We're used to infomercials with...
Illustration
We're used to infomercials with their "But wait..." Before television, marketers printed
another line on their packaging, "new and improved." The word "new" caught the eye of
our grandparents' generation the way, "But wait..." catches our ear.
In the Roman world in New Testament times "new" was viewed with suspicion, especially in religion. Rome tolerated new religions, but only if they bolstered the same (Roman) values as the established religions.
John's experience of heaven granted him both the sight and sound of "new." Through Jesus, God creates a new intimacy with human beings and offers us fresh comfort and strength. John's experience was then shared by other Christians whose intimate living with God eventually gave them the strength to turn the old, dying Roman Empire upside down and to supplant it with the new religion of the living Jesus.
In the Roman world in New Testament times "new" was viewed with suspicion, especially in religion. Rome tolerated new religions, but only if they bolstered the same (Roman) values as the established religions.
John's experience of heaven granted him both the sight and sound of "new." Through Jesus, God creates a new intimacy with human beings and offers us fresh comfort and strength. John's experience was then shared by other Christians whose intimate living with God eventually gave them the strength to turn the old, dying Roman Empire upside down and to supplant it with the new religion of the living Jesus.
