*Revelation 4:8 / *Rev. 4:8 -
(Re: Beasts / Seraphims)
The four, six-winged beasts whom the apostle John saw saying: "Holy, holy, holy" near the throne of God in Revelation 4:8, in the first century AD, are the same as the six-winged seraphims (literal angelic beings) whom the prophet Isaiah saw saying: "Holy, holy, holy" near the throne of God back at the time of Isaiah 6:2-3, in the eighth century BC.
There are also different, literal angelic beings called cherubims, one type of which was seen by the prophet Ezekiel when he saw four of that type who stay near God's chariot.
(See Ezekiel 1(space) above)
It should not be surprising to us that God, who has created such an amazing variety of animals (not to mention plants) on the earth, would also take pleasure in having created an amazing variety of angelic beings in heaven.
~
(Re: Things patterned after the four beasts)
See paragraph 4 of Exodus 25:9 above.
--
*Revelation 4:11 / *Rev. 4:11 -
(Re: Why *worship God?)
Christians worship God because He is worthy of worship as the Creator and sustainer of all things in existence (Revelation 4:11, Acts 17:28, Colossians 1:17, John 1:3), and because He is so great that even all of humanity together is worth "less than nothing" compared with Him (Isaiah 40:17, Daniel 4:35, Isaiah 2:22). Also, He is perfectly holy (1 John 1:5), while we have committed sin (Romans 3:10).
--
*Revelation 5:3 / *Rev. 5:3 -
Humans being in heaven in Revelation 5:3 does not require a pre-tribulation rapture, because obedient Christians go to heaven to be with Jesus Christ when they die (2 Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:21,23).
The humans under the earth in Revelation 5:3 refer to non-Christian, dead humans down in hell (Luke 16:22b-23).
(See Matthew 25:41 above)
--
*Revelation 5:4-5 / *Rev. 5:4 -
(Re: Refers to Jesus returning to earth to unseal Revelation?)
No, for Jesus Christ will remain in heaven at that future time (Revelation 5:6-7). Also, all of the book of Revelation is already unsealed in the sense that Christians should be able to understand all of it. For it was never sealed in that sense (Revelation 22:10). What Revelation 6 refers to is Jesus' future unsealing of specific events in the sense of allowing them to happen at that time.
(See also the "Literal" section of Revelation chapters 6 to 22 (Overview) below)
--
*Revelation 5:6 / *Rev. 5:6 -
(*7 horns / *7 eyes)
Parts of Revelation 5:6 are literal (God's throne in heaven, the four beasts, the 24 elders, Jesus Christ having been slain, the seven Spirits of God, the earth) and parts of Revelation 5:6 are symbolic (Jesus being a lamb, His having seven horns, His having seven eyes).
We know what is symbolic and what is literal by comparing each part of a Bible verse with other Bible verses (Isaiah 28:9-10; 1 Corinthians 2:13). For example, we know that Jesus Christ is not literally a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes (Revelation 5:6) because other verses show that He is literally a human (Luke 24:39; 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 7:24-26, Hebrews 2:17).
In Revelation 5:6, while the horns and eyes are symbolic, they can represent literal things. The seven horns of the Jesus Christ lamb in Revelation 5:6 could represent Jesus holding literally seven positions of power at the same time (compare Jesus wearing many crowns at the same time in Revelation 19:12). These seven positions of power could be, for example, Jesus' power as the Son of God (Revelation 2:18), His power as the Word of God (Revelation 19:13), His power as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16), His power as High Priest (Hebrews 3:1), His power as the King of Israel (John 12:13), His power as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and His power as the Firstborn (in the sense of importance, not chronology) of all creation (Colossians 1:15b).
And Revelation 5:6 tells us what the seven eyes of the Jesus Christ lamb represent: "the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth". These can be literal, and could be the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of might, the Spirit of knowledge, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).
(See also the "hermeneutic" section of Isaiah 11:6 above. And see Revelation 4:5 and Colossians 1:15 above)
~
(Seven Spirits)
See Revelation 4:5 above.
--
*Revelation 5:9 / *Rev. 5:9 -
(Redeemed)
See paragraph 2 of Revelation 4:4 above.
--
*Revelation 5:10 / *Rev. 5:10 -
Revelation 5:10a refers to those who are in the Church (1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 1:6). And Revelation 5:10b refers to the future reign of the physically resurrected Church on the earth with Jesus Christ during the Millennium (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 2:26-29), which will begin after Jesus' future, Second Coming (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Zechariah 14:3-21).
