Intro:

The book of Revelation is one of the most feared, hated, and misunderstood books in the Bible. Men resent being told the future by an authoritative source, and they deeply and bitterly resent any oracle about their future which is negative and prophecies which are evil concerning them (I Kings 22:13-28). For this reason--innate hatred for negative prophecy which goes contrary to Darwin's religion--the book of Revelation has been the battleground of theological controversy since the day it was written. The purpose of this message is to examine the three primary batteries of artillery that has been leveled at the book to prevent us from accepting it literally.

I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DATE OF WRITING

The "Praeterist" (i.e. dead orthodox) system teaches that the events described in Revelation have, in the main, been fulfilled. To support this theory they set the date of writing during the reign of Nero (66-69 A.D.), exactly where the Roman Catholic church has always dated it. If this date is accepted then all of the destruction in the book of Revelation can be assigned to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD that is if you are willing to twist the Scriptures radically.

A study of the following Scriptures is very convincing that God intends the whole world to be included in the Tribulation not just Jerusalem. (See Rev. 6:12,15; 7:1; 8:7-12; 9:3-6,19,20; 10:5,6; 11:8-10,18; 13:7,8; 14:6; 15:4; 18:23; 19:19.) On the other hand if the book was written after 70 A.D., then the "Rome" of Rev. 17:1-9 would be Papal Rome, instead of Pagan Rome. The correct date is somewhere between 91 and 96 A.D., during the reign of Domitian. There would be no reason for John to "marvel" if the woman in Rev. 17 were pagan Rome for he was well acquainted with it. (See Rev. 17:7.)

II. A-MILLENNIALISM

This theory suggests that Christ will never literally return to establish a kingdom. Naturally all Amillennialist assign the date of writing to 66-69 A.D. This enables them to charge ahead to establish their own kingdom. They do this in the face of Rev. 20:1-7, where "one thousand" is mentioned six times. Of course, the Civil War was supposed to bring this man-made kingdom. One party in the Revolutionary War was called "Fifth Kingdom Monarchists." World War I & 2 was supposed to bring "peace on earth, good will to men." The Ecumenical Council has had opportunity to do it. In plain words, all history is bound to Rev. 20:1-7. Whether a man believes the book of Revelation or not, he can get shot on a battlefield trying to bring in something that will never be here until Jesus Christ comes back.

A person who is Pre-Millennialist will know where to place the Jew correctly in the Word of God, and knowing where to place the Jew, he will know what passages belong to the Jew, and what passages do not. That will determine correct and false doctrine in relation to baptism, tongues, the church, sanctification, the Age of Grace, and the Tribulation.

Interestingly David Gregory, the mathematician of Oxford (1710) understood that history would run 6,000 years from Adam to the Second Advent. Rabbi Baal Katturim (1734) understood that history would wind up in 2,000 A.D. The Chaldeans (600-400 B.C.) believed the Kingdom would come 6,000 years after the Creation. Zoroaster taught the same, and the Tuscans and Persians (300-1900 A.D.) believed the same. The "Epistle of Barnabas" mentioned the same phenomena (date uncertain), and Irenaeus (130), Hippolytus (3rd cent.), Cyprian (200-258), Lactantius (260-258), and Justin Martyr (1100-163) All say the same thing. Clarence Larkin (1909) had this "year-day" system drawn out in great detail in a number of charts in his work on "Dispensational Truth" (11915), and it is available at any bookstore in the world-or can be ordered from a bookstore. There is really no excuse for anyone in the 20th Century not being informed about the matter.

In the work done by the Rev. George Wilson (1887), one will find the advent date; the date given is 1996 A.D. This scholarly work covers 1,055 pages and runs over 685,000 words. No A-millennial scholar has ever successfully refuted it, or even challenged it. Burlington Wale, a British philologist (1883), speaks of it; William A. Parlane (11894) speaks of it; George Pember (1837-1910) speaks of it; Robert Cameron (1896) speaks of it; James Martin Gray (1851-1935)-President of Moody Bible Institutespeaks of it; G.B.M. Clouser (1903) believed in it, so did Ethelbert W. Bullinger (1837-1913), E.C. Henninges (1919), C.I. Scofield (1843-1921), Charles Welch (1912), Adolph Knock (1974), and Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-). Furthermore, every major evangelist in America since 1900 was a Pre-millennialist; Billy Sunday, J. Frank Norris, Hyman Appleman, Jesse Hendley, Bob Jones Sr., Rice, Billy Graham, Charles Fuller, Beauchamp Vick, Dallas Billington, and Jack Wyrtzen were all Pre-millenialists: i.e. men who believed that Society, Religion, Education, Science and civilization would rapidly degenerate until Jesus Christ returned to set up a literal physical, visible, political Kingdom.

 

III. SYMBOLIC OR ALLEGORICAL READING

One of the primary objectives of making something in Revelation symbolic is to veil the identity of the characters of the book. After all, Satan isn't particularly interested in anyone knowing that he actually is a dragon (Rev. 12). The Roman Catholic Church certainly doesn't want to be identified in Rev. 17, and who wants to believe that there will be literal demonic creatures crawling out of the pit of hell (Rev. 9) to torment men. In short, if the book of Revelation is to be interpreted literally, mankind is headed for a heap of trouble! May I recommend King Jesus!