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Search by subject, then refine by approach. A prophecy study may also be apologetic or discerning because subject tells you what it examines, while approach tells you how it examines it.
67 results for “Revelation”
Clear searchEarth-dwellers, heaven-dwellers, and the literary structure of the Apocalypse
Where Is the Church during Revelation's Judgements? Earth-dwellers, heaven-dwellers, and the literary structure of the Apocalypse The argument that the word church disappears after Revelation 3 is often stated as thou…
Read article →E. W. Bullinger · Verse-by-verse commentary · 1902
In my view, this is a must-read commentary on Revelation—not because every conclusion should be accepted, but because Bullinger makes the journey through the text so absorbing and so deep. He notices structures, verbal connections, and…
View recommendation →The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day
…t before our gathering. First Corinthians 15 places the resurrection at the "last trump". Revelation 20 calls a post-Tribulation event "the first resurrection". John 6 promises to raise believers "at the last day". None is trivial. None requires the abandonment of pretribulationi…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…ape from the material world. The creation groans for the return of its rightful King, the revelation of the sons of God, and the righteous reign of Christ with His saints. Recently, Emma Ruth Rundle's song God's Picture and its accompanying video gave me food for thought. The art…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…begins at the wrong end of the Bible. The case does not start by counting backwards from Revelation. It starts with a measured programme in Daniel concerning Israel and Jerusalem. Jesus takes Daniel's abomination of desolation and places it at the head of an unparalleled tribula…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…f the Tribulation should be defended merely because it came from a pretribulation writer. Revelation does not explicitly call the 144,000 evangelists. Pretribulationism does not require Christians to help build a third temple. Nor should Israel’s final trouble be presented as div…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
…” (Matthew 5:8); “we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2); and “they shall see his face” (Revelation 22:4). The difficulty begins when this truth is made to carry the whole weight of Christian hope. Eternity can then be imagined as a disembodied soul engaged in motionless contemp…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
…se to sin. A Christian may be exposed to the first while being delivered from the second. Revelation's judgements do include human violence and satanic activity, but they unfold within a heavenly proceeding governed by the Lamb. The Lamb opens the seals. Authority is given to the…
Read article →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…s that the passages themselves describe. The Bride is in heaven before Christ rides forth Revelation 19 strengthens the distinction. Before heaven opens and Christ rides forth in judgement, the marriage of the Lamb has taken place. His wife has made herself ready and is clothed i…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…ays that when Christ appears, believers will "appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:4). Revelation presents the Bride prepared in heaven before heaven opens and Christ rides forth in judgement (Revelation 19:7-14). These are materially different movements. Christ receives His p…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
Revelation or Reception? Sources behind Qur’anic narratives The Qur’an did not emerge in a cultural vacuum. It appeared in a world alive with biblical names, Jewish interpretation, Christian…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
Two Revelations of Divine Love What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God Love is easily claimed. Its character is revealed by what it does when the beloved is undeserving and the cost…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
Is the Qur'an a Miracle? Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation Christians are frequently placed on the defensive. Has the Bible been corrupted? Did Jesus really claim to be God? Was He actually crucified? Has the doctrine of the Trinity compr…
Read article →Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture
…ovement takes them, or how this meeting relates chronologically to the warrior descent of Revelation 19. Those questions must be answered from the wider context of prophecy. This limitation cuts both ways. The passage alone does not prove a seven-year heavenly interval. It also d…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…s, the resurrection of the body and the things to come. Theology may unfold the riches of revelation. Intelligence, eloquence and careful exposition are gifts to the Church. But exposition is not enlargement of the apostolic deposit. The theologian may draw out what the apostles…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…e last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen.” — Revelation 1:17–18 The question is larger than whether two passages happen to use the same expression. Isaiah gathers creation, salvation, eternity, sovereign rule and incomparable glory aro…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…they will sit upon twelve thrones "judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matthew 19:28). Revelation seals servants from named tribes of Israel and later describes a multitude from all nations (Revelation 7:4-9). The New Jerusalem bears the names of Israel's tribes on its gates a…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…hat believers should be very wary of treating familiar NDE imagery as self-authenticating revelation. What science can—and cannot—decide Science can compare reports, measure circulation and electrical activity, test hidden targets, investigate memory, and examine how drugs or bra…
