Winston Churchill is said to have quipped, “you can always count on the Americans to get things right, after they have tried everything else”. Leap-frog from that comment to the present with its aftermath of far reaching consequences following the 2005-06 housing collapse, the ensuing and prevailing financial fallout (as of 12/05/08), and you have perhaps the best tale of all indicators of man’s hopeless inability to predict with accuracy the outcome of his own actions. I.e., mankind left to his own devices is—at his very best, in the highest offices and positions of leadership anywhere in the land, or, the world for that matter—a lousy prophet (and not just a lousy one, but a lying one at that! Just ask the many, many victims of the corporate down-sizings, thrift rip-offs, Enron/MCI-WorldCom, Bear-Stearn/Leman Brothers/Merrill Lynch and other related fiscal debacles of the past thirty years or so.).
John the Apostle, on the Island called Patmos, AD 96
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The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is a book as fascinating as it is filled with Divinely inspired, eschatological intrigue—the kind only God can set up and make known. It is at the same time a somber prophetic, literary masterwork dire in its predictions, bleak to the extreme in its outlook for all mankind—even for those non-believers unfortunate enough to be alive during those days, only to suffer the anguish of death as martyrs, having become saints. As such, in light of it’s unswerving and, perhaps, its unnerving accuracy—it paints a futuristic picture void of hope—even in veritable full view of the Hope. Moreover, that future is one dark, a hellishly foreboding last days’ expectation for the history of humanity and of the world we inhabit (this we conclude, given that rejection of The Hope, is equivalent to having no hope at all.). Yet, as alluded to, even during this awful period, there will be three bright spots: 1 & 2) the salvation of multitudes of souls in two independent groups of unbelievers in two massive waves, as it were, one at the beginning of the so-called “Great Tribulation Period”, the other near its end, and, 3) the Parousia of the Jews’ Messiah. Of its three bright spots, each yet dreadful in every sense of the word, two will be recognizable primarily, if not solely, by the blood in which it will be drenched. The third will of course be marked primarily by the return of the Jew’s Messiah, albeit, wading in the depths of a bloodbath reaching to the bridle of a horse, stretching for miles and miles.
To all too many, even in America today, God is nothing more than a name, an idea or concept to be brushed aside as no more than the figment of the imagination of feeble-minded Christians. For all such, this “Preface” might be more aptly titled (with perhaps a twist of irony) “How to discredit God and His word, thereby relegating His name, His remembrance and His Bible to the realm of myth and mythology, once and for all”. For, here, and throughout the entirety of this study of the Revelation of Jesus Christ—as well as the companion studies in the Prelude to the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, and, The Mystery: Christ Jesus—we the despised Christians, will open the eyes of the skeptic and the likes, providing and giving them the insights and tools they have long needed, but unwittingly missed, to focus and channel their attacks against the Almighty. No successful charge can ever be mounted to derail the reality of God, until the doubter/scoffer can rally and reconcile all of his own doubts and skepticism with historical, scientific fact in a logical manner so as to preclude the possibility of any collusion thereof with biblical claim and scholarship (and, to this as well as to them we all say, “good luck”!).
One cannot discredit something that was intentionally written so as to be easily read and yet impossible to comprehend fully, without proper assistance. The Bible, with all of its prophecies, has been so structured and tailored. Thus, moreover, this best selling among books—made so as much by unbelievers in general, critics and scoffers in particular, as well as by Christians—particularly through its prophecies, showcases God the Almighty in all of His power, wisdom and foreknowledge. For the Christian and skeptic alike, God in this self-portrait is a must see. Pity then the modern-day saint who dares purpose to stand before God in the last day, having himself never bothered to consider Him in light of Bible prophecy.
