NJIAT - Apologetics

Jewish Apocalypticism
And
Biblical Prophecy

By Dr. Robert A. Morey
Introduction

When you begin to read the Bible for the first time, you soon run across bizarre passages that use weird images. Cosmic battles will take place in heaven and on earth. Is this sci-fi stuff or is it for real? A huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns comes out of the sea. Is the Bible saying that Godzilla is for real? What about those weird creatures with body parts from insects, animals and man? Are they real? An angel grabs a dragon, puts a chain on him, opens a hole in the ground, and then throws him in it. Is the Bible talking about literal chains, dragons, and holes in the ground? Or, are all those things symbolic images of something else? How do we interpret those kinds of passages?

Part I

The following propositions are meant to give us a bird's eye view of the issues involved in interpreting prophetic passages in the Bible.

1. The failure to begin with the Bible as literature is the chief source of most of the nonsense and heresy that is passed off today as "Bible prophecy."Too many people assume that the Bible is one book that can be interpreted by one hermeneutical principle such as literalism. This false assumption has spawned thousands of apocalyptic cults (such as the Jehovah's Witnesses) as well as misleads sincere Christians.

The "Bible" is a collection of 66 ancient Jewish scrolls written by over forty men during a two thousand year process. It is composed of many different kinds or genre of literature. There is historical narrative, poetry, hymns, theological discourse, and prophetic passages that talk about the near and distant future of men and nations and even about the End of the world. Each type or genre of literature found in the Bible must be interpreted according to its own unique historical, cultural, religious, and literary context. The failure to do so results in eisegesis (i.e. the reading of one's own subjective ideas into the text of Scripture), instead of exegesis (the digging out of the text the objective ideas that the author of that text was trying to convey to his readers).

3. The goal of Biblical studies is to discover what the authors of the Bible were saying to the people of their day. The reason why this is important is that they were not simply giving their own private opinion on things but they spoke from Divine inspiration (2 Pet. I :20-21). In other words, their opinion was God's opinion! This is why it is wrong to obscure their message by inserting your own ideas into their documents.

4. The last book in the Bible is entitled by its author as "The Apocalypse ofJesus Christ" (1:1) When the KJV changed the title to "The Revelation of St. John the Divine," it obscured the nature of the book.

5. The Greek word "apocalypse" at that time meant the "unveiling" of hidden mysteries concerning the future as it relates to the ultimate outcome of the final battle between good and evil at the End of the world.

6. The word "apocalyptic" became a literary and theological term to describe any literature that "unveiled" the End of the world. Hence, the word "apocalyptic" is applied to other Biblical books and passages. The following is a list of some of the books and passages found in the Bible.

OT Material
Isaiah 65-66 Ezekiel 38- 42 Daniel Zech. 12-14
NT Material

Mat. 3:7-10	Mark 1:15	Luke 1:32-33
5:17	9:10-13	10:12-15
6:10	12:18-24	12:4-5, 35-53
7:21-22	13	17:22-37
15, 22-24		20:27-38
12:36-37		21:5-23
13:24-30, 36-43, 47-50
16:27-28
19:28-30
22:29-31
24-25

Acts 1 :11

Rom. 11

I Cor. 15

Phil 3:20-21

3:19-20

I Thes. 4:13-18

2 Thes. 2

1 Tim. 6:14-16

Tit. 2:13

5:1-11

Heb. 9:28

2 Pet. 3

I John 3:2-3

Jude

Revelation

7. In the last fifty years, an enormous amount of ancient documents have been discovered in Israel that date from 250 BC to AD 200. Some of these documents are written in the same genre as the books of Daniel and Revelation and are clearly "apocalyptic" in nature. While we do not consider them inspired or part of the canon of Scripture, they do have great historical and literary value.

The following is a list of some of these works that in part or in whole have been classified as "apocalyptic." To the list below we also add The Dead Sea Quram Community's Commentaries on Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Psa. 37. While they are not apocalyptic per se, they do have sections that are clearly apocalyptic in nature.

