Commentary on Revelation

1st Installment Coming on July 11th, 2022

Hey, I’m writing a book, a commentary on Revelation, and I’m publishing it on substack.com for paid monthly subscribers.

In twenty-two years of pastoral ministry, and altogether in my thirty-seven years of salvation in Christ, I’ve preached or taught through the book of Revelation three times. Since May 2018, here at Calvary Baptist Church in Ninilchik, I’ve been asked by a couple of people to teach through Revelation. Honestly, there are other books of the Bible I’d rather teach during Sunday school or during the Sunday evening service.

Nevertheless, I have considered writing a commentary on Revelation for about the past seven years; especially since , these days, there is so much misinformation, misunderstanding, and misguided presumption about this last book of the Bible.

In 2016, while I was pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Anniston, Alabama, at the request of several in the congregation, I preached through Revelation during the Sunday morning worship service. It broke my heart to hear my youngest daughter tell me that one of her high school teachers, upon hearing I was preaching through Revelation, said words to the effect that she didn’t have to read Revelation because she knew how it was going to end. How sad. Of all the books of the Bible, this last book explicitly promises a blessing to those who read, hear, and heed its prophetic words— and it says so twice! (Rev 1:3; 22:7).

Moreover, after nine-and-a-half years in what has been termed America’s “Bible belt,” eight or nine out of ten people in the southeastern United States will call the book “Revelations” (plural) rather than its actual title, “Revelation” (singular). The entire book is about God’s Messiah. It says so in the first few words of the first sentence: “The revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:1).

Finally, during a Sunday evening Bible study, when I mentioned something that didn’t quite line up with a certain person’s presuppositions surrounding the end times and Christ’s return, that person exclaimed, “Don’t you believe in the rapture?” The question grieved my heart, quite actually. Of course I do, but the rapture, ἁρπάζω (har-PADZ-ō) in the original Greek (1 Thess 4:17), is the exception, not the rule. After two thousand years since the Lord Jesus’ ascension into heaven, and some four thousand years before that, being comprised of Old Testament saints faithfully awaiting the appearing of Israel’s Messiah, there will obviously be far more dead in Christ raised before the rapture of those who are alive and remain. Additionally, this person did not understand that there are historically four possible end-times scenarios, each believed upon by reputable, orthodox, Bible-believing Christians. Each one believes in a rapture; and each one has its strengths, while each of the four has its individual problems and difficulties.

As the book is to be published by regular installments, and those installments emailed to subscribers with paid subscriptions, as a paid subscriber you’ll have access to more detailed information on topics I’ve just covered, as well as being able to interact with me and other subscribers on each article.

The first installment will be posted on Monday, July 11, 2022, so if you’d like to subscribe, click the button below.