Introduction
Trinitarian theology within the book of Revelation is not at first sight easily recognisable amongst the plethora of images and prophecies that are recorded. The beauty of John’s theology is that the Trinity is deeply embedded in the text so that the reader must dissect the book in order to glimpse the theological beauty that is present. This essay will seek to explore the threads of the Holy Trinity that appear in the book of Revelation by looking at the characteristics of God, the specific Christology of John and the role of the Holy Spirit in the book of Revelation. In looking at each of these three areas as distinct yet overlapping threads I hope to give a succinct and scholastic Trinitarian theology of Revelation.
Characteristics of God in Revelation
According to Woodman, “the presence of God permeates the whole of the book of Revelation…God also features as a character within the narrative…God is presented as the one who lies behind the vision that Jesus communicates to John.” The vision Woodman speaks of originates in the very first verse of the book, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him (emphasis mine).” God is both behind the book as the vision giver, in the book as a character and within the whole narrative as a permeating figure. So, as I look at the characteristics of God it is important to digest this disclaimer that God is in fact in all of the book in some way, shape or form. It is however possible to give three groupings that may help in considering who God is within Revelation, these are:
I. How God is titled e.g. The Almighty, The Alpha and the Omega
II. How God is connected with things e.g. the temple of God
III. God’s being and attributes e.g. how God speaks, his power a...
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...ook of Revelation is not a black and white theological work, but a pastoral and visionary book.
Works Cited
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"Revelation, n. A famous book in which St. John the Divine concealed all that he knew. The revealing is done by the commentators, who know nothing."1 The book of Revelation, the only apocalypse among the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, has always occupied a marginal role within the field of Biblical interpretation. Its bizarre visions of beasts, dragons, plagues, and cataclysms have inspired poets and artists while confounding more traditionally minded scholars for centuries. England in the early seventeenth century proved an exception to this rule. The flowering of apocalyptic exegesis in this period among academic circles bestowed a new respectability on the book of Revelation as a literal roadmap of church history from the time of Christ to the present, and on into the eschaton. The principal writers in this field, including Arthur Dent, Thomas Brightman, and Joseph Mede, have been dubbed "Calvinist millenarians" by modern historiography. They were certainly Calvinist in their views on doctrine, and also in their melioristic vision of England as the consummation of the Reformation, as an elect nation with the potential to recreate the true church of the early Christians. Their intense belief in the imminence of the end of the world, however, along with the mode of interpretation which they applied to the Revelation, reflected trends in Christian thought redirected by Martin Luther, and largely ignored by John Calvin.
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Verstraeten, J. Scrutinising the Signs of the Times in the Light of the Gospel. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2007.
Revelation is the process by which God makes himself known to us. Being that humans are finite and God is infinite, God must take the step to make himself known if humans are to truly understand God in all His majesty (Vandenburg, 2010). There are two ways God makes himself known to us, general revelation and special revelation. Theologians have generally thought, through our contact with nature, we are given the ability to know and interact with God. Nature, as created by God, is an element of general revelation.
Revelation identifies itself as “both an “apocalypse”…and as prophecy”, making it distinctly different from the rest of the New Testament. “Jewish apocalyptic literature flourished in the centuries following the completion of the OT canon”, and it is scattered throughout the Old Testaments in books such as Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. Apocalyptic literature is full of “visions that dramatize the prophet’s admission to God’s heavenly council”, and convey their meaning primarily through symbolism. John brings a “balanced message of comfort, warning, and rebuke” in Revelation, testifying to the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus Christ. Apart from the OT literature, Revelation shows a distinct optimism toward the end of days, for “Christ’s death has already won the decisive victory over evil”, with the Kingdom of God already among believers. This book was written in “approximately A.D. 95 on the island of Patmos”, which is still standing to this day. It was written under the emperor Domitian, with Roman authorities exiling John “to the island of Patmos (off the coast of Asia)”. The events in Revelation are also “ordered
“The Mosaic Revelation, as compared with the cosmic revelation, represents a great advance in the knowledge of the true God; but it represents, nevertheless, nothing more than a stage” (Danielou, 121). This revelation reveals to us the term Trinity of Persons. The trinity of Persons is the mystery of God. The trinity is composed of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three elements of the trinity are also seen as one. The oneness in three opens the door for the mystery in Christianity.
Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. 2nd ed. New York City, NY: HarperOne, 2010.