I Enoch

II Enoch

The Psalms of Solomon
The Martyrdom of lsaiah
The Testament of Abraham
The Apocalypse of Abraham
II Esdra (or 4 Ezra)
III Baruch
The Manual of Discipline
A Scroll of Benedictions
Hymns of Thanksgiving
The Book of Mysteries
The New Jerusalem
The Prayer of Nabonidus
A Genesis Apocryphon

8. These ancient documents reveal aspects of the religious context in which Christianity arose and prospered. Jesus and the Apostles did not step off a UFO one day. They spoke in the context of the religious, political, and cultural situation of their day.

9. When we interpret the "apocalyptic" sections of NT, we must take into account the extra-biblical "apocalyptic" books that came into existence before, during, and after the New Testament was written. These books form the religious, political, and cultural context in which the New Testament was produced. They give us clear indications as to how and why Christianity was transformed from being a minor Jewish sect called "The Way" (Acts 19:9, 23) to a major world religion.

10. Almost without exception, "prophecy experts" ignore the Jewish apocalyptic context of the NT. As a result, they insert modern, Gentile, European, and American ideas into the first century Jewish documents called the "New Testament." They assume that prophetic passages should be interpreted the same way as historical narratives, i.e. literal.

11. This is why most "prophecy experts" arbitrarily identify contemporary events, individuals, and nations as the fulfillment of End time prophecies. For example, during World War II, Hitler was frequently identified as the Antichrist. The fact that he did not tum out to be the Antichrist and that WWII did not tum out to be Armageddon has not deterred them from going on to name new individuals such as Henry Kissenger, John Rockefeller, Prince Charles, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein or Bill Clinton. The identity of the Antichrist changes so often that an "Antichrist of the month club" should be started to see who is on the hit list this month.

12. If Church history after the New Testament is important to our understanding of the apocalyptic sections of the New Testament, then Jewish history before and during the formation of the New Testament is even more important. We are not aware of any "Pre", "Post" or "A" Millennial" books that begin with a discussion of the nature and significance of apocalyptic literature as it bears on interpreting prophetic sections in the Bible.

13. If it is objected that Christians should ignore the apocalyptic literature because it is Jewish, it must be pointed out that:

a. It was the early Christian Church that preserved these works. They were quoted universally throughout the Early Church. We would not have these works except that the early Christians copied, read, and cherished them.

The early Christians went on to write their own distinctively "Christian"apocalyptic works. The following is a list of the apocalyptic works that appeared early in the history of the Church. They reveal that the average Christian was apocalyptic in his views of the future.

The Didache (16)
The Ascension of lsaiah
The Christian Sibyllines
The Apocalypse of Peter
Apocalypse of Elijah
Apocalypse of John
Apocalypse of Stephen
Apocalypse of Paul

14.The following questions must be answered:
(1.) WHY did Jewish rabbis abandon apocalypticism after AD 70?
That they did abandon it is clear from three things:
a. They did not preserve the pre-Christian apocalyptic literature.
b. They did not write any more literature in that style.
c. Even though elements of apocalypticism can be found in the
Talmuds, there is a general hostility to it.

(2.) Why did the early Church take over the apocalyptic movement from Judaism? That the Church did so is clear from three things:
a. The Church preserved the Jewish apocalyptic literature.
b. It went on to write more books in that genre.
c. Down through the centuries apocalypticism has been kept alive mainly by Christians. Without the undercurrent of apocalypticism in the Church, the so-called "prophecy experts" would have gone out of business long ago.

15. The two questions above are answered as follows:
First century Judaism had many sects or denominations. Within Jewish orthodoxy there were two major movements:

a. There were legalistic groups who promoted the idea that it is through the keeping of the Torah that salvation will come. They assumed that all revelation ceased since Malachi and that external conformity to the laws of Moses was all that God required. The Pharisees are singled out in the Gospels and in Galatians as examples of this school.

