Re: Revelations
James J Rovira (jrovira@juno.com)
Sun, 04 Jul 1999 08:57:01 -0400 (EDT)
>Hey, I've got another philosophical question for you.
>
>Years ago as a young Christian, I went to a 2 week long seminar from
>the man
>my old religion considered the world's foremost authority on
>Revelations.
>This was still cold war years, & the USSR played heavily in his
>predictions.
> The rapture was supposed to come before 1995, etc. I've reaserched
>literally dozens of these guys & most have just made guesswork of it.
>Let's
>face it, it's completely incomprehensible. OK, so here's the deal:
>
>If a prophecy is incomprehensible, what's the difference between that
>and
>the ravings of a lunatic. If it's only understandable from hindsight,
>what
>use is it except to later say "wow, that guy knew it back then, but
>didn't
>or couldn't tell us". In other words, where does the line exist? I
>could
>spout ludicrice prophecies all day, & if you don't believe them it's
>because
>they "haven't come to pass yet".
>
>Waiting for responses.
>Thor
Those are pretty good questions. I think the "incomprehensibility" of
prophecy comes from the stupidity of interpreters, for one thing, but
when you get into Jewish apocalyptic literature (Revelation, Daniel,
Ezekiel, etc.) you do get into some stuff that's genuinely
incomprehensible :)
I'd start by addressing the interpreters first. If the guy doesn't work
for a college somewhere and doesn't have a commentary on the book (say,
Revelation) published by a reputable book publisher (Eerdmans, Word,
Baker, whatever...) then he's an expert of nothing, probably. Just a
minister who's read too many second rate commentaries and wants to get
attention. There's a big difference between that and a scholar. Word
Biblical Commentary is pretty good; if you want good work on Revelation,
go there and it will refer you to hundreds of resources beyond that. The
commentator will also provide his or her own translation of the Greek and
include detailed notes describing the decisions he or she made in their
translation. Very first rate.
I promise you, NO scholar would try to give dates predicting the return
of Christ. This is psuedo-cultic activity and generally just done to
raise money for the one making the prediction, who will raise all he can
before the date comes then high-tail it to another region afterwards :)
So far as the content of the prophecies themselves go, most of the
imagery in Revelation is explained within the context of the narrative.
We are told the seven lampstands of chapter one refer to seven churches.
We are told the waters upon which the harlot sits in chapter 17
represents all humanity. We are told the multiple heads and horns on the
beast represent a political alliance between different nations or
"kings." We aren't told exactly which nations are in that coalition,
however, so to get any more particular is speculative. We can make some
good guesses, but they're still guesses. That's where I think we should
draw the line. If it's explained, we know, if it's not explained, we
don't know.
The best I can do beyond this is just offer another interpretation. I
think Matthew 24 needs to be read before anything else. Christ was asked
for signs indicating his return, and he gave some very specific ones.
Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, and famines will increase in frequency
and intensity. These things have always happened, they will just happen
more and more violently than ever before.
There will be worldwide persecution of the church, a mass abandonment of
Christianity, and some Christians will be handing other Christians over
to death. This has always happened too, but it will be on a worldwide
scale.
He said to look for the abomination that causes desolation. This refers
to an image being set up in the temple at Jerusalem, and is described in
Daniel 11 or 12 and in Rev. 13. This event is related to the rise of the
antichrist, who is probably a world ruler of some kind whose specific
purpose, in Rev. 13, is to make war against the saints and overcome them.
So this requires that the temple in Jerusalem be rebuilt.
Jesus said when you see this happen, I'm right around the corner, THEN
you can head for the hills :) He also said his return would be visible
to all, like standing outside and watching lightning flash across the
sky. So he said not to believe people who say he's returned and is
hiding out in the desert of locked up in some building somewhere. When
it happens EVERYONE will know.
Anyways, people living at the time all these signs have been fulfilled
would probably be able to piece everything together. We're not quite to
that point yet, tho.
Christ specifically said, at the beginning of the book of Acts (ch. 1),
that times and dates are NOT our business :) The two words in Greek
refer to both a specific point in time and extended eras, etc. So we
can't even say, Sometime in 1995. Or before the year 2000.
Anyways, that's my take on it. There's more pure crap out there
surrounding Biblical prophecy than about any other subject related to the
Jewish and Christian Scriptures, I don't blame you for distrusting it.
If you read passages relating to Christ's first coming, you'll see
they're almost painfully, childishly, literal.
Jim
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