When the Man Comes Around: A Commentary on the Book of Revelation

G.K. Chesterton once remarked that though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators. Douglas Wilson takes that warning seriously. In this passage-by-passage commentary on Revelation, Wilson steers carefully between two equally unhelpful approaches: the bizarre futurist speculation that turns Revelation into a secret decoder ring for newspaper headlines, and the embarrassed scholarly retreat that keeps a safe distance from all the apocalyptic imagery and says as little as possible. Wilson's reading is preterist: John's most notorious prophecies concern the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, not a future global tribulation. Working through the text symbol by symbol and character by character, Wilson shows how Revelation was written to be understood by its original audience, not an elaborate code but a message of comfort and triumph addressed to real churches facing real persecution. The book is not ultimately about the end of the world as we know it. It is about the triumph of the Church, which always happens when the Man comes around. This is a commentary for readers tired of prophetic speculation and ready to see what Revelation actually says.