After the Temple was destroyed in AD 70, the Pharisees took over the guardianship of Judaism and they were the ones who wrote the Midrash, the Mishnah and the Talmuds. Contemporary Orthodox Judaism is a modern version of the Pharisees.

b. The second movement within Orthodox Judaism was the apocalyptic movement. They, like the legalists, held theTorah in high regard. But, unlike them, they were open to new revelations. They were expecting the Messiah to come and then return to Glory. They felt that they were in the "last days" foretold by the prophets.

16. The apocalyptic movement was characterized by the following beliefs:

a. All things are predestined by God and will happen according to His eternal plan. History is thus linear and has a beginning and an end. There is no such thing as chance or luck.
b. The world is doomed to get worse and worse.
c. The wicked will become bolder in persecuting the saints in the last days.
d. At the last moment, God will intervene through sending the Messiah, the "Son of Man"referred to in Daniel, to defeat the forces of evil.
e. There will be a final battle in heaven between the Devil and his angels and Michael and his angels. The elect angels will win.
f. There will also be a final battle on earth between Israel and the
Gentile nations. The chosen people will win.
g. There will be a bodily resurrection of all men.
h. All men will be judged by King Messiah.
i. The reprobate will be thrown in eternal fire where they will be tormented forever.
j. The earth will be cleansed by fire.
k. A new earth and a new heavens will be created.
I. Messiah's kingdom shall be eternal.

17. The main source of converts in the Palestinian Church came from those Jews involved in apocalyptic movement. While the Pharisees, the Sadducees, Herodians, Zealots, etc., were all enemies of Jesus and the Church, the Apocalyptic minded Jews were open to the idea that the Messiah had come because they believed that they were living in the "last days.'' They were open to new revelations, and thus had no problem accepting the New Testament being inspired.

18. The Pharisees saw the apocalyptic movement flowing into the Church and this is why they decided to abandon apocalyptic literature as a genre and to repudiate the apocalyptic movement that produced them. To this day, modern Judaism is still hostile to its own tradition of Messianic expectations. Many Rabbis now pretend that Judaism never interpreted the OT verses identified by the NT as Messianic in nature that way before. This is either complete ignorance or willful deception on their part. I document this in the book The Trinity: Evidence and Issues (XulonPress.com).

19. Given the above facts, we must still resist the temptation to reduce Christianity to mere Jewish apocalypticism. Christianity influenced apocalypticism more than apocalypticism influenced Christianity. Christianity took the apocalyptic movement and radically transformed it by rooting it in such historical events as the Incarnation, death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah. These historical events became the basis of their expectation of final victory at the End of history. The Gospel message looks back to the cross as well as forward to the crown. Salvation is not earned by observing the Torah. It is a free gift of God's grace by virtue of the atonement that Jesus paid on the cross.

20. The future victory over evil was now secure because Jesus conquered Satan. He took the keys of hell and death away from the devil and now wears them on his belt. The kingdom of the Messiah is both now a present spiritual reality and later a physical manifestation on a new earth. His present kingdom is the rule of God in the hearts of men and, after the END, it will be the realm where His rule is universal, complete, final, and eternal for "of his kingdom there shall be no end." (Lk. 1:33)

We will now set forth those hermeneutical principles that should be utilized when interpreting apocalyptic literature.

1. There are times when a biblical prophet was not talking about End time events but about future events that would transpire during this age.Yet, because these events are so significant and important, he borrows apocalyptic language to describe them. For example, the passage may have in view a coming invasion of Israel or some other great moment in redemptive history. (Isa. 13; 24:1-4, 19-23; 30:27-33; Ezk. 32:2-8; Joel 2:10-ll, 28-32; 3:4, 14-17; Amos 5:18-20; 8:9; Zep. 1:7, 14-15; Mat. 24-25; Acts 2:14-21.) The Book of Joel is an excellent example of this.

a. A coming invasion of the nation is described with vivid apocalyptic imagery. In the "last days," the "day of the Lord" would come and "destruction will come upon them." (1:15) An army of weird locusts will descend upon the nation and strip it clean. While this invasion was not the literal "Day of the LORD" at the End of history, yet, it was so much "like" that Day that it was described as if it were.

b. Joel predicted that "in the last days" the Holy Spirit would be poured out in a dramatic manner not heretofore seen (chap 2). He used apocalyptic imagery to underscore the importance of this event in the history of redemption.