“The spirit of prophecy is Jesus Christ”. The angel hosting John’s visit to Heaven, and throughout his Apocalyptic Preview Session, said that, when old John became confused, and, sought to pay homage to him. That to us today should represent a very telling statement, particularly those of us inclined to make excuses for our non-involvement in the perusal and scrutiny of the Bible’s prophetic statement. If indeed our Lord and Savior is the “spirit of prophecy”, then, in God’s eyes, that would relegate this genre to the level of “gospel”, making it as much “gospel” as the “the gospel itself”! Thus, to do less than to grapple with this subject, is to intentionally present a false and perverted view of both the Savior and of His Father—that given the fact that it was God the Father who sent God the Son to deliver the message of the Apocalypse to us, by way of John the apostle. The gospel portrait is, therefore, by design incomplete, without the Bible’s end-times prophecies.
Not unlike the rest of the Bible, The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, a.k.a., the Book of the Revelation, represents a Book, which has in fact never been taught.
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Most ironic, is it not? The best-known Book in America, or, the world, for that matter! The best selling Book of all time, taught from, talked about; having schools, colleges and universities established around it, yet, no one can teach it, in its entirety, faithfully. Their many, many books, prophecy conferences and seminars, etc., notwithstanding, its prophecies, particularly the Revelation of Jesus Christ, are a mystery still to even the best of minds among evangelical/fundamentalists of all brands, Pentecostals, catholics and jehovah’s witnesses; in fact, as we illustrate in the book “The Mystery: Christ Jesus”, even He who is the center of all prophecy, the Captain and Chief Architect of our Faith, is a “mystery” to those who should know Him best!
Go into any bookstore today, and you are libel to find a variety of books on prophecy, but, you will be lucky if you can find one in which the author(s) can faithful dissect the Book of the Revelation—that, if you can find one who has tried! Of those who try, their best effort is largely a matter of “beating around the bush”, lacking substance and a critical analysis of the issues it raises (and that is, where and when the issues are not ignored altogether, as they usually are!). And, what is worse still, the average of all Christians are therefore totally ignorant of the fact that—between the prophecies of the Old Testament (OT) and all those of the New Testament (NT), including the Book of the Revelation—no single theme occupied more the teachings of Jesus Christ our Savior, than did the subject of eschatology (i.e., the study of end-times events; the Book of the Revelation even carries an inducement in the form of “blessing” upon all who indulge themselves therein.). Without diminishing the value of any other, we can safely conclude therefore that the issue of end-times events and all that that involves represents a matter that is (particularly in these last days) uppermost in His thinking. Thus, He wanted and expects that His saints, every one of them, should be so apprised. For those who are Heaven bound in our generation, the study of Bible prophecy is, therefore, must reading and required curriculum. It is not optional!
Anyone contemplating a serious study of the Apocalypse, in writing, may well think within himself that he cannot, given the evident enormity of the potential for problems of interpretation. And, to a degree in so thinking, he may in fact ‘think’ well. There will be tremendous problems to work and think through; huge challenges and imagery to surmount; daunting hurdles of chronology to climb up and over; tiny, virtually imperceptible dots of information and truth that must, no less, be perceived, borne out and connected. In some sense, it might be likened to a theological and prophetic quagmire, an enigma that, to this day, remains sealed to even the so-called “best and brightest”, amongst so-called “prophecy experts” (men and women with doctorates and PhDs from major Christian colleges and universities cannot crack the book’s “code’”, much less properly relate its sequence of events with those of Old testament prophecy. They can often only teach and talk in terms of what they “think” or “feel”, after having relegated to themselves the exclusive right to interpretation and understanding!). God did not make, nor did He intend, that this Book should be easy, any more than unlocking the secrets of the inner workings His universe has been (just ask the physicists! By the grace of God, their baffled and confused brains succumbed in time to the weight of a firm understanding down to the very pillars of the universe, upon which understanding is built our modern world, with all of its amenities and conveniences.). He did, however, leave us this word of encouragement, in our quest for enlightenment, as we struggle to understand His prophetic statements: “Now, faith is the foundation (a setting or a standing under, i.e., the support) of the things we hope for (as we are inspired and moved by the word and promises of God), the evidence (or, the proof—of those things for which we hope) not being seen. It was on the basis of this kind of faith the elders bore witness (they testified)” (Heb. 11:1-2). Thus we conclude then that faith is itself the stand, the support, the confidence and conviction that we place under these things that God has told us, the promises He has given, as we harbor and nurture them with expectation (or, a virtual longing) within our hearts, lifting them high in the face of a doubting, God/Christ rejecting world, although we may have no (tangible, visible) evidence and proof. Therefore, our faith (in the face of doubt and skepticism, in a virtual paradox of reasoning!) is itself, moreover, equally the evidence or the proof of the reality of the things that God has promised, although we have not seen them (granted, this might be much less true for us today, than for the ancients, those living just prior to the year 1900, and, for all those living in between those extremes). Put another way, no saint is obligated, ever, when facing skeptics and critics, to give a greater proof as basis for what he knows, or, for his allegiance to and trust in the Word of God, than his faith.
