We can get caught up in all the different end times eschatology, but when I read articles like this one about Revelation, what always hits me is the very end when Jesus will make all things right:
“Behold, the dwelling placeof God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away,” (Revelation 21:3-4).
It’s so real and wonderful and hopeful. As you live in this broken world and walk around in your aging body and see grief and illness and all that is not right in our frail, human lives, may you see the places where the light of Jesus has broken through—a foretaste of the glorious renewal that is to come.
I believe the Bible is the Word of God and is meant to be understood. Even the book of Revelation is meant to be understood. I know there are many views on it that disagree with each other, but only one view can be right. I also believe completely that the rapture will take place before the seal judgements of Revelation begin. The wrath of God is not meant for His church but is meant as a judgement on an unbelieving world. We are not appointed to wrath.
So when I read this book, I don’t read it with fear or the expectation of doomsday events. There’s enough doomsday in this world as is, but it is nothing compared to what awaits.
We have only to look at the lives of the apostles or the early Christians to know that the Christian life is no guarantee of good times. Anyone who’s been sold this bill of goods will be disappointed. In North American this view is most often held, but in Africa, the Middle East and in other places the Christian knows that having Jesus in your life will mean suffering.
The church will leave in the rapture, but there is a multitude that comes to faith after the church is gone. They are the tribulations saints and they will suffer for their faith and many will also die for the faith. The time to believe is now.
Get the time frame right, and the whole New Testament pops into vivid focus and makes sense. Get the time frame wrong, and you might well spiral into immediate irrelevance, and a much lower quality of life. Life is GREAT! God’s plans are AMAZING! Let’s go juggle some mountains for His glory!
The state-of-the-art best eschatology, postmillennialism, usually includes some form of preterism. Most of the prophecies in the Olivet Discourse, and John’s more detailed retelling of that discourse in prophetic (visual, right-brain) imagery, refers to the Jewish War, which lasted 7 years, started on schedule 40 years after Jesus pronounced God’s pending judgment upon “this generation,” and kicked the feet out from under the Kingdom of God’s two chief enemies – Rome, and apostate Israel.
Get the time frame right, and you can even explain Apocalypse to Turkish Muslims in a way that makes sense. After all 7 of those churches were in present-day Turkey. And two sidekicks from Anatolia wrote more than half the New Testament!