Of course, Revelation does challenge the mind. Scholars who devote their lives to studying it will never figure out every detail. Nonetheless, like all Scripture, Revelation is intensely practical. And one unmistakable theme is the need for believers in Christ to persevere in their faith and obedience. In fact, the book teaches that the only true believers are those whose faith endures through trials and challenges. Consider the plentiful references to perseverance:

• The Apostle John tells the Christians in Smyrna to “be faithful unto death,” for only then will they receive the “crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
• The church in Thyatira is told to “hold fast” and that the one “who keeps [Christ’s] works until the end” will receive “authority over the nations” (Revelation 2:25-26).
• In chapter 7, the multitude in heaven is comprised of those who endured in faith through “the great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14).
• Chapter 13 issues “a call for the endurance and faith of the saints” (Revelation 13:10), which is echoed in the subsequent chapter, where John adds that the redeemed are those who refuse to defile themselves with sin and who “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Revelation 14:4).
• The final chapter exhorts the righteous to continue doing right and the holy to continue the pursuit of holiness (Revelation 22:11).

Such calls to perseverance make it abundantly clear that Revelation is not just a book about the future, but about how to live in the present.

(Note:  This article is presented within The Biblical Story Course as an Insight under Books of the Bible, Perseverance in Revelation). 

An author of more than thirty books, C. S. Lewis taught English literature at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities during his life. As a World War I veteran teaching at Oxford during World War II, Lewis addressed the hard questions brought on by war—specifically the problem of evil. In his book, The Problem of Pain, Lewis understands pain as one kind of evil, which God superintends for the good of mankind—as a megaphone to wake up the sleeping sinner, alerting him to his need.

The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt. . . .[i]

And pain is not only immediately recognisable evil, but evil impossible to ignore. We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. A bad man, happy, is a man without the least inkling that his actions do not ‘answer’, that they are not in accord with the laws of the universe. . . .[ii]

Until the evil man finds evil unmistakably present within his existence, in the form of pain, he is enclosed in illusion. Once pain has roused him, he knows that he is in some way or other ‘up against’ the real universe: he either rebels (with possibility of a clearer issue and deeper repentance at some later stage) or else makes some attempt at an adjustment, which if pursued, will lead him to religion. . . .[iii]

No doubt Pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for atonement. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.[iv]

In response to such claims (as American theologian Carl Henry reminded us), it’s worth taking a look at what Jesus taught about the Bible. First, He said nothing could invalidate the truth of the Old Testament. Most of the time the Greek verb luo means “to free” or “to loose.” But four times in the Gospels, Jesus used it to reference the Old Testament, giving it the more technical meaning “to invalidate.” For example, He said that “whoever relaxes (or invalidates) one of the least of these commandments and teaches other to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19). For Jesus, no one had the right to say the Old Testament was in error.

Jesus also said Old Testament Scripture was more authoritative than any religious tradition, as when He told the Pharisees in Mark 7:9, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.” And in the Sermon on the Mount, He elevated Scripture above Jewish traditions on matters like adultery and divorce.

But Jesus didn’t only hold up the Old Testament as truthful and authoritative; He claimed that His own teaching was as authoritative as the Old Testament. A trademark of His earthly ministry was to use the phrase “I say to you” to introduce His teaching as sure and binding (e.g., Matthew 5:22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44). And in the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount, He compared His teaching to a rock that could not be moved by the storms of life (Matthew 7:24-27).

Then, at the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus promised to deliver future authoritative teaching through His apostles. The Holy Spirit would “teach [them] all things and bring to [their] remembrance” all that He said (John 14:36). As promised, when the apostles wrote New Testament books, they claimed the authority of Jesus. Revelation, for instance, though written by John, calls itself “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1).

Much more could be said about the Bible’s authority and truthfulness. But in the teachings of Jesus we find a validation of the Old Testament, of His own teachings, and of the New Testament books written by His apostles. This alone is enough to remind us that something is amiss when Christ’s supposed followers claim that errors have crept into Scripture.

Of course, everything the Bible affirms is true, regardless of its literary genre. Still, every time we open our Bibles, we must determine what style of communication is being used and read accordingly. As a primer, here are a few of the literary styles used in Scripture and some rules for interpreting them taken from Robert Stein’s helpful book, A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible.

