Paul Thiessen spoke from Revelation1:1-8, in a message that was intended for our last Sunday of the church year in 2006, for the service that was snowed out. Appropriate to the end of the church year, this is one of the most difficult books of the Bible to place in its proper context. Paul spoke of his experiences visiting Patmos years ago, visiting some of the 300 churches on it, including the chapel where John received the revelation, ostensibly from a cleft in the ceiling. Though Paul claims to have experienced no great revelatory understanding of his own, he was inspired by Eugene Peterson’s book Reverse Thunder which gave Paul many insights. John, beloved of Jesus, was theologian, poet and pastor, and dictated Revelation as a poem of allusion and imagery. In writing this book to the churches of Asia Minor, John’s background as missionary for Christ in an era of increasing emperor-worship, subjected him to imprisonment, forcing John to use images of dazzling perplexity to get his message across. The misreading of Revelation as text and not poetry makes it incomprehensible. We do not have more information after we have read a poem, we have more experience. The beasts of Scripture that John saw in Rev came from the Spirit, not from John’s imagination, and that the message - things are not as they seem to be - requires the spirit of God to interpret. No attempt is to be made to predict the future with this text - Scripture elsewhere warns against it. The warnings and blessings contained in text are not just for the churches in the province of Asia, but to all churches. And if there is any doubt, the last verse in the day’s text was the identification of the God who gives this revelation - the God of the past, of the present and of the future. [AP]

Passage: Ps 46; Rev. 1:1-8
Communion: No
Ecumenical or Event:
Potluck Lunch: No
Congregational Meeting: No

Speaker: Paul Thiessen
Worship Leader: Janice Kreider
Song Leader: Evan Kreider
Pianist: Ruth Enns
Usher: Edward Epp
Zoom Coordinator:
Children's Feature Leader:

Bring Flowers: ED & FRIEDA EPP
Coffee Helper:
Sound Helper:

Child Care Volunteer: