usoutpost31
Well-Known Member
Revelation is a challenging book. Heavy on symbolism, there are many methods of interpreting it. Some that are really out there.
But here's what troubling to me. There is still a great deal of confusion about it, even among premillennialists, futurists, dispensationalists. And it led me to wonder why even the pre-tribulation rapture "watchers" are going so far off the reservation. To the point where they are promoting things that are not even in the Bible.
Take the Mark of the Beast prophecy. I keep running into this. People are in a panic, fearing they've accidentally received it. The vaccine being the latest hot candidate for the MOB. It's not just that they drew that conclusion. There is a not-insignificant group of Christians on the Internet who continually insist that the vax is the MOB. There's no reasoning with them. For them, it is the MOB. End of discussion. Then they push this idea on other confused Christians. They're so sure of themselves, that people believe them.
They are big on the concept of being "deceived". To them, it means people are tricked or fooled into doing something they don't understand. All the more reason to keep our heads on a swivel. Otherwise, someone will come up and sneak the MOB onto us. But the Bible doesn't just say they are deceived. It also says why they are deceived. False prophets, messiahs performing great signs and wonders. Making false proclamations about the return of Christ. Matt 24:5,11,23-26. The Antichrist performing signs and wonders. 2 Thess 2:9. The False prophet performing signs and wonders, such as bringing fire down from the sky. Rev 13:14.
For me, it's not hard to understand this. Revelation 13 lays it out really well. John of Patmos told us what would happen, how it would happen. But we need to read the whole chapter. We cannot just read the last three verses and ignore the fifteen that came before it.
There was the September 23 2017 "sign". And it didn't represent what Revelation 12 described, anyway. Yes, Jesus told us there would be signs in the sun, moon and stars. But he also told us what those signs would be, specifically. The sun and moon will be darkened (Matt 24:29). The sun will be black as a sackcloth of hair, the moon turned into blood, the stars of the sky fall to the earth, and the sky recedes like a scroll. Rev 6:12-14. These aren't vague signs left to interpretation, but specific and unmistakeable.
La Palma and Yellowstone. The BBC and their docudramas brought the concept of apocalyptic eruptions from these volcanoes to the American conscious. When the Cumbre Veija volcano erupted two years ago, I found myself in the position of needing to calm frightened Christians, who had been told by their favourite prophecy teachers they needed to "watch out" for a colossal tsunami that could threaten the US east coast. I had actually read the original scientific paper that brought forth this idea, as well as the subsequent further studies that showed this to be a remote possibility. But we had people invoking Revelation 8:8-9, saying if the volcano split in two, it would be a fulfillment of this judgment. Except even if that happened, it wouldn't have the effect of killing a third of the creatures in the sea.
Yellowstone indeed has a greater capacity for a destructive eruption than most of the volcanoes in the world. But even if it does erupt again, it most likely would be a smaller scale that would most affect the areas closest to it. A VEI 8 "super eruption" is very, very remote possibility. Popular culture, the media and social media has made it seem like a much greater threat than it is. We don't have to live in fear of it.
My point in all this....for a proper understanding of Bible prophecy, of Revelation, we have to root our understanding into the words that were actually written. We cannot allow popular culture to influence our beliefs. The secular world has its own ideas of how the world might end. It shouldn't play into ours. Neither can we lean on secret or esoteric interpretation of certain Bible passages.
These are things that are afflicting even the pre-Trib community today. Failure to be "Berean". Letting others tell us what we should believe about the times we live in. A lot of the mocking and scoffing is because people are departing from Scriptural truth and making up their own scenarios for how Revelation might come to pass today.
And honestly, it's costing us.
But here's what troubling to me. There is still a great deal of confusion about it, even among premillennialists, futurists, dispensationalists. And it led me to wonder why even the pre-tribulation rapture "watchers" are going so far off the reservation. To the point where they are promoting things that are not even in the Bible.
Take the Mark of the Beast prophecy. I keep running into this. People are in a panic, fearing they've accidentally received it. The vaccine being the latest hot candidate for the MOB. It's not just that they drew that conclusion. There is a not-insignificant group of Christians on the Internet who continually insist that the vax is the MOB. There's no reasoning with them. For them, it is the MOB. End of discussion. Then they push this idea on other confused Christians. They're so sure of themselves, that people believe them.
They are big on the concept of being "deceived". To them, it means people are tricked or fooled into doing something they don't understand. All the more reason to keep our heads on a swivel. Otherwise, someone will come up and sneak the MOB onto us. But the Bible doesn't just say they are deceived. It also says why they are deceived. False prophets, messiahs performing great signs and wonders. Making false proclamations about the return of Christ. Matt 24:5,11,23-26. The Antichrist performing signs and wonders. 2 Thess 2:9. The False prophet performing signs and wonders, such as bringing fire down from the sky. Rev 13:14.
For me, it's not hard to understand this. Revelation 13 lays it out really well. John of Patmos told us what would happen, how it would happen. But we need to read the whole chapter. We cannot just read the last three verses and ignore the fifteen that came before it.
There was the September 23 2017 "sign". And it didn't represent what Revelation 12 described, anyway. Yes, Jesus told us there would be signs in the sun, moon and stars. But he also told us what those signs would be, specifically. The sun and moon will be darkened (Matt 24:29). The sun will be black as a sackcloth of hair, the moon turned into blood, the stars of the sky fall to the earth, and the sky recedes like a scroll. Rev 6:12-14. These aren't vague signs left to interpretation, but specific and unmistakeable.
La Palma and Yellowstone. The BBC and their docudramas brought the concept of apocalyptic eruptions from these volcanoes to the American conscious. When the Cumbre Veija volcano erupted two years ago, I found myself in the position of needing to calm frightened Christians, who had been told by their favourite prophecy teachers they needed to "watch out" for a colossal tsunami that could threaten the US east coast. I had actually read the original scientific paper that brought forth this idea, as well as the subsequent further studies that showed this to be a remote possibility. But we had people invoking Revelation 8:8-9, saying if the volcano split in two, it would be a fulfillment of this judgment. Except even if that happened, it wouldn't have the effect of killing a third of the creatures in the sea.
Yellowstone indeed has a greater capacity for a destructive eruption than most of the volcanoes in the world. But even if it does erupt again, it most likely would be a smaller scale that would most affect the areas closest to it. A VEI 8 "super eruption" is very, very remote possibility. Popular culture, the media and social media has made it seem like a much greater threat than it is. We don't have to live in fear of it.
My point in all this....for a proper understanding of Bible prophecy, of Revelation, we have to root our understanding into the words that were actually written. We cannot allow popular culture to influence our beliefs. The secular world has its own ideas of how the world might end. It shouldn't play into ours. Neither can we lean on secret or esoteric interpretation of certain Bible passages.
These are things that are afflicting even the pre-Trib community today. Failure to be "Berean". Letting others tell us what we should believe about the times we live in. A lot of the mocking and scoffing is because people are departing from Scriptural truth and making up their own scenarios for how Revelation might come to pass today.
And honestly, it's costing us.