Robert Lowery

Eschatology (literally “the study or belief about the last things”) is a slippery word and is often narrowly defined to refer to those events immediately preceding, accompanying, and following the final return of Jesus. Too often the subject is discussed in the final chapters of a theology book when it really embraces the entire Bible.

When I use the word in relation to the New Testament, I refer to the entire history of Jesus Christ as the content of eschatology, not simply his resurrection and return in glory. Hence, the subject has to do not with “the last things” but with the person of Christ, who is the first and the last One. In particular, the “End” began in Jesus Christ and yet we await the “End.” What is specifically characterized as New Testament eschatology includes both an “inaugurated” (the present fulfillment of the kingdom and the blessings we enjoy as followers of Jesus) and a “future” eschatology (events that are still future—the final coming, the final judgment, the new heavens and new earth, etc.).

If you want to pursue this general subject, some helpful resources are:

Bauckham, R. and Hart, T. Hope Against Hope: Christian Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

Conyers, A. J. The Eclipse of Heaven: Rediscovering the Hope of a World Beyond. Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1992.

Hill, C.C. In God’s Time: The Bible and the Future. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Hoekema, Anthony A. The Bible and the Future. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.

Lewis, Daniel J. 3 Crucial Questions About the Last Days (3 Crucial Questions). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1998.

Riddlebarger, Kim. A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times. Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 2003.

Travis, Stephen H. I believe in the second coming of Jesus. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982.

________. The Jesus hope. Waco: Word, 1974.

Venema, Cornelis P. The Promise of the Future. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2000.

Zorn, Raymond F. Christ Triumphant: Biblical Perspectives on His Church and Kingdom. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1997.

Technorati Tags: Bible, Revelation, books, eschatology, end times

On May 7, at the request of one of the visitors to this site, I reflected on my Bible reading habits. Recently another visitor, Andy, asked me on May 8 to say a bit more about the code or marking system I use when reading Scripture. My system is both fixed and flexible. How’s that for preciseness?! My encouragement is for you to develop your own, but I am willing to share with you what I do.

Let me share first of all some fixed features I incorporate.

• I always use different colors of ink or a variety of colored pencils.
• I have a color-code system where I underline major doctrines in certain colors and I try to keep this pretty consistent.
• I use all kinds of faces (happy, sad, surprised, inquisitive, questioning, etc.).
• I do not use a study Bible but prefer to use one with very few editorial comments/insertions (e.g., paragraph titles can really throw you off in seeing what the paragraph is really about! For example, my edition of the NIV has as a paragraph summary “Instructions on Worship” as an introduction to I Tim. 2:1ff. If you define “worship” as an assembly of believers, Paul’s instructions are not to be limited to a select time and place! I believe that this insertion has caused countless Christians to misread Paul’s letter.).
• I do not hesitate to write in the margins (all four) as well as between the lines (In medieval times these notes were called glosses (from the Greek word “tongues” as in how various commentators had interpreted a passage) or catenae (from the Latin word “chain” as in chain of interpretive comments)–interpretive notes, so to speak).
• If I read a good quotation on a passage I may write it in the margin of my Bible.
• I create my own cross references in addition to the ones found in the translation I am using (There is a good article waiting to be written on the presuppositions and theology behind the cross-references; you can compare any two Bibles that contain cross-references and see that there is not agreement. What is a cross-reference to one is not to another student. Oh, by the way, cross-references are those references usually found in the center of a page or at the bottom directing the students to other verses that address the same topic you are reading about).
• I often have a concordance beside me so I can look up words or phrases.
• I often create my own cross references to serve as reminder (For example, in teaching Matthew this semester I pointed out to the students that Jesus is saying that all of the events in Matthew 24:1-35 must take place before the generation to whom he is speaking comes to an end. I have written in my Bible next to the phrase “this generation” all of the other places where the concept of generation is found in Matthew–compare 24:34 with 11:16; 12:39, 41,44,45; 16:4; 17:17 23:36. To conclude that the phrase in 24:34 is speaking to our generation is simply incorrect; the original readers would have understood Jesus to be teaching that the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem were to take place in their lifetime, events that did indeed take place around 70 A.D.! My, that throws a lot of sermons off balance, doesn’t it, especially those who use the signs in Matt. 24:1ff. to interpret our day!).
• I draw brackets around two or more verses that should have been one because they form a complete sentence (One of these days, I hope to ask Stephen Langton, one of those long-gone saints, why he divided the Bible the way he and his cohorts did!).
• Until you get the dates down, I think it is helpful to write at the top of the beginning of each book of the Bible the tentative date of writing.

