Robert Lowery

Come to The Other Holy Land!

Well, actually, two lands. For the fourth time, I will be visiting Greece and Turkey. My last visit was in 2005, and I am looking forward to co-hosting a tour with my friend, colleague, and fellow dean, Dr. Paul Boatman. We will depart on Sunday, December 27, 2010 and return on January 8, 2011.

Many people travel to Israel for pilgrimage or study tour, but there is also much to see in Greece and Turkey. Our tour group will be retracing the steps of Paul and John. Excavations have continued since my last visit. In 2005 in the ruins of Ephesus a tent had been erected over a site near the library, and I am eagerly looking forward to what has been uncovered. I also anticipate re-visiting Laodicea because much archaeological work has been done in the past five years. It is possible to walk down the main street and see typical homes and businesses in a way that was not previously possible. And Pergamum is always a treat, along with Athens, Corinth, and Philippi.

There are an increasing number of books on the seven cities available. This year I plan on taking with me an academic work by Steven Friesen, Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse of John: Reading Revelation in the Ruins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). Friesen is one of the leading authorities on the significance of the first century cult for our understanding of Revelation.

The best all around guide is A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey by C.E. Fant and M.G. Reddish (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). I strongly encourage you to purchase this work if you go with us.

Please contact me at rlowery@lincolnchristian.edu, Paul Boatman (pboatman@lincolnchristian.edu) or our administrative assistant, Becky Boggs, at bboggs@lincolnchristian.edu for more information.  Full details including itinerary and cost can be found on this flyer (PDF).

It was a Friday night not too long ago. Our four-year-old and six-year-old granddaughters, Jocelyn and Carissa, were spending the night with us. Jocelyn was upstairs taking her bath. Having taken hers, Carissa was downstairs with me. We were in the kitchen. I was sitting at the dining table and she was at her little table practicing her penmanship. She is now learning how to read and spell words. She loves to have me ask her to spell a word, and she will carefully write it down on small slips of paper.

She had been spelling out on paper a bagful of words, some she chose and some I requested.

She asked me: “Papa, how do you spell cancer? Does it begin with a ‘c’ or a ‘k’”? I told her.

Several minutes passed by. She then asked me: “Papa, do you know that Jocelyn and I pray for you and grandma every night?” “Yes, Carissa, and we really appreciate your prayers.” “Okay, Papa.”

A few more minutes passed. She asked me another question: “Papa, can God heal you?” . . . “Yes, Carissa, he certainly can.”

About one minute later, she asked: “Papa, will God heal you?” . . . “Yes, Carissa, he will–someday, somehow, some way.” “Okay, Papa.”

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands of them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’ And he laid his hands on them and went away.
(Matthew 19:13-15)

To which I can only say: Okay, Papa.

Dear reader, I submit this essay with considerable uneasiness because I do not want to appear to be boasting. My thoughts reflect my response to God’s ever-surprising grace.

On February 22, Monday evening, I had the privilege of preaching the inaugural sermon for Ozark Christian College’s annual Preaching-Teaching Convention. The theme was Unveiled, and all of the sermons were based on the Book of Revelation. I was asked to preach a sermon based on Revelation 1. My goal was to use the first chapter as a way to introduce the major themes of the last book found in our New Testament. The title I gave to the message was “Dancing to the Lyrics of the Lamb,” and I wanted the folks to understand how John challenges us as disciples to remain faithful to the Lamb. I pray that it was a night in which God was honored by what I preached.

At the end of the service, Shane Wood, an alum of our seminary, former research assistant of mine, member of the staff at OCC, and a student currently working on a PhD in New Testament in Edinburg, Scotland, announced to the assembly that he was editing a book that would contain special studies on the Book of Revelation. What took my breath away was that the book was going to be published in my honor later this year. He then presented me with a plaque and a list of the contributors: Craig Blomberg, Paul Boatman, Oti Bunaciu, Craig Evans, Gary Hall, Fred Hansen, J.K. Jones, Paul Kissling, Brian Lowery, Yulia Lubenetz, I. Howard Marshall, Matt Proctor, Mark Scott, Jeff Snell, Carmen Trenton, Tony Twist, Neal Windham, and Shane Wood. Some names will be recognizable to you, some will not be. I know all of them. They are former teachers (either directly or through their writings), classmates, and students.