–Historical narrative recounts events and is meant to be understood literally – not as fable. In this vein, Article XIII of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics insists that literary techniques not be used to evade historical accounts.[i] For instance, some scholars have tried to fictionalize the story of Jonah and the Fish, but Christ treats Jonah as a real person in Matthew 12:40-42, and so should we. More than 40 percent of the Old Testament and nearly 60 percent of the New is historical narrative, including much of the material in the Gospels and Acts.

–Songs and poetry are geared toward evoking emotion rather than speaking with scientific accuracy. With biblical poetry, the reader must determine the author’s message without misconstruing symbolism as narrative description. For example, the song in Exodus 15 poetically describes Pharaoh’s army as being “thrown into the [Red] sea” (15:1) even though it actually followed the Israelites through the parted waters before God sent them crashing back down.

–Proverbs are pithy sayings that express general truths or rules of thumb; they don’t convey ironclad guarantees. A classic example is Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” While parental training generally sets the course for a child’s life, there are exceptions. (See BibleMesh blog article, “Is Proverbs 22:6 a guarantee?”)

–Parables are fictional stories that illustrate spiritual points. Generally, a parable teaches one basic point and is not intended as an extended comparison in which every detail has spiritual significance. About a third of Jesus’ teachings are in parables, including the story of the sower and soils in Luke 8 and the lost sheep in Luke 15.

–Idioms are expressions with meanings not derived from the normal meanings of the words in them. In modern English, our idioms include “raining cats and dogs” and “kick the bucket.” In the Bible you will find idioms like “their hearts melted” to describe a loss of courage and “the apple of His eye” to describe being precious in God’s sight.

The list could go on, but you get the idea. Unless we know what style of communication a biblical author is using and how to interpret it, we may wonder if archaeologists have ever found the tombs of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son.

Of course, most publications offer mixed fare, but it’s useful to distinguish those which strive always to be amiable to the exclusion of conscious affronts to the general reader’s sensitivities, and those quite willing to sacrifice gentility (though not civility, one hopes) in the cause of truth.

We decided we would not shrink from applying edge to our pages, and it occurred to us that our reference point, the Bible was a book with considerable edge. While Scripture is full of comforting and gracious passages—regarding the Lord’s shepherding in Psalm 23; regarding the rest promised for those who labor and are “heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28); regarding “living water” in John 4; regarding the glories of heaven in Revelation 22—it also has great cutting power.

Indeed, the Bible speaks of itself in these terms. Hebrews 4:12 says that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” And, as Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

In his memoir, Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss, former Saturday Night Live regular, Tom Davis of Franken and Davis, chronicled a life of prodigious drug consumption. Not surprisingly, he befriended drug guru Timothy Leary. He recounted their times together, including a phone conversation where Leary asked him what books he was reading. When Davis said he was trying to read the Bible from cover to cover, Leary exclaimed, “Oh no—there goes another one.”

Davis urged him to relax: “You don’t have to worry about me. Maybe you’ll feel better if I read you something really good that I just found in it.” With Leary’s okay, he pressed on, reading 1 Timothy 1:9-11 in the old King James. It declared that the law was “not made for the righteous man.” Rather, it was made for “the ungodly and for the sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons . . .”

Laughing, Leary exclaimed, “Whoa! That was wonderful! Thank you for that.”[1] Being two very laid-back fellows, they rolled their eyes at the “over the top” language, but they had to recognize that this was a book that didn’t fool around. It had edge. (And one suspects there was a touch of nervousness in their laughter.)

Though modern translations speak of the “sexually immoral” rather than the “whoremongers,” and the expression “slave traders” is less weird to the modern ear than “menstealers,” there’s no diluting the force of those verses. In fact, the newer versions can be more provocative, as when “them that defile themselves with mankind” are shown to be “men who practice homosexuality.”

The message to the church should be plain. While the Bible is a boundless source of blessing and encouragement, it is also a book whose words can sting and divide, and efforts to disguise this truth should embarrass those who presume to be ministers of the Word.

