Search results

  • Welcome to Christian Forums, a Christian Forum that recognizes that all Christians are a work in progress.

    You will need to register to be able to join in fellowship with Christians all over the world.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

  1. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  2. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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.
  3. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  4. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

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

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  6. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

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

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  8. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  9. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

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

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  11. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  12. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  13. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  14. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  15. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  16. Deborah_

    Cause of earthquakes

    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.
  17. Deborah_

    Unravelling Revelation

    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...
  18. Deborah_

    Cause of earthquakes

    What "weapon" is capable of causing an earthquake? (A genuine earthquake, rather than just the shock of an explosion)
  19. Deborah_

    Cause of earthquakes

    Just because verse 10 comes after verse 11, it doesn't follow that the events in verse 10 cause the events in verse 11.
  20. Deborah_

    At what point does a believer join the Body of Christ?

    In an ideal world, we would all get baptised as soon as possible after believing, and would immediately join a local church. The believing, the baptising, and the assimilation into the Body would just be different aspects of the same event ("conversion") - which, theologically speaking, they...