"And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth. The sun will be turned into darkness; and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD comes." (Joel 2:30-31)

When Peter stated that this prophecy was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-21), he was not saying that the above apocalyptic imagery was literally fulfilled on that day. The sun did not literally tum to darkness and the moon into blood on that day. Pentecost was not literarily the "Day of the LORD." The apocalyptic imagery was used to underscore the significance of that day.

2. Jesus used the same technique in Mat. 24 when He compared the End to Noah's flood, the destruction of Sodom, and the destruction of the temple. While these events did not literally constitute the "End"of the world, yet, they were described as if they were in order to emphasize the catastrophic nature of those events.

x:Flood, x:Sodom, x:Canaan, x:Egypt, x:Assyria, x:Babylon, x:Pentecost, x:temple, X
(Events in history that prefigure the End) (the End)

3. The failure to understand the use of apocalyptic language to emphasize important non-apocalyptic events in history has led to two errors.

a. Literalists are left with a host of prophecies that were not literally fulfilled. Faced with this fact, some become delusional and pretend that the sun and moon were destroyed at Pentecost! Others invent convoluted principles such as "double"fulfillment. If a prophecy could have more than one fulfillment, then why not three fulfillments or three thousand fulfillments? If a prophecy can mean different things at different times in different places to different people, it means nothing.

b. Preterists fail to understand that just because a future event is described in Scripture with apocalyptic End time imagery, this does not mean that it is the End. Something can be an "end" (ex. of a city, nation, empire, age, etc.) without being the End. In this way they confuse Pentecost or the destruction of the temple in AD 70 with the End ofthe world and the return of Christ. The presence of apocalyptic language does not logically or hermeneutically imply that the End is in view. The event may foreshadow the End without being the End itself.

Those Preterists who deny a future 2nd Coming of Christ and the Resurrection of the dead by reducing them to some event in history such as Pentecost or the destruction of the Temple, clearly contradict the Seven Ecumenical Creeds of the early Church and the great creeds of the Reformation such as the Westminster Confession. They are thus not part of Christian orthodoxy and must be deemed heretical.They should be excluded from membership in all orthodox communions. The anathema found in 2 Tim. 2:14-19 is applicable to any form of preterism that denies a future bodily resurrection of the dead at the End.4. Two things follow from the above observations:

a. The mere presence of apocalyptic imagery does not automatically mean that the End time is being described.

b. We should not automatically assume that a literal fulfillment of apocalyptic images will take place. The imagery could be used to underscore important events not related to the End of history.

5. Do not fall for the silly notion that the issue is whether you take a "literal"or "spiritual"method of interpretation.It is a false distinction that no one really observes.

a. Those who teach the dichotomy have never been able to define the words "literal"or "spiritual."Does "literal" mean a real, live dragon or is the dragon a symbol for something else?
Then we must take a symbolic interpretation. But if it is a symbol for some literal person or event, then is it a literal symbol? The definitions end up being absurd.

b. The word "literal" establishes a direct correspondence between a word and physical reality. For example, do we interpret the word "dragon"literally or symbolically? A literal interpretation would posit the existence of some kind of huge reptile, perhaps a dinosaur. A symbolic interpretation would deny the existence of this reptile and, instead, would say that the word "dragon" is a symbol for the devil.

c. Literalists, such as the Dispensationalists, do not really believe in literal dragons or a literal Whore riding upon a literal beast. They often give bizarre typological interpretations of such things as the furniture of the tabernacle and generally are as quick to take a non-literal approach as anyone else. Until I see them with one eye gouged out and one hand chopped off, they are full of hot air when they boast that they "take the Bible literally."

d. Since I have never met anyone who takes a "spiritual" approach to interpreting the Bible, I must assume that this is a straw man invented by literalists as a boogeyman to frighten lay Christians.

