Revelation is not about the FUTURE

[atpollard]

I heard a talk on the Book of Revelation that made what I thought might be a valid point. Brandon Robbins suggested that Revelation was written to the people living at that time, people going through horrific persecution, to whom each of the “apocalyptic literature” symbols would have been painfully obvious. The book starts out with seven real churches with seven very real conditions that Christians living under that culture and persecution would have been familiar with. The horsemen represent sufferings like war and famine and oppression that those people would have been only too familiar with. After acknowledging their suffering, the veil is pulled back and John/God reveal the spiritual war going on unseen behind the events of their hard lives (offering a glimpse and a hope that Satan would ultimately be defeated). Lastly comes the climax, a glimpse of the end with the ULTIMATE PROMISE that God will not merely triumph, but that those that are suffering NOW will one day be with Him and everything will be made RIGHT.

It is not intended to be a literal future prophecy for future generations to pick apart into complex debated timelines, it is a symbolic code for people IN a hard times to find hope. It was written to THEM about THEIR TIME, but it is timeless because Christians suffer and struggle in EVERY TIME. We have done an injustice to the church by making it about some FUTURE EVENTS when it is about getting through PRESENT STRUGGLES with Hope.

As just one small example, 144,000 is 12 x 12 x 10 x 10 x 10 … 12 is the number of God’s People (how many times is that used symbolically in scripture), so 12 x 12 is all of Gods people (Jews and Gentiles). 10 is symbolic of “many”, so 10x10x10 is many x many x many … basically “infinite”. So putting those together means that 144,000 is “ALL OF GOD’S PEOPLE, A MULTITUDE BEYOND COUNTING” … now what did John promise would happen to this multitude of God’s People … and remember that he made this promise to people that were LIVING (and dying) through the events of the Horsemen. Do you think that might have offered some encouragement to them in the middle of their hard times? Do you think it might still offer some encouragement to people living through their own personal hard times TODAY?

 

[Dave G]

Brandon Robbins suggested that Revelation was written to the people living at that time, people going through horrific persecution, to whom each of the “apocalyptic literature” symbols would have been painfully obvious.

It was written to the believers of the time...to tell them of events that would shortly, from God's perspective, come to pass.
It was also written to "His servants";
All of God's people:

" The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified [it] by his angel unto his servant John:
2 who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw."

Since one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day ( 2 Peter 3:8 ), He sees all in one glance.
In other words, the day of the Lord is "at hand" and has been, for 2,000 years;

That's 2 days in God's timing.

 

[Dave G]

Lastly comes the climax, a glimpse of the end with the ULTIMATE PROMISE that God will not merely triumph, but that those that are suffering NOW will one day be with Him and everything will be made RIGHT.

My friend, whether He makes things right for believers who were suffering then or are suffering in places like North Korea, China, India or anywhere else today, God will triumph and He will make things right.

It is not intended to be a literal future prophecy for future generations to pick apart into complex debated timelines, it is a symbolic code for people IN a hard times to find hope. It was written to THEM about THEIR TIME, but it is timeless because Christians suffer and struggle in EVERY TIME.

I maintain that it is a literal, future prophetic book in which a very few of the things talked about have indeed come to pass.
My disagreement is with those who preach and teach that the things that are described in Revelation, are either for someone else or are "spiritualized" and not to be taken as they are written.

But I agree that there are analogies in Revelation, just as there are analogies within other paces in His word.
For example, Satan ( Lucifer ) is not, in reality, a great dragon... He is likened as one.

 

[Dave G]

We have done an injustice to the church by making it about some FUTURE EVENTS when it is about getting through PRESENT STRUGGLES with Hope.

I'm sorry, but we'll have to agree to disagree.
To me, there are far too many things described in Revelation that, if believed literally, have never come to pass as of the writing of this reply.

I do agree that, even knowing that much of it is still yet in the future, we can and will get through present struggles with hope;
Knowing that He will never leave us, nor forsake us.

 

[Dave G]

@atpollard
Any of the rest that I could post would only serve to further develop my own understanding of the book, and would not and should not be taken authoritatively;
As God's children have it within themselves to read it and come to their own understanding of it.

But "piggybacking" off the understandings of men and institutions of men, especially knowing that there are false teachers and preachers out there?
We as believers should never do that, even if it seems that they may very well be correct.

Rather, I hold that if a believer or group of believers has trouble coming to a fuller understanding of what we see as "problem passages", especially a book that hops around as much as Revelation does ( describing both past and future happenings in Heaven and earth ), we should all the more commit ourselves to studying more deeply... knowing and trusting that the Lord will reward us, individually, with those answers.

 

[Dave G]

All:

Personally speaking, I've often found the value of waiting on the Lord to clear things up about subjects that I've "jumped the gun" and misunderstood over the years;
Being tempted to adopt the understanding of someone else, especially someone who may be more knowledgeable ( or even seem more knowledgeable ), is something that I've had to fight for over 46 years now.

But I can assure you that the Lord rewards those who, through diligence, seek Him and His ways, both through His word and through prayer.

My point?
Dig into the Scriptures, my friends, and do your best to avail yourselves of what God has given to each of us, as individuals in the body...
The privilege and ability to read and understand His word for ourselves:

" Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." ( 2 Timothy 2:15 ).

Studying it, over time, does indeed result in rightly dividing it...
For those who have ears to hear.