For saints living between the days of the patriarchs and approximately the year 1900 and for those who live still today in otherwise un-, or underdeveloped countries, the foregoing might have been the sum total of “faith” for them. Faith for all such was and is hard work. Faith was all they had (there simply were no tangible, quantifiable evidences or proofs!). His sensibilities taxed to the limits, it was/is tough trying to justify belief in something, or, Some One for which or, for Whom there was/is no apparent, quantifiable evidence or record, beyond the Bible, word of the Living God. For those of us living in highly industrialized America, and the European nations, God’s definition is not necessarily applicable, in its entirety, at all points, as we shall see here, and throughout this study. We have been marvelously blessed to live in a time, a day, and a country wherein we can see and perceive the “unthinkable”—particularly those formerly unthinkable things which up to one hundred ten years ago, were not only unthinkable, they were so “untenable” as to be downright ludicrous on the surface. Unlike those unfortunate saints of old, or, those who live primitively even in these modern times, the educated, industrialized saint is not at all without justification, having been blessed with a watershed of tangible evidences in confirmation of the word of our God. Based squarely upon this indelible, irrefutable authentication, we can bolster a faith that supports and holds high the things and promises that we are to parade before the ears, eyes and hearts of hungry, thirsty souls, in an otherwise lost and rapidly dying world. Thus, on the basis of the overwhelming evidences under girding our trust, we might conclude, moreover, that faith today need not operate blind—in fact, informed faith cannot and therefore must not operate blind. Further, in light of the strong faith, longing and fervent expectation on the part of the ancients who had no perceptible proofs and no evidences whatsoever, ignorance on the part of any saint today is utterly inexcusable (and yet, this truth requires modification, in that saints and non-saints of old, per Paul’s letter to the Romans, had available to them the same proofs as we, all pent up in the same nature that God effectively “gutted” for us, so that we might bring glory to Him, in these end-times. See Rom.s 1:20; Ps. 19:1-3; 97:6; 104:24).
It is on the solid footing of this basis then, therefore, that we assert by way of reiteration, circumnavigation (bypassing) and ignorance of the Book of the Revelation, or the issues it raises (or any other prophetic statement), contrary to popular church culture, is not an option or something one wants on his resume’, when at last he stands face to face with His Maker! In fact, in America today, one might argue, quite rightly, that no preacher/pastor has any business in ministry who cannot deal faithfully and thoroughly with the issue of Bible prophecy, including the Book of the Revelation. God has an enormous amount of end-times information stored in all of the ancient “zipped files” of the OT & NT prophecies that He wants His people to know. Knowing these things, we are to order our own lives, waiting expectantly with great anticipation in these latter days, as we share and pass them on to others. His word in whatever form is not a smorgasbord, where one can walk up and pick and choose what he wants—“what’s best for me”, or “what meets my needs”—only to discard the rest. To do so is to make one’s Maker a liar and a fraud, placing himself on a par equal to or greater than the Son, in addition to being himself, therefore, a liar.
