as though John had only dressed up his expectation of a social revolution in apocalyptic language. As a genuine apocalyptic thinker, John uses pictorial language for the end of this world to mean precisely that. The language is pictorial, but it signals to John’s hearer-readers the approaching demolition of this world, as God himself comes in judgment and justice to establish his kingdom. The language is the traditional language of theophany, used to picture the day of wrath of God’s final appearance.