Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 38:1 (Oct 2024)
Article: "Book Review:" Revelation For The Rest Of Us: A Prophetic Call To Follow Jesus As A Dissident Disciple
Author: Anonymous

Conspectus 38:1 (October 2024) p. 72

Book Review: Revelation For The Rest Of Us: A Prophetic Call To Follow Jesus As A Dissident Disciple

McKnight, Scot, and Cody Matchett. 2023. Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. xiv, 221 pp. ISBN: 978–0–310–13579–1. Approx. 90.23 ZAR (5.00 USD). E-book.

Christians seeking to faithfully follow Jesus amid the Babylons of our modern world will find Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett worthy conversation partners. McKnight, a native of Illinois, is a New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity. His colleague, Matchett, is currently the Scholar in Residence at First Assembly Church in Calgary, Alberta.

Responding to the growing ambivalence to the study of Revelation, which is seen as bizarre and confusing, the authors assert that erroneous readings and interpretations have made Revelation a turn-off to contemporary readers, resulting in the inhibiting of faithful discipleship. Contrary to popular interpretation, Revelation is not a database of prophecies concerning the future. Summoning the followers of Jesus to dissident discipleship, John shows his readers how to live as allegiant witnesses to the Lamb in the Babylon of the Roman empire (and indeed every system that opposes the rule of Christ).

Preoccupation with speculative interpretations about the antichrist, the rapture, and other sensational predictions distract believers from faithfully living in the present, causing an unnecessary focus on predictions of the future. Speculative, futurist readings miss Revelation’s core message of dissident discipleship. Agreeing with Eugene Peterson, the authors assert that Revelation is “not prediction but perception,” (Chapter 1). It reveals the deeper spiritual reality behind the events of the world. Readers are therefore invited to discern and resist the powers of evil.

To understand Revelation, one must understand the context. Occasioned by John’s exile to the Island of Patmos, this prophet wrote to the seven churches in western Asia Minor who were struggling with faithfulness to Christ under the Roman empire which was seen as the “epitome of evil” by Jews and the early Christians. The Roman empire was, to John, the contemporary Babylon, a symbol of the powers of the world that was opposed to God and oppressive to the people of God. The recipients (the seven churches) were to understand it as a message of encouragement and exhortation to dissident discipleship that resists the ways of Babylon and remains devoted to the Lamb (Chapter 2).

Revelation uses apocalyptic imagery and language to reveal a deeper reality and call readers to action. The goal of apocalyptic literature is to stimulate the imagination...