We are poised to begin the last part of John’s Revelation.
The Arc of Revelation
During the three cycles of increasingly catastrophic troubles and woes to be experienced at the end of human history, John is given a series of visions revealing spiritual battles in the heavenly realms. Angel armies crash together, and cast out the enemies of God. A pregnant woman experiences a narrow escape from the gaping maw and rending talons of a raging dragon, which had risen up with the noxious fumes of an abyss.
The woman’s child, a son, is rescued by angels, provoking the dragon to impotent fury, for it has been denied its prey. It thunders across the earth, hauling up a beast from the sea, and another from the land, to do its vile bidding, to enslave, corrupt, and ultimately destroy all the inhabitants of earth.
Babylon Falls, Christ Rises
Then comes the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord’s Judgments. In this, a dissolute woman drunken with violence against God’s own unknowingly rides the beast to her own sure destruction. All the earth howls in horror, and believers watch, stunned. All of heaven, however, bursts out in praise for their victorious Conqueror on the White Horse.
Historicist
There is great rejoicing as the Roman church is finally gone, for it persecuted true believers who sought to live a biblical faith. Christ, in the form of the gospel, rides in victory throughout the earth, freeing those enslaved to a false religion.
Preterist
Either the sacking and torching of Jerusalem, or the sacking and destruction of Rome is in view, depending on what the second half of Revelation is about.
Futurist
It is unclear whether this is a rebuilt Babylon in Iraq or a revived Rome in Italy, or possibly the Roman church, or some kind of world council of apostate church denominations. Whatever “Babylon” will end up being, the important point is that Jesus is the victor.
Spiritual
Babylon represents human-made systems, seductive in their lure of power, wealth, fame, and influence. In John’s day, “Babylon” was surely modeled after Rome, seeking to undermine the integrity of the church through both enticement and corruption, and persecution. But the power of Christ is stronger, and will prevail—either literally in Christ’s return, or through the enduring power of the gospel.
Can there really be more? You and I would be expecting the movie credits to roll, at this point. But there is more, for the ending of what was ushers in the beginning of what will be.
The Millennium Age
Millennium is a Latin word which means “thousand years,” and it is found only in Revelation 20:1-6, but it seems to be described in Isaiah.
This millennial reign will come at the very end of human history but before the final Day of Judgement, after which will come the creation of a new heaven and earth that Isaiah prophesied, to be experienced in an eternal, pure, and glorified state.
Amillennialism
There is little agreement among expositors in how to understand this millennium. Some interpreters state there is no millennium at all, the millennium prophecies are really symbolic of the church age, which is right now. The kingdom of God is now present in the world through God’s word, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the church, though there is a continuous parallel growth of good and evil. They are known as amillennialists, “a” means “no,” “no millennium.”
- The binding of Satan happened at the cross and Jesus’s resurrection.
- The millennium is the age of the church.
- Satan will be loosed for a short time at the end of human history, to persecute believers, and ravage the earth.
- Fire from heaven is symbolic of Jesus’s Second Coming.
- The resurrection of all the dead and judgment of good and evil will happen at Christ’s return, followed by the new creation
Postmillennialism
Postmillennialist commentators assert a millennial age will occur first as Jesus reigns in heaven. Currently, the kingdom of God is being extended through evangelizing, and as the world becomes filled with Christians, life on earth will become increasingly better for all, and the peace and prosperity that Isaiah depicted here will become lived reality. Jesus will return “post” or “after” peace and prosperity reaches its zenith at the close of this millennial time.
- Some adhere closely to the amillennial narrative, except they see the success of the gospel throughout the earth.
- Some see the binding of Satan as his eventual loss of power as the gospel gains ground.
- The millennium represents a future glorious gospel era before Jesus’s return.
- Satan will try one last time to corrupt and destroy, but to no avail
- The resurrection to judgment will happen at Christ’s return.
Premillennialism
Premillennialist interpreters believe Jesus will physically return before (“pre”) the millennium in order to establish his kingdom. Jesus will reign in person, in Jerusalem as the capital city of all earth. During this time, Satan will be confined and not permitted to roam the earth as he does now. Nevertheless, there will still be pockets of discontent and rebellion in which people do not want to give allegiance to the Messiah.
- The binding of Satan is still future to us today.
- The millennium will be a literal thousand-year reign by Jesus, on earth, from Jerusalem, with the people of God.
- Satan will be loosed at the end of this era, culminating in the resurrection of all the dead and the final judgment.
- At the close of the Great White Throne judgment, God will create the new heavens and earth.
Historic premillennialism was actually the dominant interpretation of these prophecies for the first three hundred years of the church. So many prophecies delivered by the Hebrew prophets—and most notably by Isaiah—had been concretely and literally fulfilled in Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection. With this massive body of evidence, for the early church, there was no reason to doubt that what God promised through the prophets could be taken at face value.
Early Church’s Position
The early church accepted and believed the stories of Scripture, that God had indeed followed through with both the warnings and promises delivered throughout Israel’s history. They saw in Jesus the Messiah promised since the day Adam and Eve stood before the Lord, under God’s judgment, hearing of a champion who would one day come to crush their enemy. They believed Jesus’s own promise of bodily return.
The early church believed God’s covenants with Abraham and David were based upon God’s unconditional promise to establish Israel as an earthly nation on an actual piece of ground in the Ancient Near East, which would be ruled by the ultimate Son of David. All the prophets had spoken of this day to come.
The writers of the Christian Testament did not try to change the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible’s prophecies. Instead, they included the church in the spiritual blessings of the covenants God had made with God’s people Israel.
The Hebrew prophets uniformly predicted a time when God would physically remove evil, and bring physical restoration just as God spiritually conquered evil and brought the hope of spiritual restoration. Jesus and the apostles taught that we are to encourage each other by looking forward to Jesus’ return, and the events that will come at the close of human history.
To Receive God is to Inherit an Infinitely Glorious Future
There are several equally well-researched ways to understand what the last days are going to be like. The Christian Testament gives added information to such prophetic books as Daniel, Zechariah, Malachi, and Isaiah concerning the fulfillment of these visions.
What scholars generally can agree on is that Jesus’ return
- will take place in the time frame called the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- will take place before God establishes God’s eternal kingdom, when Jesus will reign in righteousness, and the powers of darkness are finally dealt with.
- Revelation 20 gives a chronology of events, and the length of Messiah’s earthly kingdom (whether you consider that to be purely spiritual, or also physical) before the new heavens and the new earth are created.
Apocalyptic literature becomes especially meaningful for those who are suffering. When our lives are already terrific, a beautiful future has less impact. But when the going gets rough, it helps to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to know the last page of this story ends well.
The four perspectives, and the numbered points in the three millennial views are taken from Revelation: Four Views A Parallel Commentary, edited by Steve Gregg
Sister Joanne-in-Christ Jesus. This is such a thorough descriptive and well laid-out presentation of what I think most Christians take for granted as being evidentiary strictly through interpretation of the Book of Revelation as they understand it; based on somewhat individualized relative understanding, of some absolutely very mysterious descriptive events yet to come, somewhere in the future!
This presentation begins with such a dramatic consideration, as I see it worlds clashing, both spiritually and materially as I see it presented immediately here in this excerpt; “During the three cycles of increasingly catastrophic troubles and woes to be experienced at the end of human history, John is given a series of visions revealing spiritual battles in the heavenly realms.” And as another example that is really mind-blowing to consider in this Scripture!
Revelation 6:13-14 “and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.”
The question that I had immediately as I read the above excerpt was are we mere humans seeing things clearly enough to really have a clue what God Almighty’s plans and purposes actually are, in lieu or by means of John’s interpretation, as he was seeing these future events long ago when taken up in the spirit of God! What I mean is here we have such an amazing yet somewhat baffling description that the greatest scholars in the study of Biblical Scriptures and relative recorded history, or even archeological evidences, are not even able to fully agree on one concise absolute viewpoint that spells things out well enough to say, “eureka there it is, the fact of the matter as God Himself has stated it unequivocally!”
