Biblewriter,
You fairly new to this section and I am just interested in your own eschatology, most know I hold to the pre-wrath position, if they have been here for sometime. Could you please tell me your position? Thanks.
I am convinced that the explicit pronouncements of Bible prophecy mean exactly what they say, and that thus we can understand them only by careful attention to the fine details of their wording.
As a result of this persuasion I believe that all Israel will eventually be gathered back in their ancestral home, that in that home they will be blessed, along with the rest of the world, for a literal 1000 years, and that after that time the world will be destroyed and re-made, with Israel (and the rest of the righteous) somehow preserved during that time (we are not told how) to continue to live there forever.
As a further result of this persuasion, I believe that Judah (only two of the twelve tribes) will pass through a time of great suffering in their land at the hand of a ruthless invader, whom I identify as "the Assyrian" of Isaiah 7, 10, 14, 30, and 31, and of Micah 5 and Nahum. I believe that this is the same individual as "the king of the North" of Daniel 11 and the male goat's little horn of Daniel 8.
I believe that the governments of Europe will collapse, and that out of that chaos ten kings will arise, that one of them will conquer three others, and that all ten will then unite under one head, which the Revelation calls "the Beast," thus reviving of the Roman empire.
I believe that the antichrist is not this Roman ruler, but the end-time ruler of Judah, now called Israel, but not so called in scripture. I identify this individual as the false prophet of Revelation, and an ally of "the Beast."
I believe that some time during this period (we are not told exactly when) "the kings of the East" will come from beyond the Euphrates river with a very large army. Since we are told they will stay for three months, but are not told they are defeated, I assume they will simply go home again.
I believe that when messiah comes, he will first destroy the Assyrian/ king of the North/ little horn, and shortly afterward destroy the armies of the world under the leadership of "the Beast" of Rome. (at Armageddon)
I believe that Gog can be none other than the end times ruler of Russia, and will lead the entire world in a second attack on Israel after Messiah has returned and brought all Israel home.
I also believe that the visions seen by the prophets were not pictures of coming events, but were rather visual symbols of coming events, and that their symbolism is moral, not physical. Thus, I do not believe that Revelation 9 is a primitive man attempting to describe modern weapons of war, but is a moral representation of an evil attacker.
I further believe that the key to the Bible is the Bible, and that thus we can understand the moral significance of the symbols in prophetic visions only through Biblical statements about their meaning. (I totally reject the notion that we are free to interpret these visions as we choose.) As such, when we are specifically told what a symbol means in one vision, I believe that symbol has the same meaning in other visions.
After stating all this, I will finally add that I believe that the church will be removed from the earth before all this begins to happen. But I am acutely aware that NO scripture specifically states when this will happen. It only says it will happen. The timing of this event is never specifically stated. Our individual conclusions about when this event will take place are based IN THEIR ENTIRETIES on out differing opinions about the meanings of various statements in the Bible. I thus can condemn no one whose opinion is different from my own, because the timing of this event is never explicitly stated.