(See the "On the earth" and the "After the Second Coming" sections of Revelation 20:4 below)
--
*Revelation 5:13 / *Rev. 5:13 -
This could refer to what is going on presently at some level. For it is shown as occurring after Jesus Christ has taken the seven-sealed scroll but before He has opened even its first seal (Revelation 5:1,7, Revelation 6:1). Also, Revelation 5:13 refers not only to humans and angels, but to every kind of created thing in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth, worshipping God at some level. But how could every kind of created thing worship God at any level if we assume that only humans and angels have consciousness?
(See the "Consciousness" section of 1 Thessalonians 5:23 above)
--
*Revelation chapters 6 to 22 (Overview) / *Rev. chs. 6-22 -
(Re: A *summary / What will happen *next?)
What will happen next is the Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24, which the Church will have to go through (Revelation 13:7-10, Revelation 14:12-13, Revelation 20:4-6, Matthew 24:9-13), and which will be immediately followed by Jesus Christ's Second Coming and the Church's physical resurrection, its rapture (gathering together to Jesus), judgment by Jesus, and marriage to Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Matthew 24:29-31, Mark 13:27, Psalms 50:4-5, Revelation 19:7 to 20:6). Jesus and the Church will then reign physically on the earth for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29), a time period commonly called the Millennium. After the Millennium, the Gog/Magog rebellion will occur (Revelation 20:7-10, Ezekiel chapters 38-39). Sometime after that will occur the physical resurrection and judgment of all non-Christians of all times at the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). Then will occur the time of the literal city of New Jerusalem on a New Earth (Revelation 21:1 to 22:5), as in a new surface for the earth.
~
(Re: A *summary of the Tribulation)
From Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and other Bible passages, we can derive the following summary of the main events of the future Tribulation:
It will begin with a horrible war, which, with its aftermath of famines and epidemics, will end up killing one-fourth of the world (Revelation 6:4-8).
Then a huge volcanic eruption will occur (Revelation 6:12-14).
Then an island volcano will erupt and collapse into the sea (Revelation 8:8-9).
Then a comet will strike the earth in a region containing one-third of the world's fresh surface water (Revelation 8:10-11).
Then a cavern deep underground will open up and strange locust-like beings will swarm up from it and torment mankind with horribly painful stings for five months (Revelation 9:2-11).
Then 200 million strange horse-like beings will come upon the earth and kill one-third of mankind (Revelation 9:16-19).
Sometime before this, a third Jewish temple will have been built in Jerusalem (Revelation 11:1).
Then various things will happen during a literal 3.5-year period:
Jerusalem will be occupied by enemy forces (Revelation 11:2b, Luke 21:24), and the abomination of desolation (possibly a standing, android image of the future Antichrist) will be put in the holy place (the inner sanctum) of the third Jewish temple (Matthew 24:15, Daniel 11:31).
Two Witnesses of God will prophesy in Jerusalem and will bring amazing, miraculous plagues on the world (Revelation 11:3-12).
Satan (the dragon) will give power to an individual man (one aspect of Revelation's "beast"), commonly called the Antichrist, to take hegemony over the whole earth and to be worshipped by it along with Satan, and to kill Biblical Christians (not in hiding) in every nation (Revelation 13:4-10). At least one time the Antichrist will also sit in the third Jewish temple and proclaim himself God (2 Thessalonians 2:4, Daniel 11:36).
The Antichrist will have a False Prophet who will perform amazing miracles by which the people of the world will be deceived into receiving a mark of the Antichrist's name or some representation of the gematrial number of his name (666) on their right hand or forehead, and into worshipping a speaking, and a seemingly living, image of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:11-18, Revelation 19:20).
Right after the literal 3.5-year period:
A horrible sore will spring up on all those people who received the Antichrist's mark and worshipped his image (Revelation 16:2).
Then the sea will become like the blood of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea will die (Revelation 16:3).
Then all natural, surface fresh-water sources will be turned into blood (Revelation 16:4-6).
Then a solar flare will strike the earth (Revelation 16:8).
Then, for a time, there will be no light on the earth (Revelation 16:10).
Then the Euphrates will dry up and the armies of the earth will gather at Armageddon (a place in northern Israel) in an attempt to fight YHWH God (Revelation 16:12-16).
Then the cities of the nations will be destroyed by fire, earthquake and 100-pound hailstones (Revelation 16:18-21, Revelation 17:16).
Then Jesus Christ will return, physically resurrect the Church of all times, rapture (gather together) the Church, judge the Church, and marry the Church in the sky (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Matthew 24:29-31, Mark 13:27, Psalms 50:4-5, Revelation 19:7 to 20:6), before He descends and completely defeats the world's armies, gathered by that time at Jerusalem against YHWH God (Revelation 19:11-21, Zechariah 14).
~
(Re: *Future)
Revelation chapters 6 to 22 are still future to us because they are about "things which must be hereafter" (Revelation 4:1b). And just as Jesus Christ's Second Coming in Revelation 19:7 to 20:3 has never been fulfilled, for nowhere in history books do we find its fulfillment, so the highly-detailed events of the preceding Tribulation in Revelation chapters 6 to 18 have never been fulfilled, for nowhere in history books do we find their fulfillment. Similarly, even this Tribulation as it is described in Matthew 24 cannot have happened yet, because Jesus' Second Coming must occur immediately after this Tribulation (Matthew 24:29-31).
(See the "Details" section below, and Matthew 24(space) above)
~
(Re: If the apostle John wrote down Revelation in 95 AD, then why does it make no mention of Jerusalem and the second Jewish temple being destroyed in 70 AD?)
See section 5 of Revelation 1:1,3 above.
~
(Re: Where is the requirement to *insert 2,000 years?)
We must not insert the words "two thousand years" before, for example, the word "hereafter" in the actual text of Revelation 4:1b. For we must not add any words to the actual text of Revelation (Revelation 22:18). But to interpret Revelation correctly, just as there is a requirement to insert about 2,000 years between the time that the book of Revelation was written down (in 95 AD) and the future fulfillment of Jesus Christ's Second Coming in Revelation 19:7 to 20:3, so there is a requirement to insert about 2,000 years between the time that the book of Revelation was written down and the future fulfillment of the just-preceding Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18.
~
(Re: What about other uses of "*After this", which is the same in the original Greek as "hereafter" in Revelation 4:1b?)
The "hereafter" at the end of Revelation 4:1 is different than the "after this" at the start of Revelation 4:1 and at the start of some other chapters. They are different not in the original Greek words used (meta: G3326; and tauta: G5023), but in what they are referring to. For the "hereafter" at the end of Revelation 4:1 refers to events which must actually "be" in the sense of actually being performed sometime in our future, that is, all of the still-future events of Revelation chapters 6 to 22; while the "after this I looked" at the start of Revelation 4:1 refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had been told what to write in the seven letters in Revelation chapters 2-3 which were addressed to seven, literal, first century AD local church congregations in seven cities in the Roman province of "Asia" (Revelation 1:11), which is today western Turkey.
Similarly, "and after these things I saw" (Revelation 7:1) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of the first six seals in Revelation 6, which are still-future.
(See Revelation 6:1, Revelation 6:4, and Revelation 6:12 below)
And "after this I beheld" (Revelation 7:9) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7:1-8, which is still-future.
(See Revelation 7:4 below)
"And after that I looked" (Revelation 15:5) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of Christians (martyred by the Antichrist, the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") singing in heaven in Revelation 15:2-4, which is still-future.
"And after these things I saw" (Revelation 18:1) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of the symbolic harlot "Babylon" and Revelation's "beast" in its empire aspect in Revelation 17, much of which is still-future.
"And after these things I heard" (Revelation 19:1) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of the eternal destruction of the symbolic (and worldwide) "Babylon" in Revelation 18, which is still-future.
(See Revelation chapters 17-18 below)
The initial phrases of, for example, Revelation 7:1, Revelation 15:5 and Revelation 19:1 serve to place those chapters within the chronological sequence of Revelation chapters 6 to 22.
(See the next section)
~
(Re: *Chronological)
Revelation chapters 6 to 22 are chronological insofar as the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 will begin with the events of the second through sixth seals occurring in the order shown in Revelation 6:3-14. After the events of the sixth seal, Revelation 7 will occur. Then the seventh seal will be unsealed and out of it will come the Tribulation's seven trumpets (Revelation 8:1-6). Then the events of the first six trumpets in Revelation 8:7 to Revelation 9:21 will occur in the order shown there. Then Revelation 10 will occur. Then the literal 3.5 years of the future Antichrist's worldwide reign will occur, which time period is shown from four different angles in Revelation chapters 11 to 14 (Revelation 11:2b-3, Revelation 12:6,14, Revelation 13:5,7, Revelation 14:9-13).