I’m straying from the textual components here in my query not in accordance with this well delivered explanation that you provide, of what the Book of Revelation teaches us. Mainly because I have a question for now, while I will also further consider in much additional detail and earnest study of these materials; that compels this one daunting question that comes to my mind! That is, when anyone has considered this Book of Revelation does the question ever arise that like an ongoing work of art that is not complete, isn’t the artist or creator who’s hands are still in control working on this masterpiece, thereby doesn’t the possibility exist that the artist can suddenly alter what was developing in one way, to then suddenly with some spontaneous or inspired additional strokes of the brush and some addition of colors add to and change the developing creation in a way that wasn’t apparent earlier? In other words it won’t be possible to know the full-blown story or absolute ending until it is done!
Sorry to stray from the straight forward, but this is a question I’ve thought of in the past and never seriously thought I should ask it in my past studies (like most people taking it for granted it is all finalized), and as now, no longer being in an academic environment where I could ask for such a long while, until now! I hope this isn’t too distracting, but I seriously wonder because the way I see things God being the “Alpha and the Omega,” to me or as I understand, He can do anything at any moment! And ultimately that means He having the “final say in anything” who or how can anyone be absolutely sure of all the future events to come, even as they pertain to the Scriptures, via human interpretation? In Revelation are we perhaps looking at only a framework?
God bless you and yours.
Respectfully,
Brother Lawrence-in-Christ Jesus.
You hit on it exactly, Brother-in-Christ Lawrence. I have been wondering this very thing for quite a while, which, in part, prompted my foray into this mysterious book. The Greek is a little different than the Gospel of John and the letters of John. It is a little bit harder for me to read in places, but the text itself describes wonders and horrors I find hard to imagine, they are so outside the scope of my experience.
What can they mean? Are they to be understood absolutely literally? Is there an allegorical component? Are they describing in ancient language and images things that until now could not be described (such as airplanes, tanks, and nuclear warheads)? Widespread destruction is already well underway on our planet, with vast forests being razed to the ground with no hope of future forests in that place, at least in our lifetime. There is alarming barrenness spread swiftly along the coasts of our continents where no fish can be found. Water is becoming the new famine in many places. Pestilence, that old-fashioned word, is also becoming ever more “normal” in pandemics.
Or was John given visions that are largely about concepts, beliefs, philosophies, and spiritual warfare? Is the pestilence a religious one, killing faith as it spreads? Is “Babylon” really about the deadening of souls in pleasure and materialism and the ten-horned beast about ways humankind will be manipulated into submission by totalitarianism, or something similar?
Will our vision, after all, with all this prophecy, ultimately be twenty-twenty hindsight? Will we recognize John’s revelation unfolding after it has already unfolded?
The only sure footing I can find among these questions is that Jesus has promised to return for His own, and I am His, and so are you.
Grace and peace, your sister-in-Christ, Joanne
Sister-in-Christ Jesus Joanne! “Pray tell” as the expression goes, what did I stumble upon or perhaps usher up out of my subconscious mind to be asking a scholar such as you, what conflicting meaning or maybe even deeper meaning there may be that I need to discover in this very mysterious Book of the Bible!
I have to say to myself, who am I, that I can just take this all for face value or be familiar with its surface, and then somehow be well enough equipped moving forward in this tumultuous time in human history; to be prepared or at least trying to be better prepared by “really gaining insight and an understanding” of this Revelatory Book (apocalyptic) with now quite likely urgent as well as vital messages, to especially the people who may actually be living in or leading up to the period that it focuses on!
“Are they describing in ancient language and images things that until now could not be described (such as airplanes, tanks, and nuclear warheads)?”
