Pre-eminently Christian Thoughts.

One of the most extensive works covering the symbolic meanings of the Book of Revelation was written by Emanuel Swedenborg titled the 'Apocalypse Revealed.'

Apocalypse is commonly used in reference to any prophetic revelation or the so-called End Time Scenario. Typically, the messengers of the apocalyptic revelation are described as angels. In the Book of Revelation, the author writes about the revelation of Jesus Christ as Messiah, and about present tribulations leading to the ending of this age and the coming of God's Kingdom. Hence the term 'apocalypse' has come to be used, very loosely, for the end of the world. In letters to the Corinthians and the Thessalonians Paul expounds the destiny of the righteous. He speaks of the simultaneous resurrection and transformation of those who are in Christ (or Messiah).

In the Hebrew Old Testament some pictures of the end of the age were images of the judgment of the wicked and the glorification of those who were given righteousness before God. In the Book of Job and in some Psalms, the dead are described as being in Sheol awaiting the final judgment. The wicked will then be consigned to eternal suffering in the fires of Gehinnom, or the lake of fire as mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Are you, clergy and bishops, ready?

Some Christian movements in the 18th and 19th centuries were characterized by a rise of Millennialism- why many Christians had a Millennial expectation of the glorification of the righteous. The poetic and prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible, particularly in Isaiah, were rich in millennial imagery, and New Testament writers after Pentecost carried on with this theme. During his imprisonment by the Romans on the Island of Patmos, John in the Book of Revelation (chapter 20), receives a vision of a thousand-year reign of Christ/Messiah upon the earth.

All Christian apocalyptic eschatology has been concerned with the two themes referred throughout the Bible as "this age" and "the age coming". Evangelical Christians have been in the forefront popularizing the biblical prophecy of a major confrontation between good and evil at the end of this age, a coming Millennium to follow, and a final confrontation whereby the wicked are judged, the righteous are rewarded and the beginning of Eternity is viewed.

Some evangelical Christians have taught a form of millennialism known as Dispensationalism, which arose in the 19th century. Dispensationalists see separate destinies for the Christian Church and Israel. Their concept of a "Pre-Tribulation Rapture" of the Church has become better known, thanks in part to the Left Behind series of books and films. Dispensationalists find in Biblical prophecy predictions of future events: the throne of God in heaven and his glory; specific judgments that will occur on the earth; the final form of Gentile power; God' re-dealing with Israel based upon covenants mentioned in the Hebrew Old Testament; the second coming proper; a one-thousand year reign of Messiah; a last test of mankind's sinful nature under ideal conditions by the loosing of Satan, with a judgment of fire coming down from Heaven that follows; the Great White Throne judgment, and the re-creation of the current heavens and the earth as a "New Heaven and New Earth" ushering in the beginning of Eternity. And are you, guys, ready?

To my students: the genre of revelation aims to show God's way of dealing with humankind and His ultimate purposes and its writers often reveal the meaning of present events in connection with the ending of the present age. You come across the same idea in the words of John Milton in Paradise Lost: "Of Man's First Disobedience" (I, 1) so that he can "assert Eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God to men" (I, 25-26).