the time is near

This should be a short post and may also shed a little light on the last one.  At the end of the first 3 verses of revelation we are told that we should take to heart what is written because the time is near.  Without rehashing all that I have already said about how soon is soon I just want to take a quick look at how near this time may be.

As we have already seen, English is a poor language.  The problem with English is that we do not have enough words, so time and again we have to lump numerous meanings into one.  The word time is one of these words, we read it hear in revelation and again the image that it brings tends to be of a short period of time passing until the events mentioned will take place.

To try to find if this is what is being said we need to look at the two Greek words that are translated as time in our bibles, these are Chronos and Kairos.  Chronos which is were we get words like chronicle from and is used by watchmakers world wide to name their brands (Chronoswiss) is a word that depicts a measured piece of time.  In the NT it is used to describe a particular moment for something to happen (Acts 1:6, Lk 1:57). A long time (Matt 25:19) or a short time (Jn 12:35).

Chronos is about time which has passed or time that has not yet happened.  We can only guess how long something will take us in the future and the reality may be very different, and once it's done we cannot change how long it took.  Chronos then is out of our control and it passes by of its own accord, as the sun rises and sets and as the clock ticks away each second.

Kairos though is different, kairos is much more about quality then quantity, it is about what happens in the moment much more than the length of that moment.  Kairos is sometimes translated as age, era or season highlighting the emphasis not on the quantity of the time (days, months, years) but on what takes place within that period.  Paul tells us that Jesus died for us at the right time (Rom 5:6) and in 2 Corinthians 6:2 we are told of the moment of God's favour.

So to revelation.  The writer uses both of these words in the book so we have to take it that he purposefully used a particular word in a particular place for a reason.  In the case of revelation 1:3 the Greek word is kairos so the emphasis is much more about what happens in that moment than the length of time that has to pass.

Smalley probably sums up the emphasis of this verse best when he writes;

"So far as the Christian concept of time is concerned, the decisive 'moment' (kairos) dawned with the coming of Jesus... Because of this advent, an hour of fulfilment has arrived, the rule of God has broken in, and we are summoned to a reaction of repentance and faith.  In the present verse, John reminds his readers that all time is now therefore critical, and that the present as well as the future, and those that live in them, stand under the 'judgement' of God.  The 'moment' is 'approaching'; but it is always pressing in." Smalley, p31

Revelation is a book that reminds its reader that the moment is always approaching, we are always in a place where we need to respond to the good news of Jesus because the Kingdom of God is upon us.  If we new the time and date the danger is we would get lazy, we would play the game knowing when the deadline would arrive and doing that which was necessary just in time.  Revelation keeps us on our toes, telling us the moment is approaching and we should take to hear its words.

apokalupsis iēsou christou

These three words start the book of revelation, translated literally it reads 'revelation Jesus Christ' but is usually translated into English as either 'The revelation of Jesus Christ' (NIV, ESV, NASB, ISV, KJB) or 'A revelation of Jesus Christ' (YLT).  The rest of the first verse tells us that this revelation of Jesus was given to him by God to pass on to his servants and that what is said will take place soon.

To begin with I want to mention something I recently stumbled upon whilst listening to something on the book of revelation and reading the verses again. It seems to be the way these things happen, you read a verse hundreds of times and never see something, then suddenly it hits you and you can't believe you missed it before.  The revelation of Jesus Christ, say it a few times out loud, sounds to me like John is telling us what this vision is about.  A revelation of Jesus Christ, who he is, what he has done, what he is doing and what he will do.  Maybe John, having seen this vision and committing it to text decided to put in its introduction the meaning of what had been revealed to him.  Not a revelation of the end times or a vision of the Armageddon but an unveiling of Jesus Christ.

On a more critical note a closer look at the first word of the book begins to show us some important things. Apokalupsis is only used this once in the entire book of revelation and is one of 18 uses of the word in the NT.  It comes from the word apokalupto which means to reveal, lay bare or uncover.  Keller points out that this word has links to the stripping off of clothes and a look through the LXX shows that the word is used either for the revealing or uncovering of God's truth (1 Sam 2:27, Am 3:7) or the removing of clothes to reveal the naked body or as a euphemism for sexual intercourse (Lv 18:6, Ez 16:36).

The image that comes to my mind is that of the crucifixion accounts where Jesus is stripped of his clothes and hangs dying on the cross.  This though is not defeat but victory, what is happening in this moment is not the end but something much greater. As the physical signs of the temple curtain splitting, the earth shaking and the sky darkening took place something unseen was taking place. Something no one saw but was as real as the gruesome death taking place on that hill.  Maybe that which was unseen, hidden from those who had joined this developing faith needed to hear what had happened.  Maybe that is what revelation is about, the unveiling of what Jesus Christ has accomplished, the revealing of all that has happened so those that believe can stand firm in their faith.