THE PURPOSE OF THE POSTS — REVELATION - An Epic Drama In Four Acts

Why the Revelation story is so important needs to be asked since it’s the raison d'être of my book. Even if it is true that the visions of Revelation were meant to be arranged into a sequence of events forming a story--a four act drama--so what? A lot of people read Revelation without any idea that all those visions might actually tell a story, while others just skip over the book entirely. Is that really so bad?

That’s a valid question because understanding the end time scenario has never been a prerequisite for people to derive benefit from Revelation. Still, there are good reasons why knowing the Revelation story matters.

DIVINE INDICATION (?)

Both Old and New Testaments contain prophesies about the time of the end. Revelation is the only Bible book dedicated exclusively to the details of that time. Should that be viewed as a hint that maybe this is something God wants us to know about?

FOR THOSE THAT FACE THE TRIBULATION

During the tribulation period, those aware of the sequence of events will have a decided advantage over those that don’t. They will understand exactly what’s happening, why it’s happening and what to expect next. No small matter for those facing that time. Knowing the specific sequence of events and how things work out will be absolutely vital; like a map in a war zone indicating where the minefields are and how to avoid them. Understanding the drama will allow them to identify the political and religious enemies of God’s people. It doesn’t take much imagination to see what a tremendous advantage that would be.

PRESENT BENEFITS

THE DISTRAUGHT ANGEL AND US: Toward the end of Revelation, John falls and worships the angel that showed him the visions…twice. This makes the angel very nervous…twice. The angel tells him: “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you...Worship God!” (19:10 and 22:8, 9). This seems straightforward enough, John oversteps certain boundaries and the angel corrects him. If so, if this is just an oops! moment, why was the angel so agitated? The narrative reveals the larger picture.

The visions John sees make it clear that the central issue of the Revelation drama is worship; whether mankind will worship Satan or God. In 14:7 an angel declares: “Fear God, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made the heaven and the earth.” Satan tries to get everyone to worship him by forcing them to worship the beast. He succeeds in dividing mankind in two camps: the vast majority “who had received the mark of the beast and worshipped his image,” and the minority who “had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark” (19:20; 20:4).

It’s in the context of these visions that the angel stops John from trying to worship him. Such a thing would never have been appropriate, but in these circumstance, John’s actions were particularly unnerving and forced the angel to rectify the situation quickly. John not only comprised himself before God, he also compromised the angel. Because worshipping God alone is a non-negotiable requirement for both men and angels and judgement has everything to do with who one chooses to worship.

This is absolutely relevant for Christians today because so many consider their politics as an extension of their religion. Is this wise, considering that the beast is a political entity? Anyone with that mindset during the period of the last days will be an easy target for the beast’s propaganda. The comfortable mix of religion and politics, so common in America, was also prevalent in Nazi Germany, and look what kind of regime that Christian population—Protestants and Catholics all—ended up supporting! Christians should make sure their political loyalties do not put them in danger of compromising their exclusive worship of God. These two things are irreconcilable from God’s point of view. It’s not for nothing Jesus said "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36).

In The Myth of a Christian Nation, p. 54, Dr. Gregg Boyd writes: “But the kingdom of the world, by definition, can never be the kingdom of God…No version of the kingdom of the world, however comparatively good it may be, can protect its self-interests while loving its enemies, turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, or blessing those who persecute it...By definition, therefore, you can no more have a Christian worldly government than you can have a Christian petunia or aardvark…a kingdom of God citizen must take care never to align any particular version of the kingdom of the world with the kingdom of God.”

IDENTIFYING BASELESS INTERPRETATIONS: For the longest time I suspected there were a lot of websites dedicated to interpreting current events in the light of the book of Revelation, what many call newspaper exegesis, but had no idea how many. So, I googled “websites dedicated to end time prophecies in the news” and got 6,500,000 results in 0.53 seconds. (I might have gotten even more results if they’d given it another ½ a second!) It’s worth taking a minute to digest that number; six and a half million. I calculate it would take over 13,000 pages (500 words per page, single spaced) just to list all those sites. Following are a few of the websites and blurbs, just to give an idea of what’s out there.

