Revelation – Mark Hitchcock

2 reviews for Revelation – Mark Hitchcock

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   jamiem – August 24, 2018

   Thankful for this course on the book of Revelation! I’ve been going through the sessions ahead of time in preparation for a class I will be facilitating, and so far have found Dr. Mark Hitchcock’s presentations to be highly informative and irenic in tone. In my opinion he presents the four major views on the book of Revelation in a fair and balanced way, while offering evidence in support of his own premillennial, pretribulational view. What I appreciate most about Dr. Hitchcock’s lectures is that he removes the sensationalism that is all too often associated with the pre-trib position, while at the same time offering students of Scripture a hermeneutically-sound treatment of the text. I feel there is just the right amount of in-depth teaching that makes this course academically rigorous yet accessible to the average layperson. It’s a much-needed primer on the book of Revelation and I’m excited to be able go through it and to share it with others. Kudos to Dr. Hitchcock and CredoCourses.com for making this resource available.

2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Pat M. – March 15, 2019

   Professor Hitchcock presents a straight-forward dispensational, pretribulational, premillennial reading of the Apocalypse. While I found his position and argumentation rather unconvincing, I appreciated the clarity of his presentation and especially his decision to eschew sensationalism and most speculation about modern geo-politics. Prof H. mostly does not pretend to know precise details of how events will unfold and he consistently appeals to the text to justify his positions. I watched the lectures hoping to gain a better understanding of the dispensational pre-trib position so I could avoid caricature in conversations with family members of that persuasion. I am happy to report that is exactly what I found. Prof. H’s humble and (mostly) charitable presentation was a welcome contrast to the condescending tone that characterizes too many discussions of eschatology. Though I remain unconvinced of his position, I found many of his devotional reflections to be edifying and I can give a hearty amen to his emphasis on the bottom line: Jesus wins.

   For those looking for a non-dispensational exposition of Revelation, D.A. Carson has an excellent free lecture series on The Gospel Coalition’s website in the resources section.
   Finally, without getting into the merits of his interpretive approach, I had a few minor critiques: (1) His lecture on the different interpretive approaches was misleadingly simplistic because he largely neglects eclecticism (beyond a casual mention of Greg Beale at the end). While the four traditional categories certainly have value, many of the most important commentaries of the last few decades have adopted some form or other of an eclectic approach (e.g., Ladd, Mounce, Osborne, Beale, A. F. Johnson, Schreiner). It would be unreasonable to expect him to interact with every eclectic combination, but there are several distinct flavors that deserve more attention because of their prominence and because they do not fit the stereotypes of the traditional categories (e.g., the preter/futurism of Ladd, Mounce, Beasley-Murray, etc. or the idealist/historical/futurist synthesis of Beale, Johnson, Schreiner etc.). Listeners are left without any conception of the position that many people actually hold.
   (2) He sometimes caricatures the positions he disagrees with rather than presenting the strongest form of their arguments. While he is mostly fair and judicious with differing interpretations, it gets frustrating to hear him dismiss a rather wooden interpretation (which few would affirm) without addressing the much stronger variant of that position which scholars actually hold (his discussion of alternative approaches to ch. 12 were particularly egregious)