Words are either representations of symbols, direct descriptions of
reality itself.....or both.
Some reviling blasphemers would promptly dismiss the words of the New-Testament
book of Revelation as bizarre religious-connotation hallucinations of
either a drunk or someone besieged with solitary-confinement-exacerbated
temporary insanity.
Some would insinuate and infer that the words and phrases within
Revelation are a hard-to-differentiate mixture of references to perhaps
previous history combined with observational descriptions of natural entities
and phenomena seamlessly integrated into imaginary and fanciful parables,
metaphors, euphemisms, and allegories.
Take for example the Revelation reference to the "1000 years."
MUST that millennium be exact down to the last second
(i.e. 1000.000 years precisely) .....or could it be instead taken to mean 998,
1200, or 75 years? IS that number to be taken literally?
ARE the entities, events, and timing specified in Genesis chapter 1 to
be taken literally or rather figuratively? IS what is
intended to merely prove some vague theological premise, despite the
details?
Notable and vital it is that the Inspired human author of Revelation
was directed by the LORD to state an ominous and frightening, Spirit-enforced,
do-NOT-change-NOR-omit-NOR-add-ANY-words Copyright Warning in the last chapter
of Revelation.
So much for anyone pseudo-believably presuming that one religious-text revision
is as good as the next.
It's not unusual for prejudiced bigots to misthink and misconstrue contents of
any part of sacred Scripture. In our present modern age of sliding through
stopsigns, doublespeak, loaded statements and loaded questions based upon
false premises in the first place, people saying what they do not mean and
not meaning what they say, such misrepresentation is expected (but, of course,
is non-acceptable).
However, does a 35-mph road sign with
two orange flags or an orange bar on it merely mean "don't go too fast" or
"don't go too slow?" And WHAT exactly is "too fast" or
"too slow?" Is such to be taken literally.....or instead
symbolically, figuratively, allegorically, metaphorically, contextually,
interpretatively? Could such a specific speed-sign number
be instead taken to mean 50 or 70 or 10? The
experimentational SCIENTIFICALLY discover by the presence OR absence
of flashing red-and-blue squad-car lights behind them!
Even more:
Does it really matter WHAT exact letters-and-numbers
combination computer passcodes are (not to mention what PRECISE order
and sequence they are typed in)? Can we instead have a whatever! or doesn't
matter! attitude and resultant action in attempting computer entry?
Isn't the OVERALL figurative, metaphorical, allegorical, contextual,
interpretative POINT merely to get into the computer - regardless
of the purportedly "nitpicky" details of the code? Try it, if you are so
inclined.....and frustrate yourself into utterly ludicrous self-imposed
madness!
Spirit-convinced FAITH and RELIGIOUS acceptance of already-stated
given facts from The Ultimate KNOWN
RESPECTED TIME-TESTED Source of both
Genesis and Revelation is easy, safe, and
non-confusing.....in stark contrast to the embarrassing, rebellious,
anti-Biblical, Bible-ignoring, Scripture-disregarding, Bible-questioning,
ANTI-SCIENTIFIC, NON-PROVABLE blatter of the deliberately?-ignorant,
NON-thinking, prejudicial presumptuousness of anti-creationism
evolutionists.
WHAT genuine AUTHORITY (based upon non-falsifiable information
and knowledge) do CLOSE-minded hopelessly-and-relentlessly-biased disbelievers
have to arrogantly dispute or question Biblical creationism, and instead
substitute in their CONNIVED CONCOCTIONS of CHANGEABLE CONTRADICTIONS against
mounting scientifically-searched-for-and-verifiably-present
EVIDENCE of CLOSELY-OBSERVED AND MEASURED, HONESTLY-EVALUATED-AND-DESCRIBED
fossils, geologic-strata layering and composition, volcanic-emissions
analysis, radiometric-dating techniques and precise measurement, magnetic-
fluctuation differentiation, celestial-mechanics analysis, genetic-reproduction
microbiology, paleontological anthropological research, and so forth?
The PSEUDO-"science" of arrogantly-froward obstinent belligerance
and mindless babbling of bigoted bullyboys and bullygirls simply does not
cut it!
When cornered by superior-reasoning confrontation, disbelievers hem and haw,
quickly divert off on tangents to not-on-the-specific-topic-at-hand
cultic conjectures and controversies, then continue to irrationally convince
themselves that their own (and/or someone else's) deliberately or ignorantly-
misinformational presumptions are infallible truth and unquestionable fact.
