Postamble to Revelation
This is the part where we try to make sense of it all. This is the part where speculation runs riot. This is the part where the dogmatic become fools.
It was never my intention to rehearse the arguments of the three-millennialists. It has been well said, ‘The millennium is the thousand years of peace Christians love to fight over’. Revelation fits into Scripture, despite some attempts to take it out.
As we read through Scripture, we must by now have observed that we are moving through the progression of a divine Plan. Those travelling through a plan are the least able to see where they fit into the whole. The two disciples on the Emmaus road had seen the Crucifixion and heard reports of some had seen the resurrection, but were so close to the events they could not make sense of it all. Jesus to come alongside and gave the view from a greater height. He began at the beginning, showing from Moses, through the prophets, what was going on. Only then did their disappointment turn to joy.
So we need to fit Revelation into the whole. We have seen from the Old Testament survey338 that God’s plan for creations has been written on a baton-scroll that has been handed down from Creation to the New heaven and Earth.
Each baton pass overlaps, it is not a cut off point. The baton of earth’s stewardship passed from God to Adam, From Adam to the Patriarchs, then to the Former-Prophets. The change spanned about one-hundred years. Likewise, the Baton change from Former-Prophets to Kings, from Kings to Priest, from Priests to the Pinnacle of History, Prophet Priest and King-Jesus. The baton changes described in Revelation are no different. One baton change, from the end of this present heaven and earth to the new, will take a thousand years, be that literal or not. Another change over may take either three-and-a-half years or seven years.339
We must start with a warning.
And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.340
Why mention that? John is a little humbler than to say, ‘I know something you don’t’, he is saying ‘be careful how you interpret this vision because there is a key here that could change the whole interpretation’. We will have learned nothing if we have not read the prophets of old. Every prophesy came true, but when it did the world was caught out, because it had read the prophecy and interpreted it into something different. Who would have thought, that whole town would have been picked up and cast into the sea? But Tyre was! Three-hundred years after the prophecy.341 The Messiah himself was totally misunderstood because one key fact was not generally known then. But now, in hindsight, we know Messiah will come twice, once to fulfil the law and once to judge it. Watch out for the foolish, they predict the order or times of the events in Revelation. Don’t repeat the errors of the Pharisees and Sadducees. God will not fulfil his plan in accordance with what we believe, but in accordance with what the scriptures actually says.
If you can, take John’s advice, read the whole letter out loud.342 It is easier to pick up certain patterns.
If we begin with the three sets of seven Judgements:
Each set is in fact, six judgements and an interlude. The seventh seal, the seventh trumpet and the seventh bowl, each contain an earthquake, followed by John returning focus to Heaven where the angel describes what will happen to God’s people through that time. We can notice a further pattern, each set is subdivided into four, two and one. The seventh, being an earthquake.
This has led us to question, what is the sequence of these events. Three basic suggestions exist, the three sets run consecutively, concurrently or progressively as follows:
338 Surfing the Scriptures by B E R Limmer
339 We argue the time in line with our interpretation but the time is not dependent on our view.
340 Revelation 10: 4
341 Ezekiel 26 : prophesied in C 610 BC - the prophecy fulfilled in detail by Alexander-the-Great in C 333 BC
342 Revelation 1: 3