A perspective on apocalyptic biblical literature

The current (March/April 2012) issue of Adventist Today (requires subscription for access) contains a review of a book, Finding My Way in Christianity: Recollections of a Journey, authored by Harold Weiss. The book is the author’s autobiographical journey within the Adventist brand of Christianity. Part of this brand includes fascination with apocalyptic end-time scenarios and the review spends a large portion of its text describing the book author’s change in perspective through his life.

I want to quote excerpts from the review article what I find most relevant to the subject matter of this blog.

For Seventh-day Adventists, Weiss says the books of the Bible that serve as a canon within a canon are “the apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelation. All evangelistic meetings center on the interpretation of these apocalyptic books, which Adventists have always considered to be prescriptive biblical prophecy.”

Having been raised with this emphasis on prophecy, some of Weiss’s earliest
memories include depictions of dreadful beasts and the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, which faithful Daniel and his companions refused to worship. Just as others have expressed concerns about long-established Adventist evangelistic approaches, he too worried that there might be “something manipulative” about how Scripture was construed and conveyed to reap baptisms.

“In her interpretation of the last days,” Weiss chronicles, “Ellen White makes the point that Adventists, along with those who keep the commandments and in particular the Sabbath commandment, will be persecuted by both Catholics and what she designates as apostate Protestantism.” Having enshrined Daniel and Revelation in the Adventist canon within a canon, it is no wonder that Adventist theology speaks with an apocalyptic accent.

Weiss summarizes in three sentences the core take-away message of a typical Adventist evangelistic campaign: “According to the Adventist interpretation of the book of Revelation, a law by the United States Congress supporting observance of Sunday as the Christian day of worship is one day to be established as the Mark of the Beast. Thus, in the large scheme of things, the United States government is to be at that time on the wrong side of the divide between the forces of good and evil. The United States government would renounce the wall of separation between church and state and side with Catholics and Protestants who worship on Sunday, for all practical purposes establishing a state religion.”

These specific words are not among the 28 fundamental beliefs, leaving
progressives to interpret their exclusion to mean they are not fundamental, whereas conservatives insist that they are so fundamental as to render inclusion unnecessary, much like Adventist churches declining to post “No Smoking” signs in Sabbath school classrooms because everyone knows better.

Weiss recalls coming “to terms with the historical roots of apocalypticism,” realizing “that the Adventist approach to apocalyptic interpretation was based on a misunderstanding of the character of these books. As a testament of faith, apocalyptic literature makes perfect sense. As prophetic foretellings of what would happen in the future, at the end of time, the books have been a source of much confusion and hubris of the worst kind: spiritual pride.

Rather than provide frightening details for use in a provocative prophecy poster or PowerPoint slide, apocalyptic literature is “primarily concerned with the affirmation that God’s justice will triumph.” When correctly reading “apocalyptic literature as theology rather than as predictive of the sequence of tragic events preceding the coming of Christ,” eschatology becomes faith in Christ, not faith in chronology.