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{"id":11276,"date":"2012-12-11T10:04:06","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T15:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=11276"},"modified":"2012-12-11T10:04:06","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T15:04:06","slug":"revelation-2215-no-dogs-go-to-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/12\/revelation-2215-no-dogs-go-to-heaven.html","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 22:15: No Dogs Go To Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

Be that as it may, I think there are two more interesting points to discuss in relation to this text than the exclusion of dogs \u2013 whether literal or metaphorical.<\/p>\n

The first thing to note is that those who are excluded from the New Jerusalem (apart perhaps from the dogs, if they are literal) are all people who\u00a0do<\/em> certain things. This ties in with a strong emphasis in the depiction of the final judgment in Revelation 20<\/a> (the actual passage we\u00a0did<\/em> get up to this past Sunday in my class) that judgment is not only explicitly but emphatically based on what people have done. The text says it several times.<\/p>\n

Yet it also mentions a Book of Life, which is also depicted as definitive with respect to the final judgment.<\/p>\n

It is in this passage more than any other that the argument for Revelation being a redaction of an earlier, already-existing apocalypse, seems strongest. The reference to \u201canother book\u201d after a mention of \u201cbooks\u201d is awkward, and an explanation in redactional terms seems like a fitting solution.<\/p>\n

But either way, it is not as though the contrast is between \u201ca book containing a record of deeds\u201d (and thus judgment by works) on the one hand, and \u201cjustification by faith\u201d in the Lutheran sense on the other. The Book of Life is connected throughout the book with those who refuse to worship the Beast. And so even after whatever redaction was done, it remained the case that what one does and does not do still mattered to the author. If it did not, the reference to books recording deeds and judgment according to what one has done could have been made to disappear. The author simply thinks that siding with the Lamb against the Emperor is decisive in a way that no other actions are. But what one does is still crucially important to the author, and the basis of God\u2019s judgment. The idea that one gets to participate in the eschatological kingdom simply on the basis of \u201cfaith\u201d in the modern sense is not something the author says. And so it is no wonder Luther thought that Revelation shouldn\u2019t be part of the canon.<\/p>\n

The other major thing to note in chapter 22 is that there seem to be people (as well as or including \u201cdogs\u201d) still around outside of the city. If all sinners and evildoers had been consigned to the lake of fire, then who could these people be \u2013 whatever one may wish to say about their pets?<\/p>\n

The Book of Revelation is surprisingly non-final, given how it tends to be interpreted. Either a lot more of it is symbolic than is admitted by many interpreters, or it envisages a situation in which, even after the dawn of the Kingdom of God, it is still possible to rebel.<\/p>\n

And if that is the case, then presumably it is also still possible to enter<\/em>. And\u00a0that<\/em> is something that deserves more attention than it often gets when the interpretation of the Book of Revelation is discussed.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"