6. It is impossible to decide ahead of time how a passage is going to be fulfilled. We did a detailed study of all the OT citations in the NT to see if there was any way to determine ahead of time how a particular prophecy would be fulfilled. We found no such way.

7. Each passage must be interpreted in the light of its own layers of context:

a word in terms of its grammar, syntax, and vocabulary

a verse in the context of the paragraph

the paragraph in the context of that section of the chapter

that section in the context of the entire chapter

that chapter in the context of that section of the book

that section in the context of the book as a whole

that book in the context of its place in the cannon

the historical, cultural, political and religious context of

the author and the people to whom he is writing

8. Apocalyptic literature is not the rewriting of past events in order to give them a supernatural twist. The liberals are hopelessly trapped in a circular argument that since miracles cannot happen, then predictive prophecies cannot happen. Their anti-supernatural bias is a leap in the dark. It is an example of the psychological phenomenon known as "wish fulfillment." They do not wish miracles to happen, so they don't.

9. Apocalyptic literature is not a historical narrative of the future. Read the book of Acts and then the book of Revelation. If you cannot see the difference between historical narrative and apocalyptic writing, you need to take a course in English literature! Apocalyptic literature is not historical in nature for the following reasons:

a. It does not attempt to give the exact names, dates, places, or numbers of End time events, symbols or images. This is why there are as many interpretations of such things as there are interpreters!

b. We are told only a few of the events to transpire at the End. Thus we do not have the whole picture. Without the entire picture, it is very difficult to interpret the parts.

c. Apocalyptic literature is progressive in nature with each prophet adding only a few parts of the puzzle. This progress can be seen by comparing Daniel to Revelation. You cannot "stop the clock" by freezing one apocalyptic work such as Daniel and think that you got the whole story.

10. In Apocalyptic literature theauthors used images and symbols from their own personal history and the experienceof others to describe the End. God always revealed His Word to people using their language and their experience so that they could understand what He was saying.

11. Dressstyles (robes, dresses, military uniforms, etc.),modes of transportation (camels, horses, etc.) and military hardware (sword, spears, etc.), are not used in Apocalyptic literature as literal predictions that wars at the End will be limited to the clothing, transportation, and military hardware of Ezekiel's day. Apocalyptic visions such as Ezk. 38-40 do not mean that the final battle at the End will be done on horseback with swords waving over our heads! It is assumed that the final Battle between good and evil at the End will use whatever clothing, modes of transportation, and weapons that are current at that time.

12. Since the End would usher in a new form of worship that has yet to be experienced on earth, the authors used contemporary symbols of worship such as temples, priests,and sacrifices because that isall they knew about worship. It was understood that the use of temple images did not predict that the old Mosaic temple worship would be reestablished on earth in the eternal kingdom after the End. Some literalists have gone so far as to teach that the temple, the Levitical priests and the sacrificial system would be established once again. But the book of Hebrews reveals that the temple sacrifices were fulfilled in Christ's death and were done away with. He is now the temple and the tabernacle as well as the Lamb.

13. Apocalyptic literature used idealized situations from the life experience of the author to paint a beautiful picture of what a wonderful life it will be in the eternal kingdom after the End. The imagery of everyone sitting under his own tree and just reaching up and picking fruit off his tree whenever he was hungry was not to be taken literally. Neither was the imagery of children playing with poisonous snakes or lions lying down with lambs. The point of such apocalyptic imagery was to emphasize the safe and bounteous life in the eternal kingdom.

