chp2: john not fatalistic, anti-radical, anti-political

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@@ -323,10 +323,83 @@ Witherington III puts it:
 > he was living in the midst of the inauguration of these judgments or put
 > another way in the age when the seals were being unsealed. [@ncbc-rev, p. 131]
 
-St John uses mythological language to place the present tribulations of his
-community in a cosmic and eschatological context. This is how the call to endure
-can make sense to his audience. In contrast, mere catastrophism does not do
-this, and may even emphasise the meaninglessness of individual action.
+What then, of the criticisms of apocalyptic language which followed on the basis
+of its supposed catastrophism, that it is fatalistic, neutralises radicalism,
+and flattens out power relationships?
+
+It is true that most of the events of John's vision unfold without much input
+from the saints. The saints aren't able to stop the seven seals from being
+unsealed, or the seven trumpets from being blown, or the seven goldens bowls of
+God's wrath from being poured out. The saints have no part in the fall of
+Babylon, and when Satan besieges them, they do not fight him in battle, but
+Satan and his army is overthrown by fire from heaven.
+
+However, it would be wrong to accuse St John of fatalism, and worse still to
+accuse him of neutralising radicalism and flattening out power relationships. At
+the core of his message is an exhortation to endure. John's promise is that
+those who endure will participate in God's final fulfilment of the creation. But
+what must be endured is a result of human powers distorting God's creation. This
+evil requires a radical subversion of actual power relationships, and John
+conceives of just such a subversion, and calls his audience to participate in
+that event.
+
+Andrew Chester [@chaos-new-creation] has explored this idea in detail, noting,
+for example, that in Rev 6:12-17, God's life-sustaining creative acts of Gen 1
+are threatened with total annihilation:
+
+> And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
+> earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became
+> as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree
+> casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven
+> departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island
+> were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men,
+> and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every
+> bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of
+> the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us
+> from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the
+> Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
+
+The sun and moon blocked out, the stars plucked from their place, the heavens
+erased, the land disfigured: the key symbols of God's creation in Gen 1 are
+being robbed of their ability to support life. Chester also notes that in
+ancient cultures, all these events would have been interpreted as portentous
+omens, explaining why the people of the earth all hide, knowing that the day of
+the Lamb's wrath is come.
+
+But, as Chester shows, this disfigurement of the creation is not random. Rev 6
+(and a similar vision in Rev 8) shows that the astral powers which were
+worshipped by mainstream Greek society are 'under divine control, and not at the
+service of emperors.' Rev 9:1-11 suggests that the supposedly great god of
+healing, Apollo, is a master only of tormenting locusts, and is anyway a mere
+servant of God's angel. The woman in Rev 12 is presented as having dominion over
+the sun, moon, and stars, and thus being superior to Artemis and Isis. Jesus
+himself appears with the brightness of the sun and the stars in his hand in Rev
+1, suggesting that he is in control of all the gods worshipped by Greeks.
+[@chaos-new-creation, p. 344] The big idea: Jesus, the Son of Yahweh, the
+creator-God, is Lord, and when people reject him and his life-giving creative
+power, they tragically bring death and destruction on themselves and the world.
+
+> The whole earth, and the seas, already corrupted, polluted, and distorted by
+> human wickedness and exploitation, now have divine destruction, desolation
+> and despoliation brought on them in a dreadful manner. The scenario thus
+> created, repeatedly, is one of utter chaos, with the earth torn apart and made
+> into a twisted and terrible mess. It is a dystopian vision of the world as it
+> might become – as indeed it inevitably will be if the consequences of human
+> wickedness simply take their course. Hence if life is to continue, and be
+> sustainable, there has to be radical newness. So also the heavens, corrupted
+> in order to serve the ruthless and idolatrous ambitions of the great and
+> powerful, now hover on the edge of losing completely what distinguishes
+> them – the great lights and source of all life. [@chaos-new-creation, p. 346]
+
+Fatalistic? Conservative? Far from it. The destructive events of John's vision
+are the result of human powers distorting God's creation for their own ends. We
+can be complicit and accept the mark of the beast, or we can resist. Those who
+resist will conquer, but not in the way of God's enemies, who raise up armies to
+fight battles: the saints will conquer through the blood of the Lamb, and win
+pride of place in God's new creation, while the nations of the earth flood in to
+worship and to receive life and healing. 'It is an ethic for martyrdom,' as John
+J. Collins, the leading scholar on biblical apocalyptic, puts it
+[@apocalyptic-imagination, chp. 9].
 
 John's apocalyptic imagination uses mythological language to reveal the world of
 appearances for what it really is. The ideology of Empire is a pretender God,