With regard to flexibility:

• I vary what I am looking for on a monthly basis. One month I may focus on a cluster of doctrines (faith, hope and love) while another month, I may focus on a theme like righteousness or leadership. One summer I read through the New Testament and underlined or perhaps blocked out with a marker all of the passages that had to do with Christ’s final coming. What an experience!
• After I finish my daily reading I go back and read what I did not underline because often that indicates that I did not want to focus on what the author was communicating (I often do this, I have discovered, when the passage is a threat to my comfort zone!).
• I sometimes read a book, especially a gospel and give the units chapter titles as if I were an editor assigning titles to a novel or short story. Of course, in doing this you will discover bad chapter and verse divisions.
• Often on the last page of a book of the Bible, I will write down questions I want to pursue or verses I want to study in greater detail.
• Let me repeat something: I work hard at getting locked into reading only or primarily one translation, be it the NIV (the KJV of our day!) or the ESV or the NASB.

May you be blessed in your reading and hearing (Rev. 1:3).

Technorati Tags: Bible, reading, devotion

Clifton Healy and I were classmates at Lincoln Christian Seminary back in the day. He’s running his own (very thoughtful) blog here and was kind enough to give us a mention. Return the favor and give him a visit.

Jump over to the Writings page and you’ll see some new resources: a comprehensive New Testament exegetical tools bibliography (an oft requested item) as well as topical study guides for elders, deacons, and other church leadership themes.

Dr. Lowery’s site has been rolling now about nine months. To make the content easier to use and to help promote the site, we’ve added some new or enhanced features:

Subscriptions: In the sidebar at the right, you’ll see a “Subscribe” heading just below the Search box. While the site has always offered a standard RSS feed, you can now subscribe by e-mail. This feature will send you new content when it’s posted on the blog. This doesn’t replace the “notification e-mail” on the Contact page; rather, it’s an additional way for you to get your rlowery.com content.

At the bottom of each post, you may see some Technorati tags. Technorati is a blog-tracking service. This allows us to promote the site and enables users to search through other Technorati-tracked blogs with similar content.

At the bottom of each post, you will see four new links:

Email this: An easy way to send someone a link to the current post.

Save to del.icio.us: del.icio.us is a “social bookmarking utility.” If you have a free del.icio.us account, you can save your bookmarked web sites/content online and see who else has bookmarked it as well. This is a great way to discover new content.

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We hope you’ll find these tools useful. If you have thoughts or suggestions, you’re welcome to post them as comments.

In the May 13 edition of the Christian Standard, Dr. Lowery responded to a Time magazine cover story entitled, “Does God Want You to Be Rich?” Dr. Lowery’s article, entitled “Idolatry and Greed: Exposing the Health and Wealth Gospel,” is now online. In his typical “take no prisoners” style, Dr. Lowery reveals his hand in the first paragraphs:

Let me be clear at the outset: In my opinion, shaped by my study of Scripture, the teachings of the so-called health-wealth gospel are a perversion of the Bible. More explicitly: This gospel taught under a variety of names—Word of Faith, Prosperity Theology, Prosperity Lite, Health and Wealth, and Name It and Claim It—is ultimately bad news for the world for at least three reasons.

Any teaching that promises health and wealth in exchange for obeying God is a perversion of the gospel. The advocates quoted by Time are only the most famous and contemporary of those who have taught what I must conclude is untrue.

Read the rest.

Technorati Tags: Bible, prosperity, Joel Osteen

Dr. Lowery was interviewed by Isaac Gaff on the Worship Conversations podcast last week. In Part 2, listen as the two discuss Dr. Lowery’s thoughts on “worship as war.”

Worship Conversations – Episode 9 – The Book of Revelation and Worship – Part 2

NOTE: Dr. Lowery references the conversation that he and Isaac had last October after his sermon in LCC’s chapel service. You may want to listen to that discussion again to get some context for this interview.

Technorati Tags: worship, Revelation

Dr. Lowery, center, receives The Restoration Award from Lincoln Christian College and Seminary President Dr. Keith Ray (right) and Vice President of Alumni Development Lynn Laughlin (left). Photo by Scott Sarver.

Last night, May 11, was the annual faculty-staff-administration-trustee dinner. By tradition, it is a night of celebration, praising God for his faithfulness. In the midst of the festivities, members of the Lincoln Christian College and Seminary community receive special recognition for a variety of reasons–some for their longevity and quality of service as faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees and some because of their transitioning to other ministries that will remove them from regular ministry on our campus. Last night was familiar, except something was different. It was unexpected.

