Chapters Into Verse Volume Two Gospels To Revelation

A collection of poems written in English inspired by the Bible.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

For generations, poets have turned to the Bible for insight and inspiration. What did so many creative minds find in scripture? Is the Bible still a vital source of poetic inspirations? Chapters Into Verse is the first comprehensive collection ever made of poems written in English inspired by the Bible. A groundbreaking anthology, it introduces readers to a distinct heritage of English poetry: the scriptural tradition. Though frequently ignored and sometimes suppressed, this tradition rivals the classical and is every bit as venerable. Drawing a unique map of the history of English poetry, the two volumes of Chapters Into Verse survey and define the literary legacy of the Scriptures from the fourteenth century to the present. Each volume is arranged in scriptural order, and each poem is preceded by the biblical passage that inspired it. Thus readers can conveniently witness the various ways sacred text has sparked the imagination of poets throughout the ages. In Volume I, which covers Genesis to Malachi, almost every book of the Old Testament is represented. The collection features verses both famous and unfamiliar, from Milton's Paradise Lost and Lord Byron's Hebrew Melodies to Christopher Smart's hymns and Mary Herbert's psalms. The editors have included poems by virtually all the prominent religious poets--among them, John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Edward Taylor, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Included, too, are devotional and visionary works from a wide range of vintage poets--Robert Burns, William Blake, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Tennyson, and Robert Browning. Proving that the Bible is just as powerful a source of inspiration today as it was in the past, the collection assembles a mixed congregation of modern and contemporary poets, such as Marianne Moore, Delmore Schwartz, Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Countee Cullen, e.e. cummings, William Butler Yeats, Robert Lowell, Hugh McDiarmid, Laura (Riding) Jackson, Charles Reznikoff, A.D. Hope, Geoffrey Hill, Denise Levertov, Philip Levine, John Ashbery, and Derek Walcott. Of enduring interest to readers of both scripture and literature, this anthology illuminates key passages of the Old Testament. The measured speech and inspired leaps of poetry offer a spirited alternative to the textual exegesis usually supplied by prose commentary. As such, Chapters Into Verse is truly a poets' Bible. In selection after selection, readers will encounter an astonishing variety of religious experiences, as a host of poets from many eras and many backgrounds respond to Holy Scripture spiritually, profoundly, and imaginatively.

Reference guide to poetry anthologies with descriptions and evaluations of each anthology.

Study the entire Book of Revelation starting with John's theology that teaches that Jesus, the exalted Christ, is the center of faith. Some of the major ideas explored are: personal religious experience; the living voice of God in the church today; advocating for what is right; distinguishing between good and evil; God's grace seeks to redeem; and covenant with God. More than 3.5 million copies of the series have been sold. This revision of the Abingdon classic Genesis to Revelation Series is a comprehensive, verse-by-verse, book-by-book study of the Bible based on the NIV. These studies help readers strengthen their understanding and appreciation of the Bible by enabling them to engage the Scripture on three levels: What does the Bible say? Questions to consider while reading the passage for each session. What does the passage mean? Unpacks key verses in the selected passage. How does the Scripture relate to my life? Provides three major ideas that have meaning for our lives today. The meaning of the selected passages are made clear by considering such aspects as ancient customs, locations of places, and the meanings of words. The simple format makes the study easy to use. Updates will include: New cover designs. New interior designs. Leader Guide per matching Participant Book (rather than multiple volumes in one book). Updated to 2011 revision of the New International Version Translation (NIV). Updated references to New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible. Include biblical chapters on the contents page beside session lesson titles for at-a-glance overview of biblical structure. The simple format makes the study easy to use. Each volume is 13 sessions and has a separate leader guide.

The Book of Revelation is the last book in the canon of the New Testament, and its only apocalyptic document, though there are short apocalyptic passages in various places in the gospels and the epistles. This second of two volumes on Revelation offers a systematic and thorough interpretation of the latter chapters of the book. Revelation brings together the worlds of heaven, earth and hell in a final confrontation between the forces of good and evil. Its characters and images are both real and symbolic, spiritual and material, and it is frequently difficult to know the difference between them, Revelation's cryptic nature has ensure that it would always be a source of controversy. This commentary focuses on the theological content, gleaning the best from both the classical and modern commentary traditions and showing the doctrinal development of Scriptural truths. Scholarship on the book of Revelation has nonetheless not only endured, but even captured the imagination of generations of Bible students, both professionals and laypeople alike. Through its focus on the message of the book through scholarly analysis, this ITC reconnects to the ecclesial tradition of biblical commentary as an effort in ressourcement, though not slavish repetition.

The principle upon which this verse-by-verse study of Revelation proceeds, is that the contents of the book are, in the main, yet future and that the fulfillment of the greater part of Revelation cannot take place as long as the Church remains here on earth. When the Lord JESUS comes in the Rapture, and the Church is caught up to meet Him in the air, then the events in Revelation from chapter four through chapter twenty-two will occur. The New Testament Church—CHRIST’s body and His bride—is now in the process of being called out and will be completed when the Rapture occurs. This is known as the Church Age—or the Dispensation of Grace. During this dispensation, both Jews and Gentiles are being saved and they all become members of the same body (I Corinthians 12:12-13). The New Testament Church is not a subject of prophecy, but is a New Testament revelation (Matthew 16:16-17, Ephesians 3). Before our very eyes in this day, political and religious events are taking place which point to the end of this age of grace. But after the Rapture the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy (Daniel 9:27) will bring about startling changes here on this earth. The entire political system will be rearranged under Satan’s prime minister—the Beast of Revelation. A gigantic confederation of ten powers will rule. The old Roman Empire in all of its power and glory will appear under new conditions. It will be guided and controlled by the “Little Horn” of Daniel 7, known in the New Testament as the Beast. His partner in murder and crime is the Antichrist, who will be the religious dictator and the head of the world church which is now in the making. What the Beast does politically, the Antichrist will do religiously. The two will control all political and religious activity here on earth. Bear in mind that this takes place after the Rapture of the church (Revelation 3:10; I Thessalonians 5:9). Just before the King of Kings overthrows the Beast and the Man of Sin, everything that is vile religiously will head up under the leadership of the whore (the mystical Babylon). Mystical Babylon will be overthrown by the ten kings (Revelation 17:16) who at first were with her and upheld her in all of her vileness, but who later turn to destroy her. The ruin of “the great whore” is lamented by the kings, the merchants, and the people outside the Roman Empire (Revelation 18:9-18). The final destruction and annihilation of the great whore will be by Almighty God Himself (Revelation 18:2, 21-24). This will take place shortly before the destruction of the Beast. The Beast will be destroyed by the Lord in person when He comes in mighty power (read Revelation 19). The destruction of mystical Babylon and the destruction of the Beast are separate events. The destruction of mystical Babylon precedes the destruction of the Beast. The events recorded in Revelation chapters four and following cannot take place as long as the Church is here on earth. Evil at the present is actively at work, and the mystery of iniquity is already working. But the mystery of iniquity is restrained, kept in check, by the Holy Spirit (II Thessalonians 2:6, 7). The presence of the New Testament Church and the presence of the HOLY GHOST restrain the development of the “mystery of iniquity!” The church of the Antichrist cannot be revealed and “the faith” cannot be totally annihilated from the visible Church until the church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7) is raptured to meet the Lord in the air, and until the Laodiceans are spued out and remain here on the earth. However, the principles are at work which are surely and rapidly undermining the moral foundations of the professing church and of society in general. The stage is set and the higher critics are doing all in their power to undermine the faith.