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The book of Revelation is divided into Seven Recapitulations of the INTER-ADVENT ERA

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by Alan Gross, Sep 18, 2020.

  1. Alan Gross

    Alan Gross Well-Known Member

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    Each of THE SEVEN VISION DESCRIBE THE PERIOD of TIME,
    between Jesus' Ascension to Heaven and Jesus Final Return, in Judgment,
    at THE END of THE WORLD.

    WARNING: TO "READ REVELATION 'STRAIGHT THROUGH', as if IT IS 'ONE CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE', has LED to ALL THE 'MILL' AND 'TRIB' APOSTASY, in which Jesus' Imminent Return is DENIED and NOT PREACHED, to the lost World THAT WILL HAVE NO SECOND CHANCE, WHEN JESUS RETURNS.

    THE 'MILL' AND 'TRIB' APOSTASY ARE HERESY, for this reason. THEY AFFECT 'THE GOSPEL'.

    Jesus IS NOT COMING to PERSONALLY TALK to THE JEWS.

    Either you or I Preach Jesus to them, now, AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT IS LOST, and they are converted before they die or Jesus Comes, THAT IS IT.

    NO MORE OPPORTUNITY to BE SAVED after JESUS RETURNS in JUDGMENT.

    THE SEVEN PARALLEL SECTIONS OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION.


    In each case, the parallel sections consider the time period from the First to the Second Comings of Christ; only the perspective differs.

    (Revelation 1:1 clearly confirms this First Coming-Second Coming time scale of all that appears within the book).

    The parallels are somewhat spiritually progressive, with the seventh and final section even venturing into The New Heavens and the New Earth.

    A quick and easy way to see the seven parallels is the fact that the Second Coming of our Lord appears to occur seven times in this book, something thousands have wondered about.

    This is because there are seven parallel sections, covering events from John's day to the parousia.


    SECTION ONE. Christ in the Midst of the Lamps (Rev. 1:1-3:22):
    THE AGE OF THE CHURCH.

    The lampstands represent the 7 churches; these are typical of all churches throughout this church age. As in all of these sections, the narrative brings us to Christ's return (3:20-22) & Revelation 1:7.

    SECTION TWO. The Vision of Heaven and the Seals (Rev.4:1-7:17):
    THE CHURCH WILL BE TRIUMPHANT.

    This is a picture of the entire Church triumphant and includes the first mention of the 144,000.
    Once again, the section closes in chapter seven with the return of Christ, but since the theme here is the Church triumphant, the focus is almost entirely on the saved.

    SECTION THREE. The Seven Trumpets (Rev. 8:1-11:19):
    THE WORLD WILL BE PUNISHED FOR ITS REJECTION OF GOD.

    This section describes the effects of the Seven Trumpets on both those who reject God and upon the saved. Dark and fearful things affect the world in chapters eight and nine, whilst chapters ten and eleven focus on the Church. Once again (as in all of the other sections), the narrative brings us to Christ's return at the seventh trumpet (11:15). The message is clear: terrible things will come upon a God-rejecting world but God's own people will rejoice!

    SECTION FOUR. The Persecuting Dragon (Rev. 12:1-14:20):
    THE CHURCH MUST EXPECT PERSECUTION.

    The woman and the Man-child are persecuted by the dragon and his helpers. The section starts with a clear reference to the birth of our Saviour (12:5), the dragon threatens to devour the Man-child (Christ), but He is caught up to heaven, so the dragon now persecutes the 'woman' (the Church) through the agencies of the 'beast' and the 'harlot.' This is why Christians must expect persecution. Yet again the section closes with the Second Coming and with impending judgment (14:14-20).

    SECTION FIVE. The Seven Bowls (Rev. 15:1-16:21): FINAL JUDGMENT.
    These seven sections progressively reveal a little more and now the entire focus is on the final judgment of this world, and Armageddon is mentioned (16:16). Indications are strong (as we will learn later in this article) that the seven bowls and seven trumpets refer to exactly the same events but from somewhat differing perspectives; Christ returns at the seventh bowl and seventh trumpet.

    SECTION SIX. The Fall of Babylon (Rev. 17:1-19:21): BABYLON'S CONFUSION FINALLY REMOVED FROM THE WORLD.
    The current Babylonian system is why people are currently blinded to spiritual truth and worship money, commerce and various satanic ideologies: Darwinism, Marxism, Pantheism (modern 'environmentalism' is clearly pantheistic), and all the false religions. Babylon said (and currently still says) that people can freely be wealthy and prosperous at the expense of others and that these people can have a religion of their choice to appease their souls; Babylon masked the truth about God and gave people a religion of their minds; Babylon truly offered a self-earned justification, bedecked in deceptive luxury, moreover, it may even be observed in modern evangelicalism. This section shows when Babylon will finally be destroyed for her evil works of deception. We again find the return of Christ occurring (19:11),

    these regular Returns of Christ

    IN EACH of THE SEVEN VISIONS
    confirm that these are parallel sections,
    not consecutive occurrences!


