Jesus Christ” (1:1). Richard Hays notes that Revelation “deploys a kaleidoscopic profusion of imagery to depict its chief protagonist.” ⁴¹ We could spend the entire article and many others reflecting only on the person and work of Christ in Revelation. Here we touch on a few of the main ways that God’s love is poured out in and through his Son.

First, the theological foundation that Revelation emphasizes over and over is that Jesus Christ is one with God. Bauckham describes Revelation’s “extraordinarily high Christology” as “What Christ does, God does.” ⁴² Using connections to the Old Testament, divine names and titles, allusions to his deity, throne-room visions, worship scenes, divine roles, and much more, Revelation highlights Jesus’s oneness with the Father. This means that we can expect to see the Father’s love incarnated in the Son. Love comes to the rescue! Love gets involved!

Second, within an inclusio of grace in 1:4 and 22:21, we see Jesus demonstrating his love for his bride chiefly through his pastoral presence among the churches, his redemptive work as the Lamb of God, and his life-giving presence with them in the new creation.

John is commissioned to record his vision and send it to the seven churches (1:11). The words of the risen Christ (2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14), mediated to the sevenfold church by the Spirit (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22), are loving words—healing, challenging, rebuking, encouraging, comforting, warning, reminding, and so on. We are told in the opening greeting that the Lamb “loves us and has freed us from our sins” (1:5). He tells the church in Philadelphia that he will make their enemies acknowledge that he has loved them (3:9), and he reminds the Laodicean church that his discipline flows out of his love (3:19). ⁴³ At the close of the book, Jesus says, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches” (22:16). Love is present and love speaks.

Third, God the Son demonstrates the love of God supremely through his work as the Lion-Lamb. In chapter 5 the Lion of Judah is deemed worthy to take the scroll and unfold its judgments against evil. But after hearing about the mighty Lion, John turns to see the slain Lamb standing at the center of the throne (5:6). According to Bauckham, it is “precisely by juxtaposing these contrasting images, that John forges a symbol of conquest by sacrificial death.” ⁴⁴ Thomas and Macchia conclude, “The vulnerable Lamb does not simply qualify our understanding of the ferocious Lion but is rather the lens through which the Lion’s acts are to be understood. The God who is victorious over the dragon and the beast has won through the exercise of wounded love.” ⁴⁵ “Above all,” says Flemming, “God’s love is embodied in the slaughtered Lamb.” ⁴⁶ Mixing metaphors, we see that the Lamb is also the Shepherd who cares for and leads his people to springs of living water (7:17). Love sacrifices!

Fourth, Jesus, the Lamb of God, is also the faithful witness (1:5-6; 3:14), firstborn from the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth (1:5a) who “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” (1:5b-6). His love leads to his sacrificial death (cf. Rev. 5:6, 9, 12; 7:14; 12:11; 13:8), and the outcome of his atoning death is liberation and formation for God’s people. Later, the living creatures celebrate the Lamb’s redemptive work: “You are worthy . . . because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons . . . You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (5:9-10). Love redeems and restores, frees and forms (14:3-4).

Finally, love also resurrects and provides eternal life in God's presence in the new creation. Love’s future surfaces prominently in the promises to the victors in the seven messages (e.g., 2:7, 11; 3:4-5, 11-12, 21). We also see the promised future in the celebrations of God’s victory in chapters 5, 7, 11, 12, 14-15, 19-22. This future includes resurrection, victory over the forces of evil, marriage to the Lamb, and eternal life and worship in God’s presence. What stands out is that the primary metaphor used to describe this eternal state of relational love is the marriage of the Lamb to his bride, the church (19:7, 9; 21:2, 9-21). We are not simply the Lamb’s subjects or disciples or worshippers; we are his bride. Let that sink in. I could easily expand this paragraph into several additional articles. Now we consider the love of God the Spirit.