Continuing the ‘theme’ begun a few paragraphs ago, another student of prophecy, drawing the same conclusion as above, faced with the same intimidation and trepidation may on the other hand, seeing the problems and hurdles, yet, see less of a cause for concern or hindrance. He knows that he can always work them through at the expense of others who, having paid the price, have left crutches, upon which one may lean for insight and learning. Understanding then, as we do, that there is a vision, a view (if only in a glimpse) of the future concerning end-time things that God has for His people, wanting all believers to see (“…blessed are the ones who read and heed the words of this prophecy…,” He says in Rev. 1), so that they in turn may present what they observe, understand and know to others, herein then, lies the rub!
All too many of the aforementioned crutches represent only so much religious “fluff and stuff”, having nothing (or, too little) to offer in terms of increased knowledge and understanding of the pictures God has painted for us in the general prophecies, or those specific to the Revelation! Like pulling together the busted and shattered shells of so many different, splattered humpy-dumpies in order to piece together one good egg, so likewise, use of their rambling, fragmented views and often foggy logic to construct a clear view of God’s eschatological portrait (His word and His will) is naught if not so much wasted effort. It simply cannot be done! Nevertheless, be done it must! Both the Bible and the Revelation must be taught, now, like never before.
This book, The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ…., is the second in a two part prophetic series which, by the grace, power and foreknowledge of Almighty God, are uniquely positioned so as to jointly open up end-times prophecy and the Book of the Revelation, like no one else ever has, or, can even at this very late hour—not even those who are considered the so-called Bible “prophecy experts”. Apparently by God’s design and Divine providence, these have been intentionally left out of the loop of end-times knowledge.
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Not the combined works of the likes of John Ankerberg, David Reagan, Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe or my all time favorite the late J. Vernon McGee even come close. Do not even think about the Bible Answer Man’s Hank Hannegraff, TBN’s Crouch, or John Haggee, or, others of the Pentecostal rank! And, though the heavily fictitious work of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins was very popular, it is not by any means an accurate portrait of Bible prophecy, and so provides little in the way of real-world spiritual edification—beyond perhaps, good entertainment. Great teachers though they are/were, one and all, it occurs to me that Almighty God has seen fit to withhold from their eyes the perspective, and many fresh new insights and understanding, forthcoming in this and the other fine books, it is my privilege and responsibility to write.
Interestingly, the first to buy a copy of my first self-published release was a retired ranking army enlisted man, an NCO, or, non-commissioned officer. While being married to a Christian, he is himself an avowed skeptic. As such, he subscribes to the notion that unbelievers in science, archaeology, as well as other assorted erudite doubters, skeptics, critics and scoffers have laid waste whatever potential there ever was for credibility, in the Holy Bible. Having been “…telling people that, that Book cannot be believed…”, he would read my book “thoroughly, and get back with you”, he assured me approximate six months ago (@ 02/22/08!). In addition to conspicuously failing to offer to pay the remaining ten dollar installment (he owes me) on the book he purchased, it occurs to me that my friend had/has little or nothing to say in terms of the kind of criticism he would like to have offered, relative to the Bible, beyond the words, “…yea, you did alright”! It is as if he developed a case of “scoffer’s amnesia”! He cannot now remember either the debt he owes, or his promise of a critical analysis of my book, that will in turn discredit and sound the death knell for the Books of Books (Another entertaining encounter was had with a retired Air Force senior master sergeant, who now occupies as a doubting elder in charge of the bookstore, in a prominent Phoenix area Afro-American church—one of those Baptist varieties, having Pentecostal leanings (they call themselves “bapti-costals”)! When I called, following his failure to call me with information regarding a decision per my request to have my book, Prelude to the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, stocked in that church’s store, his previously veiled but evident, modestly upbeat doubt and ridicule had evolved downward into a dejected retort, “come get this thang; we cain’t do nothin’ with it.” No need to inquire as to whether he meant by that remark that the book and the truth it espoused and expounded might not have been the easy, light read he had envisioned! He who in heart is not right with God, even while he serves in the ministry of God, can scarcely appreciate the finer matters of the things of God, on any level—prophetic, or, not!).