Read article →A quiet invitation to draw near to Christ
…orrection and love. In that setting, He says: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock…” — Revelation 3:20 His invitation is to a shared meal. Fellowship. Time together. Perhaps today there is no need for an elaborate resolution. Simply turn towards Him. Open His Word. Speak hones…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…e of Paul's announced mystery is diminished. The more natural relationship is progressive revelation. Jesus reveals Israel's final crisis, public advent, and gathering. Paul later discloses what happens to the body of Christ, including living saints, when Christ gathers it to Him…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
…et him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." —Revelation 22:17 The invitation is free because Christ has paid its cost. It is personal because He gives Himself. It is serious because our broken cisterns cannot give life. It is full of a…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…h, the holy city, the river of life, the tree of life and God's dwelling with His people (Revelation 21–22). The final hope is physical without being merely physical. God will dwell with us. We shall see His face. Bodies, relationships, service and creation will all find their pr…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…strial existence immediately terminates. That is the appropriate response to Isaiah 34:4. Revelation as canonical corroboration Revelation supplies canonical corroboration, but it should not carry an argument that belongs first to Isaiah. John clearly appropriates Isaiah’s imager…
Read article →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
…ne nation and later allocates the renewed land by tribes (Ezekiel 37:15-28; 47:13-48:35). Revelation names twelve tribes when describing the sealed servants of God (Revelation 7:4-8). The New Jerusalem bears their names upon its gates (Revelation 21:12). These passages contain sy…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…tborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” — Colossians 1:18 Revelation 1:5 likewise calls Him “the first begotten of the dead,” translating the same Greek title. Christ was not the first person ever restored to mortal life. Elijah and Elisha witnesse…
Read article →Governmental restraint, the final ten kings, and the preparation of the temple
…evisiting Paul’s account of the restrainer in 2 Thessalonians 2. Something holds back the revelation of the final lawless ruler. The Thessalonians knew what Paul meant. We have his letter, but not the earlier conversation to which he refers. There is a serious case for understand…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…rearrangement of the sentence, or a refusal to accept that Paul is describing the public revelation of Christ. The passage should be allowed to say exactly what it says. It does not, however, say that the Church is gathered at that revelation. Paul is promising the final resolut…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…stery that living saints would be instantaneously changed (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Later revelation may deepen an earlier saying. It should not be imported in a way that makes the original conversation unintelligible to its first hearers. Clue four: the surrounding vocabulary po…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…omised to Israel and Judah. Twelve remains visible at the end of Scripture The imagery of Revelation does not allow the reader to forget either the tribes or the apostles. The New Jerusalem has twelve gates bearing "the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel" and tw…
Read article →Labour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world
…ing, planting and enjoying the work of their hands in a restored world (Isaiah 65:21–23). Revelation says of God's servants in the New Jerusalem: "And his servants shall serve him." —Revelation 22:3 Scripture does not tell us enough to draw a detailed job description for eternity…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…concentrate Israel's story in Him, but they do not make the historical nation a fiction. Revelation presents the unity without flattening the distinctions. The New Jerusalem bears the names of the twelve tribes of Israel upon its gates and the names of the twelve apostles of the…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…slam agree about many things at the level of vocabulary. Both speak of one God, creation, revelation, prophets, angels, judgement, mercy, prayer and Jesus the Messiah. But shared vocabulary can conceal incompatible meanings. Christianity says that Jesus is the eternal Son made fl…
Read article →Dave Hunt · Biblical polemic · 2002
A sustained challenge to Calvinism which asks whether its account of sovereignty, election, grace, and the atonement is consistent with the Bible's revelation of God's character—particularly His love, mercy, justice, and genuine call to the world.
