After six years of hard work and input from some 200 people, the new seminar called Revelation: Hope, Meaning, Purpose is finally ready for widespread distribution. The whole idea behind the new seminar was to provide high-quality materials for people to use in sharing the message of Revelation with neighbors, friends and large public audiences. Why another seminar on Revelation? The seminars already out there have done a good job in accordance with their purpose and will continue to be used wherever they connect well with audiences. But I have felt for years that there was a strong need for a seminar with the following characteristics.

1) More exegetical. Current seminars are often billed as “Revelation Seminars” yet they are more like topical studies of the Bible as a whole and people sometimes feel misled by the title. They wanted to study Revelation and they got something else. The new series goes chapter by chapter, verse by verse through the Book of Revelation. Teachings emerge naturally from the text of Revelation itself, rather than from other places or philosophical reasoning. In a post-modern world, this type of narrative approach is appealing. For those interested in how this relates to Adventist teachings, the seminar covers 16 of the 28 fundamental beliefs. The rest are covered in follow-on baptismal classes. There is no attempt to force teachings into the text.

2) More Christ-centered. The book’s own title and introduction (Rev 1:1-6) makes it clear that the central focus of the book is not the revelation of Middle Eastern oil or the war on terror, it is a revelation of Jesus Christ. So the primary purpose of the seminar is not the communication of information (although that will occur), it is about connecting with the One who revealed the book to John so many centuries ago. The Jesus whom John knew personally is still knowable today and is the ultimate game changer in our lives.

3) More gospel-oriented. Once again, the book’s title and introduction (Rev 1:1-6) states in plain language that the life, death, resurrection and heavenly reign of Jesus Christ are the core themes of the book. According to Paul in 1 Cor 15:1-7, those things are precisely what the gospel is all about. As one wanders through fantastic images of seven-headed dragons, vultures that speak and women standing on the moon, it is easy to get lost in the imagery and forget that there is a saving purpose in everything that is described.

4) More practical, everyday impact. People today want to know: What difference will Bible study make in my life today? In the seminar we have gone to great lengths to point people to the practical, everyday, life-changing insights that emerge from study of the text. For example, in the DVDs, my wife appears toward the close of each program asking the kinds of questions they don’t discuss in graduate school. She throws a wet blanket on the whole discussion with questions like, “Has the study of the trumpets made you a better husband and father?” I don’t know about you, but I think questions like that let a whole new class of people connect with the Book of Revelation.

5) More positive toward other faiths. In the past, some people have felt that in order to highlight the importance of new truths it was necessary to bash faiths that differed with those truths. But in many settings today such an approach turns off more people than it attracts. It can come across as arrogant, self-centered and abusive. If God is “not without witness” (Acts 14:16-17) even among rank pagans and if God “removes kings and sets up kings” (Dan 2:20-21) then we might discover He had a positive purpose even in faiths that seem destructive to us.

For example, it is not hard to show that Roman Catholic theology has deviated at significant points from Scripture and that the church’s practice was often very abusive in the Middle Ages. The Pope himself has apologized for the latter. But that raises the question: If there were a number of directions mainstream Christianity could have gone, why did God let the Catholic version “win” and become the dominant version of Christianity for more than a thousand years? My dear friend Ed Dickerson offers an intriguing and positive explanation: Because they got the one thing right that truly mattered, the biblical canon. Other options in the early centuries would have led to radically different canons of Scripture. The Bible, as we now have it, was the product of centuries of debate and ecclesiastical actions. If you get the biblical canon right, all other things are correctable. A religious organization doesn’t have to have everything right to be serving an important purpose for God. And that leads me to the last point.

6) More humble and vulnerable. If other faiths can serve a purpose without having everything right, then maybe I don’t have everything right either. Maybe my faith organization is here because it has gotten one or two things right that were overlooked or forgotten by others. Such an approach opens the way to more humility and vulnerability on the part of the teacher. I don’t have to have everything right to make a difference for God. And that means that I can learn from others even when they don’t have everything right.

These were our goals as we developed the seminar. Kudos are due to Graeme Bradford, without whose untiring efforts this would never have come to fruition. Others may find that we haven’t quite hit the mark on the six goals above, but they were in view all along and we have made every effort to achieve them.

If you are interested in the seminar you can go to the seminar website to learn more and also order materials: www.revelationhope.com . Perhaps at some point we will be allowed to offer these materials on this web site as well (the primary sponsors are the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists and The Hope Channel). I will certainly let you know if and when that happens.

There are two main things available to everyone. One is a set of DVDs that total 24 sessions of more than 50 minutes each, covering the whole Book of Revelation. The other is a set of printed materials that goes along with the DVDs. The prices on the web site are in Australian Dollars, so there is some discount when paying in US Dollars. Both sets of material together should cost about a hundred US dollars. Not a bad deal!

The DVDs were done in studio and on location in Turkey and Greece. They also include contributions from 25 world-class scholars, each speaking in the area of their top expertise. The printed materials are in beautiful four-color format and include multiple thousands of dollars in fresh artwork to illustrate the text.

Pastors and church leaders who would like to use the seminar in public meetings can contact the webmaster of revelationhope for a special presenter’s DVD that includes powerpoints, advertising, handbills and all kinds of teacher’s helps. This is not offered on the web site as it is exclusively for leaders who wish to make more than personal use of the material.

It has been an honor to be part of such an exciting project. Now you can be part of it too!