Christ and His Church-Bride: Meredith G. Kline’s Biblical-Theological Reading of the Book of Revelation, by Danny E. Olinger. Reformed Forum, 2025, 544 pages, $48.00. “Besides the fact that the Revelation of John is the most intriguing book in the New Testament, I think it may also be said that no other book of the Bible has as big and practical and inspiring message for the Christian of these days” (151). With these words, Meredith Kline began a sermon he preached on Revelation 6 in 1947. These words, I believe, were also a personal reality for Kline. He indeed found much comfort, hope, and encouragement from Revelation because it so clearly exhibits the glory and victory of Christ, the covenant Lord who shares his glory and victory with his bride, the church. Beginning in his seminary days at Westminster, Kline meditated on, referred to, and expounded upon Revelation throughout his career as a pastor and professor. One might argue that the book of Revelation shaped many of Kline’s lectures, sermons, and writings.

In fact, Danny Olinger has made such an argument. After reading and rereading Kline’s material, Olinger became convinced that Revelation undergirded much of Kline’s writing. While reading through Kline’s publications, Olinger began investigating this thought, taking notes and writing articles that demonstrated how Revelation influenced nearly all of Kline’s work. Very recently, Olinger has gifted us with the fruits of his earnest labor in the book Christ and His Church-Bride (CHCB). CHCB is a volume that summarizes, surveys, and sets forth Kline’s excellent biblical-theological insights into the book of Revelation and other biblical apocalyptic literature.

CHCB has a straightforward structure. The first part contains an overview of Kline’s writings on the book of Revelation. In this section, Olinger provides a study and summary of Kline’s many essays and books, including “The First Resurrection,” “The Covenant of the Seventieth Week,” Images of the Spirit, God, Heaven, and Har Magedon, and so on. These surveys and summaries are not just dry book reports. They provide very fine synopses of Kline’s writings and are beneficial for those who want to learn more about his biblical-theological insights into the book of Revelation and eschatology. I found the surveys and summaries to be good overviews of the central ideas and principal themes in Kline’s writings. I also benefited from how Olinger nicely wove together Kline’s comments on Revelation with other apocalyptic biblical literature, such as Daniel, Isaiah, and Zechariah.

The second part of CHCB is made up of Kline’s sermons on Revelation and Daniel. These sermons were new to me; I had not previously read them. I found Kline’s messages entirely encouraging, uplifting, insightful, and faith-strengthening. These sermons certainly show the pastoral side of Meredith Kline. In them he used everyday language and illustrations to explain the texts in a way that is understandable and Christ-centered. It is true that many of Kline’s writings can be technical and academic. But I believe almost any reader will benefit from these excellent sermons. Not only do they provide wonderful Reformed, amillennial expositions of difficult apocalyptic texts, they also give the reader much hope in Christ and the reality of his return to make all things new. I will no doubt read these sermons several times. As a side note, it would be nice to see these sermons published as a single book.

The third part of CHCB is something quite brilliant: a sort of commentary on Revelation by Meredith Kline. In this section, Olinger did the difficult and tedious work of gathering Kline’s writings on the various texts of Revelation and putting them in textual order. For example, if you turn to the heading “Revelation 19:11–21:8,” (375) you will find the ESV text. Following the Scripture text, you will find Kline’s comments on various phrases of the text. Some of the comments on the text are quotes from Kline. But many of them are Olinger’s summaries of Kline’s writing on the particular text. Olinger calls this section of CHCB a “commentary and anthology of biblical-theological insights from a reconstruction taken entirely from Kline’s writings and sermons on Revelation” (270–71). In my opinion, this section of the book is a gold mine. Reading through this section will be a treat for those interested in Kline’s penetrating and perceptive observations on Revelation, which also include other biblical apocalyptic literature. In fact, I believe this is one of those “must-have” commentaries for the book of Revelation. And I never use the term “must-have” lightly when recommending books.

The fourth part of CHCB is titled, “Biblical and Theological Insights Related to the Book of Revelation Alphabetically Arranged.” This section reads like a concise dictionary or glossary of terms, including terms such as covenant of works, Gog, the intermediate state, New Jerusalem, theocracy, typology, and so on. The summaries are taken from Kline’s writings and arranged topically and alphabetically by Olinger. For example, if you turn to “Sabbath,” you can find paragraph-length summaries of Kline’s explanation of “Sabbath,” “Sabbath Rest,” “Sabbath Rest and Enthronement,” and “Sabbath Rest and Jesus.” After each summary, you will find the reference from Kline’s writings if you want to follow the source. I appreciate this section because it serves as a concise and easy-to-use reference guide to some fundamental concepts in Kline’s writings on Revelation and other apocalyptic literature.

At the end of CHCB, you will find a bibliography and an appendix that contains Kline’s paper on the structure of Revelation that he wrote as a twenty-three-year-old seminarian at Westminster. The essay is somewhat difficult to read, but, like Kline’s other writings, it is overflowing with profound insights into the book of Revelation and its structure. Although I already agreed with Kline’s view of Revelation’s parallel structure (building upon W. Hendriksen), Kline’s explanation provided me with many more helpful points for consideration. The end of CHCB also contains a name and subject index as well as an invaluable Scripture index. As always, I am thankful for the Scripture index. Perhaps it is also worth mentioning here that the footnotes in CHCB are extremely helpful and full of interesting information.

On a practical level, I believe CHCB will be a significant help in providing readers with a sensible and biblical understanding of eschatology and the book of Revelation from a historic Reformed perspective. Christians today are faced with the sometimes bizarre views of dispensationalism and premillennialism. Kline engages with these, pointing out their weaknesses with exegetical, theological, and biblical acumen. Christians today are also faced with the sometimes bizarre views found in postmillennial circles characterized by extreme preterism, theonomy, and the Christian nationalism fad. Kline also engages with these views, highlighting their assorted flaws and errors through a detailed exegesis of Scripture and interaction with biblical theology. In many ways, Kline was ahead of his day, marking what he calls “tenacious preterism” and reconstructionism as highly flawed interpretive conclusions that are quite out of step with Scripture.

CHCB is a lengthy book of over five hundred pages. However, the reader need not be intimidated by its size. It is not necessarily a book that needs to be read from cover to cover, beginning to end. In fact, I started reading this book in the middle by reading Kline’s sermons as part of my morning devotions. Then I selected Olinger’s summaries of Kline’s writings in an order based on my preferences. Finally, I read the commentary section for a stimulating review of the book of Revelation. In other words, this CHCB serves as a versatile resource for gaining insight into biblical eschatology, with a particular focus on the book of Revelation. I will no doubt be referencing this book for years to come whenever I study eschatology and apocalyptic literature in Scripture. Kline was right. Revelation is indeed a wonderful resource for Christians to read, mark, and study as they look up to the risen, glorified Lord in this age and look forward to his glorious return on that Day to bring them into the eternal Sabbath rest, the age to come. Christ is the one who leads us through the wilderness of this world to the “true and eternal Canaan, the new Eden” (463).

Shane Lems is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and serves as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Hammond, Wisconsin. Ordained Servant Online, March, 2026