Apocalypse and The Kingdom of God As World-Historical Dialectic

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed..”

What I want to show in this post, is that The Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation is an Apocalypse revealing how the world presently works, and is not a far-away abstraction of something to come. It is something in process and something with a future. This only makes sense when we understand Christ’s sermons on The Kingdom of God which is already planted as a seed on Earth, in conflict with The Beast.

To understand The Apocalypse & The Kingdom of God, we have to first understand Cain, the cursed builder at the beginning of Genesis. After murdering his brother Abel, Cain is condemned to wander the Earth “building cities”, which amounts to “pursuing means without ends”. Cain’s descendant is the “father of music”. Cain and his lineage represent the “work of men’s hands” in alienation and revolt against God. We are all either like Cain, or are forced to participate in the works of Cain.

,,,the kingdom of Heaven has been advancing, but violent men have been attacking it with force (Mtt. 11:12).

In the gospels, Christ’s “Kingdom of God” stands in opposition to Satan’s Kingdom, who was cast down from war in Heaven “like lightning” and now rules the Earth. Christ reveals the things that have been hidden since the beginning of the world by explaining that the Kingdom of God is planted like a seed that is carried forward by the universal community of believers. The Kingdom will come about in a way that will appear mysterious in its development and will only be clear in retrospect after it has happened (Mk 4:26-29).

Christ’s mission in the Gospels is to preach the "coming Kingdom of God”. This is the “good news”, which is the resolution of humanity. The “Lord’s Prayer” specifically prays to make Earth like Heaven, and to reset the debts/debtor relationship. Christ’s sermon on the mount is declaring the conditions of the Kingdom of God, where the “meek will inherit the Earth”. These are material things that will happen on Earth.

The New Heaven and Earth in Revelation is the finalization of this idea, the redemption of Cain’s works and the abolition of man’s labor in vain. The seeds of The Kingdom of God that Christ eludes to will have sprung up. Revelation depicts the New City as descending down from Heaven, as it is something that is not yet comprehensible. This also ties to Matthew when Christ says the Kingdom of Heaven has been advancing, but violent men have been attacking it with force (Matthew 11:12), implying there is a concerted effort to prevent the Kingdom of God.

The book of Revelation is an Apocalyptic revealing of the state of the world as it is, and how the Kingdom of God will emerge despite The Beast’s rule of the Earth. It is about humanity overcoming the system of The Beast and the New Heaven & Earth emerging from a seed as the Tree of Life. Only through consciousness of what The Beast is, does eschatology become possible. It is both a process in motion and a final state to come.

The Apocalypse is on one level, a radical assessment of the inclination of power in the world. The mark on the hand and forehead represents allegiance to the beast in action (hand) and in thought (mind, soul). The mark of The Beast provides the ability to buy and sell because without conformity to The Beast, one is often locked out of the economy. The number of the beast “666” is a reference to Solomon’s tax of 666 gold in 1 Kings, so it represents the symbol of material, commercial, and spiritual corruption inside The Beast. No class of people “rich or poor” are spared, the same people who build the system are eventually imprisoned by it. This can also represent the infinite pursuit of means without ends as seen with Cain in Genesis.

four horsemen of Apocalypse represent a historical process that unravels the Kingdom of God to Earth. Revelation 6 shows the lamb (Christ) breaking the seal which reveals the four horsemen. The first horseman is Christ, who is in conflict with the later three horsemen. In the three horsemen, we find all of the forces of suffering in the world. The four are together because within every conflict or tragedy there is a revelation brought by the white horse.

The Black Horse holds the scales which represent economics and justice, but also the measurement of human meaning, which is the plague of nihilism when broken. This is why the “stars fall from heaven”, as the authority and meaning structure of the world has collapsed. The three together bring the dissolution of all things in the world through violence, corruption and illness. The White Horse reconciles these things as the force of truth in history.

Cain’s cities at the beginning of Genesis return as the New Earth at the end of Revelation, where there is no temple that God is confined to, but God has become universal and his mark is written on the foreheads (mind, soul) of all. Cain’s labors in vain and the curse of wandering is lifted as the old order is erased. The final telos of humanity is realized in the merging of Heaven with Earth. Christ will return, but he is also present where two or more believers are gathered (Matt. 18:20).