Revelation 13:11 In Revelation 12–14, we have discovered that Revelation 12 pictures the Devil as a great dragon. Here is a recap from last week. Satan doesn’t work alone, he has two helpers. The first is the beast out of the sea, elsewhere known in Scripture as the Antichrist, characterized especially by direct opposition to […]

Revelation 13 In Revelation 12–14, we have discovered that Revelation 12 pictures the Devil as a great dragon. This Dragon, which once tried to destroy Christ, is now himself frustrated, because in principle he is a defeated foe. Nevertheless, this does not mean he is hiding, but rather, filled with fury, he is set to […]

Revelation 13:1–10 Chapter 12, introduced the woman and the dragon, and the dragon is clearly identified for us as the Devil. Now in chapter 13, you find first the beast out of the sea and then the beast out of the earth. Remember too where we are in that chapter 12 pictures the dragon, the […]

The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 1945 Bonhoeffer is famous as a Christian martyr. He is one of the few Germans who stood up to Hitler. Actually, he went beyond this and tried to kill Hitler. The reason he did this is because Bonhoeffer took seriously the commandment to have no other gods. Nazism was heavily […]

“My God, I’ve never thanked Thee for my thorns. I have thanked Thee a 1,000 x for my roses, but not once for my thorns. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross: but I have never thot of my cross as itself a present glory. Teach […]

Acts 4:27–28 23 And being let go, they came to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said unto them. 24 And they, when they heard it, lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, O Lord, thou that didst make the heaven and the […]

This phrase, mystery of providence, is borrowed from the Puritans. The Puritan John Flavel wrote in The Mystery of Providence. We should worship God as we read the book of providence around us.13 The Heidelberg Catechism gives us useful applications: What does it profit us to know that God has created and by His providence […]

The life of Job. In one sense, in light of what we saw at the first point was, there is no such thing as innocent suffering in an absolute sense. There is a lot of reflection in Scripture on innocent suffering in some lesser sense, and no book reflects on it more probingly than the […]

We saw last week how Eve was the first one that stood in the judgment of God. After her conversation with Satan, she begins to entertain the possibility that she can stand in judgment of God. Eve is being invited, in effect, to make her own list of what’s good and evil. This is not […]

If you live long enough, you will suffer. If you haven’t suffered yet, you will. The only alternative is not living long enough. If you live long enough, you will be bereaved. If you live long enough, you’ll contract cancer, consumptive heart failure. You might go through a divorce. You might have a road accident […]