View recommendation →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…The incarnation was not an interruption during which God acted unlike Himself. It was the revelation, within human history, of the love and humility belonging to His eternal character. The Angels Desired to Look Would the incarnation appear as absurd to angels as it does to human…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…ed God. Paul is speaking about the historical arrival of the promised Seed and the public revelation of faith in Him. Galatians therefore protects the interpretation of Romans 10:4 from two opposite errors. The Law was not a pointless detour with no relationship to Christ. Nor do…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…the Bible that gives sustained weight to grammatical and historical context, progressive revelation, the distinct identities named in the text, and the unconditional promises God made to Israel. It affirms one way of salvation by grace through faith, centred in Christ. It distin…
Read article →Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over
…existence does not make it equally persuasive within a reading of Scripture as a coherent revelation. David Frankel, Contemporary Jewish Theology, pp. 8–10. The judicial interpretation accounts for the chapter’s contrast, God’s explicit condemnation elsewhere, and the wider patte…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…J, E, D and P. The supposed Elohist source, E, was named for its use of Elohim before the revelation of the name Yahweh. The second is the southern-origin hypothesis, which proposes that Yahweh was originally worshipped somewhere south of Canaan and subsequently introduced into I…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…Josephus has political and apologetic interests; Muslim tradition receives the Qur'an as revelation. Historical method does not discard committed sources automatically. It asks when they wrote, what sources they used, how close they stand to the events, whether their claims are…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…gathering and life in the land (Jeremiah 31:31-40; 32:37-41; Ezekiel 36:22-28; 37:21-28). Revelation 20 later gives the future reign of Christ its expressly millennial duration. The heavenly dimensions of the believer's inheritance enlarge this hope rather than contradict it. A w…
Read article →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
…ong the Tribulation lasts, when the man of sin is revealed, or whether every judgement in Revelation has the same relation to the Church. The responsible argument works cumulatively: Abraham's appeal grounds confidence in the justice of God. Lot supplies a historical example of r…
Read article →What Christ’s promise establishes—and what claims about infallible teaching still need to prove
…ings that be of God, but those that be of men.” — Matthew 16:23 The disciple who received revelation concerning Christ’s identity could still misunderstand Christ’s mission. Later, Paul confronts Peter over conduct that was inconsistent with the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:1…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
…h, but it should not be asked to identify the Father, Son and Holy Ghost independently of revelation. Scripture supplies the controlling evidence: Jesus says that the Father loved Him before the foundation of the world, while the wider biblical testimony identifies the Holy Ghost…
Read article →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…inished programme for Israel and Jerusalem, deliverance from the coming wrath, imminency, Revelation's distinction between earth-dwellers and the company in heaven, and the events which require an interval before Christ's reign. That wider case should be tested carefully. But it…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…suffer before reigning, or believing Jews and Gentiles would be united in one body. Later revelation unveils riches which earlier generations could not fully trace. Expansion, however, must remain faithful to what is expanded. If a promise to Israel and Judah reaches fulfilment o…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…im a great name, and bless all families of the earth through him (Genesis 12:1-3). As the revelation developed, three features became prominent: descendants, land, and worldwide blessing. Genesis 15 gives the covenant an extraordinary form. God alone passes between the divided pi…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…stian proclamation through complex accounts of divine emanation, cosmic error, and saving revelation. Sethian materials differ from Valentinian ones. Even Valentinian texts do not form a perfectly uniform system. “The Gnostics believed” should therefore make us cautious. Neverthe…
Read article →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…rit gives life, and Christ’s words are spirit and life. His hearers have treated heavenly revelation as a proposal for bodily consumption; Jesus directs them to the life-giving spiritual reality communicated through His words. Nor does “spiritual” mean imaginary. The Spirit is re…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…often been damaged by date-setting. Predictions have failed, charts have been treated as revelation, and excitement has sometimes become irresponsibility. None of that is required by imminency. It contradicts it. Jesus said that the times and seasons remain in the Father's autho…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…literal reading does not mean woodenly ignoring symbols, poetry, typology, or progressive revelation. It means allowing context to determine what is symbolic and refusing to change a promise's recipient merely because fulfilment appears difficult. Israel's unbelief is real Any se…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