Though both the cross and the resurrection are more prominent in Scripture, the ascension is recounted in two of the four Gospels and Acts. And the Epistles are sprinkled with references to it, as when Paul says Jesus was “taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16) and when Peter says Jesus “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God” (1 Peter 3:22). Since Scripture has so much to say about the ascension, we should pause to note why it’s important.

First, the ascension was an essential part of Christ’s work as the great high priest. In the Old Testament, Israel’s high priest would sacrifice an animal on the Day of Atonement on behalf of the people. Then he would carry the blood into the holy of holies and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. Only then did God accept the sacrifice and cover the sins of His people. According to Hebrews, what the high priest did in the earthly Temple, the great high priest did in the heavenly temple. At the ascension, Christ presented to the Father the blood of His sacrifice on the cross “to put away sin” (Hebrews 9:26). Though Jesus’ payment for sin was completed on the cross, His priestly work reached its culmination when He ascended.

Second, the ascension inaugurated Christ’s supreme rule over the universe and the Church. As the second person of the Trinity, Jesus was always omnipotent. But when He came to earth in human form, He laid aside some of His divine privilege and became a suffering servant (Philippians 2:6-8). When He ascended, the Father gave back to Him the authority to govern all of creation from His heavenly throne, especially the Church. At the ascension, the Father “seated [Christ] at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:20-21).

On a related note, at the ascension Christ received authority to pour out the Holy Spirit on the Church, empowering it for righteous living and gospel witness. Jesus predicted this when He told His disciples, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). At Pentecost Peter announced the fulfillment of that promise: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he [Jesus] has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:33).

Finally, because believers are united with Christ, His ascension allows us to share in a measure of His authority. Since God regards us as “seated . . . with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6), we enjoy the authority to prevail against sin, Satan, and death. If you’ve never celebrated Ascension Day, all this is cause to consider adding another Christian holiday to your calendar this year.

“Your love is your own possession,” wrote Christian martyr Dietriech Bonhoeffer to a young couple from his prison cell in 1943. “But marriage is more than something personal—it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. . . . It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.”[i] What a stark contrast to the contemporary, sentimentalized view of marriage!

One of God’s purposes for marriage is to illustrate the relationship of Christ and the Church. Just as in the old covenant, Israel was Yahweh’s bride (e.g., Jeremiah 2; Ezekiel 16; Hosea 1-2), so in the new covenant, the Church is Christ’s bride (Ephesians 5:22-33; Revelation 19:6-9). This divine marriage encompasses all of time, from eternity past to eternity future. It is not as if Paul is casting around for an illustration of what it means to live a godly married life and thinks of Christ and the Church. Quite the reverse: marriage is the illustration. Christ and the Church are the ultimate reality.

Furthermore, while marriage is a creation ordinance (Ephesians 5:31, quoting Genesis 2:24), the relationship of Christ and the Church is prior to creation. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4); and this is the mystery now revealed in the gospel. While human marriage is merely lifelong (Mark 12:25), the marriage of Christ and the Church will last for all eternity.

Just as marriage is public (“a man shall leave his father and mother”), intimate (“the two shall become one flesh”), exclusive, and lifelong (“[he shall] hold fast to his wife”), Christ’s relationship with the Church is public, intimate, exclusive, and lasting. The Lord Jesus is a faithful husband. His commitment to His bride is seen in that He laid down His life for her in order that she might belong to Him (Ephesians 5:25-27). He did this even while she was an idolatrous sinner. His promise is that He will lose none of those the Father gives Him (John 6:39). His commitment to His bride sustains His love for her, even when she sometimes strays.

By taking a bold stand for lifelong, monogamous, heterosexual marriage, Christians can speak against an overly sentimentalized view of marriage that pervades the culture. And by committing themselves to marriage as a covenantal institution, Christians reflect the commitment of Christ to His Church and, thereby, proclaim the gospel in their very unions—making marriage a blessed tool of evangelism.

And so it’s proceeded, from one new language group to the next, whether Slavic (e.g., Russian, Czech, and Bulgarian), Germanic (e.g., Norwegian, English, and Icelandic), or Italic (e.g., Portuguese, French, and Romanian). In English, Jesus’ father appears as “Joseph,” in Spanish as “Jose,” in Finnish “Joosefin,” and in Italian, “Giuseppe.” But it’s the same man.