The Love of the Spirit in Revelation

We also see the love of God revealed, albeit in a more subtle fashion, in Revelation’s theology of the Holy Spirit. ⁴⁷ Although the phrases “Holy Spirit” or “the Spirit of God” never occur in the book, the Spirit does appear throughout and plays a surprisingly significant role. He is a fully engaged member of the triune Godhead in John's apocalypse. ⁴⁸ The opening greeting in 1:4-5 comes from “him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ . . .” The placement of “seven spirits” in the list sends a trinitarian message as God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son provide grace and peace for believers. Again in 22:16-19, the Spirit is placed between the two other members of Godhead (Jesus in 22:16, Spirit in 22:17, and God in 22:18-19). Wilson concludes, “The second trinitarian sandwich in chapter 22 (cf. also 22:1) with worship directed at all three members sustains the interpretation that the ‘seven Spirits’ of 1:4 is a Johannine locution for the Holy Spirit.” ⁴⁹

The Spirit’s love appears through his work in and among God’s people, through his prophetic ministry, and through his work as the eschatological Spirit, linking the “now” with the “not fully” of God’s kingdom.

First, Revelation 2-3 reminds readers that Jesus is not only crucified and risen but also present by his Spirit with his people. Jesus walks among the churches, comforting, warning, strengthening, and encouraging. In short, loving. Yet every message concludes with the exhortation, "Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (2:7, 11, 17, 29: 3:6, 13, 22). What Christ says, the Spirit says. The Spirit’s active work among his people and in the world is also confirmed by his location or position “in front of/before the throne” (ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου; cf. 4:5; 5:6; Zech. 4). ⁵⁰ As God’s empowering presence, the Spirit goes forth to work in this world. Interestingly, the great multitude (7:9, 15) and the 144,000 (14:3) are also located before the throne, highlighting the Spirit’s role of working in and through God’s people. Love is present, doing what love does!

Second, perhaps the Spirit’s greatest act of love for his people flows directly from his essential nature as the Spirit of life. We see this when the “breath or Spirit of life from God” (πνεῦμα ζωῆς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ) reverses the beast's death curse on the two witnesses (i.e., the witnessing church) by raising them from the dead. Osborne is probably correct here to note that πνεῦμα ζωῆς carries a double meaning—the life-giving Holy Spirit who gives resurrection life. ⁵¹ In addition, various images such as the “seven blazing lamps” (4:5) and the “water of life” (7:17; 21:6; 22:1-5, 17) also convey the reality of the Spirit’s life-giving work among God's people. ⁵² Love brings life!

Third, the Spirit also carries out a prophetic ministry in this world, a ministry of speaking the truth in love. To begin with, John's Spirit-given vision becomes the book of Revelation, communicating God’s will and plan to his people. De Smidt notes that the Spirit lifts the thin veil between this physical world and the unseen spiritual world and displays to John “in a unique state of personal visionary consciousness, the spiritual world from his place in the physical world.” ⁵³ As John says in 19:10, “the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of the prophecy” (19:10), ⁵⁴ meaning that “the testimony that Jesus is speaking to the churches is the same message that the Holy Spirit is speaking through the rest of the prophecy in Revelation.” ⁵⁵ The Holy, prophetic Spirit comforts, encourages, rebukes, warns, and disciplines through this prophecy. Love communicates.

Fourth, the prophetic Spirit also empowers his people to be faithful witnesses. We see this chiefly in Revelation 11, where the Spirit empowers the two witnesses (i.e., the whole people of God) in their Spirit-empowered prophetic mission. ⁵⁶ Bauckham notes that Zechariah 4:1-14 “lies behind not only the four references to the seven Spirits but also the description of the two witnesses in 11:4” and serves as “the key Old Testament passage for John’s understanding of the role of the Spirit in the divine activity in the world.” ⁵⁷ We do not have a specific sermon manuscript of the witnesses but it must have dovetailed nicely with Old Testament prophetic emphases and the teachings of Jesus. Theologically, their message had to move beyond Your Best Life Now or the beast would not have killed them. As chapter 11 makes clear, with the Spirit’s message comes the Spirit’s power to engage in spiritual battle, call for miracles, speak the testimony of Jesus, and stay faithful unto death. Love fights the good fight.

Fifth, the Spirit plays a prominent role in God loving his people toward their future in the heavenly city. We see another trinitarian reference in 7:17 as God shepherds, nourishes, and comforts his pilgrim people—the Lamb at the center of the throne shepherds them, the Spirit, likely represented by the image of living water, nourishes them, and God comforts them by wiping away every tear from their eyes. Living water as a symbol of the Spirit appears several times in the book (7:17; 21:6; 22:1-5, 17). ⁵⁸ As 22:1-5 makes clear, the “river of the water of life” flowing from God’s throne depicts the Spirit, now bringing eternal life to God’s people in the new creation. In addition, images of glory and light in the description of the New Jerusalem also likely signify the Spirit’s presence (e.g., 21:11, 23; 22:5). Finally, in the book’s epilogue, most of the imperatives in 22:17 are naturally taken to refer to the Spirit and the church calling the nations to come to Christ. Love shepherds, nourishes, and comforts his people on their promised land journey.

