Can we know (yet)?

[eclipsenow]

The events of Revelation are happening before your eyes. In order to understand that one needs to ask questions:

2. What is a seal?

What if the return of Jesus is not really about the return of Jesus. What if verses about his return are really about the events, including nuclear wars, that will shortly precede his actual return?

Then that would mean it breaches the very Mission Statment of Revelation as John describes it in Chapter 1, which is to provide details about a tribulation that were soon, near, that John himself shared with, and that he wanted HIS generation of Christians to hear and understand. I mean, what on earth does a nuclear bomb mean to John or his generation?

"blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it" (Verse 3)
That is, he wants them to meditate on it and obey it. How do you obey something written about and to people thousands of years later? Forget that - how do you even understand it? Imagine getting this message?

"In 4000AD, on Mars most red, the Zorg will Zazzle the Marines in Valles Marineris - and the smoke will rise to the heavens."

Now obey this! See, if the command is not to you or about you - you cannot obey it. Period. There's nothing to take to heart, nothing to understand about you and your suffering. So how on earth do you obey this? You can barely even comprehend it - and even if you could - it's not to your and your situation or even about you. John's generation couldn't obey it. Not only that, what good has it been for the church for the last 2000 years - it's not about or to them - so how do they benefit? If anything makes me reject futurist readings of Revelation it is that it would render the majority of Revelation as utterly useless to Christians across the last 2000 years - and do nothing except confuse us and make us argue. That's simply NOT in the mission statement of Scripture as we read it in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Too many Hollywood OMEN movies have coloured the way Americans read Revelation. Everyone wants to 'crack the code' and figure out when stuff is going to happen - disobeying and disbelieving the Lord when he says NO ONE will know. Instead of a future timetable to take random guesses at, John indicates that Revelation is about the Roman persecution of the church that is about to start. 4 times in Revelation 1 he indicates it is to his generation:-

1. "to show his servants what must soon take place" (verse 1)
2. " blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it" (Verse 3). This means they must obey it. How could the early church obey something about 2000 years later?
3. "because the time is near." (verse 3) Yes, there is a sense in which the final Return of Jesus is also described as 'near' in Revelation - but this does not undermine this immediate sense of near in the introduction to this letter because....
4. "I, John, your brother and partner in the TRIBULATION and the kingdom and the PATIENT ENDURANCE that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." (Verse 9 - ESV - capitals mine.) John already SHARES in *their* TRIBULATION! John was already in jail because of his gospel work, and already demonstrating the common theme throughout the rest of Revelation - that we overcome THIS time we are in by "patient endurance".

Revelation is a symbolic sermon, not a timeline. It's about how to stay faithful in the time between Jesus Ascension and his Return on Judgement Day. John uses powerful biblical symbols to describe (not prescribe) what this time will be like. And it could be a long time before Jesus Returns. The number 1000 is commonly used to mean "a gazillion" - like when Psalm 50 says God owns all the sheep on "a thousand hills." What about the other million hills - does God not own all those two? So Revelation describes a long time, and traces 4 themes. Let's check out the structure. They're to be read along-side each other - not to be read sequentially like some sort of future timeline.

HUMAN HISTORY: THE 1000 YEARS between Jesus Ascension and his Return on Judgement Day:-
Seven seals depicting TYRANNY (then back to the beginning to describe)...
Seven trumpets depicting CHAOS in nature (then back to the beginning to describe)...
Seven signs depicting PERSECUTION (then back to the beginning to describe)...
Seven plagues depicting DESTRUCTION.
These episodes are *concurrent*, not consecutive.

What does a particular chapter or image mean? Like how to Amillennials read the number of the beast, etc? The Bible Project is a very good summary. These have had over 4 million views.
Revelation 1 to 11

Revelation 12 to 22.

 

[keras]

Everyone wants to 'crack the code' and figure out when stuff is going to happen - disobeying and disbelieving the Lord when he says NO ONE will know. Instead of a future timetable to take random guesses at, John indicates that Revelation is about the Roman persecution of the church that is about to start. 4 times in Revelation 1 he indicates it is to his generation:-

This statement is total error:
We ARE told when these things will happen; in the end times, the Last days. Proved by the fact that what is Prophesied in Revelation from Rev 6:12 to the end, has not happened yet.

No one has tried to identify the Day the Lord will take action in the world, other than to post some of the Words of the Prophets.
That what they said is incomprehensible to some people, is explained by Isaiah 29:9-12

The Bible Project cartoons are a serious diversion from the Truth and are aimed to promote the AMill belief. A theory which is debunked by the reality of our current world situation.