Then the seventh trumpet will sound, announcing the legal end of the future Antichrist's reign (Revelation 11:15). Out of the seventh trumpet's heavenly-temple opening will come the seven plagues of the seven vials (Revelation 11:19, Revelation 15:5 to 16:1), the Tribulation's final stage. Then the events of the seven vials will occur in the order shown in Revelation 16. Jesus Christ's Second Coming will occur right after the seventh-and-last vial (Revelation 16:17,19, Revelation 19:2-21) and He will rapture (gather together) and marry the Church at that time (Revelation 19:7, Matthew 24:29-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8). Then Jesus Himself will completely defeat the world's armies (Revelation 19:11 to 20:3) and reign on the earth with the physically resurrected Church for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53). Then the events of Revelation 20:7 to Revelation 22:5 will occur in the order shown there.
~
(Re: *Literal / *Unsealed)
The book of Revelation is almost entirely literal, for it is unsealed (Revelation 22:10), meaning that it should not be difficult for Christians of any time to understand it if they simply read it as it is written: chronologically and almost-entirely literally. The few parts of it which are symbolic are almost always explained afterward (e.g. Revelation 1:20, Revelation 17:9-12), and Revelation's few symbols not explained afterward (e.g. Revelation 13:2) are usually explained elsewhere in the Bible (e.g. Daniel 7:4-7,17).
Just as Jesus Christ's future, Second Coming in Revelation 19:7 to 20:3 will be fulfilled almost entirely literally, so the events of the just-preceding Tribulation in Revelation chapters 6 to 18 will be fulfilled almost entirely literally. Also, the Millennium in Revelation 20:4-6 will be literal and will begin right after Jesus' Second Coming (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Zechariah 14:3-21), when He will reign on the earth with the physically resurrected Church for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29, Psalms 66:3-4, Psalms 72:8-11). After that, the events of Revelation 20:7 to 22:5 will occur literally.
(See also section 2 of Revelation 16:21 below)
~
(Re: What *hermeneutics are you using?)
The hermeneutics which Christian Futurism uses is the correct one: That in the Bible, including in its book of Revelation, some verses (or parts of verses) can be literal while others are symbolic, depending on their immediate context and on any subsequent explanations (e.g. Revelation 1:20, Revelation 17:9-12), and on comparing the verses with other, related verses elsewhere in the Bible (Isaiah 28:9-10; 1 Corinthians 2:13); for example, comparing Revelation 13:2 and Daniel 7:4-7,17.
(See also Revelation 5:6 above)
~
(Re: Are not you misapplying "unsealed" to mean "literal")
Are you saying that "unsealed" means "symbolic"? If so, how? For would not it make more sense for something unsealed to consist almost entirely of literal statements rather than mysterious symbols?
~
(Re: How can Revelation be literal when it is of the apocalyptic *genre, according to scholars?)
Regarding what some call "the apocalyptic genre", the book of Revelation itself, as a whole, can be almost entirely literal because, as scripture, it is not bound by any man-made ideas regarding any man-made categories for writings in general. The book of Revelation, like the rest of the Bible, was written by the inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16), meaning that it was not written by the will of man but by a holy man as he was moved by God's Holy Spirit to write it (cf. 2 Peter 1:21). So the words of the book of Revelation are what the Holy Spirit Himself spoke (cf. Acts 1:16, Acts 28:25b). And nothing about these words requires that the book of Revelation cannot be almost entirely literal.
~
(Re: So is the book of Revelation bound by literalism?)
No, because not all of it is literal. Similarly, the book of Revelation is not bound by symbolism because not all of it is symbolic.
For example, see Revelation 5:6 above.
~
(Re: Does saying that the book of Revelation is not bound by any man-made categories go against the basic principle of 1 Corinthians 14:6-18?)
No, for 1 Corinthians 14:6-18 means that every Christian who has received the miraculous gift of tongues (in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10) should be praying for the separate, miraculous gift of the interpretation of tongues, so that he or she can edify others (1 Corinthians 14:12-13; 1 Corinthians 12:10c).
With regard to the book of Revelation, its original Greek has been translated into many different languages so that it can be understood by Christians in many different nations. And just as with its original Greek, so with its translations: nothing in the language of the book of Revelation itself requires that it cannot be almost entirely literal.
Also, the rules of 1 Corinthians 14 are not man-made (1 Corinthians 14:37).
Also, the basic principle of 1 Corinthians 14, of making words from God understandable to people, would support the idea of God's message in the book of Revelation being almost entirely literal, instead of it consisting entirely of mysterious symbols.
