OPENING UP REVELATION
By Roger Ellsworth
DayOne. 160pages. £6.00
ISBN 978 1 846 254 093
This entry-level commentary on the last book of the Bible is clear, faithful and edifying.
Its accessibility to a young believer is secured both at the level of content and in terms of a readable style, with vivid language and memorable illustrations such as might be heard from a good preacher (e.g. ‘It is fine for the boat to be in the water, but it is disastrous for the water to be in the boat – p.121). Its faithfulness is secured by the author’s robust doctrinal convictions and courage in refusing to shrink from the ‘politically correct’ (there is no room here for ‘a Christ-less Bible, a wrathless God and a cross-less Christ’ – p.93).
Its edifying character is secured by the author’s obvious love of the gospel and his uncompromising concern to see believers’ lives ruled by it (e.g. the reader will not be allowed to get away with a ‘greasy familiarity [with Christ] that seems so often these days to be considered the hallmark of true spirituality’ – p.25). Even unbelievers are warned in this book (pp.109, 129-130).
This is not, however, a tool that will equip the would-be student of Scripture. Although, in principle, he takes an inductive approach (p.9), the author can skate over a whole paragraph of biblical text in a sentence or two (p.90) and use a similar passage as a launching-pad for lengthy treatment of doctrinal matters (pp.135-140). Exegetical choices come across as arbitrary, for, although they are asserted confidently or presented as obvious, justification is typically not offered. The reader is, for example, told that ‘those who have the Father’s name written on their foreheads’ correspond to those whose ‘thinking is governed by God’ (p.97) – but has to take this interpretation on trust. Further, one is struck by how readily the author reads Revelation through the lens of popular commentators of a generation ago (who are often quoted at length); by contrast, the Old Testament background – so critical for understanding this book – receives only scant attention. In these important respects, John Richardson’s Revelation Unwrapped is to be preferred.
