It is a huge privilege to write anything that will be published in 15 million copies and nearly 20 languages. The Sabbath School Adult Study Guides are examined all over the world on a weekly basis and provide an amazing opportunity for a worldwide community to hang together in a context that is trying to tear us all apart. So it is not surprising that the editorial process is as intense as it is, with a smaller editorial committee in Silver Spring, Maryland and a reading group of some 250, all of whom can influence the decisions an editor makes. The final product is intended for the maximum good of as many people as possible and to do the least amount of harm (no easy thing when you consider the hundreds of cultural and ethnic groups affected by the lesson. These goals are probably easier to achieve with an exegetical-style study such as mine and the Galatians quarterly of last year. Unity is easier to achieve when everyone is reading the same source text. But in a topical study the writer and the editor have a lot more freedom to bring their own knowledge, creativity, pride and prejudice into the content and thus bring unintentional distortion into the message God might be trying to bring to the same community at that very time. It is a task that comes with a great amount of stress and responsibility.
Analyzing the editorial changes in the Sabbath School Adult Study Guides has been a fascinating experience. It has at times provided a window into the current mindset and concerns of church leadership. The proliferation of many ideas in the church and the perceived disrespect toward the Scriptures on the part of "more liberal" members causes leaders to become defensive about the authority and the integrity of the Bible and up to a point this is good and necessary. But taken to an extreme it can breed the very reaction it seeks to counter. If people get the impression that a study is "whitewashed" and demands that one’s power of reason and choice needs to be shut off in order to follow God, many will begin looking at alternatives that seem more authentic and more in touch with reality.
I have gained an increasing respect for the challenges in the process and the quality of the work that the editor does. While there were a multitude of changes, most of them a few words here and there, a sentence or two here and there, the basic integrity of my initial draft was respected almost 100% and many of the changes either corrected errors I unintentionally introduced or greatly improved the final product. So while some writers have felt that their efforts were largely ignored in the process of editing, or that the outcome was "unrecognizable," that has not been the case with my quarterly. It’s still mine on the whole and I hope above all else that the letters of Paul were highlighted more than my scholarly or writing skills. I take my hat off to Cliff Goldstein, who is navigating treacherous waters and doing so with a sensitivity to many constituencies and conflicting pressures. If anyone complains that the lessons are terrible, he will say, "Write me a better one!" When I have visited him in his office, his hair is nearly always messed up, and that is largely on account of the frustration that working with many manuscripts causes him. On more than one occasion he and his staff have virtually started from scratch in spite of a manuscript someone worked long and hard to produce. On occasion they have had to toss a manuscript at a late stage as unredeemable and find an old one to edit and update or start over. It’s not an easy process.
What would I do if I were in Goldstein’s place? Here I will put my hand over my mouth and let you in on a dirty little secret. In 1998 I was invited by the then General Conference President to be the editor of the Sabbath School Study Guide. I wrestled long and hard with the opportunity and declined a month later. I still don’t know if that was the right thing to do, but my family and I could not bring ourselves to make the move at that time. Shortly after that Cliff’s name was announced, so I failed the "put up or shut up" moment of opportunity. So I believe I owe it to him to be as supportive as I can possibly be, knowing that he is dealing with dynamics and pressures that I can only begin to imagine from a distance. I had a chance to do what he is doing and declined. So now the right thing to do is to encourage him and from time to time send a manuscript that might make his life a little easier. I hope the final product was a blessing to you and made the Word of God a little plainer than it was before. I want to give a quick word of appreciation to Gayle Foster of Loma Linda, California, whose editorial skills helped make my original manuscript as clear and impactful as possible. No writing is entirely the product of one person and much of the good in my quarterly was shaped by her.
End of series.
<< MORE >>Basic theme: Tradition
This week the titles are all mine. Sabbath Afternoon, however, contains major changes. The key thought, again, completely replaced mine, which was "At the Second Coming, God will rescue his saints in spectacular fashion from the affliction of those who have rejected the gospel." No big difference in principle. The content of that page was fairly heavily edited and shortened, but retained the basic flavor of the original. There is a major addition in the last two lines of paragraph one ("The Seventh-day. . . . never forget"). I suspect the first of those two sentences will be a little controversial, but I didn’t write them so the editor will have to explain himself.
