INTRODUCTION

10/22/22 FROM THE INTRODUCTIONS OF 20TH CENTURY BOOKS ON REVELATION, PART 4

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Today we’ll start with another quote from J. Vernon McGee. This is from the transcriptions of his radio program, from Chapter 1 of REVELATION, PART 1, published in 1975:

“In the first division of this book we see the person of Christ. We see Christ in His glory and position as the Great High Priest who is in charge of His church. We see Him in absolute control. In the Gospels we find Him meek, lowly, humble, and dying upon a cross. He made Himself subject to His enemies on earth. He is not like that in the Book of Revelation. He is in control. He is still the Lamb of God, but we see the wrath of the Lamb that terrifies the earth.”     

I have seen this point before and I really appreciate it. Jesus is unchanging in His God-nature, but we saw very little of His wrath during His time on earth. I think He only turned it loose once, against the money-changers, and many seem to think it was out of character.   But even then He was perfectly in control. Revelation reaffirms for us that His character is God’s character, and wrath (in control) is part of that character.

The next, and last author for today is David Chilton (1951-1997), an American pastor who spent his time from age 1 to age 8 in the Philippines with his missionary parents. At 8 his family moved to Southern California where he stayed into adulthood. He wrote quite a bit, and pastored a few different churches. He died at 45 of a massive heart attack.

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10/14/22 FROM THE INTRODUCTIONS OF 20TH CENTURY BOOKS ON REVELATION, PART 3

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Greetings. We’ll start today with a book entitled THINGS TO COME: A STUDY IN BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY, published in 1958 by J. Dwight Pentecost (1915-2014). Mr. Pentecost was a pastor in Dallas as well as a Professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary. He was a noted Dispensationalist.

From the Preface:

“The day in which we live has witnessed a surge of interest in Biblical Eschatology. Whereas a generation ago one theologian wrote: ‘Eschatology is usually loved in inverse proportion to the square of the mental diameter of those who do the loving,’ today another writes: ‘The problem of eschatology may shortly become, if it is not already, the framework of American theological discussion.’ The theologian who, a short generation ago, could either ignore eschatological questions entirely, or treat them disdainfully, is outmoded in his thinking if he adopts such an attitude today. The easy optimism of the past generation has been shattered by two world wars, depression and inflation, with the accompanying social and moral evils. The humanistic emphasis that characterized that theological thinking has proved fallacious. Realism has taken the place of optimism, and men have been forced to turn to eschatological considerations as the source of hope for a sin-cursed world. The Bible and the revelation it contains proves to be the one source of hope and confidence for the future, and men are turning more and more to it for light in the present darkness.”

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