14. In the NT, some of the symbols and images of the eternal conscious torment that awaits the wicked at the End were drawn from earlier apocalyptic literature such as I Enoch. It was understood that the fire, the worms, the bottomless pit, the darkness, the dragon, etc. were all symbols of something that was so awful that human words could not convey it. No symbol is as real as what it symbolizes. See my book, Death and the Afterlife (XulonPress.com) for the documentation for this. To make literal what was originally metaphorical is to make the final Hell less than what it will be.

15. Apocalyptic literature was free to mix metaphors and symbols because it was assumed that no imagery was to be literally fulfilled.

a. The final hell, Gehenna, could be imagined as a lake of fire and as wandering around in the mist of darkness at the same time because both were understood to be symbols of the indescribable torment of the damned.

b. In Matt. 25:31, the earth still exists on the Day of Judgment while in Rev. 20:11 the earth no longer exists. Were the authors contradicting each other? No. It did not matter in apocalyptic literature what symbols or imagery were used because none of them were intended to be interpreted literally.

16. Apocalyptic literature was free to use conflicting chronologies of future events at the End because it was assumed that no chronology was to be taken literally. It is thus multi-chronological. The attempt to reduce all the different chronologies down to one chronology is nothing more than the old error of reductionism. That this is true is seen from the following illustrations drawn from Scripture.

a. In the apocalyptic parables ofthe kingdom found in Matt. 13, Jesus gave the chronology that the wicked would be taken first and the righteous left behind on the Judgment Day (vs. 24-30, 36-43). But in His apocalyptic sermon found in Matt. 24-25, Jesus said that the righteous would be taken first and the wicked left behind (vs. 31). Obviously, the wicked can't be first and the righteous first at the same time. One can be first and the other second but they can't both be first.

Was Jesus contradicting Himself? This apparent contradiction can be resolved by the fact that in Apocalyptic literature you can have as many conflicting chronologies as you want because none of them should be taken as a literal schedule of future events.

b. According to I Cor. 15:50-57, the End times events such as the Resurrection, take place "in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye". The words imply that everything will happen instantaneously in a fraction of a second. In other words, it will all be done in an instant. No waiting in line.

Yet, in other apocalyptic passages such as Matt. 25:31-46; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:11-15, etc. the scene is drawn out with Christ coming to earth; setting up His throne; resurrecting all men; assembling them before His throne for judgment; every one standing in line until his tum to be brought before Christ. Then everything we ever thought, said or did is publicly revealed and judged. Christ then pronounces judgment upon us and we are either ushered into the eternal kingdom or thrown into the eternal fire.

Now, there is no way this long drawn out apocalyptic vision can be reduced to "in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye."But once it is understood that we are dealing with different apocalyptic visions of the End, then there is no contradiction. None of these things are to be interpreted as a literal calendar of events.

c. In John 5:25-29, Jesus spoke of the "hour" when "all who are in the grave will hear His voice" and come forth, some to life and some to damnation. The passage is straightforward and there is no time space between the resurrection of believers and non-believers. The Resurrection is pictured as a single universal event embracing all of humanity. A-millennialists love this passage and use it to refute Pre-millennialism.

On the other hand, in Rev. 20:4-15, two Resurrections with a thousand year interval between them is pictured. There will be a "first" and a "second" resurrection.The Pre-millennialists, of course, love this passage and use it to refute A-millennialism.

Now, it obvious that John 5 and Rev. 20 confront us with two different chronologies of the Resurrection. Is it one event or two events? Are all or only some resurrected? They cannot both be literally true!

The choice is clear. If we give a literalistic interpretation of John 5 and Rev. 20, the Bible ends up contradicting itselfl But if we approach John 5 and Rev. 20 as being apocalyptic, then there is no contradiction because neither passage is to be taken as a literal chronology.

According to Dan. 12, John 5, I Cor. 15, Rev. 20, etc. all the dead will be bodily raised and judged by Christ at the End. This much is clear. But when we try to find out the details of how and in what order such things will happen, we are rebuked in Acts 1:6-7.

