Before We Begin…

The book of Revelation is the ravings of a Maniac, no more worthy, nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.

Thomas Jefferson

My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christ is neither taught nor known in it.

Martin Luther

I believe that this world, as we know it, will come to an end… This is not fanciful imagination but the clear and repeated testimony of the Bible.

Bill Graham

Every Christian generation learns equally the lessons of Revelation—that God is in control, that the powers of the world are minuscule when compared with God, that God is as likely to work through apparent weakness and failure as through strength and success, and that in the end God’s people will prevail.

Craig S. Keener

You have to make your vision apparent by shock—to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.

Flannery O’Connor

Everything in the Revelation can be found in the previous sixty-five books of the Bible. The Revelation adds nothing of substance to what we already know. The truth of the gospel is already complete… But there is a new way to say it. I read the revelation not to get more information but to revive my imagination.

Eugene Peterson

Perhaps one reason for the high degree of OT influence in the Apocalypse is that the author could think of no better way to describe some of his visions than with the language used by the OT prophets to describe similar visions… for John the Christ-event is the key to understanding the OT … the New Testament interprets the Old and the Old interprets the New.

G.K. Beale

When my sons complain that a good book is hard to read, I say, ‘Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves; digging is hard, but you might find diamonds.’

John Piper

They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted. They are unknown, yet they are condemned; they are put to death, yet they are brought to life. They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are in need of everything, yet they abound in everything. They are dishonored, yet they are glorified in their dishonor; they are slandered, yet they are vindicated. They are cursed, yet they bless; they are insulted, yet they offer respect. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when they are punished, they rejoice as though brought to life… and so Christians when punished daily increase more and more.

Diognetus 5:11-16; 6:9b