If, then when, they are shown MORE and MORE NATURAL
evidence (of fossils, radiometric dating, harmful-mutational
genetic-nonreproductive occurrences, Job 11:12, etc.) they frequently try to
cover their deceptive, impenitent, lying and dishonest hinders by opting out
with the inexcusable excuse that they "don't know for sure" and (continuing
to bellow on with pseudo-authority speaking for everyone else) that "no one
else knows for sure either."
Great. And THAT shameful and despicable declaration of uncertainty plus lack
of provable information and knowledge is supposed to QUALIFY them
as PURPORTED and ALLEGED "scientists," "scholars," and "experts" - as if they
know everything and disdain anyone else who claims opposing omnicience.
Save us from such STUPID know-NOTHING
PSEUDO-"science!"
Proud, belligerant, worldly-minded sophisticates...devoid of the Spirit...
pooh-pooh the non-technical wording of Genesis to Revelation
(while they themselves mouth the myth of presumed million/billion-year
evolution following their "Big Bang" without ever defining nor describing
in detail what banged (and doesn't that "Big-Bang"-baloney phrase itself sound
ridiculously childish and non-scientific? One could easily instead hear
refreshingly intelligent speech from a TWO-year-old)!
Again, it does not matter if either evolutionists or creationists get
mathematically or semantically technical. Scientific FACT is Scientific
FACT (as in Genesis OR Revelation).....whether put in
simple terms or instead technocomplexity. BOTH evolutionary
brainwashing propagandists AND Biblio-scientific creationists can
talk technical, but such is unnecessary, because TRUTH is TRUTH, FACT is FACT,
credible SCIENCE is credible SCIENCE -- no matter how simply expressed
and anti-complex the descriptions.
Can one dogmatically assert proof for a Big Bang of whatever
banged instead of the Genesis historical record of Earth
existing alone with the heavens at "the beginning".....flashing-fire/
explosive fireball light existing from the beginning instead of the
Sun being created on Day 4 of Creation Week....lava instead
of water covering Earth's surface from the start.....
millions/billions of years of gradual change from "species" to "species"
transpiring instead of the appearance of various kinds of lifeforms
within the 24-hour periods of the days of Creation Week in accord with
the Hebrew word for day (i.e. yom, qualified by
the Hebraic idiomatic phrase and there was evening and there was
morning) and reproducing ONLY according to
their own kinds (acknowledging continuing occurring
variations and adaptations within
KINDS of lifeforms due to selective breeding and
environmental factors)?
Much has been and continues to be in the media (both sacred and even
secular) about the return of Jesus Christ.
Much controversy exists pertaining to (or instead concerning -
depending upon your point of view!) the Rapture.
The not-specifically-in-Scripture word 'Rapture' is a euphemistic word for
both:
Being that no one knows the day nor the hour (Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32, and Luke 12:40), when Jesus Christ will bodily return is quite a question.
The Old-Testament prophet Daniel gave us some numerical figures of
"2,300 evenings and mornings" (Daniel 8:14), "1,290 days"
(Daniel 12:12), and "1,335 days" (Daniel 12:13)......without
specifying EXACTLY from WHAT to WHAT. However, the inspirational
Holy Spirit dictated such to that Hebrew/Jewish Scriptural author Daniel for
the sake of modern-day wise prophets of bloodline and other spiritual
Israel to contemplate and benefit by (Daniel 12:9-10).
This writer assumes that the secular and worldly major-network TV, radio, and
newsprint media of the near future are NOT going to have front-page headlines
like:
If such WERE the case, and if such news WAS correct, it apparently would be a simple arithmetic matter to make a 42-month calculation to predict more or less the PRECISE date of the Lord's bodily return for the Battle of Armageddon. Everyone consequently could plan accordingly - both for evil and for good.
"The day of the Lord" is a phrase from II Thessalonians 2:1-8 which apparently is of simultaneous occurrence with the additional phrase that follows in that passage: "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" along with the phrase following that which reads: "our assembling to meet Him." ALL THREE PHRASES in that II Thessalonians 2 are aspects of and occur simultaneously -- ONCE BEFORE The Millennium begins, and ONCE AFTER the Millennium ends.
