Reading Revelation, Part II

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The second major revelation in studying Revelation is that the primary (first, at least chronologically) audience are Christians living in the Roman Empire under intense, real, imminent persecution. When John mentions beheadings, he's not exaggerating.

I am reading Ten Caesars by Barry Strauss, having heard him interviewed on Jonah Goldberg's podcast and becoming interested in it. Those emperors had little compunction about killing their own family members if it meant protecting power and "legacy," so they would have had nonexistent concern about executing cult followers who they believed rebelled against the Roman order.

Marytrs (with the double meaning of "witnesses" and "those who were executed for the gospel") is a significant word in Revelation and they have a prominent place in heaven and the millennial kingdom. John is saying, "Things are bad; know you will be redeemed, vindicated, defended, avenged in the age of come. God does not look lightly on the oppression of His people, and really on the oppression of any people." The oppressors are the judged; those who are judged did not help the persecuted and probably participated in it.

Our identity is in Christ and with Christ.

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