-
Next entry / Prior / Table of Contents
Dec 29, 2018
(Re: Beasts / Seraphims)
The four, six-winged beasts whom the apostle John saw saying: "Holy, holy, holy" near the throne of God in Revelation 4:8, in the first century AD, are the same as the six-winged seraphims (literal angelic beings) whom the prophet Isaiah saw saying: "Holy, holy, holy" near the throne of God back at the time of Isaiah 6:2-3, in the eighth century BC.
There are also different, literal angelic beings called cherubims, one type of which was seen by the prophet Ezekiel when he saw four of that type who stay near God's chariot.
(See Ezekiel 1(space) above)
It should not be surprising to us that God, who has created such an amazing variety of animals (not to mention plants) on the earth, would also take pleasure in having created an amazing variety of angelic beings in heaven.
~
(Re: Things patterned after the four beasts)
See paragraph 4 of Exodus 25:9 above.
--
*Revelation 4:11 / *Rev. 4:11 -
(Re: Why *worship God?)
Christians worship God because He is worthy of worship as the Creator and sustainer of all things in existence (Revelation 4:11, Acts 17:28, Colossians 1:17, John 1:3), and because He is so great that even all of humanity together is worth "less than nothing" compared with Him (Isaiah 40:17, Daniel 4:35, Isaiah 2:22). Also, He is perfectly holy (1 John 1:5), while we have committed sin (Romans 3:10).
--
*Revelation 5:3 / *Rev. 5:3 -
Humans being in heaven in Revelation 5:3 does not require a pre-tribulation rapture, because obedient Christians go to heaven to be with Jesus Christ when they die (2 Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:21,23).
The humans under the earth in Revelation 5:3 refer to non-Christian, dead humans down in hell (Luke 16:22b-23).
(See Matthew 25:41 above)
--
*Revelation 5:4-5 / *Rev. 5:4 -
(Re: Refers to Jesus returning to earth to unseal Revelation?)
No, for Jesus Christ will remain in heaven at that future time (Revelation 5:6-7). Also, all of the book of Revelation is already unsealed in the sense that Christians should be able to understand all of it. For it was never sealed in that sense (Revelation 22:10). What Revelation 6 refers to is Jesus' future unsealing of specific events in the sense of allowing them to happen at that time.
(See also the "Literal" section of Revelation chapters 6 to 22 (Overview) below)
--
*Revelation 5:6 / *Rev. 5:6 -
(*7 horns / *7 eyes)
Parts of Revelation 5:6 are literal (God's throne in heaven, the four beasts, the 24 elders, Jesus Christ having been slain, the seven Spirits of God, the earth) and parts of Revelation 5:6 are symbolic (Jesus being a lamb, His having seven horns, His having seven eyes).
We know what is symbolic and what is literal by comparing each part of a Bible verse with other Bible verses (Isaiah 28:9-10; 1 Corinthians 2:13). For example, we know that Jesus Christ is not literally a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes (Revelation 5:6) because other verses show that He is literally a human (Luke 24:39; 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 7:24-26, Hebrews 2:17).
In Revelation 5:6, while the horns and eyes are symbolic, they can represent literal things. The seven horns of the Jesus Christ lamb in Revelation 5:6 could represent Jesus holding literally seven positions of power at the same time (compare Jesus wearing many crowns at the same time in Revelation 19:12). These seven positions of power could be, for example, Jesus' power as the Son of God (Revelation 2:18), His power as the Word of God (Revelation 19:13), His power as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16), His power as High Priest (Hebrews 3:1), His power as the King of Israel (John 12:13), His power as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and His power as the Firstborn (in the sense of importance, not chronology) of all creation (Colossians 1:15b).
And Revelation 5:6 tells us what the seven eyes of the Jesus Christ lamb represent: "the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth". These can be literal, and could be the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of might, the Spirit of knowledge, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).
(See also the "hermeneutic" section of Isaiah 11:6 above. And see Revelation 4:5 and Colossians 1:15 above)
~
(Seven Spirits)
See Revelation 4:5 above.
--
*Revelation 5:9 / *Rev. 5:9 -
(Redeemed)
See paragraph 2 of Revelation 4:4 above.
--
*Revelation 5:10 / *Rev. 5:10 -
Revelation 5:10a refers to those who are in the Church (1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 1:6). And Revelation 5:10b refers to the future reign of the physically resurrected Church on the earth with Jesus Christ during the Millennium (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 2:26-29), which will begin after Jesus' future, Second Coming (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Zechariah 14:3-21).
