This episode continues our series on John’s use of the Old Testament in the book of Revelation. We resume with material in Rev 1:4 not covered in the previous episode and move the discussion into verses 5-6. What is the relationship of the seven churches to the seven spirits before God’s throne? How do they relate to the seven lampstands and stars in verses 12-16? What passages from the Old Testament is John alluding to and why?
Our series on the Old Testament in the book of Revelation opens with Rev 1:4a, where we find the phrase “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” The phrase is repeated in Rev 1:8 where parts of it are defined in an important way. Scholars are in general agreement that John gets the phrase from the Septuagint (LXX) Exod 3:14, but that verse accounts for only one-third of John’s wording. Where does the remainder come from? Why would John draw on Exod 3:14? What point was he trying to make?
This episode launches our new series on the use of the Old Testament in the book of Revelation. The series will not examine end times theories or systems. It will also not propose a new system for interpreting the book of Revelation for discerning what God is doing now or in the future. Rather, we focus on how the author of Revelation frequently dipped into the Old Testament to create the book of Revelation and how understanding his strategies in doing so helps us understand what the book is saying.
In earlier episodes (322, 334) we chatted with Professor Louis Markos about how the cosmologies of The Lord of the Rings and Milton’s Paradise Lost compare and contrast with the biblical worldview described by Dr. Heiser in The Unseen Realm. In this episode we welcome Professor Michael Jahosky to discuss his book The Good News of the Return of the King: The Gospel in Middle Earth. Professor Jahosky’s thesis is that “The Lord of the Rings is a parable about what Jesus’s parables are about, which is the very story of reality itself.” Join us as we discuss mythic literature, the New Testament, and insights into how Tolkien’s masterpiece reveals his insights into the person and work of Christ.
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One of the more important Hebrew words familiar to Christians is ḥesed, usually translated “lovingkindness” or “steadfast love” in English Bibles. The term certainly conveys those ideas, but those translation options don’t convey the basis of God’s lovingkindness. In like manner, when the term is used of how people are expected to respond to God such translations don’t convey how believers are to show that lovingkindness. In this episode of the podcast, we explore some possible ways to understand ḥesed in relation to believing loyalty, a phrase introduced in Dr. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm (Lexham Press, 2015) to describe the believer’s salvation relationship to God across both the Old and New Testament.
