Steve Gregg is the author of four views of Revelation. I like it and have used it to attempt to teach a balanced overview of the positions. Prefer the art on the old hardback.
> When was Revelation written?
I'm undecided on that question. I'm a fan of Steve Gregg who wrote this highly-rated book about Revelation and four overall ways it may be interpreted.
Steve currently believes Revelation was written before AD 70 instead of sometime later.
In any case, by "soon", I think Jesus meant within a matter of years, so those early Christians could have hope that their persecutors would receive due judgment, and also He gives warning to some of the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3 that they better shape up, because he's going to discipline those churches soon as needed.
There's a book called Revelation: Four Views, A Parallel Commentary by Steve Gregg that attempts to weighs this question through the four views of Historicism, Partial-Preterism, Futurism, and Idealism. Gregg is a partial preterist, but he seems pretty fair to the other views. I think they all have something to offer, though I lean more Futurist.
> But eternal torment for any being is unjust.
I have the positions of annihilationism and conditional immortality rather than the 'eternal torment' position.
> Not sure who the beast and false prophet are though.
I'm a fan of Bible teacher Steve Gregg who has extensively thought about the book of Revelation and who wrote a highly-rated book about it. If I recall correctly from his radio show, he thinks the beast represents a political/economic system and the false prophet represents a religious system prevalent at the time.
Congratulations on your engagement.
> 4 Views on the Book of Revelation
On that subject, I recommend "Revelation - Four Views, A Parallel Commentary" (revised updated edition) by Steve Gregg. Here's the Amazon link (to see reviews there) and here's the page at christianbook.com.
Steve presents, in an even-handed way, how proponents of each view interpret each chapter section.
My personal interpretation:
The word 'antichrist' is not found in the book of Revelation. It is found in a few places in 1st and 2nd John.
I believe there will suddenly be a last day on which Jesus will return and judge the world.
I don't have the belief that there will be a specific "antichrist" person who is some kind of world ruler before then.
After I became a Christian, I only heard dispensationalist views about Revelation, since dispensationalism is so popular in the USA, and eventually I realized that dispensationalism is wrong for many reasons. Here's a copy of 95 theses written against it.
If you're interested in eschatology, I recommend a free set of lectures (MP3 files) by Steve Gregg, titled "When Shall These Things Be?". Go to this link, then click "Toggle View".
Steve wrote this highly-rated commentary about the book of Revelation, which compares four ways of understanding the book (Historicist, Preterist, Idealist and Futurist). See this Wikipedia section about those four terms.
If I recall correctly, from Steve's Q&A radio show, Steve may currently think the Beast is symbolic of a government system, and the False Prophet is a symbol of an alternate religion, rather than those two being individual persons.
OP, if you're interested in eschatology, I recommend a free set of lectures by Steve Gregg (in MP3 format), titled "When shall these things be?". Go to this link, then click "Toggle View" to expand to see the list of lecture titles.
Steve's set of lectures about the book of Revelation is also available here (again, click "Toggle View" on that line to expand the list). Steve also wrote this highly-rated commentary that shows the different ways Christians have interpreted each section of the book.
I'm a fan of Bible teacher Steve Gregg, who has a Q&A radio show on weekdays.
Steve previously wrote highly-rated books about four ways that Christians interpret the book of Revelation, and three main views about hell, with the verses and arguments for and against each.
More recently, Steve wrote a two-volume set about the kingdom of God, titled "Empire Of The Risen Son". I think book 1 may be about what it is, and book 2 is about how we should live accordingly.
The audio version of book 1 is now available for free on this page, and similarly the audio for book 2 may be available soon. I downloaded the chapters of book 1 - a zip file of size 1.25G, gives a directory of size 1.42 G with 47 files.
If you want to understand various views concerning sections in Revelation, I highly recommend this book by Steve Gregg which explains how each section is interpreted by four camps (Futurist, Preterist, Historicist and Idealist). Steve assembled that by reading commentaries from proponents of each view, and tried to present those views in an even-handed way without showing his own bias.
If you like, you could listen to Steve's lectures about the book of Revelation, such as the lecture about that chapter.
Steve also has a set of lectures about eschatological beliefs, titled "When shall these things be?", found here.
I highly recommend that set, if you're interested in that subject. That set discusses the Olivet discourse in the gospels, and other NT sections, not only the book of Revelation.
OP, if you're interested in eschatology, I recommend you listen to a set of lectures by Steve Gregg, titled "When shall these things be?". That set is on this page of his topical lectures.
He also has a set of lectures about the chapters of the book of Revelation and he wrote this highly-rated commentary about Revelation that compares the four main ways the book is interpreted.