The LATTER (2nd) fulfilment of the three aspects above is referred to in I Corinthians 15:51 ("We shall not all sleep, but we shall ALL be changed....at The LAST TRUMPET...THE DEAD will be raised imperishable"). THAT event is THE same as mentioned in Daniel 12:2 ("...some shall awake to SHAME and EVERLASTING CONTEMPT") and part of the same event recorded in Revelation 20:11-15 in which ALL the wicked PLUS those righteous dead not raised in the FIRST RESURRECTION spoken of in Revelation 20:4-6....are resurrected to be separated as [wicked] "goats" are separated from [righteous] "sheep" (refer to Matthew 25:31-46) immediately after the Earth and heavens have "fled away" (Revelation 20:11) being "dissolved with a loud noise" and "fervent heat" (Zephaniah 3:8 and II Peter 3:7-12) because of the (Gr. epiphanaous/parousea/apocalypsus) brightness/presence/terrifying coming of the Awesome Judge on His Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11-15).
Scripture refers to TWO SEPARATE
DIFFERENT-OCCURRENCE bodily "coming of Christ"
JUDGEMENTS. Note that I prefer to use the clarifying
word "judgements"
in the plural instead of the confusing buzzwords: "Christ's
comingS" and "Christ's returnS."
I Thessalonians 4:13-17 refers to CERTAIN
resurrected saints who have fallen DEATHLY "asleep"
RISING UP (or SNATCHED UP alive) (that is:
RAPTURED!) to "meet the Lord in the air with the
clouds" immediately BEFORE CERTAIN
YET-ALIVE saints who also "meet them in the air with the
clouds"......as Christ Jesus descends down to destroy the impenitent
armies arrayed against Him.
Another passage of Scripture predicting that same event is Revelation 1:7 [but
which passage ALSO can be applied to another somewhat similar event to
happen a thousand years later!]
In other words, it seems that there will be TWO SEPARATE battles with TWO SEPARATE hordes of armies:
(1) the FIRST occurring near "JERUSALEM" at ARMAGEDDON (Revelation 16:16) PRIOR to the thousand-year millennium of Christ's EARTHLY "rule with a rod of iron" (Revelation 19:15), and
(2) the LAST occurring near "THE BELOVED CITY" (Revelation 20:9) AFTER the thousand-year millennium of Christ's EARTHLY "rule with a rod of iron."
In BOTH cases, JESUS comes "with the clouds" to (a) save
those eagerly waiting for Him, and (b) destroy impenitent hordes destined to be
damned.
In the FIRST case, those targeted BEFORE
the Millennium are the Antichrist Duo comprised of "The Beast" along
with "The False Prophet" (described in Daniel 7:7-12, 24-26, 8:9-14,
23-25, 9:27, 11:21-45, II Thessalonians 2:3-12 and Revelation chapters 13-19).
In the LAST case, AFTER the Millennium, SATAN [a.k.a. The
Devil HIMSELF] will be the final antichrist who is then "thrown into the
lake of fire and brimstone where The Beast and The False Prophet WERE
(already being tormented), and all THREE will be tormented day
and night "to the ages of the ages" (i.e. eternally). To put it
another way, the Dragon and Ancient Serpent will THEN finally be forever
confined in the solitary-confinement/torture-chamber-like "outer-darkness" Lake of
Fire (Luke 16:23 & 28, Revelation 14:10-11 and 20:10, Matthew 8:12, 22:13
and 25:30).
To repeat, BETWEEN the TWO JUDGMENTS there will be a period of 1000 literal years during which this planet Earth will continue to exist somewhat normally (see Genesis 8:22). However, Christ Jesus will be BODILY present in His marvelous appears-here-then-appears-there indestructible post-resurrection body during which He will "rule with a rod of iron" (Revelation 2:27) while "the Lord will be King over all the earth, and water will flow from the eastern sea to the western sea out of Jerusalem" (Zechariah 14:1-21).
There will soon come a couple of human dictators having a satanic spirit of
antichrist far worse than previous antichrists of decades and centuries past.
This demonic duo and chiefly "the man of lawlessness" described in II
Thessalonians 2:3-12 and Revelation chapters 13-19 will persuade the
immoral-majority blasphemous (whether democrats, republicans, union workers,
feminist-sexist/homogay/abortionist/evolutionist/atheist/pornoexhibitionist
groups along with their direct and indirect supporters plus military, corporate
and small-business scientists, technicians, and engineers) to construct a
super-graven-image soul-less speaking-and-breathing, much-more robotic
wonder which (NOT "who") few (if any) will be able to differentiate from
a real live human being -- the epitome of raised-3rd-finger thumbing-the-nose
rebellious disobedience against the first two of the Ten Commandments
prohibiting building and worshipping an idol.
