S. Michael Wilcox - Who Shall Be Able to Stand?: Finding Personal Meaning in the Book of Revelation

Preface: The Poetic Beauty of Revelation

I have contemplated writing about the book of Revelation for many years. Writing tends to clarify my thinking and organize scriptural insights into a more compact wholeness of truth. I gain the greatest benefits from the exercise. I made a preliminary, general attempt long years ago; it was published, but the taste remained in my mouth, and I couldn't drop the fruit. The book of Revelation has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. As an English major, I have loved symbolism, metaphor, irony, figures of speech, and the mystery of underlying themes. Revelation scratches that literary itch in a most satisfying manner. The Old Testament has an equal fascination, and since Revelation relies so profoundly on the themes and realities of that oldest of books, I was drawn into its mystique and have been a captive ever since.

I have taught about Revelation and the Old Testament for many years, and they never lose their allure. I love to study and teach the other books of scripture too (God never wrote a bad book), but I suppose the Old Testament and Revelation, because of their symbolic, metaphorical nature, will ever hold a certain corner of my heart and mind. I long ago ceased to struggle against their charm and have surrendered completely.

Ecclesiastes' thesis on human vanity ends with the observation, "Of making many books there is no end." (Ecclesiastes 12:12.) Fearing that my own vanity would prove the sage true, I have hesitated to add to the already numerous publications detailing the majesty of Revelation. Each time I thought I had something to offer, another book would appear, or I would feel the timidity of a climber facing the Mt. Everest of scriptural exhortation, and I placed my own musings on the back burner, but I could never quite bring myself to turn the gas off. I could hear its soft, bubbling noises always in the distance. So the years have passed with other publishing projects, yet within the shadows a heart's desire awaited. Finally, with the encouragement of friends, fine editors, and family, the ideas that have lingered in my mind for decades began to push themselves out through my fingertips and onto a keyboard.

Decisions of what to include and what to leave out are painful. As a young man in love never tires of detailing the charms of his beloved's beauty, the graces of Revelation continue to attract me. I have decided not to deal with Revelation verse by verse, as this has been well done already. There are many fine, scholarly approaches from the background of language and other disciplines. It is the book's application to our lives and its poetic beauty that I will try to share. Because Revelation is daunting, I have decided to approach it in a conversational, informal tone. I have concentrated on keeping my thoughts simple, extracting the insights I hope will prove most valuable for everyday life. Obviously those ideas and truths that have come to mean the most to me will find dominance, so I claim no expertise on the totality of Revelationonly the acquaintance of a close friend who has come to treasure certain qualities of character in one with whom many years have been shared in intimate conversation. I write in the hope that those hours of familiarity will prove beneficial to others.

I offer one final note of caution. I recall sitting in an honors Shakespeare class at BYU during my undergraduate studies. The class was taught by Dr. Arthur Henry King, who had one of the keenest minds I encountered at BYU. I felt fortunate to be in his class and somewhat overwhelmed by the brilliance of my fellow students. One day while discussing certain passages in the poetry of Shakespeare, a number of students made strong assertions about their meaning. Dr. King allowed the comments to circulate for some time, then stepped in and explained the passages in such a way that we all realized we had been far too dogmatic and certain of our own interpretations to the exclusion of meaning and insight we had completely missed. Then he taught us one of the most important lessons of my university days. "In some matters," he said, "it is better to be intellectually uncertain rather than superficially sure. This will still leave us with a great deal to be certain about, while maintaining a humility to learn."

The book of Revelation has been dissected by brilliant minds, resulting in commentaries of edifying depth and perception. It has also been used to substantiate a rather large canon of nonsense. We will often need to accept a certain ambiguity about its images and passages. We will have to wait and see how the future plays out the script. Let us avoid being superficially sure about our own private views, allowing our enlightenment to expand as the mind searches and the Spirit directs.

Introduction: The Key

The Lord has often promised that if we would knock, he would open the doors of understanding and knowledge. Our desire to know eternal truth counts heavily with the Lord. The seeker will find, and those who ask will have answers provided. However, the Lord may respond in different ways. Sometimes he grants us an answer directly; at other times he gives us a key, anticipating that we will put it into the lock, turn it, and open the door for ourselves.

I approach Revelation in this manner. We need a key, and the Lord will provide one. A key works by a combination of notches that correspond to the inner workings of the lock. All are needed to open the door. So it is with Revelation, and that is why I prefer to speak of a single key to the book rather than a series of keys or aids in discerning the mind of the apostle when he described his visions. Some symbols will require that we draw upon all the elements of the key to produce the greatest understanding. With this in mind, let us design our key. There may be many other notches on the key than those I will describe, but these first six will be sufficient to help us open the door and take a good look inside.

The Joseph Smith Translation

The first notch is an obvious onethe Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. Joseph Smith made numerous changes within the text of Revelation, greatly clarifying certain images and symbols. For example, he added several complete verses to the twelfth chapter, removing all doubt that the woman radiating the glory of the sun with the moon at her feet and crowned with twelve stars is the Church, and that the child she carries in her womb is the kingdom of God on the earth, or Zion. As our study progresses, we will pay close attention to the changes and additions made by the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Modern Scripture

Scripture is the best commentary on scripture; therefore, the finest commentaries on Revelation have already been written. Other great prophets, such as Nephi, the brother of Jared, and Enoch, were also shown the grand scheme of world history, as was John the Beloved. Nephi was told, "The things which this apostle of the Lamb shall write are many things which thou hast seen." (1 Nephi 14:24.) It is helpful to see which symbol of Nephi's vision, for example, matches those of John. In Revelation, Christ is represented as a slain lamb; in Lehi's dream his symbol is a fruitful tree. In Revelation, a beast, a whore, and a great city fight the Church; in the visions of Lehi and Nephi, this role is played by the great and spacious building. Both sources speak of the apostasy in terms of a harlot. Revelation speaks of billowing smoke from hell that gives birth to the locusts of war; in Nephi's vision, the influences of Lucifer are depicted as a mist of darkness that Nephi comprehends as he witnesses the wars between the Nephites and Lamanites. Enoch hears the earth mourn over the wickedness before the Flood, while John sees the sun clothed in black, like sackcloth, during the opening of the sixth seal. Examples like this are encountered often, and we must pay attention to them, for clarity inevitably follows.