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Prophetic Speech and Empowered Community re-introduces the book of Revelation for those struggling with understanding and applying this apocalypse with a relevant form of daily living. My goal is to encourage the church to reengage Revelation by offering a hermeneutical approach that makes Revelation practical. My goal is to call the church to re-commit to being the active witness we are called to be in the face of religious and political confusion and oppression. We live in a cultural context where the church cannot afford to remain theologically or politically silent, or uninformed of the times and the seasons. By re-engaging prophetic speech, the Holy Spirit uses believers to impact the church and the world.
The second purpose is to reach traditional Pentecostal believers and Charismatic communities disillusioned with the book of Revelation. I intend to encourage my Pentecostal family to expand their traditional understanding of pneumatology, specifically, the Holy Spirit’s use of prophetic speech and community empowerment in the context of
religious and political oppression. Pentecostal and Charismatic teachings often augment personal experience or unusual phenomenon while diminishing the role of the Spirit in the community. The book of Revelation, in its determination to have the church listen to the Spirit, thereby augmenting the role of the Spirit, redirects the attention away from individualism to the community in light of a perceived looming crisis.
The last things Christ said to the church includes resistance to political oppression of the Roman Empire and faithfulness to the resurrected Christ through faithful witness. These principles are as relevant today as the times in which they were written.
Though writing with particular love and concern for his Pentecostal
community, Crocker’s work provides welcome comfort and challenge for
the whole body of Christ, for all churches faithfully seeking to live out
the vision of Revelation in the world.
F. Scott Spencer (PhD Durham University, England),
former professor at Baptist Theological Seminary
in Richmond, VA and Wingate University, N.C.