(See the "On the earth" and the "After the Second Coming" sections of Revelation 20:4 below)
--
*Revelation 5:13 / *Rev. 5:13 -
This could refer to what is going on presently at some level. For it is shown as occurring after Jesus Christ has taken the seven-sealed scroll but before He has opened even its first seal (Revelation 5:1,7, Revelation 6:1). Also, Revelation 5:13 refers not only to humans and angels, but to every kind of created thing in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth, worshipping God at some level. But how could every kind of created thing worship God at any level if we assume that only humans and angels have consciousness?
(See the "Consciousness" section of 1 Thessalonians 5:23 above)
--
*Revelation chapters 6 to 22 (Overview) / *Rev. chs. 6-22 -
(Re: A *summary / What will happen *next?)
What will happen next is the Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24, which the Church will have to go through (Revelation 13:7-10, Revelation 14:12-13, Revelation 20:4-6, Matthew 24:9-13), and which will be immediately followed by Jesus Christ's Second Coming and the Church's physical resurrection, its rapture (gathering together to Jesus), judgment by Jesus, and marriage to Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Matthew 24:29-31, Mark 13:27, Psalms 50:4-5, Revelation 19:7 to 20:6). Jesus and the Church will then reign physically on the earth for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29), a time period commonly called the Millennium. After the Millennium, the Gog/Magog rebellion will occur (Revelation 20:7-10, Ezekiel chapters 38-39). Sometime after that will occur the physical resurrection and judgment of all non-Christians of all times at the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). Then will occur the time of the literal city of New Jerusalem on a New Earth (Revelation 21:1 to 22:5), as in a new surface for the earth.
~
(Re: A *summary of the Tribulation)
From Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and other Bible passages, we can derive the following summary of the main events of the future Tribulation:
It will begin with a horrible war, which, with its aftermath of famines and epidemics, will end up killing one-fourth of the world (Revelation 6:4-8).
Then a huge volcanic eruption will occur (Revelation 6:12-14).
Then an island volcano will erupt and collapse into the sea (Revelation 8:8-9).
Then a comet will strike the earth in a region containing one-third of the world's fresh surface water (Revelation 8:10-11).
Then a cavern deep underground will open up and strange locust-like beings will swarm up from it and torment mankind with horribly painful stings for five months (Revelation 9:2-11).
Then 200 million strange horse-like beings will come upon the earth and kill one-third of mankind (Revelation 9:16-19).
Sometime before this, a third Jewish temple will have been built in Jerusalem (Revelation 11:1).
Then various things will happen during a literal 3.5-year period:
Jerusalem will be occupied by enemy forces (Revelation 11:2b, Luke 21:24), and the abomination of desolation (possibly a standing, android image of the future Antichrist) will be put in the holy place (the inner sanctum) of the third Jewish temple (Matthew 24:15, Daniel 11:31).
Two Witnesses of God will prophesy in Jerusalem and will bring amazing, miraculous plagues on the world (Revelation 11:3-12).
Satan (the dragon) will give power to an individual man (one aspect of Revelation's "beast"), commonly called the Antichrist, to take hegemony over the whole earth and to be worshipped by it along with Satan, and to kill Biblical Christians (not in hiding) in every nation (Revelation 13:4-10). At least one time the Antichrist will also sit in the third Jewish temple and proclaim himself God (2 Thessalonians 2:4, Daniel 11:36).
The Antichrist will have a False Prophet who will perform amazing miracles by which the people of the world will be deceived into receiving a mark of the Antichrist's name or some representation of the gematrial number of his name (666) on their right hand or forehead, and into worshipping a speaking, and a seemingly living, image of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:11-18, Revelation 19:20).
Right after the literal 3.5-year period:
A horrible sore will spring up on all those people who received the Antichrist's mark and worshipped his image (Revelation 16:2).
Then the sea will become like the blood of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea will die (Revelation 16:3).
Then all natural, surface fresh-water sources will be turned into blood (Revelation 16:4-6).
Then a solar flare will strike the earth (Revelation 16:8).
Then, for a time, there will be no light on the earth (Revelation 16:10).
Then the Euphrates will dry up and the armies of the earth will gather at Armageddon (a place in northern Israel) in an attempt to fight YHWH God (Revelation 16:12-16).
Then the cities of the nations will be destroyed by fire, earthquake and 100-pound hailstones (Revelation 16:18-21, Revelation 17:16).
