I started posting my notes from my studies on the book of Revelation on here a while back, but didn’t keep it up, so I’m now going to resume posting them on a weekly basis, starting on Sunday. I wrote these a couple of years back now, so I might have changed my opinions on some things.

The studies already on my blog are:

• Introduction and Revelation Chapter 1
• Revelation 2:1-7 – The Letter to the Church in Ephesus
• Revelation 2:8-17 – The Letters to Smyrna and Pergamum

But before I resume my tour through this book of the Bible that has sadly become a happy hunting ground for weirdos, I’ll just outline the basic principles I apply in trying to understand it. These are what we started with on Contagious back in 2003 when we went through the book over the course of the week’s conference, as outlined by the legendary Pete Woodcock:

• Understand Revelation in light of the whole of the Bible

The book of Revelation tends to get a lot of attention – after all, it’s where the New Testament gets interesting again after the long stretch of just other people’s letters after the good bits about Jesus and the early church, or so it might seem! But if you take it in isolation, then you miss all the allusions and links with the rest of the Bible. Most of Revelation’ images are taken from elsewhere in the Bible, and it’s message is in unity with the rest of the Bible.

• Understand the unclear by the clear

Someone once said that it’s not the parts of the Bible that they don’t understand that worry them, but the parts that they do!

• Look at the big picture

Another pitfall is getting caught up in the fine details – trying to work out what the third crown on the seventh horn on the first beast probably won’t yield you much spiritual benefit. If you zoom in too far, then there’s the danger that you’ll miss what the book is actually going on about.

• It’s all about Jesus

Like all of the Bible, particularly the New Testament, Revelation is about Jesus Christ, and is there to instruct us and train us up in the lives of love and holiness that he has called us to. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near – Revelation 1:3. Revelation is meant to bless you, not to baffle you, and we should come to it first of all to discover God better, not to decipher future events or win arguments about eschatology.

I think most people could agree on the above principles – they’re pretty commonsensical, and are the same principles that you always apply in understanding the Bible. I’ll outline some of the more contentious points I hold to in interpreting Revelation in a later post. Stay tuned!

I found a website offering free iPods!

The catch is:

• You have to sign up for an offer
• You have to refer five other people to sign up and also complete an offer
• It’s advertising-funded, so they’ll probably try and spam you

But that said, at least one of the offers (free trial for a postal DVD rental service) does seem to be genuinely free, and if you haven’t signed up for eBay yet, then that’s another thing you can do through their site to qualify. I’m currently scrutinising the small print, but it seems legit, so if you want to give it a go (and in doing so help me towards a free iPod!) then click here.

Over on Cerulean Sanctum, Dan Edelen has called for a brainstorming session:

What I want to hear from you is how the Church in America can better live out the Faith. That goes from the way our church services work, to how we serve others and evangelize, to how we raise our children for Christ. I’m throwing open the floodgates.

I think much of our methodology has failed, but we’ve been unwilling to admit it. We’ve also not been listening to the Lord’s leading–or His correction. I get the feeling sometimes that He’s shouting at us, but we’re too spiritually deaf to hear Him.

So now’s the opportunity for you to say what’s on your heart. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I’ll be gathering your recommendations. Doesn’t matter what denomination you’re from or whether you consider yourself Emerging or Traditional, Charismatic or not, let me know what you think the Church can do better. But more than that, let me know HOW it can be done better. I think we’re all tired of people grousing about the Church, but who have no answers. Now’s the brainstorming time.

Well, I’m not part of the Church in America, but there are many issues in common across the Western world, so I’ve joined in the conversation. Here’s the contribution that I’ve posted as a comment on his blog:

I think one of the issues that the church in the West really needs to get to grips with is that of Consumerism.

I’m partway through my English Literature & History degree at Cardiff University here in the UK, and last academic year I studied a unit “History of mass communications and culture”. It was really interesting, since it gave an overview of how the media works and its impact on culture (something that’s very helpful to be informed about as Christians) as well as various other things like Consumerism and Globalisation.

Consumerism isn’t an easy thing to define in a short sentence, so I’ll describe it. It’s when people create their identity by the goods they consume. It’s the pursuit of fulfilment not just in Stuff (just plain materialism) but in More Stuff – always consuming, always seeking more. It’s when people passively choose between options given to them, rather than taking an active role in changing things or producing something new.

The advertising industry is one of the big engines that drives consumerism, and it works by making people discontent so they will carry on buying. Our society works to make people unhappy about their appearance, their level of comfort, their social standing and the like. The implicit message of most adverts is “You can be sexy/sophisticated/cool/ethical/whatever image we’re trying to sell, if only you buy our product!” Consumerism works not by fulfilling people’s real needs, but manufacturing new needs. Consumerism is an addiction that can never satisfy, because it works by manufacturing discontent.

Over the last 50 years, our levels of consumption rocketed massively, yet we are no happier and are considerably more stressed and anxious as we try and keep up with the constant cycles of “More Stuff!” To fuel this, we’ve been exploiting the rest of the world and squandering the planet’s resources. Consumerism isn’t just stupid, it’s corrupt and immoral too.

It’s also an attitude that can infec our behaviour in every area of life. Take spiritual consumerism, for example, where the individual flits from church to church looking to receive what satisfies them, rather than being involved and committed to mutual loving service as part of a body of believers.

My university lecturer really went to great lengths to show all the problems with consumerism – we should have that kind of preaching from our pulpits. As a church, we have largely bought into this way of thinking and living hook, line and sinker. If you compare the lifestyle and spending of Christians with non-Christians of similar income, there is usually only a very superficial difference, sadly.