The first paragraph on Sunday is mine and so is the question below it. The last sentence of the question was added by the editor. The content of that day is mine except for two things, the word "doctrines" replaces "traditions" and the last line of paragraph two was added. The questions at the bottom of the page replace mine and one paragraph of content was left out: "Those who have been saved have reason to stand by the teachings of the past, as they rightly fear the loss of what they already have. Openness to new truth is an important value but cannot be embraced if it means abandoning the salvation that has already been received."
On Monday my wording was largely retained, but some things were dropped an a number added. The editorial additions were the last two thirds of the last sentence of paragraph one, the last sentence of paragraph two and the last third of the last sentence in paragraph four. The things dropped do not affect things much. Both sets of questions in this page replace mine, but are fine.
On Tuesday the questions at the bottom replace mine, and the word "truth" replaces "tradition" at the end of the question in the middle. Otherwise the changes are minor.
On Wednesday everything is mine except a very small deletion in paragraph four, I added the words "church and state" after "efforts." The bolded questions at the bottom replace mine and are great, in my opinion. On Thursday the entire page is mine except some light editing in paragraph three. My question at the bottom were dropped for space reasons.
On Friday the Ellen White quotes are mine, the first question was reworded and questions two and three replaced mine, a great improvement in my opinion. The summary at the end largely replaced mine, which I share here: "Our passage for the week highlights two major challenges in keeping a church faithful to God. First, the church must learn how to preserve the best of its past while adapting to the changing requirements of the present and the future. Second, the church must be able to recognize when the behavior of members threatens its integrity. This week’s lesson brings us to the conclusion of this quarter. The two letters of Paul to the Thessalonians have taught us a great deal about how to be a church in a difficult urban environment. We can look forward to the day when we will meet up with Paul and the Thessalonian believers in the great Sabbath School of eternity." So this last week’s lesson is about as edit-free as any.
For those teaching the lesson this quarter, there are a number of extra helps I have prepared.
1) A 13-part TV series on Thessalonians with my pastor, Jon Ciccarelli, on 3ABN. The series is called "Books of the Book" and is shown about six times a week. I don’t know how many of the weekly showings will be on Thessalonians this quarter, but you can check the station’s web site or contact them directly.
2) I taught the lessons to a class of about 50 and they were recorded in advance of this quarter by the Pine Knoll organization. You can get them on CD or MP3 or download at pineknoll.org. You can also access them at thebattleofarmageddon.com. Great class, very active.
3) I recorded 13 audio lectures with The Ambassador Group. These are available at their web site and also can be accessed at thebattleofarmageddon.com. It can also be purchased at amazon.com.
4) I wrote a companion book to go along with the quarterly, Letters to the Thessalonians, published by Pacific Press. It is available at Adventist Book Centers and the corresponding web sites. It should be available on Amazon, but at last check did not yet seem to be.
For those who don’t have access to the printed edition of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide for this quarter, you can access it online week by week at http://ssnet.org/study-guides/.
<< MORE >>Basic theme: Knowledge (Prophetic)
This week I was in for a delightful surprise. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 is by far the toughest passage in both letters to understand and interpret. I truly expected a lot of things to be changed, but it was instead the lesson that possibly had the fewest changes. So that was gratifying and will make this blog shorter than the previous one by quite a bit.
All titles are my own this week except Thursday’s. My title for Thursday was "It’s All About the Gospel." Either title works for that passage. On Sabbath Afternoon the key thought was heavily rewritten, mine was "Mistaken views of the End-time can do a great deal of damage. Paul the pastor tries to correct the Thessalonian picture of the End." In the content part of that page, the first paragraph was added by the editor, the second rewritten and the third was mine. My first and last paragraphs were cut. They had focused on the structure of the passage and its relationship to First Thessalonians.
In Sunday’s lesson I had written three exploration questions. The editor combined them into one. The rest of that day is mine. On Monday the editor added the last question in the middle of the page and replaced my question at the bottom. The content is all mine, but a couple of things were left out for space reasons. The most important sentence left out was at the bottom of paragraph two: "But our lack of understanding of what he left out in the letter (2:5) makes the following verses (2:6-12) very difficult for us to interpret." There seemed to be a reluctance to admit that 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 is quite challenging to interpret.