Then Jesus Christ will return, physically resurrect the Church of all times, rapture (gather together) the Church, judge the Church, and marry the Church in the sky (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Matthew 24:29-31, Mark 13:27, Psalms 50:4-5, Revelation 19:7 to 20:6), before He descends and completely defeats the world's armies, gathered by that time at Jerusalem against YHWH God (Revelation 19:11-21, Zechariah 14).
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(Re: *Future)
Revelation chapters 6 to 22 are still future to us because they are about "things which must be hereafter" (Revelation 4:1b). And just as Jesus Christ's Second Coming in Revelation 19:7 to 20:3 has never been fulfilled, for nowhere in history books do we find its fulfillment, so the highly-detailed events of the preceding Tribulation in Revelation chapters 6 to 18 have never been fulfilled, for nowhere in history books do we find their fulfillment. Similarly, even this Tribulation as it is described in Matthew 24 cannot have happened yet, because Jesus' Second Coming must occur immediately after this Tribulation (Matthew 24:29-31).
(See the "Details" section below, and Matthew 24(space) above)
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(Re: If the apostle John wrote down Revelation in 95 AD, then why does it make no mention of Jerusalem and the second Jewish temple being destroyed in 70 AD?)
See section 5 of Revelation 1:1,3 above.
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(Re: Where is the requirement to *insert 2,000 years?)
We must not insert the words "two thousand years" before, for example, the word "hereafter" in the actual text of Revelation 4:1b. For we must not add any words to the actual text of Revelation (Revelation 22:18). But to interpret Revelation correctly, just as there is a requirement to insert about 2,000 years between the time that the book of Revelation was written down (in 95 AD) and the future fulfillment of Jesus Christ's Second Coming in Revelation 19:7 to 20:3, so there is a requirement to insert about 2,000 years between the time that the book of Revelation was written down and the future fulfillment of the just-preceding Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18.
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(Re: What about other uses of "*After this", which is the same in the original Greek as "hereafter" in Revelation 4:1b?)
The "hereafter" at the end of Revelation 4:1 is different than the "after this" at the start of Revelation 4:1 and at the start of some other chapters. They are different not in the original Greek words used (meta: G3326; and tauta: G5023), but in what they are referring to. For the "hereafter" at the end of Revelation 4:1 refers to events which must actually "be" in the sense of actually being performed sometime in our future, that is, all of the still-future events of Revelation chapters 6 to 22; while the "after this I looked" at the start of Revelation 4:1 refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had been told what to write in the seven letters in Revelation chapters 2-3 which were addressed to seven, literal, first century AD local church congregations in seven cities in the Roman province of "Asia" (Revelation 1:11), which is today western Turkey.
Similarly, "and after these things I saw" (Revelation 7:1) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of the first six seals in Revelation 6, which are still-future.
(See Revelation 6:1, Revelation 6:4, and Revelation 6:12 below)
And "after this I beheld" (Revelation 7:9) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7:1-8, which is still-future.
(See Revelation 7:4 below)
"And after that I looked" (Revelation 15:5) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of Christians (martyred by the Antichrist, the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") singing in heaven in Revelation 15:2-4, which is still-future.
"And after these things I saw" (Revelation 18:1) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of the symbolic harlot "Babylon" and Revelation's "beast" in its empire aspect in Revelation 17, much of which is still-future.
"And after these things I heard" (Revelation 19:1) refers to an action already completed by the apostle John in the past, after he had seen a vision of the eternal destruction of the symbolic (and worldwide) "Babylon" in Revelation 18, which is still-future.
(See Revelation chapters 17-18 below)
The initial phrases of, for example, Revelation 7:1, Revelation 15:5 and Revelation 19:1 serve to place those chapters within the chronological sequence of Revelation chapters 6 to 22.
(See the next section)
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(Re: *Chronological)
Revelation chapters 6 to 22 are chronological insofar as the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 will begin with the events of the second through sixth seals occurring in the order shown in Revelation 6:3-14. After the events of the sixth seal, Revelation 7 will occur. Then the seventh seal will be unsealed and out of it will come the Tribulation's seven trumpets (Revelation 8:1-6). Then the events of the first six trumpets in Revelation 8:7 to Revelation 9:21 will occur in the order shown there. Then Revelation 10 will occur. Then the literal 3.5 years of the future Antichrist's worldwide reign will occur, which time period is shown from four different angles in Revelation chapters 11 to 14 (Revelation 11:2b-3, Revelation 12:6,14, Revelation 13:5,7, Revelation 14:9-13).