Finally, there are also probable allusions to the Spirit's eschatological work in the metaphors of being “purchased” (14:4; cf. 5:9; 14:3), “firstfruits” (14:4), and the “seal” of God (7:2, 3, 4, 5, 8; 9:4). In 7:1-8 and 14:1-5, we encounter the 144,000 who have been marked with the “seal of the living God,” “purchased” or redeemed from among mankind, and offered as “firstfruits” to God and the Lamb. They are arrayed in battle formation in chapter 7 but in chapter 14 they are standing with Jesus on Mount Zion singing a new song celebrating God’s victory and deliverance. These images of purchase, firstfruits, and God’s seal appear elsewhere in the New Testament as images connected to the Spirit’s work of linking the now and the not yet, and such is likely the case in Revelation as well (e.g., purchase—1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14; 4:30; 2 Pet. 2:1; firstfruits—Rom. 8:23; 2 Thess. 2:13; seal—2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30). God’s love is an eternal love!

Conclusion

In our brief look at the love of God in Revelation in light of the book’s violence, we have noted some important issues and come to some conclusions. First, there is no need to pretend that the book of Revelation doesn’t contain violent imagery; it does. Revelation is a war story, and the language of battle permeates the book. ⁵⁹ Second, we need to take the context seriously, both the historical and literary context, and especially the nature of imagery in prophetic-apocalyptic literature. We should be consistent in how we read images rather than taking some literally (often the violent images) and some metaphorically (often the more positive images like lamb or bride). Third, and related, Revelation redefines “violent” imagery (e.g., the Lion-Lamb). Counterimages of God’s love reshape and transform other images in this story. We can’t be selective and focus on one set and downplay or ignore the counterimages. The biggest problem when it comes to dealing with violent imagery is selective reading.

Fourth, we’ve noted the important distinction between human violence and divine justice. Divine justice is necessary or else evil wins, which is a victory for violence. Divine justice is God confirming the human and demonic judgments already made about God and his people, judgments that grow out of rebellious hearts. Fifth, we must define “love” biblically rather than adopting a worldly equation of love with wishful thinking or sentimentality or self-centered license. Sixth, we must pay attention to what is not mentioned or is under emphasized. For example, none of the battle scenes describes an actual physical battle. When the kings of the earth confront the Lamb in 17:14, we are told that the Lamb conquers simply because he is the King of kings and Lord of lords. The “armies of heaven” in 19:14 do not fight, they simply follow. In Revelation, God’s people are never called upon to defeat evil through human violence.

Seventh, Revelation makes it clear that God is extremely patient before bringing justice, to the point that the martyrs cry out, “How long until you judge our persecutors?” (6:10). Here we have a window into God’s heart of not wanting anyone to perish (2 Pet. 3:9). Eighth, we should also note Revelation’s role as the canonical capstone, the final chapter where the whole salvation project is brought to completion. As Harris reminds us, “In this canonical context, Revelation presents God’s just and final response to human sin and his ultimate purpose of restoration and the eradication of evil.” ⁶⁰ In order to bring final restoration, God's love calls for final justice. Ninth, we have seen in looking at the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit that divine love is a trinitarian love. Jerry Wall observes that “the extraordinary claim that God exists in three persons who are forever going forth to each other in a relationship of mutual giving is the deepest ground of the conviction that nothing is more fundamental or powerful then love.” ⁶¹ Ten, this sentence functions as point number ten, since ten is way more apocalyptically cool than nine.

If time would allow, we could discuss how we should live in light of God's love spelled out in Revelation, but I leave you with a few of the ways Revelation conveys the love of God. In Revelation . . .

- Love creates and recreates.

These are personal, relational qualities of the God who is love. He wants us to turn to him and turn away from poor god substitutes (repent). He wants us to trust him (believe) and to continue to trust him when the brokenness of this world threatens (endure). And he wants us to go public (witness). In the end, he wants us to respond to God's first love with a return love of wholehearted devotion (1 John 4:10, 19). ⁶²