The Text of chapter twenty is in process, and will be posted soon. Please check back!

Chapter twenty of this Creative Apocalypse is quite strange and difficult to understand. While I generally eschew the perspective that puts the majority of this Book as events to occur one day in the future, there does come a point that one ought to ask such questions. With such highly symbolic language dominating the Writing, it is easy to understand why disagreements arise when looking at John's vision. Looking at it through the lens of identity can help us to ask some important questions about the Text: who are we, where are we going, and to who or what do we belong? What truly matters to us when considering the face of death before us? This is the beauty of contemplating death: we are forced to reconcile our values with our lived experience. We all say that we hold to certain ideals, but what do they matter when considering our ultimate demise? Moreover, many purport to believe in giving an account for what they've done with their life, so how does this belief square with our day-to-day actions?

This topic is so hard to face because of our collective uncertainty of what will occur when we die. Despite the countless religious/spiritual perspectives on this matter, there seems to be no uniform testimony as to what happens beyond the grave. Are rewards and punishments to be doled out, or is it pure cessation of being? No one can answer this for sure, but the early followers of Jesus insisted that He had returned from the land of the dead, and that He brought Good News back with Him. These final sections of the Book include part of that Testimony. Can one rely upon the eye witness' testimony regarding the resurrection of Jesus? Generally, there is no reason to not think of the New Testament as a trustworthy historical account of what Jesus said and did, and so I find this to be encouraging in this regard. Death is no longer to be feared, and it is the final enemy to be conquered, even if we have no idea as to how to defeat it.

Now, we are left with some more bone-chilling imagery which perhaps adds to some of our anxieties regarding the "afterlife." The "unholy trinity" is thrown into a lake of fire, and then we have two distinct resurrections that will apparently occur after two different thousand year periods. It is all bewildering, to put it mildly. I take this flurry of activity to say this: the powers of evil will be vanquished, even if there is quite a bit of difficulty in getting there. The assurance we have from this testimony is that the eventuality of this Revelation will come to pass. Anyone claiming to have a timeline of such events, replete with details about how and when all this occur is not a source to be trusted. Even Jesus Himself claimed to have no knowledge of such things. We always do well to follow in His footsteps and choose humility when it comes to the unknown. I hope this Text urges us to seriously consider how our actions affect one another both now and forever, but may these Writings never be source of anxiety for any sincere seekers!