EndTimesTV: A website about the revelation and prophecies of the Bible. [The] Pastor…reviews the events of the world today and highlights the biblical aspects and what believers should be watching for in the end times.
End Time Headlines - News From a Prophetic Perspective: Our Mission is to inform our readers and viewers of Prophetic Events and how they are unfolding before our very eyes thru News and Headlines…
Rapture Ready: The most complete resource for the Rapture, End Time News, Events, Prophecy…
Endtime Ministries: Your place for prophecy in the news because the end time is now! Endtime Magazine Deal | Limited Time $20.18 Reg $29.00: Explains how current events are fulfilling Bible prophecy.
The End Times Forecaster A blog about end times Bible prophecy and current events.
Prophecy In The News: Bible prophecy in the news. Today's end times headlines about world events in Bible prophecy, World War 3, the mark of the beast, the Middle East, one world government, New World Order.
Prophecy in the News: Discover The Truth About The Antichrist, The End Time Prophecies, & The Rapture, Now!
Z3 News: “End-Time News Before It Happens.”

Z3 is my personal favorite. While all the others have to review the news every day, Z3 gets visions from God and then posts titles such as: “LARGE SLATED W-PATTERN IN THE S&P MARKET REVEALS CRASH DATES” – “PROPHETIC VISION REVEALS BITCOIN PRICE DROP FOLLOWED BY BIG RALLY” – “BIG GREEN EGG COULD BE POINTING TO LARGE NEST EGG COMING SOON.”

I was surprised to see how prolific most of these bloggers are. One site has about 42 posts per week. That’s over 2000 posts a year showing how current events fulfill prophecies in Revelation! Obviously all these sites (except Z3 News) have to keep very much on top of current events. And, many of the sites have large followings. One site, for example, boasts 535,937 followers on Twitter!

The potential for confusion is incalculable. Many readers become addicted to the excitement produced by sensational headlines and the supposed God’s eye view of world events and they wouldn’t give these sites up for anything. But, how can those sincerely interested in understanding Revelation’s prophecies possibly protect themselves from frivolous interpretations?

Understanding the storyline of Revelation—the sequence of events—provides a solid basis upon which to evaluate claims of prophetic fulfillment. Take a look at one famous example from Hal Lindsey who said to be the father of the modern-day prophecy movement.

In his book The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey offered an interpretation of this passage in Revelation: “The sixth angel sounded his trumpet…And the four angels...were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand” (Revelation 9:13-16). Lindsey explained the following:

“We believe that China is the beginning of the formation of this great power called 'the kings of the east by the apostle John…In fact, a recent television documentary on Red China…quoted the boast of the Chinese themselves that they could field a 'people's army' of 200 million militiamen. In their own boast they named the same number as the Biblical prediction. Coincidence?”[i] So, according to Lindsey, the kings of the east are already assembling and ready to march. Isn’t this is amazing!

Not really. This interpretation is a non-starter when viewed in the light of the storyline of Revelation. (Outside of the fact that the forty-eight years since that interpretation should have put it to rest…though it hasn’t.) It could not possibly refer to a human army, Chinese or otherwise, because it describes God’s actions, not man’s. This needs some unpacking.

The passage Lindsey was interpreting belongs to the seventh seal of the scroll with seven seals (Revelation chapters 6-11). The first five seals of the scroll are catastrophes and persecutions perpetrated by Satan. The sixth and seventh seals describe plagues that God directs at unrepentant mankind. Satan has no role in the events of the final two seals.

When the sixth seal is opened people everywhere recognize that God and Christ are behind the divine plagues and cry out: “hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?” (Rev. 6:16, 17).

The seven trumpet plagues of the seventh seal are the final expressions of God’s wrath. The following table (from REVELATION—An Epic Drama in Four Acts, Chapter 6) helps understand this.

Since the land, sea and trees are “harmed” when the angels begin to blow the seven trumpets, it means that the four winds of destruction have been released and the last days have entered the final phase. It is evident, therefore, that the sixth trumpet describes God’s actions and the army is not human.