    SECTION SEVEN. The Great Consummation (Rev. 20:1-22:21): GOD'S KINGDOM SPREADS FROM HEAVEN TO THE EARTH AND TO THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!
    The final section which reveals such great spiritual truth begins by going back to the start of the Church age to show how Satan has been restricted during this age.

    We even see the saints in heaven awaiting the resurrection (20:4-5), then we learn more about a final great military battle and the final destruction of the beast, false prophet and Satan himself (20:7-11), next we are presented with an amazing glimpse of the Great White Throne of Judgment when everybody who has ever lived must stand before God! (20:11-15).

    Yet it does not even finish there: God has even allowed us a symbolic glimpse into the New Jerusalem and the New Heavens and New Earth (chapters 21-22).
     
    #1 Alan Gross, Sep 18, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2020
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  2. canadyjd

    canadyjd Well-Known Member

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    I had a Greek professor articulate something you might find interesting.

    He said the scroll with the seven seals would be a common occurrence in Roman society. Such scrolls were either wills or death penalty cases.

    The seven seals represented different info in the scroll and could only be opened by someone with authority to do so. Each seal would have a small slip of papyrus with a summary of the contents of each section.

    The scene in Revelation is of the judgment of God. The summary of the seals is read and then the seals opened for more detailed information.

    peace to you
     
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  3. Alan Gross

    Alan Gross Well-Known Member

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    That is the clincher of clinchers.

    Any other 'approach' falls into frevilous reproach and utter question.

    Since, all of the other passages in Revelation, The New and Old Testament can be shown to fir equally as a hand in a glove, this places a ? Mark and The Mark of the Beast? onto all conceptions created by a straight through reading.

    Recapitulation (the Gospels) and reinnervation (Genesis 1-3 & all through The Bible) is the prima facia hermeneutic.

    In fact, the Lord's people may only see though symbalism, to a great extent, in these Last of The Last Days and the news shoe us the lost and the depth of their devotion to the darkness they love.

    The theme of Revelation is comfort to God's children.

    As much as it is Taught about Jesus' Second Coming any minute and the 'Christian' world innudated with anything but; like a 1,000 + or minus a stopwatch scoreboard of 'years' to count off 'that has to happen, first', is horror.

    A worldwide revival would be nice, but God's men would need to find His Call in His Message of Jesus' Soon Return and most all seem distracted, elsewhere, by another Spirit.
     
  4. canadyjd

    canadyjd Well-Known Member

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    Another interesting point is the fact John doesn’t write in chronological order, which you mentioned in Revelation.

    If you look at his gospel, you find he introduces a theme (ie, God’s will in being born in chapter 1) and then repeats the theme later (the Spirit’s will in the new birth in chapter 3) giving additional detail. There are several themes in his gospel that follows that pattern, woven together through various events and dialogs of Jesus.

    The opening of the scroll with 7 seven seals in Revelation would be a perfect vehicle for his writing style.

    I enjoy your understanding of Revelation.

    peace to you
     
  5. Calminian

    Calminian Well-Known Member
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    Revelation is future starting in chapter 4. The church is not mentioned or alluded to on earth until they saints arrive with Christ.
     
  6. Alan Gross

    Alan Gross Well-Known Member

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    The End of the Earthly Ministry of Jesus Christ in His First Advent, begins in Revelation Chapter 4 with Jesus Christ's Ascension to The Throne.

    The Second Vision describes events taking place, from Jesus Accent to The Throne in Heaven, until Jesus' One and Only Second Coming, in Judgment Revelation 6:12.

    Since the Final Judgment is gradually Revealed in each of the seven sections/ Seven Vivions, Jesus' Second Coming was only mentioned in Revelation 1;7.

    In 6:12 the Horror of the lost facing The Judge of All the Earth is (begun) to be brought out.

    That leaves 5 more Visions, with 5 more gradually more severe depictions of Jesus' Second Coming.
     
  7. 37818

    37818 Well-Known Member

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    That interpretation is a denial that the church is made up of all saved believers, Revelation 7:14, Revelation 14:13, and Revelation 20:4.
     
  8. Calminian

    Calminian Well-Known Member
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    What interpretation? It's just a straight reading of the text. To deny it, you have to "interpret." Just read it and believe it, and you'll get the blessing of Rev. 1:3.
     
