Revelation's Perspective on the Nature of the Principalities and Powers of this World

The Book of Revelation has a lot to say about the nature of human culture, or what Revelation refers to as the "principalities and powers of this world."As always, Revelation is both a commentary about John's own first century Roman world, and a vision of the world that always has been and the world that now is.  The word that is translated as the title of the book is literally "unveiling." Revelation removes a veil that has covered our eyes from the foundation of the world to reveal something that was always evident.

The veil that covered the eyes of John's age was the nature of Rome.  Rome presented itself as a servant of God, the Lamb who sacrifices Himself for the sins of the world.  Rome is characterized as a noble animal, like the other nations of the world.  Rome's public relations machine spent bazillions to convince its conquered and subjected territories of Rome's virtue.  But underlying the facade that Rome presented was the truth that Rome was the servant of the tempter, who is caricatured in Revelation as the dragon.  The veil that Rome placed over its own eyes hid Rome from itself and its subject territories from its cruelty and domination.

John's vision is both a snapshot of the nature of the principalities and powers of John's own age, and an unveiling of the nature of the principalities and powers that have ruled this world from the beginning and still rule the world.  This is a scathing indictment of the nations.  But John's vision is also one of radical hope and optimism, because Revelation also reveals that God's vision for the nations is that they will come to God's light and be redeemed.  Revelation ends, in fact, with an image of the nations of the world and God's kingdom being one, and the world being so full of God's light that there is no darkness at all.