On Tuesday the last sentence in the question at the top was added, the middle question was lightly edited and the question at the bottom was replaced. The content on the page is entirely mine, but a significant paragraph was left out. "Who is the restrainer/power of restraint? There are two main options that fit fairly well with this passage. First, the restrainer could be the Emperor/Roman Empire of Paul’s day. The empire was constantly restraining forces that would have hindered Paul’s ministry. When the empire collapsed it opened the way for the medieval papacy. But was the Roman Empire powerful enough to restrain Satan?" The Roman Empire interpretation of the Restrainer is quite popular among Protestant scholars and supports a papacy interpretation of the man of sin, so its complete omission was a bit puzzling.
On Wednesday the opening question was revised and improved, the middle question lightly edited and the bottom replaced. I kind of like mine, however: "Martin Luther once suggested that the pope he feared the most was ‘Pope Self.’ How relevant is this kind of application to the world in which we live today?" The content on the page was all mine with the exception of the helpful long parenthesis in the first paragraph. The following was left off at the bottom: "But there is good news. His desperate action will fail. His henchmen will be destroyed at Jesus’ return. And for a thousand years Satan will be left to ponder the mess that sin has made of this world."
On Thursday the opening question was mine and the stuff at the bottom replaced mine. The content was pretty much mine except for an omission related to the Roman Empire again: "Perhaps the two options offered in Tuesday’s lesson are both right. The Roman Empire interpretation of the restrainer/power of restraint follows the pattern of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 in identifying the historical face of apostasy."
On Friday the Ellen White quotes are all mine and the summary is lightly edited and shortened. My Discussion Questions were all replaced, but I really like the ones the editor put in, so on the whole I feel the editor improved this lesson (a big admission from someone who doesn’t like changes in his writing).
For those teaching the lesson this quarter, there are a number of extra helps I have prepared.
1) A 13-part TV series on Thessalonians with my pastor, Jon Ciccarelli, on 3ABN. The series is called "Books of the Book" and is shown about six times a week. I don’t know how many of the weekly showings will be on Thessalonians this quarter, but you can check the station’s web site or contact them directly.
2) I taught the lessons to a class of about 50 and they were recorded in advance of this quarter by the Pine Knoll organization. You can get them on CD or MP3 or download at pineknoll.org. You can also access them at thebattleofarmageddon.com. Great class, very active.
3) I recorded 13 audio lectures with The Ambassador Group. These are available at their web site and also can be accessed at thebattleofarmageddon.com. It can also be purchased at amazon.com.
4) I wrote a companion book to go along with the quarterly, Letters to the Thessalonians, published by Pacific Press. It is available at Adventist Book Centers and the corresponding web sites. It should be available on Amazon, but at last check did not yet seem to be.
For those who don’t have access to the printed edition of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide for this quarter, you can access it online week by week at http://ssnet.org/study-guides/.
<< MORE >>Basic theme: Patience
This week’s analysis was an interesting experience. It included the day’s lesson with the most massive changes and a couple with just a trim or two to make it fit the space. Overall, the common theme was that I highlighted the human side of Scripture, things like variations in biblical manuscripts and the use of metaphors like "wrath" in relation to God. Church leadership is probably gun shy right now about things that were taken for granted fifty years ago because there is an increasing tendency in parts of the world to literalize the Bible. In a "sound-bite world" the pious are all too prone to accept superficial readings of selected proof texts as if they provided the full, accurate and complete message of Scripture. And it is an aggressive movement that can quickly try to sideline those who stand in the way. I have felt the potential of their sting. Yet I will not back down on this issue, because if we ignore any clear evidence of Scripture, even with the most pious of intentions, we have distorted the meaning of the biblical text. Even in the darkness of the Middle Ages, many who martyred the saints genuinely believed that they were safeguarding the reputation of God and the truth about Him. Jesus even predicted this trend: "The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God" (John 16:2). I know that Cliff is fully aware of these things, but he has a large and vocal constituency that needs to be considered in every edit. In light of this, I think he is navigating those waters with amazing skill. But here you get tipped off on the changes that may occur as a result. If you want to go more deeply into these issues, see my book on biblical interpretation, The Deep Things of God, available as part of the book download at the web store on this site.
All titles are my own this week. On Sabbath Afternoon the key thought, again, completely replaced mine, which was "At the Second Coming, God will rescue his saints in spectacular fashion from the affliction of those who have rejected the gospel." No big difference in principle. The content of that page was fairly heavily edited and shortened, but retained the basic flavor of the original.