Then there are the different translations within particular languages. For instance, in English, the King James Version says, in Luke 2, that Mary was Joseph’s “espoused wife, being great with child”; the New Living speaks of her as  “his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant”; and the Contemporary English has her “engaged to Joseph,” “soon going to have a baby.” Some versions are quite literal, essentially word for word (e.g., the New American Standard); others use “dynamic equivalence” (e.g., the New International); still others are “paraphrases” (e.g., the Living). All of these partake of standard English.

But there are also colloquial versions, such as Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospel, written in the late 60s and early 70s on a racially integrated farm in south Georgia. Meant to communicate the Word to rural, unlettered Southerners, it features Jesus’ baptism in the Chattahoochee River, calls Peter “Rock,” and uses “Atlanta” for Jerusalem. Here’s a sample from John 6:41-44:

Then the church people raised a stink because he said, “I myself am the ‘loaf’ that came down from on high.” They said, “Why, isn’t this old Joe’s boy? Don’t we ourselves know his mama and daddy? How come he now claims that ‘I have come down from on high’?” Jesus replied, “Y’all quit your bellyaching. Nobody can go with me unless the Father, who sent me, attracts him. And I’ll make him new in the final hour.”[1]

We also have the Bible in “pidgin” tongues, simplified forms of communication, which enable loose, commercial communication between differing language groups. An example is Da Jesus Book, a New Testament from Hawaii,[2] which renders the same passage in John as follows:

Dass why da Jewish guys wen start fo grumble bout him, cuz he wen say, “I jalike da bread dat can make da peopo live. I wen come down from da sky.” Dey tell each odda, “Eh, dis guy, he Jesus, yeah? He Joseph’s boy! We know his fadda an mudda, yeah? So how come he say now, ‘I wen come down from da sky’?” Jesus tell dem, “Eh! Stop grumbling to each odda! My Fadda wen send me hea. No mo nobody can come by me, if my Fadda no bring um. An I goin make dem guys come back alive from mahke wen da world goin pau.

Of course, exacting biblical scholars are not so keen on these idiomatic versions, but they play a role in spreading the word to “the end of the earth.” (That’s why Wycliffe translators spent 20 years developing a Belize Kriol version of Di Nyoo Testiment, released in March 2013.)[3] The same God who made sure the first-century listeners heard Peter at Pentecost is leading translators to pass along his words today to people groups he could not imagine in his day. Thus, they can understand Peter’s warning at Pentecost in Acts 2:40, as “Let god take you outa da bad kine stuff dat da odda peopo stay doing now” (Hawaii Pidgin) and “Save yourselves from this goofed-up society” (Cotton Patch).[4] Amen! Or, as the native Hawaiians put it, “Dass it!”

The phrase “put me to the test” translates the Hebrew verb bachan, which also can be rendered “examine” or “try.” Most of its uses in the Bible refer to God testing humans. For example, Psalms 11:5 says that “the LORD tests the righteous,” and in Job 23:10, Job says of God, “When he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” Similarly, God told Jeremiah, “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind” (Jeremiah 17:10), and Proverbs 17:3 declares that “the LORD tests hearts.” In other instances, bachan references humans examining ideas or testing one another, as when Joseph tested the truthfulness of his brothers (Genesis 42:15-16).

But the word’s usage in Malachi 3:10 is one of only three instances in the Bible where it refers to man testing God. And in the other two, the testing under consideration is portrayed as sinful and arrogant (Psalms 95:9; Malachi 3:15). Indeed, only here does God invite man to test (bachan) Him legitimately.

By its uniqueness, this test emphasizes God’s seriousness about His people’s giving their resources to advance His kingdom—a principle that holds true in the New Testament as well as the Old. Though it takes faith to let go of hard-earned money, the Lord commands His people to give through their local churches and other worthy ministries. He incentivizes such giving by allowing them to test Him in this wonderful way. Of course, the blessing God returns to generous believers is not always material. Still, no giving Christian will ever lack concrete reminders of God’s favor and friendship.

(Note:  This article is presented within The Biblical Story Course as an Insight under Books of the Bible, Malachi – “Testing God”).