These interruptions are called interludes and they perform one key function: they lift the listeners in the seven churches out of the horrors of the dragon and the wild things and Babylon into the heavenly throne room to experience God as the real story behind the story of everything. Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett

big mistake often made by those who read the book literally is thinking that each of the texts captured by John from Israel’s story is to be read as a prophecy and fulfillment of the vision. No, John soaks his visions in the prophets’ words and puts them into a new song, one that plays an octave higher and stronger. Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett

No, in the story of everything, the world is God’s world, time is in God’s hands, history has a beginning, and God guides history toward its divine intention: the new Jerusalem or the kingdom of God. Such a worldview colors one’s perception of every moment and counters every other worldview. Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett

The book of Revelation is about the story of everything, and this is why we say Revelation is cosmic. Its scope is, well, everything. Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett

Militarism is not the way of the Lamb. Instead, the Lamb wins by losing, and his losing liberates others. The Lamb liberates by giving his life, and the Lord wins the battle with the Word, the Logos. Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett

The way of the Lamb is to speak up and about Jesus in the midst of Babylon, come what may. What may come is the Lamb’s way of ultimate witness: martyrdom. Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett

John presents us, as Bruce Metzger once wrote, with the “choice between the power that operates through inflicting suffering, that is, the power of the beast, and the power that operates through accepting suffering, namely, the power of the Lamb.”Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett

It’s easy to follow a fierce lion, but who wants to follow a lamb? The Lamb, they sing, is worthy, not because he headbutted someone off the stage. No, he is worthy because he was slain, and by being slain, the Lamb “purchased” a universal people of God, and they—not Babylon’s lords—will be a “kingdom and priests to serve our God.”Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett