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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Scribbled by Alfred Armstrong 15 years 4 months ago
Comments
Anonymous replied on Permalink
Anonymous replied on Permalink
Anonymous replied on Permalink
Alfred Armstrong replied on Permalink
HAHAHA TOO LATE!!
Yrs sincerely, the Antichrist.
Anonymous replied on Permalink
Katie replied on Permalink
Alfred Armstrong replied on Permalink
Katie, there is at least one copy on sale at http://used.addall.com/
randy replied on Permalink
Pere Ubu replied on Permalink
I suppose it would be wrong of me to point out that the "Rapture" isn't truly Biblical and was tacked on later as an interpretation by (I think) Scofield.
So I won't.
wesley kemp replied on Permalink
Tucket was a green parrot.My sister & I used to knock on the door and tucket would say come in come in come in.Each was more urgent than before.
Alfred Armstrong replied on Permalink
If there were a prize for most opaque comment ever left here, you'd win. Wear the honour with pride.
FrancoisTremblay replied on Permalink
Probably some kind of spambot.
Alfred Armstrong replied on Permalink
Yeah, but no links? And what it posted seems to be unique, at least according to Google. So, WTF.
FrancoisTremblay replied on Permalink
All of that is true. My guess is, the source file is something offline, maybe the transcription of a specific book. But even Google Books comes up empty. Hmmm.
Alfred Armstrong replied on Permalink
Actually, read the comment from "randy" again, then the Tucket one actually makes sense, more or less. Read out of context, though, whoosh!
FrancoisTremblay replied on Permalink
Dyou think they're the same person?
Alfred Armstrong replied on Permalink
No, I think this is a member of the Kemp family explaining the Tucket reference in randy's post, simple as that.
Wesley Kermp replied on Permalink
My mother passed march 2.Sitting in her chair,I saw an old blue book in her case.Prayer asking and receiving by John R.Rice.1948.My father was named John Rice Kemp.I always knew about the name as Dad-aw as we called him told me years ago.There was a picture of my grandfather from the path ahead.Also a family picture from 1946 taken in Sunset Tx.was there.To Dr.Roy A.Kemp in Christian Love.John R Rice.When I had my 2nd son, I named him John Roy after his great grandfather.My wife Rhonda got to name our 3rd son.Moses.I asked my Dad-aw what he thought about the name? He looked at me and said,We'll what can I say about that?The inflection said it all.Moses has a large tattoo on his arm of Moses.I know he would be proud of his selection of Moses to be with him forever.I don't go here often as I should,as I am still new at this.
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