Revelation paints a glorious picture of the worship of God in heaven. I have compiled a list of seven of the more prominent praise songs that are sung in the book of Revelation. 1) The worship portrayed in Revelation 4 is reminiscent of Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1. John sees a vision of God sitting on his heavenly throne and being worshiped by mighty creatures whom he calls “elders” and “living creatures.” The text is full of imagery. Picture this: -“around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald” (3) -“before the throne there was as…

I have been heavily using Gentry throughout my study of Revelation, and I owe him a great deal of debt for all I have learned from him. I had to part ways with him, however, when I got to 21:1-22:5 and read his interpretation of this glorious vision of the New Jerusalem. After acknowledging that 20:7-15 predict the (still future) second coming of Christ, Gentry claims that 21:1-22:5 revert back to the first century and describe (in highly poetic language) the glory of the church and salvation. Gentry argues that John’s major theme is the replacement of the old Jerusalem…

I finished Revelation this morning. Perhaps my favorite passage in the whole book is 21:6b-7, which comes right in the middle of the description of the New Jersusalem. It is such a beautiful promise: To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

In my first post, I noted two theological emphases that come through very forcefully in the book of Revelation, regardless of the hermenuetical approach that one adopts in reading Revelation: (1) a high Christology and (2) a glorious vision of heaven. Stated negatively, this means that the book of Revelation is a strong corrective for two very serious and very common theological errors: (1) a wimpy Jesus and (2) a boring heaven. As I have continued reading, I would add at least two more emphases to this list: (3) a call for Christian perseverance amidst suffering; and (4) God’s sovereignty…

Preterism is well defined at theopedia.com as “a view in Christian eschatology which holds that some or all of the biblical prophecies concerning the Last Days refer to events which took place in the first century after Christ’s birth, especially associated with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, meaning past, since this view deems certain biblical prophecies as past, or already fulfilled.” There are two main kinds of preterism: full preterism and partial preterism (though these labels are disputed by each side). Partial preterism is also called moderate preterism and orthodox…

I used to avoid the book of Revelation completely. I remember in High School I did one of those read through the bible in a year projects, and for the New Testament section, I just stopped after Jude, because Revelation seemed too daunting. I had read enough of it to know how challenging it was, and I seriously doubted that I would be able to make any progress in understanding it. In addition, it seemed irrelevant to my life – how am I supposed to be edified by this bizarre apocalyptic literature? However, in the last year or so I…