Good Commentaries On the Book of Revelation?

Posted : 24 Jun, 2012 05:24 AM

Good Commentaries On the Book of Revelation?



A woman asked me to tell her if there are any good non-dispensationalist Bible commentaries on the Book of Revelation.



I have not used a commentary more recent than that of Adam Clarke (1762�1832).



Lets look, for example, at what John Gill (1697 � 1771) says about

Revelation 13: 3:



"as it were wounded to death;

when the Roman empire was like a burning mountain cast into the sea;

when Rome itself was taken, sacked, and burnt, more than once,

particularly by Totilas; when Augustulus, the last of the emperors,

was obliged to abdicate the throne; when Odoacer called himself, not

emperor of Rome, but king of Italy, and retired from Rome to Ravenna;

and when Adolphus, another Gothic king, thought to have changed the

name of Rome, and given it that of Gothia: this seemed to be a deadly

wound to Rome, to the empire and emperors.



And his deadly wound was healed;

by the setting up of ten kingdoms in it, the kings of which gave them

to the beast, to antichrist, the pope of Rome, and so the empire came

to have an head again, a governor, though of another kind: some choose

to understand this of the wound which antichrist received at the

Reformation, by Luther, Calvin, and others, which has since been

healing, Popery recovering itself again in some countries where it was

driven out, and which, it is thought, will be entirely healed before

his destruction: "



The Calvinists saw the bad guys in the Book of Revelation as being the

Catholics, the Pope, and Rome. Thats not entirely wrong for their

time.



The prophecy in Revelation is written in broad strokes. Everything is

not spelled out like a good college textbook. The Bible does not spoon

feed those fed on milk, and does not spoon feed the unwise virgins.



And - there are two beasts in Revelation 13. One of the keys to

understanding the first beast of verses 1-3 is the reference to

leopard, the bear and the lion in verse 2, which are empires found in

Daniel 7.



OK. The Book of Revelation is not prophecy for the time before the

Cross, but for after the Cross and especially for the last days after

the Cross.



So, which empires are the lion, bear and leopard empires in the modern timeline?



These are the empires that contribute to the first beast. The first

beast has traits of these three empires. But in verse 3 there is a

head of the beast who received a deadly wound that was healed. The

image of the beast is made to the head of the beast whose deadly wound

as healed (verses 14-15).



Verse 12 says the second beast causes people to worship the first

beast whose deadly wound was healed.



There are some cues which can be used to determine what the second

beast is. In verse 11 he has two horns like a lamb but speaks as a

dragon, or like the dragon.



He is a wolf in sheep's clothing, the office of the false prophet,

representing many false prophets.



Since prophecy here is written in broad strokes, it could have more

than one layer. The second beast might also be the church after the

falling away of Ii Thessalonians 2; 3-4 and after the leavening of the

churches in Luke 13:21. And false prophets become worse and lead more

astray during the falling away and leavening of the churches.



Prophecy in Revelation should be consistent. Revelation 17: 1-11 deals

in metaphoric language with false religion, which would include

several, such as early Babylonian religion, or Babylonian mystery

religion, Talmudic Judaism, Roman Catholicism and protestantism in

apostasy.



Then Revelation 18: 4 calls God's people out of Babylon, which

represents the false religion of the modern times or the end times,

after the falling away and the leavening.



To be consistent with Revelation 17 and 18, the first beast whose

deadly wound was healed that the False Prophet causes people to make

an image to or to copy should be something involved with the falling

away and the leavening.



That is, Christians make their own copy of that beast whose deadly

wound was healed. What if that copy is a Christian theology which

honors the beast whose deadly wound was healed. The False Prophet

causes people to worship that beast.



That beast whose deadly wound was healed is something different from

the Christian churches. John Gill thought it was Roman Catholicism.

What other religious system has a protestant theology honored?



You have to take one prophecy at a time in Revelation and yet each one must be consistent with the others. Scripture does not contradict

itself. There are no commentaries that can be relied on to tell us

exactly what each prophecy in the book means. The Holy Spirit is that

source, but he opens the book one prophecy at a time, but to someextent opening one can help open another.

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