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Our final post introducing the book of Revelation will speak on three issues—who, what, and why. Who wrote it doesn't tend to impact how we interpret the book, but when it was written certainly does. Asking why it was written also helps us approach the book rightly.

Now that we've looked at some of the big picture aspects of Revelation we're ready to zoom in just a bit closer. If we were on Google maps, we would be going from the state view to the city view. We'll hold off on the street view until the sermons themselves! Our goal for this post is to give a brief description of the major sections of Revelation. As you'll see, there are seven sections that describe similar events in slightly different ways (and sometimes radically different ways).

A couple days ago we introduced the book of Revelation in preparation for our summer sermon series. We mentioned a few ideas about the book that help us read it well, namely, that it is apocalyptic prophecy in the form of a letter. Now we want to look at four of the basic approaches that people have used to interpret the book.

A dragon. Multi-headed beasts. Scorpions that annihilate countries. 100-lb hailstones. Cities that come down from the sky. Massive and widespread death and destruction… Are we reading another installment of The Lord of the Rings? No, it's the last book of our Bible, Revelation. Revelation has been an obsession to some and a head-scratcher to others. It's been multiple movies, countless fictional recreations, and numerous tracts.

To say that God is immutable is to say that he is unchanging. It is to say that he is constant and consistent. It is to say that he is not fickle. The God who reveals himself in his creation and in his Word is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. With this in mind, there are at least four ways in which we can speak of God as being immutable.

Completing the Ugandan side of Josie’s adoption took just over five weeks. Eli and Esther returned to the U.S. after two weeks, and God taught me so much in the remaining three weeks about what it means for His strength to be made perfect in my weakness; His grace was completely sufficient for me - and for the rest of my family (2 Cor 12:9).

"The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father." That's how J.I. Packer opens his famous book Knowing God. 

I sat down to write about God’s creativity – the absolute originality of all that he does, his ability to bring truly new things into existence. I had an idea of how I wanted to begin, but I couldn’t make it right. I couldn’t make it work. As an English major I can never help striving for embellished language, not even as I’m writing this – as if my poetry could somehow climb high enough to convey a God who soars higher than understanding!

The rest of this story moves so much faster than the beginning, but now that I have the benefit of hindsight, I am clearly able to see God’s hand in the waiting. 

Do we worship what we know or what we do not know? This was the distinction made by Christ to the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob concerning the Jews and Samaritans of his day. Jesus pointed out that God, who is spirit, was seeking true worshipers who will worship in spirit and truth.