Revelation: Four Views by Steve Gregg is a decent way to get acquainted with the 4 main views (futurism, preterism, historicism, and idealism). For historicism I recommend Albert Barnes' Notes on whatever passage you're studying.
I don't agree with scenarios that dispensationalists typically expect.
(I also disagree with dispensationalism on other matters).
I believe that there will simply suddenly be a "last day" when Jesus shows up. The Christians alive at the time will meet Him in the air, everyone in the world will be judged, those who are saved will receive new bodies, and the new earth will begin (not necessarily in that order that I wrote).
This will be without any preceding signs.
However, I had a thought that God may patiently hold off on the final judgment until the sins of mankind reach an extreme level, at which He finally says "Enough!". This thought is based on Genesis 15, verse 16, where the Canaanites would not get judgment until their sin was complete, and my belief that Genesis 6, verse 3 is saying that God didn't like the way that people were behaving, and declared that there were 120 years for people to shape up and repent before He finally says "Enough!" and brings the flood.
In the present day, I can imagine some ways in which mankind's sins become worse and more prevalent,
and I extrapolate that final worldwide judgment might come within the next couple hundred years.
I currently lean against post-millenialism.
I don't have a strong position yet between amillenialism and pre-millenialism.
By the way, as you may know, Steve wrote a highly-rated commentary on the book of Revelation,
detailing four ways that Christians interpret each part of each chapter, and he wrote it in an even-handed way
so that his own thoughts are not evident. (Steve is actually partial-preterist and amillenial.)
You might find that book helpful in your exploration of such topics.
> Hello everyone, God bless you all.
May God bless you as well.
> I am just a common individual, trying to spread the love of Christ to everyone I know.
That's great!
> Jesus wiped away all the sins across generations on the Cross. His blood has cleansed. That's why he told the woman who mourned for Him to mourn for their own children, and the generations to come. Jesus brought the power to forgive any sin.
This is a minor point, but I disagree with your sentence that begins with 'That's why...'
I assume you're referring to Luke 23, around verses 27-31.
I believe that Jesus had predicted that very bad times would be coming on Jerusalem within decades,
and He's repeating there, to those women, that such days would be coming.
His statements around Luke 23:27-31 are not related to his wiping away sins nor his power to forgive any sin.
> I made this post to tell you that our generation may hold something special. There are many signs being shown around the world about the end of time. Political, and Physical violence in certain parts of the world have erupted. Countries fighting countries. You may have heard about the fights in Palestine and Jerusalem. Those are all signs of Jesus' return.
Your phrase "countries fighting countries" reminded me of Matthew 24:7.
I suggest you re-read Luke 21:5-32
and Matthew 24:1-34.
At the start of those sections, Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple. That destruction occurred in AD 70, which was within the generation of those to whom He was speaking.
Near the start of those sections, the disciples asked Jesus "what are the signs that this is going to take place".
Jesus then answers their question. So I believe the various events he mentions in his answer are events He knew would occur during the AD 33-AD 70 period, preceding the destruction of the Temple.
> I will go into depth on the signs of Jesus' return in a future post.
> But know this, the Bible's prophecy are becoming revealed one after the other.
> I encourage you to read the book of Revelation and listen to the preachers on the topics that the book covers.
If you are interested in eschatology, I can strongly recommend a free lecture series (in MP3 format) titled "When Shall These Things Be?" by Bible teacher Steve Gregg. If you don't want to start with the first lecture, you should at least listen to lectures 11 and 12 about the Olivet discourse (i.e. Matthew 24 / Luke 21).
About the book of Revelation, as you may know, there are least four broad ways that Christians have interpreted it: Futurist, Historicist, Preterist, and Idealist/Symbolic.
Some of the other redditors who responded to you may have a partial Preterist view, that most of the book of Revelation concerns events in the 1st century. At the start of the book, there are verses that say it concerns what will soon take place (for those people in the 1st century to whom it was addressed.)
Steve Gregg wrote a highly-rated book titled "Revelation: Four views, A Parallel Commentary" which explains, in an even-handed way, how Christians with each of those four views (Futurist, Historicist, Preterist and Idealist) interpret the sections of verses in Revelation.
By the way, the futurist view of the book of Revelation is typically held by those who are dispensationalists. Dispensationalism is very prevalent in the USA; many popular preachers on TV and radio, and many authors of Christian books, are dispensationalists. After I became Christian many years ago, it was basically all I was hearing, and I didn't realize there was anything else. Eventually I learned and realized that dispensationalism is wrong for various reasons. I suggest you look into arguments against dispensationalism (including its incompatibility with some parts of the NT) and see for yourself whether such arguments have merit.
> Continue to walk with God, Jesus is waiting for you. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
May God pour his abundant miracles on you. God Bless.
And likewise thank you and God bless you as well.