Foretaste of the Future: Reading Revelation in Light of God’s Mission

by Dean Flemming

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 2022

Overview

For many Christians, the book of Revelation inspires confusion and fear. It’s seen as a coded screenplay for the end times, or it’s just too strange to understand. The problem, Dean Flemming contends, is that when we read Revelation as focused on the future, we miss what it says about what God is doing in the world now.

Revelation is one of the richest texts in Scripture for understanding both God’s mission to make everything new and how the church is caught up in that mission. In Foretaste of the Future, Flemming mines this largely untapped resource by introducing a missional reading of Revelation. Drawing from a variety of cultural perspectives, Flemming explores Revelation’s original context, key themes, and transformational message that rings out for each new generation.

By reading Revelation in light of God’s mission, we gain a renewed vision of God’s great purpose to redeem and restore all creation through the work of the slain Lamb. We also see how God’s people are called to help offer a foretaste of salvation and healing now, along with insight on how to contextualize this mission in particular settings. A missional reading not only invites us to imagine the future; it teaches us to let the future cast its light into the present to guide our way.

Key Features

• Explores Revelation’s original context, key themes, and transformational message
• Draws from a variety of cultural perspectives
• Features a missional reading of Revelation

Contents

• Introduction: Reimagining Revelation
• What Is Revelation Trying to Do?
• The God of Mission
• The Mission of the Slaughtered Lamb
• The Mission of God’s People
• Mission as Witness
• Mission and Judgment
• Missional Worship
• Missional Politics
• A New Creation Mission
• Reading Revelation Missionally Today

Product Details

• Title: Foretaste of the Future: Reading Revelation in Light of God’s Mission
• Author: Dean Flemming
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 245
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subject: Bible. N.T. Revelation › Criticism, interpretation, etc
• ISBNs: 9781514001578, 9781514001561, 1514001578, 151400156X
• Resource ID: LLS:FORETASTEFUTURE
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:02:16Z

About Dean Flemming

Dean Flemming (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen) is Professor of New Testament and Missions at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas. A missionary educator for more than 20 years, he formerly taught at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in the Philippines and European Nazarene College in Buesingen, Germany. He has written extensively on the subject of contextualization, as well as the New Beacon Bible Commentary on Philippians. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene and has pastored churches in Ohio and Japan.