The Book of Revelation

What the Spirit Says to the Churches in America

Scott Storbakken

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781666707274, 9781666707281
• eBook ISBN: 9781666707298
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

The Book of Revelation: What the Spirit Says to the Churches in America instructs lay readers to understand the last book of the Bible as its earliest audiences would have. The book aims to stimulate and educate Christians who find Revelation to be unapproachable. It assists readers to responsibly apply Revelation's messages to their own settings once they understand what the Spirit said to the seven congregations in ancient settings. Only with the original audiences in mind, can modern American readers begin to discern what the Spirit says to them through the words of John's Apocalypse. Through an accessible description of Revelation's linguistic, literary, and historical contexts, readers can learn to approach the book as the seven churches of Asia Minor would have. Comparisons and contrasts between the Greco-Roman culture of Revelation and the United States of the twenty-first century assist readers to answer Revelation's predominant question for themselves: "Who do you worship?" Many of John's own writing techniques are utilized to treat this book as a conversation, so we can discover together "what the Spirit says to the churches in America."

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: How to Read the Book of Revelation (Rev 1–3)
• Chapter 2: Worship in the Heavenly Realm (Rev 4–5)
• Chapter 3: The Seven Seals (Rev 6:1—8:5)
• Chapter 4: The Seven Trumpets (Rev 8:6—11:19)
• Chapter 5: The Seven Bowls
• Chapter 6: Jesus’s Second Coming (Rev 20–22)
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Appendix 3
• Appendix 4
• Glossary
• Bibliography