The Eikon team analyzes the central role that imagination has in the writing, reading, and understanding of Revelation.

Jason, Gianna, and Michael return from their extended break and jump right into a new series on Revelation. They begin by looking at clues within the opening verses about what type of literature the Revelation is and discuss what that means for how we should and should not expect to read it.


Selected resource list (in no particular order):

1.  Revelation for the Rest of Us – Scot McKnight
2.  Reading Revelation Responsibly – Michael Gorman
3.  Revelation Commentary – Brian Blount
4.  Revelation as Civil Disobedience – Thomas Slater
5.  Unholy Allegiances – David A. DeSilva
6.  For the Healing of the Nations – Justo Gonzalez
7.  Reversed Thunder – Eugene Peterson
8.  The Rapture Exposed – Barbara Russing
9.  After Dispensationalism – Brian Irwin
10.  The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism – Daniel Hummel
11.  Apocalypse and Allegiance – J. Nelson Kraybill
12.  Comfort and Protest – Allan Boesak
13.  Unveiling Empire – Wes Howard-Brook
14.  Revelation and the Politics of Apocalyptic Interpretation – Richard B. Hays
15.  Discovering Revelation – David DeSilva
16.  Revelation & the End of All Things – Craig Koester
17.  The Theology of the Book of Revelation – Richard Bauckham
18.  Word Biblical Commentary: Revelation (3 Volumes) – David E. Aune)
19.  The Anchor Yale Bible: Revelation – Craig Koester
20.  The Home of God – Miroslav Volf

Paul called for followers of Jesus to be imitators of God before laying out what that would look like. In Ephesians 6:10-20, he challenges the church to fight God's battle using God's weapons. Jason and Michael explain how that often looks much different than we might expect, and because of that, we often don't even engage in the battle that God wants us to fight.

Why, in the middle of a letter about the vital nature of unity in the midst of a cosmic attack from the powers and authorities, does Paul suddenly turn to a marriage and parenting workshop for the church? The Eikon team considers the cultural context of Paul's letter and discusses how that may not be at all what Paul was doing. Understanding the contexts of Paul's writing help us understand biblical submission and how Paul envisioned it radically challenging the culture around them.

Conversations about what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit often focus on the spectacular and the individual. The Eikon team examines what Paul says it looks like and it may not be what you'd expect.

Did Paul envision a collection of sin managers or a community of image-bearers? What's the difference and why does it matter?

For Paul, the Church was locked into a cosmic battle with the powers and authorities. It was a battle that Christ had already secured but the churches failed to embody that victory through their love and unity. The Eikon team considers what Paul believed the gift of unity should look like and how we often misuse the notion of unity to silence those that disagree with us or that have had differing experiences.

A Special release of our Patreon Exclusive show Do We Need the Church?

Michael and Jason have a lively and explosive discussion on whether the church is synonymous with the kingdom of God and the implications of believing one way or the other.

Paul called followers of Jesus to unity and oneness because that is the very nature of God and what he wants for the world. Our identity is in Christ but what is the practical center of that identity; how do we most clearly express and identify with that identity? Was it moral behavior, church growth, or did Paul have something else in mind?

At the end of Ephesians, 3 Paul prays that the church's eyes may be opened to the victory that God has secured for them in Christ. Yet, it was a battle that many of them did not even realize they were fighting. Even more surprising is that we are engaged in that same battle and are even more unaware of it. The Eikon Team looks at the reality of that battle and considers the dangers to the church. One of the factors that amplify the dangers of this battle is when Christians find their primary identity in the church rather than in Christ. They talk about the subtle temptation of finding our identity in the church, the temporary benefits of doing so, as well as the disastrous long-term effects.

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