At one point in the program, President Ray announced that the school was giving another award, The Restoration Award, one given by the LCCS Alumni Association to an alum of the school who has done “distinguished” service. The lights were dimmed, and a video accompanied by narration began. I recognized the voice but not the pictures. The first one showed a girl and a very young boy. I leaned forward and thought: “Wow! That little girl could be my sister.” The second slide showed the little boy by himself; I did not recognize him. And then the third informed the audience that the boy had been born on October 4, 1948. And I thought: “Isn’t that something! He and I share the same birthday.” After the next slide or two, I realized that the little boy was me! (My colleague, Paul Boatman, was sitting at the table to my left and was watching my expressions as the photos flashed across the screen; he observed afterwards that it was apparent that I had no idea what was happening. He remembers the “Aha!” moment happening about four or five slides into the presentation.)

My wife and children had participated in the conspiracy. I had been completely blindsided. I was and still am stunned. At the end, the lights were brightened, and President Ray asked me to come to the front of the auditorium. He introduced Marilyn, my wife of nearly 36 years, our daughter Rachel and her husband Joe, and then he pointed to the back of the room, and announced that my son, Brian, and his wife, Sarah had just arrived from Chicago fifteen minutes before the presentation. Frankly, I beamed.

And I shed not a few tears. The President announced that I had been chosen by the powers-that-be to receive the award The Restoration Award for Christian Higher Education. May I repeat, I was stunned. You often get something like this after some notable achievement or life-long achievement or as you are nearing retirement or if you are dead. The gathering stood and applauded. I could barely walk to the front, because of weak legs accompanying the tears blurring my vision. When the President embraced me, he privately shared some kind, affirming words and then made a public statement that I will treasure the rest of my life. He gave me an opportunity to address the audience. I spoke briefly and softly, something seldom experienced by those who have heard me speak.

What a school year it has been! It has been a humbling one, a grateful one. It has been one, on many front, that has stretched my faith. And I pray, a God-honoring one.

Dr. Lowery was interviewed by Isaac Gaff on the Worship Conversations podcast last week. Listen as the two discuss Dr. Lowery’s book and his understanding of the book of Revelation, especially as it relates to worship in the church today.

Worship Conversations – Episode 9 – The Book of Revelation and Worship – Part 1

Technorati Tags: worship, Revelation

NOTE: Dr. Lowery references the conversation that he and Isaac had last October after his sermon in LCC’s chapel service. You may want to listen to that discussion again to get some context for this interview.

In a recent posting, I shared with you that I attempt to read through the New Testament once a month and the Old Testament as least twice a year. Loretta, a good friend, wrote me and asked me for more information. Why do I do it? How do I do it? When do I do it? Where do I do it? Let me offer some brief reflections . . .

• Why? I do it not only because God wants me to do it, but I do it for my sake a follower of Jesus and for the sake of those I teach. . . . When I fill my heart and mind with Scripture, I am drawn closer to God and to his people . . . I am able to respond to life’s situations more appropriately . . . I am of the conviction that all of us must get more of God’s word into our hearts and minds because of the toxic culture we live in . . .
• How? I read from a variety of translations, but usually I read the NIV six to eight months of the year and then the remaining months I read from a variety of translations–NASB, ESV, NLT, NRSV, etc.) . . . I buy a paperback of the NIV at the beginning of every year and mark it up quite thoroughly, underlining (at times following a code–blue for God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, black for the beautiful indicatives found in Scripture, red for the imperatives, etc.), drawing happy faces by sections, unhappy faces, puzzled faces, angry faces (Yes, sometimes I don’t like what God says!) . . . I am captivated by the metaphors the biblical authors use . . . I write in the margins of my Bible short sentences summing up my thoughts, etc. I read the Bible not only as sacred literature but as literature, paying close attention to the plot, characters, settings, the role of the narrator/author (I have been deeply influenced by Leland Ryken’s How to Read the Bible as Literature and recommend that you read the work not once but several times so that his principles get into your reading DNA) . . . I write down questions that I want to pursue in a more detailed way . . .
• When and where? I read major sections early in the morning and late in the evening, and yet if I don’t get through the NT in a month, I don’t feel guilty . . . I read when I am alone so I will not be distracted . . .
• How? Revisited I seldom read in canonical order but often in the order in which I think the writings were produced . . . I often group writers (Luke-Acts, Paul’s letters, the writings of John) . . . I sometimes group according to the author’s situation (the prison epistles by Paul) . . .
• Why? Revisited I strongly believe that the more we have what is essentially Christian in our lives then we will be journeying well on the kind of person God wants us to be . . . And one way of having more of what is essentially Christian is to have more of God’s Word in our hearts and minds.

Technorati Tags: Bible, reading, devotion