What If?

[In1]

On 4/15/2023 at 11:17 AM, Arial said:

The primary view of eschatology in the churches today presents a rapture of believers being taken up to heaven before a literal seven year period called the tribulation just before Christ's second coming. In this view the judgments and tribulations of Revelation are said to be literal, though symbolocaly presented. Representations of something that is literal. It also arrives in some forms of dispensationalism as a separate salvation for the Jewish nation. Taking  place at a different time  than that of the Gentiles or pre-millennial believing Jews. It is the Gentiles and these Jews who are the Church and the body of Christ becomes one in the new heaven and new earth. In this view, where Jesus is literally reigning as King on earth in Israel, it has a reinstatement of the animal sacrifices. (I will keep my opinion of this and my reaction to it when first I heard it, to myself.)

This is a relative new view of eschatology but at the same time it has been the predominant and only taught view that any alive today have ever heard, until recently. Recently because  other views, particularly the amillennial/idealist view of Revelation revived along with the supposedly dead Calvinism/Reformed theology.

I myself adhered to this view for a number of years simply because I trusted the teachers to know what they were talking about.

To interject, though amillennialism technically means no millennial, that is not what it actually means when applied to an interpretation of Revelation. It means that the 1000 year reign is not literal but figurative. It represents an undisclosed long period of time. In this view, the time period between Christ's first and second coming.

The support for this can be found within the Bible and in God Himself. There is never an iota of happenstance or circumstance or anything ever being arbitrary with God. That is who He is. Perfect. Two place we see this is in the genealogies and with numbers. They are never arbitrary but contain the perfection and omniscience of God. When He uses a number the number itself has meaning, always, though it may go unnoticed by us. Even in Revelation He is constantly using groups of three and seven.

Here are some of the most common examples of numbers in scripture.

1 is the only divisible # by itself, independent of any other numeral yet composes them all. In the Bible it centers on the unity and primacy of the God family being one. It also represents the unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

2 of a witness (Ex 25:22; Matt 26:60;), a union (gen 2:23), Christ and the church (1 Cor 12), or a division as in two Testaments old and new.

3 of perfection or completeness. It is the first of four spiritually perfect numerals, the others being 7, 10, 12

6 is related to man and human weakness, the evils of the devil and the manifestation of sin.

7 completeness and perfection both physical and spiritual.

12 symbolizes God's power and authority, as well as a perfect governmental foundation. Rev alone has 22 occurences of the number.

1000 according to a principle of prophecy in the Bible is that a prophetic day can equal one or a thousand years in human history. (Ez 4:4-6; Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8) In prophecy therefore, it could simply expresses an undisclosed by God amount of time in which the prophecy is being or will be fulfilled. God is not bound by time, He is omniscient and transcendent.

To be continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe 3 speaks to the process/reasoning our soul goes through in entering into his rest (#7 (even though thats where we are), and why it's so prevalent throughout scripture.

I also believe the book of Revealtion is just that, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, in relationship to who he is being revealed in.

Just throwing it out there ...

 

Edited May 23 by In1