What unites them all is their love for Jesus, their commitment to the study of the Word, and their love for wedding serious study with service in the Lord’s Church. They hail from our country as well as from Austria, Canada, Romania, Scotland, and Ukraine. Some are presidents, others are professors, still others preachers and teachers. But all follow the Lamb. I have been blessed by their influence in my life over the years, and I pray that whatever they write will be a blessing to you and bring glory to the Lamb. And I thank them for their gift.

I remain stunned this Thursday morning as I write this piece. But before I finish, I must share with you something about the title of the volume. You certainly understand the references to the dragons and to John, but what is the meaning of “every grain of sand”? Bob Dylan wrote a song with that title many years ago, and it remains my favorite song of the hundreds he has written and of the hundreds I have heard him perform. Let me quote some lines from memory:

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need,
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed.
There’s a dyin’ vice within me, reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the dangers and in the morals of despair.
Don’t have any inclination to look back on any mistake,
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment, I can see the Master’s hand,
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.
I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame,
And every time I pass that way, I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey, I come to understand,
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.

This is not the time to offer an analysis of the song, so let me offer this one observation: as we experience the failures and frailties of life may we always remember that God remains God, and our submission to his will is our way of expressing gratitude to him for his saving grace.

In the February 1, 2010 issue of Time, p. 3 under the “Numbers” section, I read the report that 47% of Muslim Americans think of themselves as Muslims first; 28% say they consider themselves Americans first.

In growing up in the Christian church (the Stone-Campbell heritage), I was often told that we were not the only Christians but Christians only. I do not believe I was taught as often that I was a Christian first and an American second. Yet from a biblical perspective, that is certainly to be the perspective that all Christians living in America should have. Of course, that should be the case for Christians living in Austria or Australia or Ukraine or Uzbekistan. I have no doubt that Paul, a Roman citizen, would have considered himself a Christian first, a Roman citizen second (Philippians 3:20-21).

I do not know what the answer would be if Christians living in America were asked: Are you a Christian first or an American first? My fear is that the percentage who would answer “Christian first!” would not be as high a percentage as the Muslims surveyed.

But my final question is this: If I believe that I am to be a Christian first and an American second, at best, what difference should that make in the way that I live?

No doubt the book had meaning for the original recipients. After part four our concern as we conclude this series is this: What is the significance of the book for us in the twenty-first century?

V. CONSIDER THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BOOK

Only by paying attention to the setting, style, symbolism and structure of the book are we then ready to ask: What is the significance of the book? How does it speak to us today? I have chosen to spend less time on this today because if we get the above right then the significance will certainly become clearer. There can be no shortcuts taken in the previous four categories without risking missing God’s intended meaning of this great book. If we are not willing to follow the first four categories, then we must not preach Revelation.

The Book of Revelation was not written to satisfy our curiosity about the future. We must not use it to work out in detail a schedule leading up to the end of the world. It was not given to us to scare the hell out of people. All who have done this, contemporary authors included, have been wrong, without exception.

By placing this book in the contexts of Christ’s first and final comings, John impressed upon his audience an awareness of the Christian life and mission. It was a context in which Christians were called upon to choose between holy living and unholy living. Revelation asks the Church today: Are you going to be seduced by the whore or are you going to be a faithful and pure bride. No compromise is allowed. There were no shades of gray in the book. Throughout, John sets up stark contrasts between good and evil and invites believers to make a choice. Christians are exhorted to choose between two clearly opposed sides.

Accordingly, there are three areas where we need to strive to keep the balance.

Read more…

Having discussed the use of symbolism in part three, we come now to the what many consider to be most difficult feature of the book to understand, the way the book is organized. Symbolism is relatively easy when compared to analyzing the book’s structure, at least to some.

IV. CONSIDER THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

Revelation is a notoriously difficult book to analyze structurally. There really is no parallel to it in the Bible. (It is acknowledged, by the way, that two other writings by John, the Gospel and the First Letter are difficult to outline).

