Revelation: The Beginning

As promised, I am beginning a series on Revelation. I will be using material I have collected for the purpose of teaching a Young Adult Sunday School Class.

As a kind of prologue, I would like to make a few opening comments of a general nature:

1) Although I do have a definite opinion on issues such as the Tribulation and Millennium, I do not intend to present this study as a means of forwarding those opinions. In fact, I intend to say rather little about particular eschatological schemata.

2) While I intend to be somewhat scholarly in my approach, bringing forth the various options for disputed passages, my goal is to make a presentation with potential for personal application, and informed by pastoral concerns.

3) My belief is that Revelation has two primary thrusts: pastoral and ethical. Revelation is written to and for people enduring persecution. It is under such circumstances that the question "How do we live our faith?" is being asked and answered.

4) My format will be a mixture of verse for verse and paragraph for paragraph exegesis. There are times when verse for verse is entirely appropriate, even necessary, to bring out the full meaning of the text. Yet there are also times when verse by verse can encourage one to become bogged down with minutiae that do not really make a contribution to our understanding commensurate with the time and energy they require. I will strive to strike an appropriate balance.

Next time, we will begin with the first few verses of Revelation 1.

Return of the OP

The Oddball Pastor has returned. It is time to resume blogging on matters of theology.

Where have I been? I have written a devotional commentary on James. Called, "Being Consistently Christian", it is based on research I have done using commentaries in the Tyndale, Pillar, NIV Application and Expositor's series.

Currently I am looking at publishing options.

So what now? Now I am dealing with the impact of a deep study in Revelation. I am convinced that Revelation is a book with far more relevance than those who think only in terms of end-times charts might guess. It is a book deeply concerned with ethics. It has a lot to say about worship, martyrdom, the nature of our victory over evil in this world, and the unity of the Father and the Son. That is just in the first 7 chapters.

I will be blogging the insights I have gained from this study, plus whatever else pops into my head.

Kudos to Tertium Quid on his "promotion" to "Team Apologian."