2 Cents

2013 was a year spent entrenched in the book of Revelation for me.  I spent the first 7 months studying it hard verse-by-verse just because I felt like I didn't really understand it very well at all.  The last 15 or so weeks I've spent teaching the book to a group of adults at our church, which as you can imagine has produced even more study and meditating on the book.

Here I would just like to give you a quick look at the resources that have helped me most and give a short explanation of each one.

The Book of Revelation - G.K. Beale

This is undoubtedly the top commentary on Revelation and has the best and most information in it.  However it's also part of the New International Greek Testament Commentary series, which means it's very scholarly and deals a lot with the original language translation issues from the Greek text of the book of Revelation.  If you're serious about studying Revelation, this is the first place to go.  Even if you don't know Greek this will still help you out a lot.  But if you really don't like reading scholarly type books, this might not be for you.

The Book of Revelation - Robert Mounce

This is another top commentary on Revelation, but is more accessible to the every-day reader than Beale's.  There's a lot of good information in this one to help you understand the hard parts in Revelation.  However Mounce is a premillennialist - a view I think is unbiblical - so know that going in.

Revelation - Christopher Davis

This one is from the College Press NIV series, which has authors from the Christian Church/Churches of Christ contributing (that's my "denomination").  This one is not near as helpful as the two commentaries above, however there are some very good sections on the significance and symbols of numbers in Revelation, as well as the sections the book should be divided into, which greatly affects the way you interpret the book.

40 Questions About The End Times - Ekhard Schnabel

This is a great book with all sorts of information divided up into 40 chapters on 40 questions.  Most of them have a great deal to do with what's in Revelation.  You will find some great answers in this book to many of the tough questions about the symbols in Revelation.  Schnabel is also a premillennialist, so know that going in, but he's very biblical on just ab
out everything else in the book.  This one is well worth the $!

The Bible and the Future - Anthony Hoekema

This is probably the best book to read for everything End-Times related.  Hoekema is extremely knowledgable about the Bible and all of his points are supported with numerous pieces of evidence straight from the Bible.  I loved this book and agree with 99.5% of what is in it!

A Case for Amillennialism - Kim Riddlebarger 

This book deals exclusively with the debate over the thousand year period talked about in Rev. 20:1-6.  There has been much controversy over this small portion of Scripture and Riddlebarger does an excellent job presenting what I believe to be the correct and biblical position.

Bible Prophecy and End Times (12 Sermons) - Jack Cottrell

These are twelve sermons given by my favorite seminary professor and the teacher/author who has most influenced me in theology.  I trust just about everything this man says or writes and you can too.  The audio is not great on these sermons as they're pretty old, but the information is well worth the price and the time it takes to listen to them.  These talks are also just very interesting!

The Faith Once for All - Jack Cottrell

This is Dr. Cottrell's systematic theology, which is like a reference book that presents what the Bible says on numerous topics.  Some of the topics Dr. Cottrell examines and dedicates chapters to include The Millennium, The Final Judgment, The Intermediate State, Interpreting Biblical Prophecy, Heaven, Hell, and The Second Coming of Jesus.  Not only does it contain great information in helping us to understand Revelation, but this is one book I would recommend every single Christian owning for reference to a myriad of important Bible doctrines.