The Day of Atonement
It's funny how our memory never lets go of impressionable moments, especially when it comes to matters of faith. For example, when I think about the Jewish Day of Atonement, it brings to mind a Major League baseball pitcher named Sandy Koufax who was scheduled to...
God as Eternal Creator
The Tanakh begins with the words, “In the beginning,” introducing God as the Creator of all things. Moses, the author of the Torah, does not attempt to explain God’s origin, nor does he speculate on how He came into being. Rather, the text presupposes God’s eternal...
The Tanakh
I recently was a guest on a podcast (knownthepodcast.com) hosted by three women from our church (one is my daughter-in-law). They asked me to talk about the importance for believers to study the Old Testament. It took no arm-twisting to do so, since it is one of my...
Worthy Is the Lamb – Part 3
“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold,...
Worthy Is the Lamb – Part 2
In the previous blog, we were introduced to the vision of the throne of God, which John sees immediately after the Son of Man sends his seven letters to the churches. Revelation Chapter 4 is clearly a vision of the Father, the God of Creation, embodied in the four...
Worthy Is the Lamb – Part 1
In the previous blog, we focused on the vision of the Son of Man, which opens the book of Revelation (1:12-20). We saw that the first verse of the letter makes it clear that this writing is about the unveiling of a Person, and not about the unfolding of future...
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
If we are to look for a fitting title for the book of Revelation, we need not look beyond the first verse. John introduces it as the “Revelation of Jesus Christ.” According to most modern interpreters, a fitting title would be The Revelation of Tank Movements in...
Revelation: Encouragement for a Suffering Church
There is an ongoing debate about when the book of Revelation was written. Most people think it was written either before 70 AD, during Emperor Nero’s reign, or between 90 and 96 AD, during Emperor Domitian’s rule. To interpret Scripture correctly, we need to...
Keys to Studying Revelation
As with the study of every book in the Bible, we must begin with this vital question, “Why was the book of Revelation written?” What purpose does it serve in the grand narrative of Scripture? While we understand the Gospels as the life story of Jesus and Acts as...
Why We Need The Book Of Revelation
The written revelation of God ends with a book unlike any other book in Holy Scripture. Though the content is the same found throughout Scripture, the way it is communicated is vastly different. Instead of communicating in a didactic form like the other letters,...
Daniel’s Seventieth Week – Part 1
“And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.” Daniel...
Unto Messiah The Prince
Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time....