Firstly, as individuals and churches, we need to be islands of contentment in a raging sea of discontent. We need to model distinctive ways of living. “The Lord’s my shepherd, I’ll not want” is a revolutionary statement. If we truly do not worry and do not chase after the things the pagans chase after, then we will live very differently. We need to take radical action to break the hold of possessions on our hearts – sell what we have and give to the poor, perhaps! As communities we need to build the support networks so that we can turn to each other rather than to stuff. Get our churches to have lists on which people can put things that they own that they are willing to share with others. Why have every family have the same DVDs over and over when one family can say that they’re happy for anyone to borrow a particular DVD from them? And more practically, things like tools and services and so on. Small steps in sharing, but it’s a start in becoming less possessive and more inter-dependent.

Secondly, we need to seek to influence and persuade society to change its attitudes. People are beginning to realise that consumerism can never satisfy. Given the choice, many people would prefer more time to invest in family, friends and leisure activities rather than constantly slaving to get the latest consumer goods.

Thirdly, we need to change the structures and practices of our, society, government and economy. If people suddenly stopped buying “More Stuff!” the economy would come crashing down. We need Christian economists to develop models of a post-consumerist economy, an economics of contentment and service, and work out how we can make the shift to it without causing economic hardship.

That’s a quick summary of my view of Consumerism. I hope that you’ll also join in in brainstorming how we can really make a difference in the world as Christians.

Well, here I am, back in Cardiff. My essays and creative writing portfolio for English are due in next Tuesday, and my History essay is due in a week on Wednesday, so that’ll be keeping me busy for a bit.

I want to go and visit the Doctor Who exhibition that’s down in Cardiff Bay at the moment. I’m also planning a post-deadline celebration/post-Christmas catch-up for us English Lit students on Tuesday, so if any of you are reading at the moment, you’re invited to come round to my house on Tuesday from 12pm (the deadline!!!) to have some lunch, chat and relax a bit after getting those pesky essays out the way.

I look forward to seeing my friends in Cardiff again. Christmas was fun, but in many ways I’m glad to be back.

I put a counter onto this blog on Wednesday 19th January 2005, and over this last weekend in reached 10,000 page loads. Thanks very much for reading – I hope you will find stuff to enjoy on this site in 2006

I haven’t got round to writing about what I did over my Christmas holidays, so I won’t write about all that – it’s rather self indulgent and trivial, and I’m sure there’s much better things I can write about. I’m working on essays at the moment and I’m going back to Cardiff tomorrow, so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for blogging for a bit.

Some things I plan on blogging about in the near future:

• The Future of “the West”
• Can Blogging make any practical difference to the world?
• “Is the Author dead?” – some thoughts from my essay
• Seeding the Revolution – changing the world from the bottom up
• The Doctor Who Discussions – articles discussing themes from the new series
• Heaven: The Republic vs the Kingdom
• Are we sleepwalking into tyranny in the UK?
• Is Richard Dawkins right that “Religion is the root of all evil?”

So keep reading!

The current New Statesman cover story makes a sobering read: New Statesman – The death of freedom

Here are some New Year’s Resolutions I’m making:

Be more organised in prayer
A few months ago I drew up a list of people, situations and the like to pray for, and it was really helpful for giving structure to my prayer life and focusing my prayers on other people and the wider world, rather than just me and my problems and those people I’m immediately in contact with. Unfortunately I lost it, so I need to do another.

Spend more time doing stuff outside the “Christian bubble”
It’s good to get a wider perspective on things than just the peculiar little subculture of Christian students, and if I’m to have a positive impact on the world through living out and explaining to people the message of love and hope that I try to live by as a Christian, I need to be involved with people.

Visit a different church from the one I regularly attend, Mackintosh, for one service a month at least
I was talking about this with some people at New Year (one of whom was Lewis, who says he reads my blog. Hi Lewis!) and I think that it’s a really good idea to visit other churches. Christians can fall into a tribalistic attitude where anything slightly different from how their church does things is viewed with deep suspicion and is considered, if not out-and-out heretical, then at least decidedly Unsound. Maintaining a living fellowship with the wider body of Christ helps combat that, and work towards being “one” in Christ and the Gospel as Jesus prayed.

Write 1000 words a week towards my book
Having the discipline of writing a piece each week for my Creative Writing course was really helpful last term, but I’d like to aim to write regularly on my own personal project of the first book in my planned series. 1000 words is a significant, though not huge amount, and I want to try and discipline myself to fit it in.

Manage my time better
In particular, cutting down on time wasted. Some specifics include only doing Su Dokus at the weekend, cutting down on the time I spend on Internet discussion forums (especially Outpost Gallifrey’s Doctor Who forum). I may even try and spend less time on my blog!

There are a couple of others which I’m not going to mention here. Another aim I have is to check back at quarterly intervals to see how I’m getting on. Hopefully with the help of the Lord and a bit of effort, I can make this year better than the last.

That’s the question that Steve Palframan asks on his blog. He has some great analysis of the question of the relevance of the Bible – do we need to “make it relevant”?

Well, the Bible is relevant, but we can deny its relevance by not preaching it faithfully. What we need is, in Steve’s words, “preaching which is so passionately concerned for the people listening that it clearly shows a faithful understanding of the message of the passage and its implications for its contemporary hearers”. I think that sums it up pretty well!