  9. Calminian

    Calminian Well-Known Member
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    All i can say is you're missing a blessing by allegorizing everything, especially when there are so many possibilities in allegory.
     
  10. 37818

    37818 Well-Known Member

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    Any reading of a text is an interpretation. Revelation 7:14, ". . . they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Are they not the church? Revelation 14:13, ". . . Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: . . ." Are not they the Lord's His church? Revelation 20:4, ". . . And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. . . ." Again, are they not Christ's church?
     
  11. Alan Gross

    Alan Gross Well-Known Member

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    Revelation was Sent and Signified...

    That's what it was and that is what it is.
     
  12. Steven Yeadon

    Steven Yeadon Well-Known Member
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    Sir, what does that even mean?
     
  13. Alan Gross

    Alan Gross Well-Known Member

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    That word, "signified", means, " to give a sign".

    It does not mean, "read Revelation 'literally', unless you are 'forced(?)' to take it symbollically".

    That leads to the most arbitrary inconsistancy imaginable.

    Revelation isn't the first Book God ever Wrote and according to our Bible reading, He Knows how to use figurative lanuage, especially expressing Prophetic subject-matter.

    file:///C:/Users/fundi/Downloads/FIGURES_OF_SPEECH_USED_IN_THE_BIBLE_Bull.pdf

    That being said, the OP concerns the Seven Visions.

    Each one is a Revelation in itself, covering the Period of Time from Jesus' Acsention, to The Final Judgment, at The End of Time and life on Earth.



    That is set in none-allegorical concrete, leaving any 'interpreter' that follows the chapters, one after another, completely on their own, without God, to determine some thoughts in their head regarding Revelation, which is a Consent to Defeat Mistake.

    The Bible is structured in various places the way it is structured.

    If you'll PM me an address, I'll send you the book I'm using.

    I like to wright and wright, using and crediting the author, but there are still issues with copyright that prevent a full on attack, using this work.

    That and the fact that it is dripping with the Blood of Jesus, with such extremely bountiful imagiary and REVELATION that is would take post after post.
     
  14. Calminian

    Calminian Well-Known Member
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    So that's why you insist on taking everything symbolically. You feel someone's trying to force you??

    Funny, I've never heard it put this way. The basic idea is, trust the straightforward reading of the Bible. If symbolism is indicated interpret symbolically. If nothing is indicated, take it at face value. It's the natural way we communicate.
     
  15. Alan Gross

    Alan Gross Well-Known Member

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    That is exactly the way we naturally communicate and exactly not the way Revelation is expressed, by God, in the apocryphal genre.

    Both "Denotative" Language that "DENOTES" a Specific Fact,

    at Face Value and "Connotative" Language

    that Gives "THE CONNOTATION"

    to Express a General Truth of Reality

    ARE LITERATURE.

    ...

    Literal, Literary,

    LITERATURE.
    ...

    The "Connotation" of a Reality,

    stated IN FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

    is OFTEN MORE EXPRESSIVE of THE TRUTH

    and FACTS of REALITY

    than when a Fact is simply "Denoted".

    ...

    BOTH ARE LITERAL, LITERARY,
    LITERATURE.
    ...

    The confusion is created when, "Literal" Interpretation

    is CONFUSED with "LETTER-ISM",

    or a "Letter-for-Letter", PHOTOGRAPHIC,

    Carbon Copy, taken Only at "Face Value".

    ...

    The result of this confusion created,

    BY ASSUMING "Literal" Interpretation

    TO MEAN: "LETTER-ISM",

    is in an Inconsistent Hermeneutic.

    ...

    For example, pressured by the obvious,

    the falsely presumed to be: prophetic "literalist",

    WHO IS ACTUALLY MISHANDLING

    THE LITERATURE of THEIR NATIVE TONGUE,

    BY INJECTING "LETTER-ISM", or a "Letter-for-Letter",


    AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR BASIC STRAIGHTFORWARD

    READING the INTERPRETATION of LITERATURE,

    will readily concede

    that the sword coming from Christ’s mouth

    is a symbol for the word of God (1:16);

    or

    that the Spirit symbolizes

    the exalted Christ as a Lamb

    with seven horns and seven eyes

    in order to remind us that our Sacrifice for sin

    is now the Omnipotent and Omniscient

    High King and High Priest of Heaven (5:6).

    ...

