Tag: revelation

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If You Wrong…Man Up and Say It!

Someone sent me an email in November of 2008 with a certainty that is undeniable. He clearly said that the end was here. The economic crash was prophesied in Revelation 18 and there would be no recovery. He then told me that the “judgment of the living” was about to close right now.

I questioned his interpretation of Revelation 18 and wondered about some of his other positions, but I simply said one thing, “If you are wrong…don’t just make more predictions….if we are here in 2012…then just admit you were wrong. The person never returned my email.

It is interesting how these things go. Individuals will make outlandish prognostications about the end of time that look closer to the left behind series than the Great Controversy and then when it tappers off, these same people make more predictions. They simply forget their earlier predictions and if pressed will say “God held back the winds.” Imagine my surprise when these same people become seen as “prophecy experts” or “Great students of prophecy” when their only claim to fame is a string of unfulfilled predictions.

So now instead of learning how to treat others better and instead of learning more of God, we are speculating about the laws that are to be passed and the instruments of torture that will be used against God’s remnant. Is this the end? I don’t know. I just wish some of these soothsayers who call themselves prophecy students would admit the same thing.

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Sanctuary in Revelation

TabernacleAboveOne thing that is interesting about relatively recent Adventist study of the book of Revelation is that they have found and teach the obvious and extensive Sanctuary imagery in the Biblical book.  Such imagery demonstrates that a knowledge of the Sanctuary, as well as much of the Old Testament, is needed to understand the last book of the Bible.

A short thumbnail look at the references is as follows:

In Revelation 1 we see Jesus among the candlesticks.  In Revelation 4 we see the seven lamps of fire.  In Revelation 5 we see Christ as the slain lamb of God.  In Revelation 8 we see an angel offering incense on the alter before the throne.  In revelation 11 we see the temple and the alter being measured.  In Revelation 14 an angel comes out of the temple.  In Revelation 15 the temple is filled with smoke.  In Revelation 16 a loud voice comes out of the temple.  In Revelation 21 there is no temple in the city, for the Lamb is our Temple.

It would seem that an understanding of the Sanctuary and the Temple service is very important and necessary if we are to understand this book.   It definitely seems as though Adventists are at least right in saying that one should extensively place the Sanctuary in one’s understanding of this book,  and thus the blessing that comes on those who read the book of Revelation (Revelation 1:3) will apply to those of us who attempt to study the Sanctuary and its implications for our present and future.