Robert Lowery

One of my former students (and a good one at that!), Chris, wrote me recently and wanted to know if I have changed my thinking regarding the book of Revelation since I taught him more than fifteen years ago. After all, aren’t professors expected to hold the same conclusions year after year, using the same set of lecture notes? Have I changed? Certainly! My motto as a teacher, preacher and author is taken from James 3:1-2 – “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says (or writes, my addition), he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.” I am not a perfect teacher, either in my methods of teaching or the content that I teach.

Let me be succinct and then expand on the following sentence: Whatever New Testament writing I have taught, be it Matthew or Revelation, I am constantly refining, rethinking, and being redirected to a deeper, richer understanding of Scripture. I am on a pilgrimage to be the best student of Scripture I can be. And along the way I have had my errors pointed out to me, sometimes graciously and sometimes not. In all of my classes I remind students that the deeper we probe Scripture the more powerfully it speaks to our lives and the more clearly and powerfully are we able to proclaim God’s truths.

People’s questions, students papers, and my own personal study have combined to help me see more clearly and correctly John’s message to us today. Let me give a few examples.

When I taught Chris years ago, I did not stress enough the necessity of exploring the allusions to the Old Testament that are found in Revelation. In recent years when I have asked students to avoid all commentaries and simply focus on those allusions, more times than not the students have been able to come up with the correct interpretation of various passages in Revelation. More specifically, in the last year or so I realized that I had not paid enough attention to the use of Exodus in John’s writing (approximately 150 of John’s 404 verses allude to this great event). As a result I failed to realize that the exodus outlined in the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of a greater Exodus to come, when God dwells with us (Rev. 21:1-4).

One more example. Twenty or more years ago I had failed to take into account the call in Rev. 1:3 “to obey” the words of John’s prophecy. Now I see calls to obedience everywhere in the book.

Or a final example. For years I have believed that John used repetition and recapitulation to communicate his message. What I failed to realize was the depth and significance of those literary devices. God knows that we have short attention spans and we need to have the same point driven home again and again.

I do need to state that my overall approach has not changed significantly. For example, I believe that we must avoid two extremes, thinking that John’s writing spoke only to the Christians in the first century or that it speaks only to disciples who are alive right before Christ returns to earth. I believe its message of comfort and challenge has spoken to countless generations and will continue to do so, if Christ tarries. The conclusions I offer in the chapters on historical setting, style of the book, the use of symbolism, and the structure are ones that I have held for more than thirty-five years.

Let me conclude these reflections with an observation that may surprise many. When I have had to rethink or refine my conclusions, inevitably those changes have caused me to redirect my life. I have become more passionate about being a disciple of Jesus as a result of knowing this book better. I have been reminded that ultimately the Bible student is not the subject and the Bible is not the object. No, I am the object and the Word is the subject. God speaks, and I must hear and obey.

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