There are three areas where we need to strive to keep the balance.

Read more…

Dr. Lowery will be a featured speaker at Ozark Christian College’s 2010 Preaching-Teaching Convention during Feb. 22-24.  This year’s event is entitled “Unveiled: The Surprising Plan of God in Revelation.”  Dr. Lowery will be speaking at the opening session at 4:00 PM on Feb. 22 as well as at a morning seminar on Feb. 23.  More details and registration information are available at the link above.

In the second part we focused on the style of genres of the book. The form shaped the substance in a significant way. Closely related to the genre is the use of symbolism in the book.

III. CONSIDER THE SYMBOLISM OF THE BOOK

I know of no interpreter, denials notwithstanding, who interprets everything in Revelation literally, plain and unadorned. No one believes that Jesus is literally a door or a Lamb or that the Devil is literally a Dragon. There are those who say that anyone who does not interpret Revelation literally is denying its inspired message. This is a bogus perspective. Such accusers themselves do not practice such an approach to language. Once again, we must interpret a book of the Bible naturally in light of its genre. It was the nature of such apocalyptic works in the ancient world to use symbolism.

Rev. 1:1 as translated in the KJV highlights the use of symbolism: “The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.” He sent and signified it . . . Unpack one verb, signify. God signified it, that is, God made the message known in signs. As John revealed Christ through the signs in the Gospel, so Christ is revealed through signs in the Revelation!

Read more…

In part one we considered the historical setting of the book. The book must have meant something to the original recipients, and we must seek to know what it meant before we can know what it means. Part 2 focuses on the fact that the book must have been written in a style that would have been understood by those recipients.

II. CONSIDER THE STYLE OF THE BOOK

I am talking about genre. What kind of book is this? We have gospels, history, and letters, but what about this book? Where would Barnes and Noble shelve this book? It would have to create a new category. A genre mistake is made by many preachers. They read Revelation like a “Book of Acts” with a twist, a kind of “Book of Future Acts.” Revelation tells us in great detail what is going to happen, so we are told. And we can draw up our charts and we distribute our videos. But remember this: Every single person or school of thought or church group who has done this have been consistent…consistently wrong, from the Millerites in the 1840s to the LaHaye-ites in the twenty-first century.

A genre mistake is made because we ask the wrong questions and therefore we don’t get the right answers because we impose our agenda on this book. We don’t allow God to set the agenda with the literary form that he has chosen to reveal himself. The bottom line is this: A book must be interpreted naturally in light of its genre.

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“Critics are madder than poets…And even though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creatures so wild as one of his own commentators.”
G.K. Chesterton

How in the world does one preach the Revelation responsibly?

When we read this book we may, at various points, think we have picked up a demented copy of the National Geographic Magazine filled with grotesque creatures—a slaughtered Lamb standing, a dragon with its tail sweeping stars out of the sky, or a beast with seven heads and ten horns. Or we may think that we have been surfing with our remote controls and we have come upon the weather channel revealing a world gone amuck with lightning and thunderstorms and hundred pound hailstones and raging seas and fierce tsunami-like conditions. Or perhaps we may think we have picked up a jigsaw puzzle with 5000 pieces and we have no picture of what it is we are trying to piece together or a puzzle book with crossword puzzles and page after page of scrambled letters where we are supposed to circle hidden words or phrases. Or perhaps we may think that we have picked up a college level higher mathematics book with incomprehensible numbers and equations, with threes, fours, twelves and multiples of twelve, and tens and multiples of tens and times, time and half a time. Or perhaps upon reading through the book in one sitting we conclude that it reads like a poorly directed film whose director and editor did not know when and how to end the movie. Or perhaps we think someone has typed in the words “The End” on some apocalyptic search engine and we have come up with web sites never dreamed of.

Indeed, when we open this last book of the Bible we experience a collision of sounds, smells, and sights. The book assaults our senses. We see a funeral procession, a wedding celebration, a brothel, a homecoming, a banquet, a dance; we smell incense and we see falling stars; we taste bitter waters; we see storms on the horizon and a childbirth; and we feel the winds of judgment; and we hear beautiful praise choruses or dire warnings too horrible to contemplate.

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