Böcker av Steve Rauen

The Truth has the unmatched power to see through and defeat every lie, shaded truth, and misdirection of humanity. In life, truth stands on its own when all of the facts have been presented because, ultimately, the truth always traces its origin to the Source of all truth: the eternal, omniscient, and holy triune God described in the Bible. The second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is indeed The Way, the Life, and THE Truth, according to John 14:6. Everything in God's Word confirms that claim, and nothing contradicts it.If this absolutely unique Divine Person -- the God-man -- embodies the truth to the extent that He can rightly be called THE Truth, we have before our eyes the most-reliable source of truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.As eternal, holy God Himself (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15-17, Hebrews 1:1-2), and because God can NOT lie (Titus 1:2), Jesus Christ is the most-faithful witness to the truth that there ever could be. Why should we rely on the ignorance, incomplete knowledge (at best), and lies of sinful, finite creatures? Only those men who spoke and recorded the Holy-Spirit-inspired words of the books of the Bible were given God's stamp of approval and seal of certification that their words matched and proceeded from God.So in addition to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, we can add to the number of truly faithful witnesses those select few who were genuinely inspired by the Holy Spirit to be the "stenographers" of The Scriptures. But that's where we must draw the line, because diligent truth-seekers have nothing to gain by going beyond that boundary.The reality is that anyone can make predictions about the future and not one person in our earthly realm actually knows what will happen or when. That's the dividing line between knowing the future (and the past as well) and engaging in guesswork about it. The truth descends to us from God's eternal throne, and by His grace, we finite human beings can come upon even the most astonishing facts of creation (as He wills).On the other side of the divide, we humans of limited understanding and imagination will soon hit our largely self-imposed ceiling; pride keeps us from going to God for the knowledge that can break through the barriers. For far too many, if something must come from God, we don't want it. Man by nature rejects God's provision, whether that pertains to things needed to live in safety and prosperity on earth, or far worse, the ultimate provision of The Way to eternal Life in the person and work of The Savior, Jesus Christ.To the Christ-rejecter, the worst offense of all is a life of holiness. The Christ-follower, then, is the natural enemy of the unbeliever, and the only one within reach of their hatred. If this doesn't fully explain their hatred toward Christians (because of Jesus, who lived the ONLY perfectly holy life), it can certainly cover the main ground. However, to reciprocate with hate is not God's way, so let's get back to the duties of the Christian: to acknowledge, trust in, and follow Jesus Christ, The Way to the Father in Heaven.The title of this book clearly proclaims a specific Person as the Faithful and True Witness: Jesus Christ, the God-man.That descriptive phrase is taken from Revelation 3:14, but there is actually another word that precedes it: "These things says The AMEN, the Faithful and True Witness." On page 9 of this work can be found a short treatment of the connection between the Bible's use of "Amen" in the Old Testament and "Faithful" in the New Testament. The conclusion is intuitive and firm: Both terms in their essence indicate "Yes, yes, it is (or will be) so" and "Absolutely, it's a done deal!" in the expressions of two different times.If God says what will happen and when, the occurrence will unfailingly verify the prophecy! Amen!

This is a book of Rock-solid hope in the Truth. People of the Twenty-first Century, this is the letter that is written to you, this is your book.Though not God-breathed like all of the Bible, it respects, reflects, and draws directly from God's Word in a Scripture-saturated, but contemporary, conversational style. Your "executive summary" on this verse-by-verse commentary:People in every century, in every generation since the First Century AD have treated the letter "to the seven churches which are in Asia" as their own, as if it arrived with today's mail; the general, incorrect assumption has always been, and continues to be that Revelation is about our own time and place.However, the title and opening verses of "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants - things which must shortly take place" tell all readers since the seventh decade of the First Century that this circular letter to those historic churches and inspired book of the Bible was written to them, and not to us!Furthermore, since God's words will not return to Him void, without accomplishing their purpose, the believers in those churches understood the ultra-timely message; to them, Revelation was not a book of unfathomable mystery!Finally, from the chain-of-command described in Revelation 1:1-3, we also see that the testimony of this Apocalypse - this Revealing - is that of Jesus Christ Himself, The Way, The Truth, and The Life.Christ is our infallible Guide to The Father and eternal fellowship with Him. So if we stay within the guardrails that God has established and on the path that makes all the difference, hope becomes reality!