What questions do people have about the Book of Revelation?

I recently recorded a ‘fireside chat’ on the Book of Revelation for a conference of the Christian Residential Network. Keith Hagon asked me a number of questions, including the ones below. For fuller exploration, see my Grove booklet and my IVP Tyndale commentary. (On some of these questions, see also the articles on this blog … Continue Reading

Where is the dragon in the nativity?

There’s a scene in the film Love Actually where a little girl announces that she’ll be playing “first lobster” in the school nativity play. “There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?” asks her surprised mum, which leads the girl to sigh in exasperation at such profound levels of parental ignorance. … Continue Reading

The Trinity and John 16

The Sunday gospel lectionary reading for Trinity Sunday in this Year C is John 16.12–15. It is another very short reading (four verses) from the ‘farewell discourse’ of Jesus, and I think is actually quite a difficult reading to preach from. Like much of this part of the Fourth Gospel, it is reflective, repeats things … Continue Reading

Who Are the Seven Spirits in Revelation?

Brandon Smith writes: Who are the seven spirits in Revelation? This question arises in the opening lines of John’s vision in which he refers to “the seven spirits who are before [God’s] throne” (Rev. 1:4). The seven spirits are named again in Jesus’s message to Sardis (Rev. 3:1), as well as twice in the throne-room scenes … Continue Reading

Are we in the ‘end times’?

Yesterday I was the guest on the hour-long ‘Bible surgery’ on Premier Christian Radio, hosted by Maria Rodrigues and recorded over Zoom. It was the first time that I had worked with Maria, and she is a lovely person! Although the programme was an hour long, with songs and breaks my contribution was about 35 … Continue Reading