Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 81:2 (Fall 2019)
Article: Reviews Of Books
Author: Anonymous

WTJ 81:2 (Fall 2019) p. 337

Reviews Of Books

Richard D. Phillips, Revelation. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2017. Pp. xvii + 764. $39.99, cloth.

Richard D. Phillips’s opening statement voices a growing concern for the church at large: “Revelation needs to be preached!” (p. xv). Phillips joins an increasing movement of scholars and pastors who wish to demystify this much-neglected book. A second exclamation follows right after, hoping to recover Revelation for the church age: “Revelation is a book for our times!” (p. xv). This is a helpful reminder, since historic tendencies to defer the meaning of Revelation to the distant future have certainly contributed to its preclusion from the pulpit. As part of the Reformed Expository Commentary series (hereafter, REC), Revelation intends to remedy such oversight with thoughtful applications for the modern church. The REC series aims for a balanced exposition that includes: (1) biblical exposition, (2) doctrinal exposition, (3) redemptive-historical exposition, and (4) practical application (pp. xi–xii). The series editors clarify that these “are not exegetical commentaries” in the classic sense, but instead focus on “integrated expositions of whole passages” (p. xi). These goals make the REC series an ideal home for Phillips’s commentary, which was developed for publication based on a series of sermons originally preached for a local congregation (p. xvii).

Phillips finds his own interpretive approach closest to those of G. K. Beale and William Hendriksen (p. xvi), both of whom he cites for their many exegetical and homiletical insights. Uniquely, Phillips’s work also enjoys a special influence from James Montgomery Boice, Phillips’s late pastoral mentor. Phillips cites Boice’s unpublished Revelation manuscript throughout the first seven chapters, offering the reader a window into Boice’s final sermons before “his promotion into the very scenes about which he had been preaching” (p. xvi).

The commentary begins with an orientation to Revelation’s apocalyptic, prophetic, and epistolary genres, and the importance of Daniel’s prophecies for its composition (e.g., Dan 2:28; cf. Rev 1:1). Phillips observes that John exhorts his readers with real urgency that the time for this prophecy (i.e., as a whole) “is near” (Rev 1:1–3). After a brief review of patristic evidence, Phillips finds Domitian’s reign to be the most likely time of writing (c. AD 95). Phillips includes many reflections on Revelation’s first-century context without minimizing its modern significance. Instead, the historical realities communicated by Revela...