Reviewing Shane Hipps on Revelation

I recently went through the sermon series on Revelation by Shane Hipps, pastor at Trinity Mennonite Church. Well, minus the third sermon in the series that is. Apparently the praise and worship time was recorded and uploaded instead of the sermon on that day. So I’m still waiting to get my hands on that one.

Regardless¹, I trucked through the series and was impressed by more than a few points and exhortations. What I’d like to do is a review of each sermon in the series, focusing on the key aspects and also pointing out some items that I think Shane Hipps came short on or that I wish he would have expanded on.

Overall, I think this was a strong review of Revelation from a non-traditional, and more Scripturally based, perspective than we find in the standard, traditional, dispensational view of this text.

Before I start, let me lay out my own underlying biases. If anything, I am a partial preterist. I take a historical angle when it comes to Revelation; not only Revelation, but also the various statements by Christ about his return. He said he would return before that generation died away, and…by golly…I believe him. But that particular issue will be for a different post. I see the text of Revelation as apocalyptic, giving the readers a glimpse of what was going on in the A.D. 60′s, and what was going to happen soon. Today I am not expecting the gorry details expounded on in the middle section of Revelation to happen in my lifetime nor in the future. They already happened, and none of it was literal even then.

That was my perspective going into my listening of the series. I’ve long been exhausted by what has become the traditional understanding of Revelation. I have heard of some having put together explanations of Revelation that show the text is truly nonviolent. I have heard of some having put together commentaries on Revelation that in fact present the text as relevant to today while staying Scriptural, not fanciful and downright heretical (that happens a lot in the traditional reading). Shane Hipps was supposed to be presenting a non-traditional exposition of the text, putting forth a nonviolent reading of the text, and showing how relevant the text is to us.

Had to experience it for myself. I’ll be figuring out the best way to give my review. Keep your eye out for something soon. I hope and pray we can all benefit from taking a good look at the text and history here.

¹ Many people still like to use the pseudo-word irregardless. Please, folks: stop. It’s not a word. And it sounds terrible. That is all.