Imagine watching the final play of a football game from several different camera angles. Angle one from the pylon cam: a player scores a rushing touchdown. Angle two from behind the goalposts: he scores the touchdown and spikes the ball. Angle three from the blimp: he scores a touchdown, spikes the ball, and the crowd rushes the field and fills the stadium. Our understanding of this one event grows in intensity and meaning as it's shown from multiple angles. In his classes at Reformed Theological Seminary, Michael Kruger uses this helpful metaphor to explain a biblical literary device called  recapitulation . Recapitulation is the act or instance of summarizing and restating a narrative to give a different emphasis or perspective. One biblical book that employs recapitulation with stunning effect is Revelation. Seeing the World Through 7s Revelation is notoriously confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Yes, there are dragons, angels, antichrists, and (seemingly) multiple returns...

Do you think it is remotely possible that my feeling of spiritual intensity, my feeling of closeness to Christ is equally strong every time I speak? Of course not.  There are times when I feel so overwhelmed by a sense of awe and adoration for Christ, that I can't wait to speak. There are other times I feel so far away from Christ; perhaps I am tired, sometimes I am just not in the mood, often I feel spiritually vacant and poverty stricken.  But it says on my calendar that I have to give a lecture or a sermon or a lesson. At such times, I am thinking, 'What am I doing standing up here trying to encourage other people when I am going through this?'  But I have found that the worse I feel, and the less I feel like it, the more I really feel dependent upon the power of God. R. C. Sproul, The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1994), 158.