Triumph of the Lamb Quotes

“You cannot understand any individual passage in Revelation unless you understand the book as a whole, but you cannot understand the hook as a whole unless you understand its individual passages.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“Revelation is, as its Greek title implies, apocalyptic-not in the modern sense of "catastrophic" but in the ancient sense of "unveiling, disclosing" in vivid, visual form the invisible realities and forces that drive and therefore explain the course of observable historical events.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“In contrast
to the interludes that delay the cycles of seals and trumpets, nothing impedes the relentless outpouring of the seven bowls of wrath, for they are the last judgments on earth, completing the wrath of God (15:1). The seventh trumpet, which contains the bowls, signals the end of divine forbearance: "there will be delay no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished" (10:0-7).”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“These interludes, which impede the advance of the seal and trumpet cycles toward their climax, inject into the experience of hearing or reading the Book of Revelation a taste of the divine delay, which prolongs the time for repentance while it deters the martyrs' longed-for vindication: "How long, () Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (6:111).”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“This chronological dislocation between vision order and historical order in Revelation 12 exemplifies a principle evident throughout Revelation. Although the book's dramatic sweep takes its hearers from the present (the churches' current trials) to the future (the reversal of the curse in the new Jerusalem), there is no necessary connection between the order of the visions and the order of the events symbolized in the visions. We misunderstand John's visions if we insist on seeing them as a chronologically arranged timeline of history.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“John's call now leads directly into the heart of the drama revealed in the visions on I'attnos (12-22): the cosmic conflict between God, the heavenly woman, and her son/groom and the dragon, the beasts, and the harlot. Everything that precedes Revelation 12 is preliminary to this central drama, preparing us to see our daily struggles as part of the great conflict of the ages.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“Thus the body opens with a vision of the heavenly Bridegroom, the Son of Man, and it closes with a vision of the heavenly bride, the new Jerusalem. Toward the end of the body are the contrasting visions of the judgment of the harlot Babylon (17:1-19:111) and the joy of the bride Jerusalem (21:9-22:9). Thus 22:6-9 is the climax of the body and the opening of the epilogue-a literary interweaving of themes characteristic of Revelation elsewhere.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“Since this final vision discloses Christ's pure and peaceful bride in contrast to the beast's vile and violent harlot, the two women are introduced with words so similar that the parallel cannot be missed:”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“The epistolary structure of the prologue and epilogue reinforces the principle that Revelation is Jesus' public correspondence with his churches in first-century Asia. Its message addressed the challenges confronting their life of faith, just as 1 Corinthians spoke to the issues confronting the church in Corinth”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“Interwoven throughout the eschatological teaching of the New Testament are three strands. Christ will come sooner than people think, unpleasantly surprising many and delighting others by the speed of the relief that he provides; Christ will come later than people think, so his faithful servants must be prepared to endure even if he seems to be delayed; and the time of Christ's coming is not given to us to know.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“John's vision of the One sitting on the throne and of the Lamb is permeated with their supreme worthiness (Rev. 4:11; 5:9-10, 12; cf. 4:8; 5:13) and therefore by the awe of all who see them.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“The Book of Revelation wages war on the reductionism that chokes awe.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“We need to see Jesus-to meet his blazing eyes of heart-searching holiness, to wake up at the trumpet blast of his voice, to respond to his jealous demand for exclusive and passionate loyalty. Shocked insensible by the impact of his splendor, we need then to hear his words of compassionate comfort, quelling our fears and quickening our hopes.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“The experience of Jesus' disciples shows that when we get into the Bible's teaching about things to come, it is easier to ask the wrong question than the right one. We want to ask When? Jesus is more interested in answering Why? and What for?”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“Because the serpent slips in subtly, luring Christ's bride away through plausible lies and pleasant compromises, the church must also overcome by staying pure. The white garments of the victors symbolize their victory over defiling temptation and consequently their fitness to enter God's temple as the kingdom of priests, to serve gladly in his presence (Rev. 3:4-5, 17-18; 22:14-15). Though their white linen presents a portrait of their righteous deeds (19:7-8), the purity that makes them presentable before the thrice-holy God is not their personal achievement but the result of the costliest of cleansers: "they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (7:14).”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“Ultimately God promises it complete removal of the
"first heaven and earth" (20:11; 21:1), and with them God's curse against human sin, with all its adverse effects (21:4; 22:3). Babylon, the man-centered substructure of civilization, grounded in brute force and intoxicated by idolatrous adoration of pleasure and possessions, belongs to this old cosmic order for which "no place is found" when the new heavens and earth appear.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“When the sweep of God's sickles brings final harvest to the earth, separating grain from grapes, the present system of power and prestige will be reversed. The pagan persecutors who now tread the holy city underfoot (Rev. 11:2) will be trodden underfoot by the church's mighty avenger (14:20). Their defiling blood pours from a winepress "outside the city," for those who belong to earth's so-called "great city," which wages war on God's church (11:8; 17:18), have no share in God's holy, heavenly city. No one unclean shall ever enter the holy city, the new Jerusalem, "but only those whose navies are written in the Lamb's book of life" (21:27).”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“As Christians see societies crumble and collapse, our response should not be terrified alarm, as though our security were bound up with a fragile human network of law and order, but anticipation and confidence: the Lamb is now on the throne, with God's plan for history firmly in hand.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“The death of awe in our culture has left us with an oddly credulous cynicism. We are cynical, suspicious of established government, education, technology, and medicine. Yet our cynicism is the recycled remnant of dashed hopes and broken faith, precisely because, having lost sight of the God who is worthy, we have invested such trust in these institutions to save our civilization and us.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“The reduction of human experience to the explicable is a desperate act of faith in our power to create reality ("what we cannot explain cannot exist"), but this faith cannot satisfy. Into the vacuum of transcendence created by naturalism and technolatry, New Age spirituality is rushing, promising the experience of mystery and awe turned inward, without the troubling concept of accountability to the Creator.”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation

“God shows covenant faithfulness to families through the generations, but in the last analysis the people of God are defined Christocentrically, not genealogically. The issue is not birth from the flesh but birth from the Spirit (John 3:6), just as the circumcision that marks God's people is not a fleshly surgery but a cleansing of the heart by the Spirit (Rom. 2:28-29; cf. Phil. 3:2-3).”
― Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation