FOR FAIR USE AND EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION PURPOSES



Most Christians look at the Book of Revelation with the carnal (fleshy) eyes of "man". They see nothing of what God is actually telling us. Expectations are similar to those things seen in a horror movie....monsters, fire, blood, pain lasting 5 months, inability to even commit suicide, famine, drought, bloody rivers and oceans....the stench would be beyond belief!!

WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

To learn spiritual things, one must have their spiritual eyes opened. But if you never see samples of what "spiritual vision" can be, then how can you know you have achieved it? So, the best way is to train yourself to understand things that are spiritual through what others have learned. J. Preston Eby is one of the BEST in these explanations. I've learned a lot from him...and maybe he will help others as well. Our spiritual eyes become stronger with more practice. You eventually see things you couldn't understand before...and it is magnificent!


http://www.kingdombiblestudies.org/Revelation/rev5.htm


Piece of the article in the link:


If you believe in the traditional literalist interpretation of the book of Revelation, there are some serious issues you are going to have to face. Teachers like Hal Lindsey and scores of others tell us that the whole book is fulfilled in the brief span of 1260 days, or three and one half years. They tell us that in the days of the Great Tribulation there issues a world-wide famine from which one billion people die, believers are martyred in incredible numbers, a nuclear war takes place, one third of the world’s vegetation is destroyed, one third of the world’s oceans are turned into blood, one third of the world’s drinking water is so polluted that to drink it kills people, horrible locusts (maybe helicopters!) plague the world’s unbelievers for a solid five months, and then 200,000,000 Chinese communists, with perhaps Japanese allies, march on Israel, and on their way they kill nearly one billion more people.

By the time these armies reach Israel, the world’s oceans have all been turned into blood, the world’s drinking water, all of it, has been turned to blood, as the blood of a dead man; there is a world wide epidemic of ulcers and skin cancers under a global heat wave. There is no fresh water to drink anywhere on the planet, and there is going to be a great run on Coca Cola, but even the stores of bottled drinks give out. Then, while there is no water, and no food, and no health, and no ability to work or earn a living, we’re going to have this great battle of Armageddon involving 200,000,000 invading soldiers! Now the scene gets even more bizarre! With billions dead or dying, with war and famine and disease and trouble and torment everywhere, if you take the mark of the beast you are given the liberty to buy and sell! Buy and sell what? I ask. There’s no water, it’s all blood. There are no trees, no grass, no agriculture; there is world war, devastating earthquakes, broiling heat, and nuclear destruction; and while these 200,000,000 soldiers are attacking Israel, there are 200 pound hailstones falling on them!

I’m not trying to be cynical, friends, but it seems to me that anyone with one eye and half sense could see that the logistics of this scheme transcend absurdity — they are impossible! There is no geographical space for 200,000,000 soldiers with tanks, trucks, airplanes, supplies, and all the rest in the valley of Megiddo — not counting the armies of Russia, the United States and their allies who are all supposed to gather there. Hear me, my brother, my sister — it ain’t going to happen! These armies can’t fight — there is no geographical space in all of Israel for so many people to even stand properly. So we have a problem! When you calculate the effect of all these events, if they are literal, and all happen at the same time during three and a half years, you really have a contradictory, unreasonable, illogical, ridiculous absurdity. May the blessed spirit of truth help all who read these lines to think soberly, and righteously, and spiritually about what is portrayed here!

The question follows — What do all these things mean? Ah, it’s all GOOD NEWS! Our heavenly Father is not some kind of angry, vindictive, psychotic, sadistic monster who is grinning and kind and merciful for two thousand years and then suddenly throws a temper tantrum, becomes vicious and vengeful, turning on that portion of the human race that just happens to be living at that time, pouring out wrath and spewing forth judgment that makes Adolph Hitler look like Santa Clause, and the Second World War appear as a church picnic. IS THAT THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST? IS IT? Is that the revelation of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Is that what Jesus Christ is all about? Is that the final word of the One who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to redeem it? Is that the true, hidden nature of the One who has presented Himself as Love, who has posed as the all-merciful, caring, compassionate, Saviour of all men? Is it? Lynn Hiles calls preachers who peddle the foolishness I have spoken of above spiritual terrorists! They scare people to death with a revelation that is supposed to be the unveiling of Jesus Christ! If that is the unveiling of Jesus Christ, then please keep the lid on Him! In my younger years the things I heard taught out of the book of Revelation would send tingles up your spine and make your hair curl. Thank God! Now we know it is the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, God’s wonderful, gracious, loving, redeeming, saving, transforming, life-giving Son!

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I wouldn't have fully understood this a year ago, but I understand it well now.

Arlene