He's been studying a book by Michael Gorman titled Reading Revelation Responsibly. He suggests that taking the book as a whole instead, with the Lamb of God as the central figure helps us to better understand the violent imagery including God's wrath and judgement.
Maybe if we can begin to get our heads around the apparent conflict between God's love and wrath by looking at this final book of the Bible, then there might be some reconciliation between the God of the Old and New Testaments.
Beck concludes his blog post with these observations:
And yet, we shouldn't rob God of God's rage in the process. In our worries about others misinterpreting the "war of heaven" we shouldn't turn God into milquetoast. We need to allow God's rage to meet our own. Otherwise, Christianity loses its eschatological character and reduces to a bland form of liberal humanism.
Yes, this is a balancing act. If the rage of God is separated from the Agnus Dei we have some problems, problems conservative Christians often succumb to. But on the other side, liberal Christians are tempted to temper the rage of God, almost as if they are embarrassed that God actually cares about evil in the world.
To be biblical, we need both sides of the equation.
We keep the Agnus Dei firmly in view. And we allow God to rage.
Amen!
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