Robert Lowery

My colleague, friend, and manager of rlowery.com recently suggested that I offer some reflections on my experiences in teaching Revelation in churches. I thought the idea was a good one, and I invite you to consider the following reflections (arranged in no particular order):

1. I am blessed to have numerous opportunities to teach people Scripture—be it the Book of Revelation, another New Testament writing, or a particular topic. I always try not only to provide interpretation and answers to their questions about particular passages but I also offer strategies for how Christians can study the Bible on their own. This leads me to . . .
2. I am constantly being reminded that most congregations I visit do not provide regular opportunities for equipping people how to read and how to study Scripture. Indeed, I find that there is a hunger out there for wanting to know how and that people’s appetites are not be satisfied. This concerns me greatly.
3. Such basic principles as studying a passage in light of the historical background, its genre, its structure, etc. are simply not considered by many of the folks I have taught.
4. A biblical author’s intended meaning is not the goal of many students but rather they believe they need to impose their meaning on the passage. They are not aware of doing this but they do it instinctively. When I ask: What was the author’s intended meaning? I am met with the proverbial deer-in-the-headlights-look.
5. People are amazed to learn that prophecy is primarily proclamation and not prediction. I have to keep reminding them that I am not saying there is no prediction in a book like Revelation but that is not John’s major concern. The proper translation of Rev. 1:3 (The NIV vs. the ESV, for example, where the former is atrocious because it translates the verb that means “to keep” or “to obey” as “take to heart” whereas the ESV gets it right. Interesting, the NIV does get it right where the same verb is used in Rev. 22:7). Students realize that when they read Revelation they need to focus on the question: What are we to obey? Rather than When is this or that going to happen?
6. I am amazed at how receptive people are to the approach I am emphasizing, namely, that Revelation is a discipleship handbook helping Christians know how to live properly between Christ’s first and final comings.
7. I believe there is a growing interest on how to know the Word better.
8. I am worried that many people (including preachers) think that the primary way of getting the Word into the hearts and minds of people is via the Sunday gathering where the sermons are, to say the least, a bit thin. Sermons that do not challenge the intellect ultimately make little impact on the heart, let alone life’s decisions.
9. People in our churches ask good questions when provided the opportunity. Indeed, often the questions are profound ones. My maxim is that the deeper we probe Scripture (and this includes asking the right questions!), the greater the application.
10. People know that something must be wrong about how many self-styled Revelation experts cannot agree with one another on how a particular event is a fulfillment of prophecy and that inevitably the predictions that are so confidently made do not come to pass and that revised editions of the experts’ books have to be published to the benefit of those authors and to the detriment of the readers who have better things to do than to read another book by people like . . .

Related posts:

1. Ten Random Reflections on Teaching Scripture in Churches