The huge military force described in 19:13-16, represents fear inspiring plagues—whatever form those plagues may take—directed against the persecutors of God’s people. God’s servants will not be affected by the plagues and will have no reason to fear them.

Other factors also show that the passage is not referring to human troops such as the observation (in 9:20, 21) that the survivors of the attack “did not repent.” Why would survivors of a military attack by the army of some government(s) be expected to repent of their “[idolatry]…murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts?” The lack of repentance after the onslaught of divine forces would be noteworthy, but not after an attack by a human army.

There is another facet, a seamy underside, to the headline prophecy craze. The vast majority of websites, outside of being politically right-wing and believers in the rapture, are very, very savvy at marketing; experts at monetizing their sites in a myriad of ways. Buying into these interpretations often leads to financial commitment as well, at times, quite substantial.

For example, in 2007, Lindsey told viewers of his television show that Zion Oil and Gas, was “on the verge of discovering oil,” which pointed to the imminent return of the Messiah. The stock price of Zion Oil increased over twenty percent. Lindsey did not disclose that he and his relatives owned millions of dollars of stock in Zion Oil.[ii]

Things like this are commonplace. Once a trusting soul accepts the erroneous interpretations as gospel, they follow the websites, the podcasts, the TV broadcasts...opening themselves up to a constant bombardment to buy the products, contribute to the cause, buy the books and the magazines—“Get the Endtime Magazine Deal, Limited Time $20.18, Reg. $29.00!” (#4 in above list of websites). The endtime interpreters are only required to know what’s in the news, not the book of Revelation. They have created very lucrative income streams based entirely on sensationalist interpretations of Revelation; each new fulfillment showing just how close we are to the great tribulation and the rapture.

It’s impossible to calculate the number of people misled by sensationalist interpretations, but looking at the followers of the websites, it would seem to be in the millions! Falling prey to baseless endtime prophecies, interpretations that make more dollars than sense, can be dangerous to your financial health. This is another reason why it is beneficial to have a solid criterion on which to evaluate the veracity of biblical interpretations of Revelation.

The focus of my book, REVELATION—An Epic Drama in Four Acts is the sequence of events in Revelation; akin to a four act drama. This post has endeavored to show why this is important.

We’ve seen that those who face the time of tribulation with an understanding of the sequence of events will have a great advantage over the rest of mankind.

The Revelation drama is also valuable for Christians today. Understanding it can protect one from religious confusion—from the multitude of contradictory and erroneous headline prophecies—as well as protect from falling victim to the prophets’ eternal quest for profits.

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[i] The Late Great Planet Earth, p. 86.

[ii] https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/01/let-there-be-light-crude/

A 2008 article on MotherJones.com said the following under the title: Let There Be Light Crude, “Evangelical preachers claim that a giant oil find in Israel will usher in the end of days. Enter the con men and penny-stock hustlers.”

“Lindsey [told]…his viewers in March 2007 that “Zion Oil right now is on the verge of discovering oil,” a sign that “we are really on the very threshold of Lord Jesus’ return.” Around the same time, he touted the company in his column on the popular conservative website WorldNetDaily, saying, “Zion Oil has sunk eight exploratory wells, all of which have shown signs of oil and gas” (it has, in fact, sunk just one), and suggesting Israel’s oil “could rival that of Saudi Arabia.”

What Lindsey neglected to mention was that he and his relatives own millions of dollars of stock in the company. In 2002, John Brown gave Lindsey a gift of 50,000 shares, worth $337,500 at today’s price. Ralph Devore, Lindsey’s cousin and a director of his ministries, controls nearly 725,000 shares, worth about $4.9 million. Devore was also a founding member of Zion’s board and was at one point hired to promote the company.

…But Lindsey’s support has clearly paid off for the company. After he told television viewers that Zion was “on the verge” of an oil find, the trading volume of the company’s stock leaped from 11,100 a day to 122,000 and the price climbed from $7.64 to $9.25 a share, a 21 percent increase. (Lindsey did not respond to requests for comment.)”