The Book of Revelation is, according to the Wikipedia entry for it, “one of the most controversial, and hardest to understand, books of the Bible”. Despite hundreds of years of scholarly argument, there is no consensus as to the true meaning of its arcane symbolism. Such being the case, some might hesitate before attempting to teach this baffling text to children, but Roy Kemp is not one of them. In this unusual self-published volume Kemp sets out to teach Revelation in its entirety, in 52 lessons, a whole year of Sunday School. Moreover, before the title page of this book Kemp announces that he is planning to produce similar commentaries on the whole Bible. There are 22 chapters in Revelation, out of a total of 1189 in all 66 books, so by a simple calculation it would take something approaching 54 years to complete the lot at the same plodding rate. The “tots” must be nearing retirement age, and still not done. In Kemp's view Revelation depicts the reality of the “End Times”, which are, as ever, nigh. He is not dogmatic enough to insist that every word of the prophetic vision is to be taken literally, but his interpretation is of course the only correct one. The anti-Christ is coming and all the unbelievers are going to have a terrible time of it: bloody seas, darkness at noon, plague, famine, war and the rest. The faithful meanwhile will be carried safely away to Heaven in the “Rapture”. Kemp recognises that in teaching Revelation to tinies he has to make it easier to digest. To that end he employs two means: simplified language and a remarkable innovation he calls the “flannelgraph”. The latter is a piece of blue flannel, three feet square, which ingeniously can represent both heaven and earth: Make a rainbow in a complete circle 28” in diameter at the very top of the piece of blue flannel. Place all scenes pertaining to the Throne of God inside this rainbow. When the lesson pertains to an earthly scene, use the plain side of the flannel for background. A set of 155 pictures printed on “flannel-adhering paper” is meant to be used with the book, to illustrate the stories as they are told, such as in this extract - which also shows Kemp's masterly reworking of the text for his young audience:
And so on, and on, and on. I like that instruction in brackets to “explain the true God”. Here's another extract, which includes scenes of violence some may find disturbing:
This is followed by a lovely image in which the flannelgraph Christ and his saints are made to wade through the river of blood - “And oh, Look! Their feet and legs are red”, in order to fulfil a prophecy made in Psalms 58:10 - no doubt eliciting a spontaneous round of applause from the little ones. In this jaundiced modern age it is easy to forget that only half a century ago the weekly promise of the flannelgraph would have brought children running to their Sunday School classes, frothing with anticipation at the thought of more crayoned-in blood. Sadly, I don't have a complete set of pictures, so I can't show you what the Antichrist or the Long Blood Stream look like. You must be satisfied with the rather less exciting ones on the right. Sorry. (You may also be interested in another example of unusual Bible illustration.) |  | |
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Comments
I swear, my elementary school bible teachers must have read this book. As such, I have been scarred for life.
Well, what a surprise! My wife has the same book purchased from Dr. Kemp many years ago and used it to teach her Sunday School class! Is that surprising to you?
Yes, it was a little more exciting in those days to have a "flannelgraph lesson". Now my 7 year old grandson "kills" hundreds of people every day on his playstation and thinks nothing of it.
Dr. Kemp and his wife, Alcie, were dear friends of ours and we would visit just to listen to his fantastic tales of the ministry. He served under the fiery J.Frank Norris at First Baptist Church and Bible Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, where, by the way, my wife and her family were members. He and his wife have passed on now and their son has a few of his other books but he, too, is sick and may not be here long. Dr. Kemp also had a chart of the Revelation that he would stretch across the front of the church(or around the church according to the size of the church). He designed it and used it in many churches. It still exists. Dr. Kemp had the entire book of Revelation memorized and would teach the entire book from memory. Sorry for the long note, it's just amazing to see someone with the book. I googled Roy A. Kemp and found you. Thanks for the review. I think I'll go drag out the old book and investigate if Jesus is coming this week....or January 20! ha!!! Thanks Richard
I would love to purchase Dr.Kemps Book on Revelation "The Path Ahead" Is it
still availablePlease answer.The Time is short.
Dr.Bobby Clark
HAHAHA TOO LATE!!
Yrs sincerely, the Antichrist.
I have a copy of Dr. Kemp's book Golden Dawn. It is available at www.amazon.com.
I have searched the internet and cannot find this book. Where can I purchase it?
Katie, there is at least one copy on sale at http://used.addall.com/
I was fortunate to have grown up knowing Dr. Kemp,as a dear and personal friend from about the age of 3. When Dr. Kemp had this book printed, my mother Lou and father Garland went to the publishers office with Doc. to see the Binding of the book.He was sooooooo excited about it. he took the first copy that had come out of the binding machine (it only had the front cover attached to it) and asked mom to open it and teach the first chapter to him as she would do with her Sunday school class. to see how easy it could be taught, he signed the book and gave mom the very first edition ever published of this book. my sister is still teaching with it and i taught my children using it. P.S. we still have all the flannel graph teaching tools that came with it too. many thanks to Dr. Kemp & Alice and even Miss Tucket who bit me.
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