Tag: bible

The Book of Revelation: My Picks for the Best Books on this Book

Posted in Bible, Biblical Theology, Book of Revelation, Commentaries, Dispensationalism, Education, hermeneuticsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 14 Comments

 

“And though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.” — G.K. Chesterton

In many of my posts, I focus on Genesis. So, why not turn my attention to another controversial and misunderstood book at the back end of the Scriptures, The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John of Patmos? If one is allowed to have a favorite book in the Bible, then this book has become mine thanks in large part to my beloved professor Gordon Fee. In the year of our Lord two-thousand, Fee taught a course at Regent College on The Book of Revelation. When we asked him if all the Y2K talk and the year itself influenced his decision to teach this course at this time, he smiled, laughed at himself, and said, “You know. I never even thought of that.” That answer is an indication of how free he was from the dispensationalist background of his youth. How could that be? Continue reading “The Book of Revelation: My Picks for the Best Books on this Book” →

Revelation 1:3 i

Posted in Bible, Book of Revelation, Revelation, Scripture, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand. (Rev. 1:3, ESV)

Continue reading “Revelation 1:3 i” →

Book of Revelation Commentary (Revelation 1:2 i)

Posted in Bible, Book of Revelation, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

AS we shall discover together in working slowly through this text, The Book of Revelation is a Trinitarian text. Of course, it does not have the post-Nicene terminology. In this text, one will not find the language of Father, Son and Spirit as one finds abundantly in John’s Gospel and in post-nicene formula. Rather, one will find God, Jesus Christ, and the Spirit which is more similar to Paul’s formulation.

Continue reading “Book of Revelation Commentary (Revelation 1:2 i)” →

The Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:1 iii)

Posted in Bible, Biblical Theology, Book of Revelation, craig koester, Dispensationalism, hermeneutics, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show show to his servants the things that must soon take place. (Revelation 1:1, ESV)

The Things that Must Soon Come to Pass

The opening verse of this book undermines all interpretations that try to make John’s Revelation a coded history of current events. As Craig Koester helpfully recounts in the first part of his concise commentary Revelation and the End of All Things, there is a long history of misinterpreting Revelation in this way. All such interpretations have one thing in common, the predictions they make never come to pass. Modern dispensationalists now avoid making predictions and so resort to probabilities. This kind of thinking leads to ridiculous concepts like the Rapture Index. So, when John writes that God wished to show his servants “the things that must soon take place”, the “soon” refers to those things that the intended recipients of John’s letter were experiencing and about to experience.

Continue reading “The Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:1 iii)” →

The Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:1 ii)

Posted in Bible, Biblical Theology, Book of Revelation, Dispensationalism, Fundamentalism, hermeneutics, Revelation, Scripture, Star Wars, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. (Revelation 1:1-2, ESV)

“Revelation”, the common english translation of the greek word “apocalypsis” (αποκαλυψις) which opens this text, is such a familiar term that its basic meaning is almost lost to our ears and eyes. Similarly, the term “apocalypse” has come to refer to any large-scale catastrophic event that threatens the extinction of humankind and life as we know it i.e. zombie apocalypse. (Pace Rick Grimes et al.)

But slow down and listen to the text. John’s first readers did not have this linguistic and cultural baggage hanging on these terms. They were not dispensationalists. There was no such thing as guns or atomic bombs. They had not heard of global warming. John and his early readers had their own linguistic and cultural milieu which shaped their understanding of the term “apocalypse” and the other terms, allusions, and images John uses throughout this prophetic letter to the Christian communities in first century Asia Minor. Like learning a new language, it takes some mental effort and yes some reading and research to understand and interpret an ancient text, including those included in our Scriptures.

Continue reading “The Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:1 ii)” →

The Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:1 i)

Posted in Bible, Book of Revelation, Dispensationalism, hermeneutics, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Learning to Hear What John has Written

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Revelation 1:1-3, ESV)

Continue reading “The Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:1 i)” →

“Moore” Relevant Biblical Passages

Posted in Bible, Biblical Theology, Evangelicalism, hermeneutics, interpretation, Politics, Scripture, Theology, TrumpTagged , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Whitewashed Tombs

In the wake of the allegations against Judge Roy Moore, many American evangelicals are pulling out the defences, excuses, and verbal acrobatics that they used in the face of the myriad sexual allegations against then candidate Donald Trump, especially in the wake of the Access Hollywood recording in which Trump confesses his predatory habits and even identifies the approaching female host as a potential victim should the opportunity arise. Alongside multiple accusations of inappropriate sexual advances, Moore has been accused of assaulting women as young as 14 years old. The accusations against Moore come amidst a wave of such allegations that hopefully reflect a sea change in American culture that will allow women and girls to come forward more quickly and while the cases may still be prosecuted. I hope this trend in the U.S. spills across the border into Canada as well.

