Revelation Quotes

“But whereas the primary perspective of the first five seals was on the trials through which believers must pass, now the focus in the first six trumpets is on judgments which unbelievers, both inside and outside the visible church, must endure. The trumpets resemble some of the trials which were pictured in the seals, but their primary purpose is to punish.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“divine likeness, but always trying. Humanity was created on the sixth day, but without the seventh day of God’s own rest, which Adam and Eve were designed to fulfill, they would have been imperfect and incomplete. The triple six emphasizes that the beast and his followers fall short of God’s creative purposes for humanity.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“Even the patron deities of the trade guilds were worshiped in association with the imperial cult (see on 2:9-21). There were few facets of social interaction in which Christians could escape pressures of idolatry.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“In the OT, God told Israel that the Torah was to “serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead” in order to remind them continually of their commitment and loyalty to God (Exod. 13:9). The NT equivalent is the invisible seal”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“That the two are of a parallel spiritual nature and intended to be compared is evident from the immediately following mention of the names of God and Christ written on the foreheads of the saints (14:1).”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“The mark may also connote that the followers of Christ and the beast both are stamped with the “image” (= character) of their respective leader.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“others like it elsewhere on varying scales, may explain also why John himself alludes in this chapter to the narrative in Daniel 3 about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s refusal to”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“The background to this verse may lie in the establishment of an emperor cult at Ephesus, marked by the erection of a colossal statue to Emperor Domitian. Citizens of towns in Asia Minor were even pressured to offer sacrifices on altars outside their own houses as festive processions passed by. Such a major event at Ephesus, and”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“By the end of the first century all the cities addressed in the letters had temples dedicated to the deity of Caesar.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“Daniel warns (11:30-39) that a latter-day deceiver will infiltrate the church and turn people away from God. When purported Christian teachers take their primary cues from the surrounding culture instead of from God’s word, they corrupt the covenant community spiritually by encouraging it to live by norms and a faith that ultimately oppose the reign of God and Christ.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“Whereas the first beast speaks loudly and defiantly against God, the second beast makes the first beast’s claims sound plausible and persuasive. False teachers within the church are encouraging compromise with the culture’s idolatrous institutions.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“The whole mass of unbelieving humanity living throughout the entire interadvent age is likely in mind here and not merely a part of it from one brief period of that age. This suggests further the trans-historical applicability of ch. 13.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“The goal of Revelation is to bring encouragement to believers of all ages that God is working out His purposes even in the midst of tragedy, suffering, and apparent Satanic domination.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary