171. Leading Your Ministry as a Dissident Disciple, with Scot McKnight, author of Revelation for the Rest of Us

Spiritual Life and Leadership

If you grew up in the church, you may have spent a lot of time thinking about things like the rapture and the mark of the beast. Or about the Soviet Union’s role in bringing the anti-Christ into the world.
But is that what Revelation is really about? Does Revelation say anything to us today?
Scot McKnight and I discuss his book, Revelation for the Rest of Us--not only what it means to put Revelation in its historical context, but also how Revelation helps us today live as “dissident disciples."
THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Scot McKnight is professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary and author of Revelation for the Rest of Us.
• Scot read a lot of books about the end times when he was a young Christian.
• It wasn’t until he studied Jewish apocalyptic literature while working on his Ph.D. that Scot McKnight began to rethink what Revelation really is about.
• Revelation for the Rest of Us is not exactly a commentary, but it is meant to show us how to read the book of Revelation theologically.
• Scot McKnight explains that Revelation is a first-person account of a series of fantastic visions in which God shows that the suffering people of the world will experience justice, with special focus on the followers of Jesus who are suffering under the Roman Empire.
• Revelation tells us that the suffering people of the world are going to experience justice. And God is not asleep. God will awaken, in a sense, to act in this world to bring justice to those who are oppressed.
• Scot McKnight says the problem that John is addressing in Revelation is Babylon, or Rome, and its corruptions, and the fact that Babylon is creeping into the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3.
• Those who follow the Lamb will by definition become dissidents and resistors to Babylon and its ways.
• Revelation is full of either-or language. The dragon is contrasted with the Lamb. Babylon is contrasted with New Jerusalem. Followers of Jesus are contrasted with those who have the mark of the beast.
• The marks of Babylon include: idolatry, emphasis on opulence, violence and murder, image and branding, militarism, economic exploitation, arrogance.
• Scot McKnight reflects on the ways pastors can lead today in a society that in some ways bears the marks of Babylon.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

• Scot McKnight:
  • Substack articles
  • Twitter - @scotmknight
  • Facebook
• Books mentioned:
  • Revelation for the Rest of Us, by Scot McKnight
  • A Church Called Tov, by Scot McKnight
  • The Second Testament, by Scot McKnight
  • Guide to Survival, by Salem Kirban
  • The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsey
  • Left Behind, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

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