Hi all,
anyone notice that the world keeps ending? Like at the end of the seven seals?
The 6th seal is the end of the world. See Revelation 6.
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
The 7th seal just confirms it with more destruction. It's judgement day. It's wrath. It's the end. It's a picture that after the seven seals depicting TYRANNY, we see judgement day.
Then Revelation resets to a different theme and describes this side of heaven from another perspective. Seven trumpets depicting CHAOS in nature. There's horrible stuff this side of heaven, with violent earthquakes (mountains falling into the sea) and all kinds of badness, like Boxing Day tsunamis that wipe out 240,000 people. What are we to do? Wait till the end. Endure like the patient Christians we are meant to be, because at the end of the 7 Trumpets... (Rev 11)
The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
“The kingdom of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
and he will reign for ever and ever.”
16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign.
18 The nations were angry,
and your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
and for rewarding your servants the prophets
and your people who revere your name,
both great and small—
and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.
That's Judgement Day. That's the end of this world. There's more to say about 7 Signs and 7 Plagues, but this is the overall pattern as described by by Dr Paul Barnett, theologian and historian and author of "Apocalypse now and then!"
Revelation
describes life now, between Jesus Resurrection and his Return.
It doesn't
prescribe some last decade or whatever. It's a metaphorical sermon about conditions now, for all Christians across the last 2000 years and counting. That's how the early church fathers understood it - and it's how the Reformers understood it.
The Last Days began at Pentecost (see Peter's sermon) and are described as the Last Days since Jesus fulfilled all prophecy on the cross (see Hebrews 1).
The
sequences of seven are concurrent, not consecutive. They roughly describe the kind of life we can expect now, this side of heaven, then the end of the world.
Then they reset to go to another theme and start again.
It goes like this:
Seven seals depicting TYRANNY - God judges the world and saves his people. Then reset to describe...
Seven trumpets depicting CHAOS in nature - God judges the world and saves his people. Then reset to describe...
Seven signs depicting PERSECUTION (then reset etc)
Seven plagues depicting DESTRUCTION (then it moves onto other things.)
That's the argument. The world keeps ending. This is just not a future timetable, but a waltz through theological themes and descriptions of life now.
Want something pertinent? We're literally living in a time of plague! We should be reading the seven plagues to get a description of what we are meant to remember and think about and be like.
Revelation describes life now, not some coded future timeline that's impossible for futurists to crack. How many times are we going to be embarrassed by yet more failed predictions? It's just silly, and makes people avoid the book. Instead, this Amil / historical approach declares the gospel loud and clear into a world that is suffering. People are hurting out there, and hurting bad. Just as they were when John wrote to a church about to feel the full might of an angry Roman Empire. He wrote words of comfort to them. He didn't say, "You think that's bad - just wait till you see what happens in 2000 years!" And we shouldn't likewise be saying silly things like "This Covid thing is nothing - you wait till you see what my wall-chart loosely based on Revelation says about the next 7 years!"
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