Atonement in the Apocalypse: An Expose of the Defeat of Evil

Understanding the theme of atonement as articulated in Revelation requires awareness of apocalyptic and prophecy, time and space, biblical and mythological imagery. Christ’s victorious self-sacrifice, as Revelation reveals it, is a counterintuitive notion whereby a slain Lamb defeats the Great Red Dragon. This overthrow of evil by God is hardly by any act of violence. God’s way of expelling the Accuser is by a much more powerful means than the cruelty and harm that Satan and his emissaries have inflicted on the world and its people through deceit, lies, seductions, and distortions of the truth. Satan, instead, is responsible for his own demise. Revelation calls believers to see themselves through the unique lens of redemptive atonement and to live and model daily that they see themselves in the present moment as redeemed people. Having thus seen themselves, believers likewise are directed to see and to relate to others in this world the very way that God has seen them from eternity.