Revelation
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Many Christians read Revelation 7 as though it divides the redeemed into separate prophetic groups. But what if John is doing something deeper? What if the 144,000 and the great multitude are not rivals in God’s plan, but two angles on the one people of God gathered by the Lamb?
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“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.” – Revelation 21:1 (NASB)) The phrase “Then I saw,” indicates that a new vision is being described. This vision portrays a span of time, which varies depending on…
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The Bible, an ancient Near Eastern book, presents truths in a distinctive eastern style rather than the familiar western genres. It showcases major doctrinal truths through tension-filled paradoxical pairs, which are commonly known as dialectical tensions. However, these tensions often perplex those who are unaccustomed to eastern genres and prefer clear-cut answers. Many individuals desire…
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(Psalm 137) Psalm 137 relates to the experience of the Jewish captivity and exile to Babylon sometime between 588BC to 586BC. And if we can put ourselves back in a Jewish frame of mind, i think we can catch the pathos and empathy with which we can feel what these people must have felt as…
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The Olivet Discourse found in Matthew chapters 24 through 25 (cf. Mark 13; Luke 21) has been such a focal point for different interpretations that have caused much divisiveness in the church. Jesus was answering His disciples’ query about His Second Coming, and the thrust of His entire discourse had two main emphases: ‘You do…
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(Revelation 22:1-21) Now we’ve come to the final chapter of the book of the Revelation, and notice in verse 1, “Then he showed me a river of the water of life,…” – for this ideal of a river which the angel now shows him, John’s been drawing from Ezekiel 47:1 and following, a river that…
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(Revelation 21:9-27) In verse 9, “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” – this is the same angel back in Rev. 17:1 who brought the last…
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(Revelation 21:1-8) Chapters 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation really form one unit although in chapter 22:6 begins in an appendix to the book. What has been demonstrated in most of technical commentaries is that there is a background to most of the elements of the closing section dealing with heaven in Rabbinical…
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“When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released…” (Rev. 20:7-15) It’s future passive which means God’s going to let him loose, and there’s going to be a purpose in it. “…from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations…” – it’s amazing to me that people who have been with Christ…
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Of course ‘a thousand years’ is symbolical in the sense that one thousand is the cube of ten, the number of completeness.