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But what if all the other Christians are using the NIV? Bringing out a KJV only causes confusion. Hardly anyone in the UK uses the KJV these days - I rarely see a copy.

This really makes me seethe. Who reads single verses? In verse 2 - the preceding sentence! - the NIV says, "every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." Also, surely denying that He has "come in the flesh" is a swipe at His humanity - not His deity!

Now for the remaining four visions... Revelation 14:1-15:4 There’s an alternative to the kingdom of the Beast - the Kingdom of God! The fourth vision (Revelation 14:1-5) is of Mount Zion, the New Jerusalem - which is where God’s people are assembled (Hebrews 12:22,23). The nation of Israel was...

The second and third visions: the two beasts come onto the stage! Revelation 13 In the second vision (Revelation 13:1-10), the sea represents humanity as a whole: restless, chaotic, and unstable. Out of it, summoned by the dragon, comes a massive and terrifying Beast, like the four beasts of...

I think I see the problem: we're not on the same page at all. You seem to regard the opening of the seals as literal events taking place in a particular location (heaven) at particular points in time. I see them as pictorial metaphors; it's a vision, not a documentary.

Now we come to the first of a series of 7 visions. If there is an overall theme, it seems to be the conflict between God and Satan that rumbles through the universe - and the choice that we have to make between them. Revelation 11:19-12:17 In Israel’s religious calendar, the Feast of Trumpets...

Perhaps it depends on whether you link Christ's coming with the day of wrath.

Revelation 10 & 11 Between the sixth and seventh trumpets (as between the sixth and seventh seals) there are two other visions showing the same situation from the point of view of God's people. Disasters and calamities are a rather crude means of communication; but God also speaks verbally...

I have to disagree with you there. What's the point of issuing warnings after the Day of God's wrath in seal 6?

Now we come to the trumpets. They are being sounded while the events of the seals are taking place. Revelation 8:2-9:21 Trumpets signal war and judgement. Those who hear them have the opportunity to decide whether to surrender - or resist. But before judgement is declared, Heaven pauses - in...

Revelation 6:1-8:1 When Jesus went to Nazareth and read from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue, He was fulfilling the words of the prophet even as He spoke them (Luke 4:21). In a similar way, as He opens and reads this heavenly scroll (which contains God’s purposes for the ‘last days’, the...

No-one knows for certain. Whatever explanation works for you...

Revelation 4 & 5 These two chapters form an extended introduction to the first main vision (the seven seals), and also set the scene for the whole of the remainder of the book. John is no longer on earth; in his vision he has been transported into heaven (Revelation 4:1), from where he can see...

When you point the finger... Your one and only piece of evidence for Revelation not being written in the 90s AD seems to be one report that John was incapable of writing it or even dictating it in 96AD. His capability (or lack of it) in 91, 92, 93 or 94 is unattested. So a date in the early 90s...

The order of the churches is the order in which the letter would reach them if the messenger started at Ephesus (the main port). Whether or not it also 'fits' church history depends on your reading of church history, and church history varies immensely from one geographical region to another...

No dates are known with absolute certainty. 60 years after the resurrection would be around 90 AD - 6 years before this report. There was nothing to stop John having dictated it, say 3-5 years earlier - in fact, that would have been the normal practice at the time, when few people did enough...

Revelation 2 & 3 Before the start of the revelation itself, John is given seven “personal messages” for seven of the churches in Asia Minor. They are a very mixed bag: some are large and thriving, others small and struggling. Some are faithful; others are compromising with the world around...

We tend to forget that the book of Revelation is mainly about Jesus! Revelation 1 The setting of Revelation could hardly be more discouraging: John, the writer, is exiled on the island of Patmos to stop him from spreading the Gospel. The churches are being persecuted. They are for the most...

In other words, this "weapon" exists only in your imagination. Maybe he would - if he could. But more likely he's just exaggerating for effect, like bullies do.

God’s “last word” to the human race is Jesus (Hebrews 1:1,2). Revelation, written around 60 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, therefore contains nothing new; it is, rather, a re-statement of what has already been revealed to earlier generations. What it does is draw together threads...