Conquering through Non-Conformity: Answering Christ’s Call to Counterculturalism

Abstract

The book of Revelation reflects a story of the past that speaks to the present. The Apocalypse presents a discourse that highlights a variety of Christians in Asia Minor who must decide whether they will remain faithful in their allegiance to Jesus Christ or demonstrate unfaithfulness to Christ and his kingdom by conforming to the majority culture by engaging in practices of the broader society that stand in contradiction to their faith. When faced with such a dilemma, various people, including Christians, respond in a variety of ways. For some, their responses bring glory to God while others bring disgrace to the name of the God they say they serve. Writers often discuss Christ’s confrontation and judgment of the Roman Empire. Few, if any, address Jesus’s confrontations with the seven churches of Asia Minor. This study combines Norman Fairclough’s theory of Critical Discourse Analysis and Jay Lemke’s theory of intertextuality to demonstrate that Rev 1-3, the incorporation of concepts and ideas appearing in other resources, the further development of the Apocalypse, and the historical context in which John composed the work present the kingdom of God as an alternative empire to which he belongs and commits himself as a citizen in resisting the power, practices, and allure of Rome. Though the assemblies to which he writes experience a variety of social, political, and religious circumstances, the messages to the churches come together to reveal that Christians, no matter their power or position in society, have a mandate to live as citizens of Christ’s kingdom who maintain a countercultural stance for the sake of the gospel. John depicts Christ as king of this alternative empire, who confronts each of his communities regarding their allegiance to him, demonstrated by their non-conformity to the practices of the broader culture regarding how they function in the various power structures in which they live. He then uses the later visions of the Apocalypse to depict Christ’s vindication of those who maintain a countercultural posture in relation to the Roman Empire and highlights the advantages and blessings of non-conformity, while noting the disadvantages and curses of conformity. Throughout the history of the Christian faith, various segments of the church have faced opposition from the surrounding culture. Christians today maintain the same mandate as the early church to resist the allure of the worldly powers that surround them and remain loyal to Jesus. In addition to providing an analysis of John’s writing for early Christians, this dissertation also presents a model for Christians—no matter their time or place in history—to follow regarding how they interact with the world around them.