Brett Davis > Quotes

“Jesus is the One who dies for us while we’re his enemies. He is the One who prays “Father forgive them” while he’s being killed. Jesus is the one who loves, loves, loves to the point of death, and even after he’s dead, the grave can’t stop his love. He has the gaul to come sauntering out of the tomb on Easter so he can love some more.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“And that’s why (quick Bible interpretation lesson) it’s of utmost importance that we remember: We interpret what is unclear in Scripture through what is clear in Scripture.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“The words of God are not to be merely studied, analyzed, or agreed with. This scroll isn’t merely for reading; it’s for ingesting. Receive this into yourself. These words are to become part of you. Eat the scroll.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Most of my frustration comes from desiring “a victorious life” that looks different from God’s victory. In almost every area of our lives, we want our victories proud, immediate, and obvious. And painless.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“We’re not invited to read the scroll; we’re invited to eat it. We’re invited to participate in God’s purposes even when we don't fully understand all of those purposes. We can follow Jesus when we don't know what the next chapter holds. We can love even when we can't figure out all the details. Even when very little makes sense, there is something we can do: we can feast on love. This, after all, seems to be the meal that Jesus was always intending to share with us”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“And practically everybody everywhere has heard about the infamous number at the end of the chapter (13v18). Careful, creative “analysis” of this number (666) has “conclusively shown” an amazing number of people to be The Antichrist. Every century has their candidate. People from all over the world that you would never suspect: from countless popes to Martin Luther, from JFK to Adolf Hitler, from Barack Obama to Ronald Wilson Reagan.171 If you manage to get famous enough, perhaps you’ll discover on YouTube that somehow 666 means that you too are the Antichrist.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Revelation is ancient mail that reveals Jesus in apocalyptic style.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“My goal in the pages that follow is modest. I want to give readers a starting place for Revelation that centers around Jesus.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“We often think: “The REALLY important thing is my internal, private, personal relationship with God. My reading the Bible, my prayer time, my singing worship in the car, my feelings and experiences, my helping the poor, my personal choices and morality. But vulnerable, committed service to and with a particular local community? Well, that’s an optional add-on. I mean, I do it… but it’s not exactly central. It’s an awkward extra—like a Christian club I’m sometimes involved in.” But this way of thinking was completely foreign to the earliest Christians.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Let’s state the obvious: the trumpets are incredibly difficult to interpret. They qualify as some of the most sophisticated (i.e. hard to understand) symbolism in the entire Bible. The fog is thick here, and there is no scholarly or saintly consensus.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Allow Jesus to steal in and give you his Life. And then join him in robbing the world of hatred and death.” Joining Jesus has been the challenge of the prophecy of Revelation.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“It is not irreligion or indifference that keeps many away from the church, but just the opposite: the church is perceived and experienced as a carcinogenic pollutant in the air of religion. Many people, wanting to nurture faith in God, instead of entering the company of saints who look and act a lot more like sinners, take a long walk on an ocean beach or hike a high mountain or immerse themselves in Dostoyevsky or Stravinsky or Georgia O’Keeffe. But to all this aspiring asceticism the Gospel says No: "Write to the seven churches.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“The Lamb saves the world through love willing to bleed, and his lovers follow him wherever he goes (14v4).”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“God’s goal is never to destroy the world but to recreate it.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“If we can’t imagine the original hearers of Revelation understanding our interpretation of this letter, then our interpretation probably needs to be rethought”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Revelation 13 has become a sad Rorschach test: “Stare at this inkblot and tell us who you think the Antichrist is.” But who we see (and who we accuse) reveals more about ourselves than anything on the page.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Nobody gets locked into hell. Strangely enough, we lock ourselves there. No one remains in hell who doesn’t want to be there. All who want God will get God. Everyone who wants Love will get Love. In the next chapter, we’re told that “Lady Babylon” and her followers have already been drinking violence and hatred (17v6), and God simply pours her a double (18v6). God will give everyone what they desire most dearly.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“As will become clear, I’m convinced that John’s strange vision is aimed at transformation more than information.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“It’s unspeakably strange—utterly mysterious—why anyone would choose to march against Life with Death, but John seems to warn that we’re capable of it.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“What changes the world—what saves the world—is when the Church faithfully witnesses to self-giving love of the Lamb. Even when it’s hard. Even when the world despises truth. And even when forgiveness and mercy are overpowered by hatred and violence.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Jesus addresses communities in Revelation, not individuals”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“More than wanting us to ask “WHO is the Antichrist?” Jesus wants his people to discern “WHAT is anti-Christ?” What is Anti-Jesus? What is Anti-Lamb? Anti-giving-to-others? Anti-sacrificial-love?”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“I have come to see Revelation as a beautiful book—an ingenious, inspired masterpiece of literature, calling us into beautiful lives worthy of the beautiful future prepared for this world by our beautiful God.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“But make no mistake,” Revelation insists, "God IS saving the world.” It’s just never HOW we expected or WHEN we expected. Faithfully following Jesus frequently means waiting a little longer. Frequently, the life of faith involves waiting in silence.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Both Babylon and Jesus are asking for our allegiance. The Lamb wants us to pledge allegiance to his life, his love, his kingdom, his way of being human. And Babylons of every century want to dominate us, coerce us, and use us as pawns in the next power play. We’re invited to choose Love, and so resist Babylon.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Love willing to bleed can change lives. That’s the “revelation” of Revelation. Love willing to bleed is the good news of Revelation. You are loved. By God. To the point of death. Love willing to bleed is the summons of Revelation. Join God’s life. Join this love. To the point of death.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Following the Lamb wherever he goes, does not mean that we somehow avoid suffering. In reality, it’s frequently the opposite.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Revelation uses a lot of symbolism. That’s part of the genre. And this comes as an immense relief because as slick as Iron Man’s boots look on Tony Stark, they seem extremely odd on Jesus.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“Did you notice that? It’s only those who are beheaded who “come to life” and participate in God’s kingdom before the Final Judgment. You know what that’s interesting? Because Rome didn’t behead just anyone. Everyone knew that. Death by beheading was relatively clean, relatively painless, relatively humane. It wasn’t prolonged or torturous—not exactly the best way to invoke terror or establish fear. To achieve that, you had to crucify people. Rome only beheaded its own citizens.285 The only people beheaded were those absolutely committed to citizenship in Jesus’s kingdom over and above their citizenship in Rome’s kingdom.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation

“As his seven churches endure hardship, struggle, mistreatment, and abuse, John does not tell his seven churches: “Don’t worry, this isn’t our home. One day, we’ll fly oh glory. God will take us all to some other world—to some other existence…” Decidedly no. Christian hope is for this world. Revelation’s vision is not earth being evacuated to heaven.290 Rather the vision sees earth being invaded by heaven.”
― Brett Davis, See The Strange: The Beauty of The Revelation