Sunday’s lesson involved the largest changes of any day’s lesson so far. It started right at the top where my question focused on the textual differences between the openings of First and Second Thessalonians, which highlighted the humanness of Scripture. I will simply include in the paragraph below the material that was replaced or left out.
"Compare 2 Thessalonians 1:1-2 with 1 Thessalonians 1:1. Note the similarity between these two letter openings and then list everything that is different. If possible, use a variety of translations as you make your comparison.
Paul had certain habitual ways of expressing things. Among them is the style with which he greeted people in his letters. The opening of Second Thessalonians is almost identical to the opening of First Thessalonians (see week four’s lesson).
There are literally thousands of hand-written copies of the New Testament available. These were produced from the Second Century on until the invention of printing in the Fifteenth Century. They come in two main types. In the first few centuries manuscripts were written in block capital letters. During the Middle Ages, on the other hand, they were generally written in a flowing (cursive) style of handwriting.
All of these manuscripts agree on the wording of 2 Thessalonians 1:1-2. But in First Thessalonians, the earlier manuscripts generally leave out the phrase at the end: "From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Scholars of the Greek text of the New Testament, therefore, face a dilemma. Did Paul originally open both letters with the extra phrase (in which case some scribes dropped the phrase in First Thessalonians but not in Second Thessalonians)? Or did well-meaning scribes try to harmonize the two texts by adding the "missing" element to the opening of First Thessalonians?
Ancient copyists of Scripture had a high regard for the material they were copying. What errors they made, and they are generally quite few, were rarely malicious. They were normally a consequence of a well-intentioned regard for accuracy. So most New Testament scholars consider the short form of First Thessalonians original."
The first content paragraph on Sunday was inserted, to fit with the new question. The second question and second content paragraph are what is left of my original lesson for the day and is as I wrote it. The question at the bottom, not surprisingly, replaces mine.
On Monday things are quite different. The first paragraph is mine, and the first question is a helpful refocusing of my original question. The second through fourth paragraphs are mine with minimal reductions. The fifth content paragraph is mine, but with a significant reduction: "Either their persecution was more severe than most, or the way that they responded to it was unique among the churches Paul worked with. (see 1 Thess. 1:6-7)." The question at the bottom is a rewording of mine.
On Tuesday the first paragraph was mine but the question below it was a simplification of mine. The rest of the content paragraphs were mine with some shortening. The questions at the bottom are way better than my original, so I’m super pleased with how this day turned out. Wednesday’s revisions were also minimal and very helpful. The second question at the top was added and so were the last two sentences of the first content paragraph. The second full paragraph was heavily reworded but I liked the changes. The second question set was new but drawn from text of mine that was left out in the editing of the content. The two paragraphs at the bottom are considerably edited but fine, in my opinion.
On Thursday the two Scriptural questions and the first four paragraphs are completely mine. The fifth paragraph was heavily edited and somewhat shortened. The final questions replace mine. I can live with the whole. On Friday the Ellen White quotes are mine, but the editor left out the first paragraph of 1 SM 21: ""Some look to us gravely and say, ‘Don’t you think there might have been some mistake in the copyist or in the translators [of the Bible]?’ This is all probable, and the mind that is so narrow that it will hesitate and stumble over this possibility or probability would be just as ready to stumble over the mysteries of the Inspired Word, because their feeble minds cannot see through the purposes of God. . . . All the mistakes will not cause trouble to one soul, or cause any feet to stumble, that would not manufacture difficulties from the plainest revealed truth. . . ." This had to do with textual criticism and parallels the major omission in Sunday’s lesson. Good, consistent editorial practice. The last sentence of the summary was added to my words. The first question was mine and the second was mine but reworded. Questions three and four replaced mine, for what it’s worth: "Do you relate to God the Father and Jesus Christ differently? Why? How do the life and teachings of Jesus change the way we look at God?"
So what do you think of all these editorial changes? Improvement as compared to mine or an opportunity missed?
For those teaching the lesson this quarter, there are a number of extra helps I have prepared.
1) A 13-part TV series on Thessalonians with my pastor, Jon Ciccarelli, on 3ABN. The series is called "Books of the Book" and is shown about six times a week. I don’t know how many of the weekly showings will be on Thessalonians this quarter, but you can check the station’s web site or contact them directly.