Right there is what I said decades ago, but forgot to take a deeper dive into this arena of future events as foretold by the ancients in Revelation! I used to discuss with my mother how the mention of locusts brought to my mind helicopters (human faces in the front cockpit) with tails that sting or maybe hordes of savage people by the millions running wild over a nation destroying or ruining so much good in their path such as the maddening influx of the overwhelming illegal migration being promoted by out of control twisted leadership!
Now I see these things and ask, is this what I saw coming decades ago when I would read the Book of Revelation? But in any event, now seems like the appropriate time to be taking that much deeper dive, and with greater discernment of what escaped my perceptive capabilities back then!
“Forests being razed to the ground,” that is what I just said to a sister of mine the other day about an area where we grew up, how a parcel of land that once was the home to school buildings, a true landmark of education and the like was sold off to a massive conglomerate that went in and destroyed everything wiping that land clean of all trees, some very old huge ones, while the time of year critical to many wildlife in some of those trees with hollows which were nesting or had young that are destroyed by the massive machines that grab each huge tree, with young baby wildlife within and buss saw the base, then the whole tree is fed into a shredder to make wood chips! They’ve been doing this same clear cut throughout the region to strip away massive swaths of CO2 eating Oxygen producing forested areas or parcels of land with the same type of forestation that are also nearby, all so they can install solar panel farms owned by other conglomerates to make a fast buck! And all this while the powers that be sit back and enjoy as they don’t care one iota, being rewarded for cooperation! It was a horrible sight to behold, being personally heartbreaking for me! And all of this is absolutely happening because of the greedy and mindless wicked people on earth now, who pay no heed to “What is Right” or anything of substantive long term value, but like gluttons they only think of getting more money “now” when they develop that land to suit their “money making schemes!”
I’m not saying I’m sure by any means yet; but when I read this excerpt it struck me hard as to the very likely possibility of what is happening to people and their souls in this savage time of people, “both spiritually and physically” becoming “a sort of society of automatons or Zombies!”
“Is the pestilence a religious one, killing faith as it spreads? Is “Babylon” really about the deadening of souls in pleasure and materialism and the ten-horned beast about ways humankind will be manipulated into submission by totalitarianism, or something similar?”
I ask myself where is the humanity I once saw shining everywhere around me through the very people! Now the death and evil permeates so deeply I think much of the human race is literally becoming the “Walking Dead!” Like what Albert Einstein spoke about in his short essay many years ago, “about the impenetrable” and how it was so inspiring to him, but he also said how anyone that couldn’t connect to that realization of “vast wisdom and beauty” was as good as dead!
“The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling is at the centre of true religiousness.”
-Albert Einstein – “The Merging of Spirit and Science”
Oh yes indeed I wholeheartedly agree here, “twenty-twenty hindsight,” this is what many to more than not in the human race will do; as “the writing is on the wall” and too many people always revert to their “wrong ways” or the “crooked ways of the world” and their own “selfish gut,” “grabbing what they can as quickly as they can” and to hell with the rest they say! I watch this time and again after every massive event or calamity, creatures of habit with their ill-gotten ways or means; always revert back to those habits and the simple easy way to self-fulfillment! Most television is trash today and more shows than not are about grabbing money or materialistic possessions; making a score and it’s all junk, cars, old stuff, memorabilia etc. and the like! More and more people are being conditioned like this than in any other time in human history and most don’t even know it or care; they are like the proverbial moths near the flame!
Sister Joanne; thank you so much, I get teary eyed by you mentioning me for this; “Jesus has promised to return for His own and I am His, and so are you.”
That is absolutely where “the only hope, love and life for eternity” is; “with Him our Lord, Savior and Redeemer, nothing else will even scratch the surface of what we truly need! Amen.
Thank you so much for this inspiring and insightful entrance into “seeking the door leading to finding God’s Truth,” to share while we are here!
God bless you and yours!
Brother-in-Christ Jesus Lawrence
Sadly so many humans are running contrary to this truth from God!
Matthew 6:19-20 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”