It seems one recalls it said somewhere, by someone, that the Bible is its own best defense. It speaks for itself. It makes no apologies for any of the historical or prophetic claims it makes. It offers no excuses, either now or throughout the two thousand years (plus), when none was realizable. It retracts nothing in the face of scathing criticism. It bows to the will of no man’s skepticism. And, as it seems my friend has learned from his reading of “Prelude to the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ”, the Book of books does not need to recant in today’s economy—where every Christian and all believers of industrialized countries are privileged to live on a plateau, at the broad end of a cornucopia of space, filled with educational opportunities that have led to unthinkable technological and industrial gains, spiraling backwards in time to a point only 100 years or so in arrears, where the foot of understanding first rested skeptical toes of doubt and disbelief upon the firm reality and the solid foundation of one solitary particle, upon which in turn hangs our today and our every tomorrow, as well as the key to opening the “codes” and fleshing out the mysteries of all the Bible’s last-days prophecies.
Here, in The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ…, as well as in the Prelude to the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ…, a strong position and stance is taken and held throughout, relative to the Bible’s place as history, not religion. It has in fact, as historical literature, always embraced indelible trace elements of science and physics, long before there was any quantifiable, viable, intellectual discipline under either banner—at a time when no one believed, or, had reason to believe in science (time when science was not even good fiction)! Any Bible scoffer of any genre, of any stripe would have to first recognize, understand, then, tear the Bible apart on these grounds and unwavering claims (science, history, physics), before ever he qualifies and distinguishes himself as one capable of discrediting the Bible on any other ground—whether that ground be God or Christ; demon or angel; things seen or things unseen. Thus, such a one has to be told by informed and knowledgeable believing, Christian scholarship before he can even begin to mount any kind of a successful, convincing critical analysis of his own! Furthermore, in this light, clearly, only a fool would waste his time casting doubt based upon dubious dates, misspelled words and other trivia he cannot possibly ever meld into any kind of a disqualifying cohesive, to begin with.
Oddly, furthermore, the Bible critic/antagonist had his best of all chances to derail the Bible not much more than one hundred years ago, when, on average, no Christian and no theologian or preacher/teacher—regardless of background and education—would have been able to defend any of the Bible’s claims (funny, is it not, how in reality, so few can even today(!)?). Those were the days when skepticism was easy! All of the Bible’s claims could be, and, were (virtually justifiably) denied. No skeptic, however, was or has ever been able to follow through, burying the Book once and for all, forever, beneath the soils of his unbelief. It was as if God made some of the most outrageous, ridiculous statements ever a “God” could, then blindfolded Himself, and, having tied His hands behind His back, sat down—doing nothing, saying less, offering no tangible proofs for 2000 to 2500 years—as He waited and listened for man to apply his puny reason to discredit the reality of His Being and the believability of His word and prophecies. After all, given the times in which they were voiced, in light of the propensity of His hearers for understanding (or, their lack thereof!), those statements were absolutely preposterous at best! None could be verified!
Harsh critic, German monk, Roman catholic dissident, and reformer Martin Luther was one of perhaps many so befuddled by the symbolism throughout the Book of the Revelation, he recommended it be taken out of the Bible and thrown into a river. Was that warranted? Granted, its symbols of flying, flaming rocks are baffling enough, but, in the light of our day, are the Revelation and its claims hopelessly unrealizable? The truth of the matter is the answer is a most emphatic, “no”, on both accounts.
