Armageddon Bart D. Ehrman

 

The Book of Revelation is a very difficult book of the Bible to fathom. When anyone writes a book to help explain it, that book garners attention. Bart D. Ehrman, a scholar, claims that there are really two views of The Book of Revelation, one is that it is literal and futurist, that it is going to happen verbatim as written and the other is that it is a symbolic story meant to comfort Christians in any period of history, to let the know no matter how bleak things get Jesus will prevail. Ehrman spends time of a third view later in his book, The Preterist View, which claims Revelation has happened already, Nero was the Antichrist, and we living in Millenia Reign of Christ, and must conquer The Earth and create The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. The problem with this view is Jesus is suppose to be literally reigning in the flesh for a thousand years in the current Jerusalem (Revelation 20:4-6), which is not happening at the moment and Nero did not control buying and selling around world with a mark (Revelation 13:16-17), which really is now only possible due with chip readers, the Internet, and money being digital so that all finances can be controlled in cyberspace. 

I am a Futurist, I believe the events of Revelation which cross reference with Matthew 24, Matthew 25, Zachariah 14, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-11, 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, and etc will happen literally as written, and the main reason is its the only view with hope. If you take The Liberal Christian View that Revelation is just a symbolic book to help us cope in every century, then there is no day of Last Judgement to look forward to when The Wicked will be judged. Part of justice is that Jesus in His mercy hung on the cross to offer salvation to all who will believe in Him as Son of God and Lord, He desires all be to saved, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4). However, Our Lord knows many will refuse to believe,  “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God,” (John 3:18), and “hey called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!,” (Revelation 6:16), and “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory..” (Revelation 16:8-9). There are evil people, as it is written, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. [20] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:19-21). Jesus offers salvation to all, but there are wicked ones who reject His salvation, and while wrath remains not on us Christians, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” (Romans 5:9), it is stored up for those who reject God’s mercy and love. Revelation is the full picture of God’s Retribution and that He will avenge us who were persecuted by evil men and the devil, “They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their brothers and sisters—their fellow servants of Jesus who were to be martyred—had joined them.” (Revelation 6:10-11), and “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19-21)

Bart D. Ehrman tries to discredit Revelation by saying it has no love in it, “As I have already noted, there is not a single word in all of Revelation about God loving others and no instruction to the followers of Christ to do so, either.” (Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End, The Ideology of Dominance, page 193, Bart D. Ehrman ). He is wrong, Revelation has God loving others and His followers instructed to love one another, “from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood  and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen,” (Revelation 1:5-6), “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches,” (Revelation 2:4-5 NLT and Greek itself had this translation), “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things,” (Revelation 2:19), and “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints, And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” (Revelation 19:7-9). The fact Ehrman makes this erroneous claim that there is “not a single world in Revelation of God loving others and no instruction to the followers of Christ to do so either,” when Revelation 2:4-5 alone has Christ upset his followers are no longer loving Him or one another as they had at first proves Ehrman argument against Revelation is invalid. This why we must not trust the word of scholars, apologists, teachers, doctors of theology, pastors, priests, and etc but test what they claim and say with Scripture! 

The Book of Revelation can be tough for many to tap into. Its emphasis on wrath and judgement can unnerve. But in truth I say we should rejoice that our Redeemer is coming to avenge us (Revelation 19:11-16). And that is it also about  The Lamb, The Bridegroom, coming to collect His Bride (Revelation  19:7-9). The Apocalypse is the promise that Jesus is going to destroy the evil ones, that He will rescue us after Great Tribulation and the wrath of the antichrist (Revelation 13:7). Revelation is a promise along with the other eschatological chapters in Scripture, that God will Return to Earth in the flesh, Rescue his Saints, and Rage against The Wicked. Amen.