Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches, by James M. Hamilton Jr. (Crossway, 2012), 464 pages.
“Preach Revelation? You mean beyond a series on the seven churches? You’re crazy.”
Perhaps not many would be honest enough to say this out loud, but probably many pastors have thought it secretly. Many students and pastors haven’t received solid teaching on Revelation to be able to understand how to approach the book. Those that have received some training have been trained in one specific interpretive approach to the book, and are woefully ignorant of any alternative takes. This situation does indeed make the task of preaching Revelation daunting. Jim Hamilton is trying to close that gap.
Hamilton has a niche in expository commentaries. As a seminary professor, he has also been a preaching pastor both in Houston and in Louisville. He has a heart for combining exegesis with close attention to the original languages, biblical theology, and application through preaching. That combination comes to the fore in this new Revelation commentary.
Hamilton preached through Revelation at his church in Louisville, which allowed him the opportunity to shape up this commentary with actual application and illustrations used in the church.
His take on Revelation is decidedly not post-millennial, and while he is friendly to amillenialism, he believes the recapitulation view falters on differences between passages that supposedly report the same time period (see, e.g., p. 368 and his “Table 22.1: Differences in Detail between Revelation 12:7–12 and 20:1–3” on p. 251). So his view of Revelation is premillenial, with an already-not yet eschatology that aligns with the rest of NT eschatology.
He takes a similar view on the seals, trumpets, and bowls as Rissi and Bauckham, that the time period of these judgments is the same, with each of them culminating with the return of Christ. (There are small differences in the way different scholars who hold this view work out the details.)
Hamilton’s approach to interpreting the symbols in Revelation is to see them first-and-foremost self-referential. That is, we should look to see how John (whom he takes to be the author, based on early church tradition) uses symbols throughout the book to interpret them. This has often been observed, e.g., for the lampstands in 11:4, which are clearly referred to as the churches in 1:20, but which in futuristic views of revelation are often taken to be the two actual prophets that will come in the future.
Hamilton’s approach to the symbols is much to be preferred to a “literal” approach to Revelation; that is, Hamilton’s approach is more literal than dispensational readings, since he is taking John’s symbols literally.
This Revelation commentary is sure to serve students and pastors who want to teach the apocalypse. It is concise, engaging, and relevant.
This Revelation commentary is sure to serve students and pastors who want to teach the apocalypse Click To TweetI have listened to a good deal of Hamilton’s preaching and it is always informed by biblical scholarship, close attention to the details of the text in the original language, relevant illustrations, and straight-forward application. This commentary does just that for Revelation.
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