Dissertation

Since most will not read the actual dissertation I want to share the “Acknowledgements” page below with a wider readership. I would be happy to send a pdf copy of the dissertation to any interested readers. It is entitled “Soteriology as Motivation in the Apocalypse of John” and applies Toulmin’s model of argumentation analysis to the text of Revelation. I hope to get it published sometime in the next few years but that will depend upon finding a willing publisher.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Looking back over my life and the road that led to the completion of this dissertation, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude to those who have contributed and sacrificed not only to help me complete the project, but to shape me into the man that I am today.

            To my beautiful wife Jenny: there is no doubt about it, I married up. You have shouldered the weight of sacrifice for this project far more than me; and that with unflagging love and without a single complaint. My respect, admiration, and love for you has done nothing but increase since the day we said “I do.” Thank you! To my boys Elijah, Benjamin, Paul, and Micah: thanks for your patience—daddy’s big book is finally done!

            To my parents Michael and Debby Stewart: thank you for your consistent support, love, and encouragement from diapers to diploma—I am who I am today because of you. To my other mom, Karen McAlister: thank you for entrusting your daughter to my care and for embracing me as a son.

To the professors at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Columbia International University that have personally guided and mentored me along the way: Dr. David Alan Black, Dr. Andreas J. Köstenberger, Dr. Chip McDaniel, Dr. William J.  Larkin, Dr. John D. Harvey, Dr. Bryan E. Beyer, Dr. Don N. Howell, and Dr. Joel Williams—thank you for approaching your work as a vocation and ministry and not simply as a job. I have benefited as much, if not more, from observing the sincerity of your lives and faith than from your teaching and research, which was, of course, also exemplary.

To the leaders and members of Tabernacle Christian Church in Southington, CT: thank you for instilling within me, from a young age, an insatiable longing for God’s presence and a focus on the heart, not just the externals, of walking with God. To Carey Baptist Church in Henderson, NC: thank you for embracing my family as your family. Your love and support made this project possible and made our ministry in Henderson a joy.

           Finally and preeminently, thank you God for including me within your people, loosing me from my sins, redeeming me from among mankind, and placing your seal upon me thereby enabling me to overcome. I long for your salvation—the coming of the day when you will finally, fully, and completely set everything right in your creation.