Revelation 1:1-8: The Nature of Witness

Rocky: Yeah, and what about the fact that the writer identifies Jesus, among his many other titles, as "the faithful witness." The act of marturia is ascribed to the Lord himself, the lamb, firstborn from the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth.

Landon: In our "First Thoughts" post you wrote:

It makes me think of a seminary professor I had who lamented the utter lack of "witness" as a practice among contemporary churches of all stripes. I used to counter her assertion by pointing out that modern evangelical churches expect their members to be able to talk about their faith in a way that will make them unpopular, like at work and in public. Is that the same thing?

I think I have to agree with your professor that this isn't happening, and I would probably disagree that this is synonymous with the evangelical impulse to be unpopular. I would contend that the unpopularity of the evangelical has more to do with the absurdity and offensive tenor of their proclamation.

I have not been around this kind of attitude in a long time, but I experienced it last year when I was talking to an Assemblies of God woman who worked at a local Roman Catholic university. She used the language of feeling "persecuted" for her faith, etc. See, so often the modern (especially evangelical) notion of "martyrdom" has more to do with the martyr than the faith for which the martyr is...well...martyred.

To be honest, I, myself, try to make them see how absurd so many of their faith claims are because dissonance is the surest way to grow. That's what happened to me. No one cared when I made the claim that "my faith and my savior are better than yours or your lack thereof." Where it started getting sticky was when I began making the claim that Jesus doesn't want you to have that new SUV because you're going to pollute the earth more (I loved your environmental tack, BTW), and that Jesus thinks you're a racist because you willingly participate in a system that gives you and your white devil skin the advantage (I wasn't really that harsh), and that someone died tonight because you live in a huge - I mean, freaking HUGE - house.

I guess the question of the nature of witness comes down for me to "what is the gospel to which we are witnessing?" It is my belief that the apocalyptic genre was written for and by social and religious outcasts, so that might make the practice of witness, prophecy and testimony different than white mega church evangelicals being made fun of at work. Okay, not "might" - "will."