Andrew Meredith’s Reviews > Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Followingthe Lamb into the New Creation > Status Update
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Andrew Meredith
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Gorman has hermeneutical gaps in his understanding of Revelation because he does not front the typological symbols of the Old Testament in his interpretation. This doesn't make his interpretation or points of application wrong necessarily, but it does lead him to an incomplete analysis and disordered emphases.
— May 11, 2026 09:05AM
To straightforwardly reiterate a point I've mentioned a few times now, when you abstract the symbols and typology of Revelation from any concrete historical (past) fulfillment, you run into this problem where you have to explain why Christians shouldn't be violent today, since both God and Christ are violent towards their enemies throughout the Apocalypse. What Gorman ends up doing is setting up rather unconvincing, arbitrary guardrails.
"1. In what ways does Revelation 21–22 conclude the book of Revelation, the New Testament, and the entire Christian Bible?"
Gorman fails to recognize that there are two visions with two separate points going on in the last two chapters. Revelation 21:8 ends the first (which actually extended back into chapter 20) after the eternal states with the evil burning forever in the Lake of Fire, and verse 9 begins an entirely different but related vision where an angel takes John up to a high mountain, and like Moses, shows him the pattern for the new Eden/Tabernacle/Temple, the Bride of Christ, the Church.
A city, New Jerusalem, shaped like the Holy of Holies, descending from the heaven to earth. The Edenic typology and OT symbology are rich in this chapter, but just note where evil people are, outside the city, not (yet) in the Lake of Fire. This is a vision of this (post-AD 70/Last Days) age. The Church's river flows out and heals the nations.
"2. In your experience of the church, has it leaned more toward escapist apathy or corporate Pelagianism? How does the church maintain an appropriate missional balance without committing either of these errors?"
We the Church, united to Christ by His Spirit, are His Body, His hands and feet in the world, actively accomplishing all His priestly, kingly, and prophetic purposes wherever we go, bringing nations to their knees before Him until the glory of God covers the world as the waters cover the sea. We, those who have been baptized into Christ, ARE Christ! Anointed with the same Spirit, one with Him in purpose and in mission, we proclaim His Kingdom, and by our lives, we are agents of His Regeneration. Is all of this our doing? Yes. Is this the Spirit working in and through us to accomplish God's purposes? Always.
"Pelagianism?" Good gracious. This is not a responsibility pie where God does everything, while we just sit back and do some good deeds while we wait for our Deus ex machina.