As they do in relation to Trump, many self-professing American evangelicals are taking comfort in and finding refuge behind ill applied biblical passages to diminish the voices of Moore’s accusers and maintain their loyalty to the Republican Party. In a culture in which being Republican and being an evangelical Christian are often treated as synonymous, one’s loyalty to the party now trumps (pun intended) one’s loyalty to creed or historic standards of Christian morality. For many people (including some white male evangelical Christians like myself), the level of hypocrisy is so patently obvious that I’m surprised it does not produce a detectable stench. If I read the Psalms and prophets correctly, it is a stench in God’s nostrils.

Continue reading ““Moore” Relevant Biblical Passages” →

Heresy is the New Orthodoxy

Posted in Answers in Genesis, Apologetics, Bible, Church Fathers, Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism, Genesis, hermeneutics, Inspiration, interpretation, Ken Ham, Revelation, Scripture, Theology, TraditionTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Or The Litmus Test of Young Earth Creationists

The Web of Gnosis

Over the past year, I have been openly critical of the teachings of Ken Ham and his organization Answers in Genesis. The more I attended to their teachings — beyond the obvious and overt commitment to Young Earth Creationism — the more I discovered that this fundamental commitment is bolstered and defended by a web of less obvious commitments. Many of these commitments are simply bizarre (i.e. Dragons in literature are evidence that human beings lived at the same time as dinosaurs) but others are outright heretical with respect to the traditional teachings of the Christian Churches.

If the Wool Sweater Fits

While my primary aim in using social media is to point out problems with the teachings of Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis, this activity occasionally garners response from Ham’s defenders. In these brief exchanges, when I identify myself as a Christian, it is not long before I am demonized as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Or more gently, I have exchanged man’s fallible word for God’s infallible word. On occasion, I have even been accused of being an atheist pretending to be a Christian for the purpose of leading ‘true believers’ astray. I have never been an atheist but I have not always been a Christian. What an elaborate hoax I have played over the past twenty years of my life! I guess the joke is on me. 😉

No Creed is the New Creed

Ironically, I am most often charged with being a false teacher when I am stating a traditionally orthodox position and my conversation partner is defending a traditionally heretical position. Continue reading “Heresy is the New Orthodoxy” →

Noah and the Flood — What’s Going on in Genesis 6-9 Part 2: Living Idols

Posted in ANE, Biblical Theology, Church Fathers, hermeneutics, J.I. Packer, noah's ark, Revelation, Rikk Watts, Scripture, TheologyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

At the end of this post, some of you may be wondering what all this has do with my promise to explain what I think is going on in the story of Noah and the Flood. Yet, I ask your patience and refer you back to my insistence that context literary, canonical and historical is of utmost importance when it comes to interpreting Genesis 6-9. (Previous Post)

In the Image of God

Recent discoveries (relatively speaking) have shed light on the meaning of many biblical phrases and concepts that share resonances with similar phrases and concepts in the broader Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) context. Continue reading “Noah and the Flood — What’s Going on in Genesis 6-9 Part 2: Living Idols” →

#POPChrist Goes to Ark Encounter Part II: The View From Below

Posted in ANE, Answers in Genesis, Apologetics, Ark Encounter, Bible, Evangelism, Fundamentalism, Genesis, Ken Ham, noah's ark, propagandaTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

In Part I, I paid tribute to Ken Ham’s 4,000 space parking lot which has yet to fill to capacity.

As you can see from the photo below, when Joel and I went to the Ark Encounter, there was no line. In a recent post, Joel Duff addresses the question of the long-term financial viability of the Ark Encounter. Yet, Ham is obviously prepared for Disneyland length lines. For those who must wait or simply choose to stand around, Answers in Genesis has prepared a video presentation that ostensibly portrays the kinds of conversations Noah may have had with the pre-flood anti-Yahwist polytheists who fail to heed his warnings.  Continue reading “#POPChrist Goes to Ark Encounter Part II: The View From Below” →