    When however,

    the PRESUMED "literalist" INJECTS "LETTER-ISM"

    or a "Letter-for-Letter", PHOTOGRAPHIC,

    Carbon Copy, taken Only at "Face Value",

    INTO THEIR UNDERSTANDING of "READING"

    and comes to the 144,000 of all the tribes

    of the children of Israel (7:4);

    or

    to the two witnesses who prophesy

    and (briefly) perish on the streets

    of the Great City (11:8);

    or

    to Christ’s admonition to the saints

    against taking the mark of the Beast (13:16-18);

    or

    to the gathering of the kings of the whole world

    at the Mountain of Megiddo (16:14);

    . . .

    Then:

    the PRESUMED "literalist" that has INJECTED "LETTER-ISM",

    INTO THEIR UNDERSTANDING of "READING",

    suddenly abandons the symbolic hermeneutic,

    AFTER THEY HAD conceded, for example,

    that the sword coming from Christ’s mouth

    is a symbol for the word of God (1:16), etc., etc.

    while using the symbolic hermeneutic,

    THEY SWITCH OFF FROM the symbolic hermeneutic

    IN MID-STREAM

    TO:

    a Presumed "literal" hermeneutic,

    in which they have INJECTED "LETTER-ISM",

    or a "Letter-for-Letter", PHOTOGRAPHIC,

    Carbon Copy, taken Only at "Face Value",

    INTO THEIR UNDERSTANDING of "READING",

    and they look at "the 144,000 of all the tribes

    of the children of Israel (7:4)" and say,

    LET'S COUNT 'EM",

    rather than maintaining the symbolic hermeneutic,

    at which time they may come to understand

    that the 12 Apostles

    represent The New Testament SAINTS

    Faithful to God in Service and Worship

    and

    The 12 Tribes of Israel

    represent The Old Testament SAINTS

    Faithful to God in Service and Worship.

    ...

    12 x 12 = 144.

    ...

    Then,

    MULTIPLY 144 TIMES

    The Number for The COMPLETENESS

    of ALMIGHTY GOD ( 10 )

    in MAGNITUDE, or "1,000"

    or

    144 X 1,000
    &

    we get: 144,000.
    ...

    That's what "we get".

    ...

    Do you get it?

    ...

    BY ENGAGING IN THIS PROCESS of

    RANDOMLY SWITCHING OFF FROM

    the symbolic hermeneutic IN MID-STREAM

    TO:

    a Presumed "literal" hermeneutic,

    in which they have INJECTED "LETTER-ISM",

    INTO THEIR UNDERSTANDING of "READING",

    THE "LITERALIST / LETTER-ISM-ISTS"

    or trying to force a "Letter-for-Letter",

    PHOTOGRAPHIC, Carbon Copy,

    "Interpretation",


    taken at "Face Value" ONLY,

    ARE

    thereby abandoning:

    a Consistent Method of Interpretation

    for an Inconsistent Method of Interpretation.

    ... WordPress.com
     
    #15 Alan Gross, Oct 8, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2020
  16. Calminian

    Calminian Well-Known Member
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    I see direct statements from John and Christ as John records it, from commands, to metaphors to interpretations of metaphors. That are indeed very normal communication, which are fairly easy to understand. But I see nothing that justifies your method of interpretation.
     
  17. Alan Gross

    Alan Gross Well-Known Member

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    Do you see The End of The World in the First Vision?
    And the Second Vision?
    And the Third?
    and the fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Visions?

    They are there.

    All but one, which is so similar as to be implied, also has a depiction stated regarding The First Advent of Jesus Christ.

    Each Vision has it's own depiction od The First Advent of Jesus, on Earth
    and it's own depiction of The Second Avent of Jesus, in Final Judgment.

    Have you picked those out and seen them?

    ...

    I'm not making any big argument for the genre in which Revelation is written, because God Says it was 'signified', (unless Satan has robbed that from your 'translation', which he is known to do, as a thief).

    The idea that each Vision encompasses The Same Time Period is my point and that of William Hendriksen, and God, too.

    Revelation divides itself.
     
  18. Steven Yeadon

    Steven Yeadon Well-Known Member
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    Thank you for answering me. I will have to pass on a free book. My reading list is huge right now. Thank you anyway.
     
  19. Alan Gross

    Alan Gross Well-Known Member

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    "...Jesus answered and said, I thank thee,
    O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,

    because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
    and hast revealed them unto babes." Matthew 11:25
     
  20. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    It's all symbolic of the wrath to the uttermost poured out on that generation of Jews that killed Christ, and it was the end of the age not the end of the kosmos.

    Seven seals, seven trumpets, seven angels, seven bowls, read the curses of Lev 26/Dt 28 (and others) from the OT; the wrath poured out upon 'the land', the judgment of the great Harlot.

    18 And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
    21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
    24 then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.
    28 then I will walk contrary unto you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. Lev 26
     
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