Some things never change

The book of Revelation speaks to very specific people at a very specific time, but the problems it addresses are the same problems today, and so are the solutions. Let us take a look.

The challenges

Pax Romana

The first challenge the Church faced was the Pax Romana — the Roman Peace. It was the promise of paradise that the Roman offered: no civil war, good prosperity and protection.

And the reason for all this was the emperor in Rome who demanded this full loyalty and worship — because he claimed to be the source of it.

The whole society followed this, as everyone hoped to benefit from it, or at least to avoid disadvantages, which led to some group dynamics and an atmosphere of denunciation.

But for Christians there was also another problem:

• All their allegiance and worship is to Jesus.
• The Roman peace was available only to the few who benefited from it, and it was bought with military force and subjugation.

The animosity with the Jews

The Jews, who were supposed to be a core part of the church (not all of Israel accepted Jesus), became more and more enemies of the church as the Jews were blamed by the government for the misbehaving Christians who did not give allegiance and worship to the emperor and even encouraged others to do the same.

The reaction

So what could the church do?

• Some went outside the system and introduced theologies to justify it,
• some went into open opposition and became martyrs
• some tried to find a way in between

And today?

The situation today is not so different. We have wars, slavery, environmental destruction, discrimination, greed and unforgiveness.

Governments, associations, philosophies and others all come claiming to have all the answers and demand your allegiance and get very irritated when people disagree with their agenda. But they all have their flaws.

And the church is in the middle of it, facing different reactions

• Considered irrelevant to the problems of the day
• Confronted with injustices that the church has caused and continues to cause
• Feeling stabbed in the back by others in the church

And the church may wonder what can be done. And the book of Revelation gives some insightful answers to help, which should come as no surprise since the Bible addresses all of these issues:

• We are called to be good stewards of the environment.
• We are called to reconciliation.
• We are called to address the basic problems of human nature, such as greed.

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