Given the benefit of “hindsight”, we can now see and assert positively that, based in part on I Peter 1:10-12, the bizarre predictions of events and occurrences of the Revelation and other books of the Bible were in fact not written for the people of the days of their origin, as rather, they were propounded with a view to these days in which we live. Only in our day could these often superbly outlandish predictions have ever seen the light of day, in terms of reality. Though the prophecies were intentionally spoken and given to a people who had no capacity to ever understand in their lifetime, or to appreciate the significance of what they were hearing, all, each and every one (of the prophecies) had merit—albeit, as we have said, only in a then distant future; a future so remote, so far removed from any known reality, it was, at that time, one as much “yet” to exist as it was one utterly “incomprehensible”, unfathomable, and frankly, flat impossible to anticipate. One might even dare call it, viewed from the point of view of the ancients, “far-fetched”! The Mind of Almighty God so structured the end-times (of that, then, distant future) that He tailored a situation in which the main events and happenings, per these prophecies, are only realizable in an enlightened, educated, highly refined and industrialized society such as ours (consider the many parts of the world where many people groups co-exist with us, living exactly as they have—and we did—for millennia. Without us, minus these times, they would never be able to make sense of these prophecies.). Thus, thanks to the modern sciences, all of which must now be grouped under the general heading of “physics”, and in the light of the tremendously increased understanding they bring as to the workings of our world and of the universe at large, knowing hereby the power tucked, packaged neatly and securely woven within the cracks and crevasses of the vast “unseeable” that perpetually surrounds us, who but the damnedest of fools can fail now to appreciate just how wrong Martin Luther and all the Bible critics and scoffers have been? It is now fully evident that everything they said could not happen, being everything God said would happen, is now doable (is he not, therefore, a fool, who says “…there is no God”? See Psalm 14:1 & 51:1)! The blueprint for all that has not happened, is now visible, on the drawing board, “even as we speak”, certain to materialize fully, in its time. Examples of those prophecies that have yet to come to pass are: 1) the Jewish Temple standing on the site of Solomon’s old Temple (occupied now by the Mosque of Omar), 2) a self-sustaining (more or less) space-based Star Wars defense system, and, 3) the mating of humanoid robotics and AI, in a near life-like package. Surely, “…our God is an awesome God!”
So, then—thou skeptic, you critic, you who scoff—you want to disprove the reality of the God of the Bible, God of both the Jews and of the Christians, do you? Then, consider: The buck starts here! Here is where the “rubber meets the road”. All of the prophecies demand concrete, quantifiable resolution in the modern sciences (directly, for the “concrete” prophecies; indirectly for the abstract, prophecies), even as it maintains strong roots in both ancient and modern history. Either the Bible, and the voices of its prophets, does or it does not gel with the sciences and history of our day. Disprove its claims in the area of either one or the other, or both, discredit the Judeo/Christian notion of God once and for all. Such is the criteria established by God the Almighty, Himself (Deuteronomy 18:21-22: “Should any prophet profess to speak in the Name of Jehovah—The Self-existing, Eternal One—and nothing follows, nor does his speech come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken…”). Doubtful disputation and argument propounded (from Bible data that, while true, is as much abstract now as it has ever been; it cannot be proved or disproved!) by doubting scholars and skeptical critics so as to elicit faith from the unsuspecting based upon theological gleamings pruned as from the biblical fields of truth by spiritual illiterates by means of which they make nebulous comparisons to such things as a fabled “Q” document (which, all affirm, does not even exist!), etc., is not an effective substitute.
The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ and its companion, Prelude to the Apocalypse, will demonstrate that far from creating a basis for disbelief in the Bible and Bible prophecy, the sciences and archaeology have actually joined forces, as it were, coalescing to give the Christian every reason to “…keep believing, in His Name…”, no matter the doubts of others (Larnel Harris), to encourage himself as his “…soul waits for the Lord, like a night watchman waiting…for the coming of the dawn…” (Marantha Singers), for, surely He is coming soon. Hence, notwithstanding the evident ignorance endemic to the voices of the critics, the mantra of every Christian should ever be, “Let the praises of the Lord, rise among us” (Marantha Praise Band), for His mercy endures, and His words never fail.
Let us now pray that the Lord our God will remember us and smile on us for good, for this and every work that we do, against the grains of higher criticism, in defense of and in honor of His Name, that is without match. Amen!