So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.

The tense of the verb translated "asking" in v. 6 indicates that they had repeatedly asked Jesus about the details of future events. Since this was His last discussion with them before He ascended into heaven, He answered them by pointing that when it came to the details of the future, they were
not allowed to know the chronous or the kairos. Prof. F. F. Bruce in his commentary on Acts states,

"chronous refers to the time that must elapse before the final establishment of the Kingdom, karious to the critical events accompanying its establishment." (p. 70)

Only the Father knows the details of such things and He has decided not to tell us such things.

We must also point out that in the Greek text, the word "not" is taken out of its normal word order in the sentence and put first to reveal that Jesus stressed this word. "It is NOT for you to know..." This gram matical observation underscores the importance of His rebuke.

If we took this passage to heart, there would no pre, post or a millennialism. We would be content with the Apostles' Creed:

He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen

17. The failure to understand this is the main error of present day millennial schemes.They run through the Bible trying to find chronologies to fit their prophetic views.
a. The Pre-millennialists seize upon the chronology found in Rev. 20 as the basis for their view. Despite the twin facts that this is the ONLY place in the Bible that refers to a 1,000 yr. kingdom and it is in a highly symbolic passage with a dragon, an angel, a chain, and a hole in the ground, none of which they view as literal, they demand a literal fulfillment for this chronology.

It never dawns on them that the chronology found in Rev. 20 is only one of several different chronologies found in the Bible. Thus we can admit that Rev. 20 does have a chronology that fits the pre-millennia scheme, but, at the same time, point out that apocalyptic chronologies are not to be take literally.

b. The A-millennialists are just as guilty ofthis error.They grab hold of the chronology found in I Cor. 15 and point out that when Christ returns this means "the end" of His kingdom not "the beginning" of it. He gives up His kingdom to the Father when He returns.

Since they assume that they must reduce all other biblical chronologies to the one found in I Cor. 15, they end up giving weird interpretations of Rev. 20.

c. The Post-millennialists do the same thing with Psa. 22, etc. They think that they have found biblical chronologies that favor their view. In Daniel chaps. 2 and 4, the kingdom grows and covers the earth before the End. But this vision is not intended to be taken as a literal calendar of events. Other passages indicate that the world will be worse at the End, not better!

It is apparent to those who have studied all the present prophetic views that they can all find apocalyptic chronologies in the Bible to fit their views. Thus they are all right and wrong at the same time. Their failure to understand the genre of apocalyptic literature has doomed them to endlessly squabbling over each others chronologies.

18. The use of Hebrew parallelism and synchronismin which events and things during the same time period are described by several different sets of symbols is a feature of apocalyptic literature that is not well known today. Imagine one wave of fireworks exploding in the air and then another wave of fireworks shooting up in the same sky. Then another wave and yet another wave of fireworks exploding in the same sky with different colors and symbols. Each wave produced a different pattern in the same space.

a. This is a good description of what we find in Scripture. For example, in Daniel, the same time period is first described in Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a giant statue in ch. 2 and then described again by the imagery of the four beasts in ch. 7. The imagery changes but not the time period in focus.

b. The book of Revelation is divided into seven sections that cover the same time period but with different symbols and imagery each time. If you do not understand this, you would make the mistake of assuming that each set of symbols described a different time period that must be put end to end. For example, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven vials, etc. are not consecutive time periods laid out end to end but the same time period with different symbols being used to emphasize different aspects.

c. Another example is the image of the 144,000 in Rev. 7:4-8.1. It is then replaced in vs. 9 with the image of a crowd that cannot be numbered. Both images are of the same group of people seen from different perspectives.

19. If a symbol in an Apocalyptic is explained, do not contradict it or go beyond it.The symbol of the seven candlesticks in Rev. 1:20 is explained as the seven churches of Asia Minor to whom Christ was dictating letters. To claim that the seven candlesticks do not present the seven churches but, rather, they refer to seven different consecutive ages is to contradict Christ's own explanation!

