Justo González on Revelation

"Why is it that a book that for its first readers was a word of comfort causes terror in us? Could it be that our place in the world and in society is very different from the position of those early Christians? Those churches in Asia looked upon the cataclysms announced in Revelation as a metaphor for their final vindication. It is difficult for us today to see things in the same light. Could it be that we have such an investment in the present order that we do not want it to pass away? Could it be that our perspective comes closer to that of 'the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful'? If we really saw and experienced the wickedness of the present order and were among the many who suffer as a consequence of that order would we not see its end with the same joy with which the first readers of Revelation were invited to see it?" (Italics mine)

Justo L. González (1937- )
Theologian and Church Historian