…ded in Christ's atoning death. Old Testament believers did not possess the same degree of revelation concerning the coming Messiah, but no one was ever justified by law-keeping or saved independently of Christ. The question is therefore not whether fulfilment is found in Christ.…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…as committed Himself to perform, confidence becomes impossible. Faith would rest not upon revelation, but upon our hope that the words will retain their recognisable meaning when fulfilment comes. The future of Israel is therefore not a specialised controversy at the edge of Chri…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…t. Peter refuses Cornelius: "Stand up; I myself also am a man" (Acts 10:26). The angel in Revelation tells John, "See thou do it not ... worship God" (Revelation 19:10). Jesus does not respond that way. Matthew presents the disciples worshipping Him after He walks upon the sea (M…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…le Christians invented and then solved. It is the name given to the pattern of God's self-revelation. Scripture does not invite us to comprehend God's inner life exhaustively. It does require us to refuse easier answers that deny part of the evidence. Say only that God is one Per…
Read article →Seth D. Postell, Eitan Bar & Erez Soref · Messianic biblical theology · 2017
…Torah observance. Test their larger framework from both Testaments, distinguish enduring revelation about God's character from Israel's covenant obligations, and allow the apostolic writings to govern how the Torah is applied in the life of the Church. Torah Jesus in the Old Tes…
View recommendation →E. W. Bullinger · Sermons · 1892
…d prophetic curiosity. He ranges across the Law, Prophets, Psalms, Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation, drawing attention to the sheer weight of Scripture devoted to Christ's return. The sermons combine expectation, careful textual observation, and practical urgency: prophecy is me…
View recommendation →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…physical and psychological means. A person may experience certainty, unity, presence, or revelation without those feelings guaranteeing the truth of the conclusions drawn from them. Science can investigate what happens in the brain. It cannot place God inside a scanner, nor can…
Read article →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…s not merely match a date. He explains why the prophecy’s chronology is embedded within a revelation about sin and reconciliation. What Islam denies The Qur’an says: “And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger—they slew him not nor cruci…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…Gospel does the Qur'an affirm? Islam says that Allah gave Jesus the Injeel. It was a true revelation from God. It contained guidance and light. The Qur'an claims to confirm it. The People of the Gospel are told to judge by what God revealed within it. Yet when Christians open the…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
…f Israel's Scriptures was already deeply influential. From Matthew's opening genealogy to Revelation's final Jerusalem, the New Testament assumes the story of the Hebrew Scriptures. Its authors quote them directly, echo their phrases, reuse their patterns, and build arguments fro…
Read article →Tal Brooke · Christian investigation · 1979
…h, consciousness, spirit guides, reincarnation, and the afterlife alongside the Christian revelation and asks what these experiences actually prove. It is useful apologetic and discernment reading for a subject on which personal testimony is often allowed to outrun careful biblic…
View recommendation →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6). The dead are judged according to their works in Revelation 20:12. Jesus speaks repeatedly of deeds revealing the true condition of the heart. Works matter as evidence, fruit, and the proper subject of judgement. They cannot justify the un…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…th more clearly: Christ’s coming was not a tragic descent from fullness, but the gracious revelation of fullness—“full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He never ceased to be God The most revealing element in Amelius’s account is the suggestion that after dissolution the Word “was…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…ailing over his enemies. Muhammad preached in Arabia, established a community governed by revelation and brought the worship of one God to Arabian tribes. The reference to Kedar is therefore taken as a geographical marker identifying him. This is probably the most plausible-looki…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…to perform. If permanent covenant revocation is intended, the reader should expect later revelation to close Israel's hope. Instead, Jesus continues to speak in categories which require Israel, her tribes, Jerusalem, and the Davidic King to retain a future. This makes chronology…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
…revealed by the Spirit and spoken in words taught by the Holy Ghost. The passage gives us revelation, proclamation, and reception together. 1 Corinthians 2:1–13. Then comes the searching statement: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are f…
Read article →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…ngest argument was not reverence for a council as an end in itself. It was that creation, revelation, worship and salvation collapse if the Son belongs to the created order. On creation: “If then Son, therefore not creature; if creature, not Son; for great is the difference betwe…
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