2) I taught the lessons to a class of about 50 and they were recorded in advance of this quarter by the Pine Knoll organization. You can get them on CD or MP3 or download at pineknoll.org. You can also access them at thebattleofarmageddon.com. Great class, very active.
3) I recorded 13 audio lectures with The Ambassador Group. These are available at their web site and also can be accessed at thebattleofarmageddon.com. It can also be purchased at amazon.com.
4) I wrote a companion book to go along with the quarterly, Letters to the Thessalonians, published by Pacific Press. It is available at Adventist Book Centers and the corresponding web sites. It should be available on Amazon, but at last check did not yet seem to be.
For those who don’t have access to the printed edition of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide for this quarter, you can access it online week by week at http://ssnet.org/study-guides/.
<< MORE >>Basic theme: Balance
Oddly enough, this is the week that seems to have been the most controversial of all the lessons I wrote. You will note my theme above: balance. You won’t find a hint of that theme in the edited lesson, so this week there were significant conceptual changes, although adherence to the text means the final outcome is not that different from my original, but for the elimination of what I found to be the central theme. Having grumped a bit, let me give Cliff a high five for catching another error of mine. For some reason I concluded the book with verse 27. While verse 28 is a pro forma ending that would be easy to overlook, it does exist! So Cliff is up two to one in the creating/fixing errors contest. He has created one and fixed two, so he is one up on me (I created more errors than he did).
All titles are my own this week, except for the change from 27 to 28 in the text reference on Sabbath and Thursday. On Sabbath Afternoon the key thought, not surprisingly, completely replaced mine, which was "Ultimately, the Church of God in its universal form is no stronger than the chain of local churches around the world." No huge loss there. The rest of the day’s lesson was mine, but shortened somewhat so the editor could add the last two sentences at the bottom.
On Sunday the first paragraph is mine, but the question related to 1 Thess 5:12-13 was completely reworded. The first paragraph below the question was also mine except the last sentence, which was heavily reworded. The two paragraphs above the question at the bottom are mine, but a significant paragraph in my original was left out: "What Paul writes here applies to every Christian, including pastors that work in a church structure. Church life involves a constant tension between honoring those who lead you in love and a healthy resistance toward those who use positions of authority to abuse those under them. Paul here emphasizes the first (in 2 Cor 10-13 he emphasizes the second). This advice is particularly appropriate for members who are naturally confrontive or chronic complainers." It seems that resistance to abuse of authority is not a theme currently popular with church leadership. I suspect that would be even more so now than it was when this was edited (one to two years ago). The question at the end replaces mine, no huge loss.
On Monday the opening paragraph is mine, but the questions under the text replaced my straightforward invitation for the reader to list the key points of the passage. The rest of the page is completely mine, except for light editing in the last paragraph. But there are two very significant omissions. 1) In the first paragraph below the questions I had added after "confronted" the following: "They had an underlying attitude of flaunting community rules. (actions that showed deliberate disrespect to church leaders or the wider community)" 2) My question at the bottom was eliminated: "How can Paul’s counsels in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 improve the spiritual growth in your own local church? Which side of Paul’s advice is most appropriate to your personal situation?" Not sure why these items would be dropped, perhaps simply space considerations.
On Tuesday the first paragraph was mine but the last sentence of the question was added by the editor. The next paragraph is mine, but the first sentence was eliminated: "Since prayer is at the center of these three imperatives, it is quite likely that all three have something to do with prayer." The second paragraph was mine, but the last sentence was eliminated: "Here Paul invites readers of his letter to follow his example. One way to keep our minds focused on prayer is through Christ-filled music (see Friday’s lesson)." The third paragraph below the questions is mine, but the fourth was heavily edited. The exercise at the bottom was mine, but the last sentence was heavily reworded.
Wednesday continued the trend of heavy editing for this week. The opening text and question was reworded and expanded. The first and last paragraphs of the main content are mine, but the rest is heavily edited, with significant additions and subtractions. The second paragraph completely replaced the following: "When members of the church are setting dates for the Second Coming (1 Thess. 5:2-3) and justifying spiritual and economic laziness (4:10-12) it is understandable that a church might be skeptical of anything new. But if we have "many lessons to learn and many, many to unlearn" (see Friday’s lesson) it is spiritually dangerous for us to ignore everything that sounds new or different." Eliminating this was probably necessary since the Ellen White quote on Friday was also removed. (Remembering to do both, however, exhibits editorial skill.) But this a point I dearly wanted to make here. The last sentence of the third paragraph and the last two sentences of the fourth paragraph were added. They are certainly relevant to the text in an Adventist context.
