Randy Kluth
Well-Known Member
I personally see the opening of the seals as critical truths about life for the Church and for the world before the coming of the Kingdom. I don't see them as chronologically-ordered steps in history, leading up to the Kingdom.
The original "birth pains" Jesus spoke of were early warning signs of the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in 70 AD. Jesus wanted the Church to know the meaning of those times in their nation so as to warn it and to prepare people to be Christian and thus ready for national judgment. Furthermore, the Christians in Israel could escape this particular judgment, since it was to punish the nation, and not those who repent.
But there is a new set of birth pains that herald the coming of the Kingdom, mentioned in 1 Thes 5.
"Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape."
This is a completely different set of birth pains designed not to warn the world, but only to inform the Church about the character of this present age, and about what to expect from an ungodly world. I think the opening of the seals in Revelation is in much the same genre--they describe the ungodly world so as to warn the Church what to expect in the NT era, directly preceding the coming of the Kingdom.
We are to expect a variety of displays of God's displeasure with the world, as well as the world's persecution of the righteous Church. Our testimony is to overcome this satanic resistance, heralding the coming of the Kingdom.
I do think we go too far, trying to turn the book of Revelation into a kind of "prophetic map," so that we can guess and anticipate a specific chronology of events. I do think there is some specificity regarding the final 3.5 years under Antichrist's imperial dominion. But basically, it's a statement regarding the character of the entire age, which at its core is antichristian.
God is not allowing the present world to set up its own "Tower of Babel," and the horsemen of judgment ride into this world, taking away the peace that the world is trying to establish based on humanism. In place of peace they find God's curses, including diseases, wars, and destruction.
The saints have to wait patiently until the age of evangelism is over. Then, when world resistance to God is at its height, the Kingdom of Christ will come.
The original "birth pains" Jesus spoke of were early warning signs of the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in 70 AD. Jesus wanted the Church to know the meaning of those times in their nation so as to warn it and to prepare people to be Christian and thus ready for national judgment. Furthermore, the Christians in Israel could escape this particular judgment, since it was to punish the nation, and not those who repent.
But there is a new set of birth pains that herald the coming of the Kingdom, mentioned in 1 Thes 5.
"Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape."
This is a completely different set of birth pains designed not to warn the world, but only to inform the Church about the character of this present age, and about what to expect from an ungodly world. I think the opening of the seals in Revelation is in much the same genre--they describe the ungodly world so as to warn the Church what to expect in the NT era, directly preceding the coming of the Kingdom.
We are to expect a variety of displays of God's displeasure with the world, as well as the world's persecution of the righteous Church. Our testimony is to overcome this satanic resistance, heralding the coming of the Kingdom.
I do think we go too far, trying to turn the book of Revelation into a kind of "prophetic map," so that we can guess and anticipate a specific chronology of events. I do think there is some specificity regarding the final 3.5 years under Antichrist's imperial dominion. But basically, it's a statement regarding the character of the entire age, which at its core is antichristian.
God is not allowing the present world to set up its own "Tower of Babel," and the horsemen of judgment ride into this world, taking away the peace that the world is trying to establish based on humanism. In place of peace they find God's curses, including diseases, wars, and destruction.
The saints have to wait patiently until the age of evangelism is over. Then, when world resistance to God is at its height, the Kingdom of Christ will come.