Then the seventh trumpet will sound, announcing the legal end of the future Antichrist's reign (Revelation 11:15). Out of the seventh trumpet's heavenly-temple opening will come the seven plagues of the seven vials (Revelation 11:19, Revelation 15:5 to 16:1), the Tribulation's final stage. Then the events of the seven vials will occur in the order shown in Revelation 16. Jesus Christ's Second Coming will occur right after the seventh-and-last vial (Revelation 16:17,19, Revelation 19:2-21) and He will rapture (gather together) and marry the Church at that time (Revelation 19:7, Matthew 24:29-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8). Then Jesus Himself will completely defeat the world's armies (Revelation 19:11 to 20:3) and reign on the earth with the physically resurrected Church for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53). Then the events of Revelation 20:7 to Revelation 22:5 will occur in the order shown there.
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(Re: *Literal / *Unsealed)
The book of Revelation is almost entirely literal, for it is unsealed (Revelation 22:10), meaning that it should not be difficult for Christians of any time to understand it if they simply read it as it is written: chronologically and almost-entirely literally. The few parts of it which are symbolic are almost always explained afterward (e.g. Revelation 1:20, Revelation 17:9-12), and Revelation's few symbols not explained afterward (e.g. Revelation 13:2) are usually explained elsewhere in the Bible (e.g. Daniel 7:4-7,17).
Just as Jesus Christ's future, Second Coming in Revelation 19:7 to 20:3 will be fulfilled almost entirely literally, so the events of the just-preceding Tribulation in Revelation chapters 6 to 18 will be fulfilled almost entirely literally. Also, the Millennium in Revelation 20:4-6 will be literal and will begin right after Jesus' Second Coming (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Zechariah 14:3-21), when He will reign on the earth with the physically resurrected Church for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29, Psalms 66:3-4, Psalms 72:8-11). After that, the events of Revelation 20:7 to 22:5 will occur literally.
(See also section 2 of Revelation 16:21 below)
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(Re: What *hermeneutics are you using?)
The hermeneutics which Christian Futurism uses is the correct one: That in the Bible, including in its book of Revelation, some verses (or parts of verses) can be literal while others are symbolic, depending on their immediate context and on any subsequent explanations (e.g. Revelation 1:20, Revelation 17:9-12), and on comparing the verses with other, related verses elsewhere in the Bible (Isaiah 28:9-10; 1 Corinthians 2:13); for example, comparing Revelation 13:2 and Daniel 7:4-7,17.
(See also Revelation 5:6 above)
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(Re: Are not you misapplying "unsealed" to mean "literal")
Are you saying that "unsealed" means "symbolic"? If so, how? For would not it make more sense for something unsealed to consist almost entirely of literal statements rather than mysterious symbols?
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(Re: How can Revelation be literal when it is of the apocalyptic *genre, according to scholars?)
Regarding what some call "the apocalyptic genre", the book of Revelation itself, as a whole, can be almost entirely literal because, as scripture, it is not bound by any man-made ideas regarding any man-made categories for writings in general. The book of Revelation, like the rest of the Bible, was written by the inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16), meaning that it was not written by the will of man but by a holy man as he was moved by God's Holy Spirit to write it (cf. 2 Peter 1:21). So the words of the book of Revelation are what the Holy Spirit Himself spoke (cf. Acts 1:16, Acts 28:25b). And nothing about these words requires that the book of Revelation cannot be almost entirely literal.
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(Re: So is the book of Revelation bound by literalism?)
No, because not all of it is literal. Similarly, the book of Revelation is not bound by symbolism because not all of it is symbolic.
For example, see Revelation 5:6 above.
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(Re: Does saying that the book of Revelation is not bound by any man-made categories go against the basic principle of 1 Corinthians 14:6-18?)
No, for 1 Corinthians 14:6-18 means that every Christian who has received the miraculous gift of tongues (in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10) should be praying for the separate, miraculous gift of the interpretation of tongues, so that he or she can edify others (1 Corinthians 14:12-13; 1 Corinthians 12:10c).
With regard to the book of Revelation, its original Greek has been translated into many different languages so that it can be understood by Christians in many different nations. And just as with its original Greek, so with its translations: nothing in the language of the book of Revelation itself requires that it cannot be almost entirely literal.
Also, the rules of 1 Corinthians 14 are not man-made (1 Corinthians 14:37).
Also, the basic principle of 1 Corinthians 14, of making words from God understandable to people, would support the idea of God's message in the book of Revelation being almost entirely literal, instead of it consisting entirely of mysterious symbols.
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Dec 29, 2018
