Showing posts with label Revelation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revelation. Show all posts
Thursday, April 11, 2024

Literalness is not normative or privileged

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The book of Revelation raises huge interpretative issues, particularly in relation to what is considered to be literal and what metaphorical...
Saturday, September 09, 2023

Don't you just love the passive voice?

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Ran across this quotation in a book I'm editing: In [Rev 13] vv 5–7, the singular aorist passive verb ἐδόθη, ‘was given,’ occurs five ...
Monday, November 07, 2022

The more things change

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The more they stay the same. Take, for example, these verses from Revelation 16: and they cursed the name of the God who had power over ...
Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Blind chance?

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The claim of the Bible is absurd, unless we are ready to comprehend that the world as scrutinized and depicted by science is but a thin surf...
Friday, December 11, 2020

There will be no more sea!

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For example, the disappearance of the sea in Revelation 21:1 (“and the sea was no more”) is not making the point that no one goes swimming i...
Tuesday, December 01, 2020

The restoration

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It is in God’s purposes from creation that the unbreakable linkage between resurrection and the restoration of rule is forged. From the begi...
Thursday, August 27, 2020

And there was no more sea

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John’s vision in Revelation describing an oceanless new heaven and new earth thus anticipates but goes beyond the vision of the Old Testamen...
Tuesday, May 09, 2017

A written prophecy

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[I]t is equally important to note that, unlike the books of the Old Testament prophets, Revelation does not present itself as the secondary ...
Thursday, November 14, 2013

True peace...

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It is built on the foundations of the apostles (Rev 21:14), not on the foundations of violence or greed, but on the gospel of the truth of G...
Wednesday, November 13, 2013

A challenge

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John faithfully portrays a facet of God that many find distasteful, a facet that, though reflected throughout the Scriptures of both testame...
Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Wake up!

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John's proclamation of a God who opposes domination systems challenges hearers in every age to examine themselves and their practices le...
Monday, November 11, 2013

Blind mice

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The label “domination system” has come to be applied to systemic social arrangements that institutionalize unequal power relationships and t...
Friday, November 08, 2013

Everyday Worship

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It is important to qualify this, however, by saying that a “worship service” is not the same as “worship.” A worship service fits into the r...
Thursday, November 07, 2013

Affliction goes both ways

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Even more problematic for John are those congregations that seem to coexist all too peaceably with their neighbors in the shadow of Rome. Th...
Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Where does our allegiance lie?

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If, with John, we know Jesus as “the ruler of the kings of the earth” and as the “one who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, ...
Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Here's the rub

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Again because of our immersion, often from birth, in the assumptions, values, goals, and practices of our own society and its systems, we ha...
Monday, November 04, 2013

How do we respond?

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Exerting control and maintaining peace through violent suppression of dissent; promoting an economy arranged for the great benefit of the fe...
Saturday, November 02, 2013

Share the responsibility

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The wealth to be enjoyed by participating in the larger global economy was, as far as John was concerned, a dangerous lure toward sharing in...
Friday, November 01, 2013

Rome unveiled

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John calls attention to the parasitic side of the Roman imperial economy, countering any feelings of gratitude toward Rome by drawing attent...
Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Looking behind the curtain

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John helps his audiences to look at Rome and Roman imperialism especially through the lens of the Hebrew prophets, who had long ago spoken a...