On Thursday editing was lighter. The last sentence of the question sequence replaced mine, no big deal. The first three paragraphs are mine and the fourth was heavily reworded. The question at the bottom replaced my pair of questions. I’ll let you judged which to prefer: "Read 1 Thessalonians 5:26. What is the difference between a holy kiss and an unholy kiss?" "Have there been areas of struggle in your life that God has brought into deeper submission to him? What can you share that will be of encouragement to others who desire complete dedication to God?"
On Friday the two Ellen White quotes are mine, but the editor dropped my use of Review and Herald, July 26, 1892: "We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed." One of my favorite quotes, sorry to see it go. Question 3 was mine and 1 and 2 were heavily reworded. But one question was dropped: "Where is the balance between reason and revelation? How can the church stay open to the Spirit’s leading while remaining skeptical of human attempts to apply that revelation to specific situations?" The conclusion is mine.
So what do you think of all these editorial changes? Improvement as compared to mine or an opportunity missed?
For those teaching the lesson this quarter, there are a number of extra helps I have prepared.
1) A 13-part TV series on Thessalonians with my pastor, Jon Ciccarelli, on 3ABN. The series is called "Books of the Book" and is shown about six times a week. I don’t know how many of the weekly showings will be on Thessalonians this quarter, but you can check the station’s web site or contact them directly.
2) I taught the lessons to a class of about 50 and they were recorded in advance of this quarter by the Pine Knoll organization. You can get them on CD or MP3 or download at pineknoll.org. You can also access them at thebattleofarmageddon.com. Great class, very active.
3) I recorded 13 audio lectures with The Ambassador Group. These are available at their web site and also can be accessed at thebattleofarmageddon.com. It can also be purchased at amazon.com.
4) I wrote a companion book to go along with the quarterly, Letters to the Thessalonians, published by Pacific Press. It is available at Adventist Book Centers and the corresponding web sites. It should be available on Amazon, but at last check did not yet seem to be.
For those who don’t have access to the printed edition of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide for this quarter, you can access it online week by week at http://ssnet.org/study-guides/.
<< MORE >>Great news! I am ready to start the long-promised Facebook and Twitter Commentaries on the Book of Revelation on September 1 or shortly thereafter. The Facebook Commentary will involve the posting of one paragraph a day, working verse by verse through the Book of Revelation for however long it takes. I am guessing about five or six years. The Twitter Commentary will involve a Twitter length (less than 140 characters and spaces) summary of each day’s paragraph that will cumulatively provide a brief summary commentary on the whole book when it is done. When I am finished with all the posting, I expect to have something in excess of a thousand pages that I can cull and edit into a book form presumably. But since publication is moving more and more online, the Facebook version may in the end prove the most helpful and influential. So if you are interested, please make sure you set up Facebook to post my daily blogs on your personal page and we can study together! (Don’t ask me how you do this, I am getting a lot of help) Feedback to these posts is most welcome and will be responded to as I have time. But please keep feedback short and substantive or it may drop off my radar (I can deal easily and quickly with short comments or emails, book-length or even page-length treatises tend to go into piles that never get finished).
Each post will begin with "Rev", then the chapter number, if the comment is of general significance, and then a verse reference, if the comment is specific to that verse (ex: Rev 10:4: ). Since I hope to write a book on Revelation 10-14 soon, I will begin both commentaries with chapter 10, continue through 14 and then probably go back to the beginning of the book. Later collections of these thoughts will be organized more verse by verse and chapter by chapter. This is all new to me and everyone else, so let’s break ground together! Invite your friends to participate!
I delighted at this cool idea, as I have always wanted to write a commentary on Revelation, but have never found the time for such a massive project. This will force me to do a little work every day until I have a draft that can be tweaked and edited into a full-length form that wouldn’t happen otherwise!
Postings on the Sabbath School Lesson will continue until the end of September, when the quarter is finished. Beyond that, I plan to continue blogging on various issues on this site.
<< MORE >>