20. If a symbol is nowhere explained, then take Paul's advice to heart: "Do not go beyond what is Written" (I Cor. 4:6). Once you enter into vain speculations as to the meaning of symbols for which you have no divine interpretation, you can easily fall into a gnostic attitude in which you imagine that you alone have discovered the secret meaning of a symbol.

21. In Apocalyptic literature, if a symbol is not explained, its meaning is hidden until it is fulfilled. The only certain and infallible interpretation of prophecy is its eventual fulfillment in God's timetable.There is no hermeneutical principle found in Scripture by which we can know ahead of time how and in what way a particular prophecy will be fulfilled.

Part III

Once we de-apocalypticize biblical prophecy, what do we end up? We end up with all the historic creeds of Christianity. They do not go into any details when it comes to the End. They are not on the side of any modem millennial schemes. They emphasize the core of the biblical vision of the End.

1. Christ sits in His resurrected body at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
2. From there He will personally and literally return to earth.
3. All men will be resurrected on the Day He returns.
4. Christ shall judge all men and ngels.
5. He will destroy the old earth by fire and create a new earth where no evil will be allowed.
6. The elect will inherit the new earth as an everlasting kingdom.
7. All the demonic and human evildoers shall be sentenced to eternal conscious torment in Gehenna.
8. All things will happen according to God's eternal timetable.

When it comes to detailed questions such as how, in what way, and in what order will all these events happen, no one knows. What will be the, exact order of events? Are the wicked or the righteous left behind? Who goes first? What kind of resurrection body will we get? Will we look like we do now? If we are radically changed, how will our relatives and friends recognize us? Will we all be young? What age? Is 18 yrs. old a good age? What about 21? Will we all sing like opera stars? Will we all be beautiful, rich, and thin? Or, will such things no longer matter to us at that time because we no longer care about carnal things? Who will be the servants and who will be the people getting served? Who hauls away the garbage? Who cleans the streets?

Does everything happen "in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye?" Or, will things get dragged out for years? After all, if everyone is standing in line waiting to be called to judgment, there are a lot of people in front of you! Will the line be arranged alphabetically or by your date of birth or by your date of death?

As a young believer, I was told that I would be called up to the throne and Jesus would show my entire life on a big screen so everyone would see everything I ever thought, said or did, even things done in darkness! As a teenager, this sounded horrific to me!

The pain and the discomfort felt by the audience who is forced to watch all this stuff is probably as great as the poor person whose life is being exposed to public review! Wouldn't we see icky things that would repulse and sicken us? Who but the most hardened voyeurist could bear looking at all the details of every sexual thought, word and deed ofbillions of people? Wouldn't this be some kind of pornography?

Those who assume that prophecy is a literal record of future history must answer such questions. Thankfully, the symbols and imagery found in the apocalyptic visions of the Judgment Day are not to be taken literally. There purpose is to emphasize that the Judgment will complete and just. King Jesus will decide the degree of eternal bliss or torment. Our responsibility is to live each day in the light of the fact that it may be our last day on earth.

Conclusion

One of the main purposes of apocalyptic literature is to comfort the afflicted and persecuted saints with the assurance that in the End justice shall prevail, the devil will lose, the Messiah will establish his eternal kingdom, the earth will be made into a Paradise once again, and we will be raised immortal and incorruptible.

This apocalyptic comfort gives us the strength to go on in the Christian life even when it seems that the forces or evil are winning. At the end ofhis apocalyptic sermon found in I Cor.15, Paul comforted the saints by saying,

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because you know that your laborin the Lord is not in vain.

Knowing that we are on the winning side gives us the ability to surmount all obstacles and endure all persecution. Keep your eyes on Jesus and the fact that He is coming back one day. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord until you meet Him in heaven at death or in the sky at His return.