This THING will give the Demonic Duo total global control for 42 months, which
is also described as "a time, two times, and half a time" (that is:
a year, another year, plus half a year per Daniel 7:23-27, 9:26-27, 12:6-12,
Revelation 11:2 and 13:5). That 42-month span of worse-than-Nazi-holocaust is
called The Great Tribulation (Daniel 12:1, Matthew 24:9-31, Mark 13:9-27, and
Revelation 7:14) during which will be a time of Christians being GROSSLY
misconstrued and misrepresented as the bad guys and illegalized as such with
all law-enforcement permission, authorization, and aggressive assault,
involving libel and slander, vandalism, looting, lawsuit constrictions, jail
captivity and decapitation described in Revelation 13:7 and 10, 14:13 and
20:4.
Contrary to pre-Tribution-rapture heretics with their worldly-hyped religious false-prophet authors, BEFORE that Great Tribulation occurs there will be NO [cowardly-escapist] PRE-Trib snatching up (of all nor any dead saints) nor of all nor any yet-alive saints) at any time BEFORE Christ Jesus returns bodily for the Battle of Armageddon. [There WILL be a SPECIAL resurrection-rapture of The Two Witnesses murdered by the Antichrist prior to Christ's bodily return at Armageddon per Revelation 11:3-13].
As Revelation 20:4-5 clearly and plainly indicates, NOT ALL Christian-Church saints will be RESURRECTED (and thus obviously not RAPTURED) in The First RESURRECTION. ONLY those LIVING saints ALIVE by the END of The Great Tribulation (of 42 months) who refuse to receive the satanic-allegiance branding Mark of the Beast (i.e. 666) on their foreheads or right hands will be RAPTURED, immediately AFTER those DEAD saints beheaded by the sword or whatever (who also did not receive The 666 Mark) are RESURRECTED up to Jesus in the air with the clouds (I Thessalonians 4:15-17, Hebrews 11:36-37, Revelation 13:10 and 20:4) as He comes down like He left them (rising-NASA-rocket-style) ascending up around 2000 or so years ago (Acts 1:9-11). If the now-dead-for-two-millennia original-eyewitness Twelve Apostles, the Virgin Mary, Timothy and Barnabas and Dorcas, then later on Augustine and Jerome, Erasmus, Luther and Wesley and Knox, Stephanus and Beza and Scrivener, Barnhouse and Billy Sunday and Dwight Moody, etc. (to name a tiny few of the many applicable) qualify as true saints - such will have to wait through the entire Millennium of Revelation 20 before receiving their resurrected glorified bodies at the Great White Throne General Resurrection of All Remaining (Revelation 6:9-10).
When Sword-Issuing-From-His-Mouth Jesus the Conqueror (Revelation 19:15) descends with saints in or out of their bodies at Armageddon, He will decisively overpower The Beast and False Prophet, besides exterminate their useless [laser-guided? computerized? rocket-launcher? nuclear-arsenal?] armies (Revelation 19:11-21). Promptly thereafter will begin the LITERALLY-timed 1000 year rod-and-iron-"reich" (rule) of TRUE and REAL justice WORLDWIDE with Jesus Christ and his disciples the head of any NATO, EU, United Nations or whatever - actually and decisively weeding out and eliminating evils of all sort everywhere and enforcing every aspect of Biblically-legitimate human behavior and activity, as the Lord suddenly appears wherever and whenever He wants with His post-Easter-like body as will appear His select group of similarly-glorified-body supernaturally-armed saints [anything BUT a "goon"-squad /"vice"-squad mafia of can-do-nothing-about-it weaklings subject to endless defense-attorney appeals, paroles, and criminal! judiciaries].
At the END of that LITERAL 1000-year reign of PEACE and LAWFULNESS, immediately AFTER the destruction occurring at the SECOND-judgment battle, the LORD - in His Divine Father/Son/Spirit Trinitarian majesty - will incinerate EVERYTHING in the UNIVERSE and commence that heralded-by-THE-Last-Trumpet FINAL JUDGMENT on THAT LAST DAY...when The King shall indeed separate the proverbial "sheep" away from the "goats" (Matthew 25:31-46) in indescribably-embarrassing but exhilarating sacred fairness and frankness, impeccable accuracy, plus perfect holy honesty.