Let’s attempt two risky things in one article: first, we’re going to delve into the detail of the book of Revelation and, second, we’re going to disagree with C.S. Lewis.
Lewis famously said: ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’ There is some truth in that, of course. Suffering screams at us and it might be a big part of how you came to faith.
The world’s response to suffering
And yet, the book of Revelation tells a slightly different story. God’s plans for His world are contained in the scroll presented to the Lamb in chapter 5. Revelation 6 describes the opening of its seals, which offers a foretaste of what it contains in a sequence of judgments on the world and which climaxes with the seventh seal in 8:1-5.
Faithful ministry: enduring suffering not dishing it out
Paul’s letter to the Galatians might not be the first place we turn to for a model of pastoral ministry. …