Kathleen B. Nielson: Through the Open Door – The Transcendent and Redeeming God (The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference LiveBlog)

To read the near-transcription from Dr. Nielson’s plenary (including worship with the Gettys, the Scripture passages, helpful links, etc.), just click “Replay” below:

Here is a picture of Dr. Nielson from the conference:

The actual LiveBlog replay above has around 5,700 words in it, so I won’t even attempt to restate the entirety of this teaching. However, here are just a few points that will hopefully whet your appetite and encourage you to read the entire entry:

• The book of Revelation is meant to light up our whole lives to the end. The culmination of all of Scripture; the big vision.
• Maybe one reason why Revelation is such a hard book for us is because we don’t know the rest of the Bible.
• Apocalyptic prophecy works through pictures; symbolic pictures. That’s why we first ask what and then we’ll ask who.
• We’re not always comfortable coming at truth from pictures. We like logical outlines; we’re in control of a bunch of facts; we’ve distilled them into a manageable amount of information. There is no logical outline that can get us close to the reality of who God is.
• The center of the universe is the center of the universe now. There is a throne in heaven now. It is awesome. Don’t doubt it. Think of this throne when you wake up tomorrow. As you sing the doxology. Let’s not think about suffering and joy without thinking about this awesome God at the center of the universe.
• The One worthy to reveal and accomplish these plans would have to be as worthy of the One Who created them. The whole universe cries out for the Redeemer.
• We don’t “make worship.” We either join it or we don’t.