Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination

It never ceases to amaze me how Eugene Peterson so easily exposes the lie of what we in the West have come to call "reality." His book Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer changed my worldview and revolutionized my prayer life. This book--Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination, has done just as much (and more) than Answering God.Reversed Thunder has truly awakened my imagination. It has turned how I approach the Word of God on its head (I don't even feel like I approach it anymore--it approaches me). For the first time in my life, I feel that the Bible is not just some mystic book that speaks from somewhere in the mists of the past--it is living (how many times had I heard that and given mere intellectual assent?) and speaking to me always.Each chapter of this book is vital. Eugene Peterson has distilled the lessons of a lifetime in these pages--they are transformative. As an aside, I read Brigitte Hanhart's children's adaptation of Tolstoy's Shoemaker Martin while I was reading Reversed Thunder--the messages of these books powerfully reinforce one another (in other words: I strongly recommend reading them together).I give Reversed Thunder my highest recommendation.

Simply the best book I have read on Revelation. Peterson's book is about about God, the person. The focus on revelation is about the revelation of Jesus Christ. So many people get interested in everything except God, loosing themselves in symbol hunting, last day prophecies, intrigue with numbers, speculating with frenzied imaginations on times and seasons, despite Jesus' severe stricture against it. (Acts 1:7) Our salvation, our focus, is on Christ. Our timing is the looking at our present, the silence within us, God's very presence living within ourselves. The timing and sense of urgency of God is not the same as living with the sense of hurry, as it is urgent for us to look inside ourselves, use our imagination with God's Spirit and discern the revelation of Jesus Christ in others through Him and in Him in ourselves.

Have you become immersed in interpretations of the varied and even gross symbolisms in the Book of Revelation? Have you missed the introductory statement that it is "the revelation of Jesus Christ"? He gave His revelation, His last words, through the listening ears and the seeing eyes of His devoted friend, St. John, theologian, poet and pastor. The author of Reversed Thunder has caught the sweep and practicalities of Revelation through his insights into Jesus' last words, His ultimate words, on such subjects as the church, prayer, evil, politics, heaven. Jesus' call for us in the here and now is to worship God and to this theme we can respond, "Amen." This book invited repeated reading, always with an open Bible, time for meditation, prayerful worship. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Peterson reduces the complicated and poetic eschatology of the Revelation to a simple thesis: God is in control of history. And since the beginning and end are good, we who are "in the middle" must prayerfully trust the Author in spite of our trials, as we turn the next page.

Look no further; read no more. Settle in and digest this book slowly. Peterson weaves the threads of biblical themes into an understandable symphonic and pastoral commentary of Revelation