THE TWO VIEWS
Dr. Stephen R. Phinney
The book of Revelation has captured the audience of religions and governments since the date of its writing. Some readers are attracted to it for political reasons, while others are fascinated by the spiritual accuracy and foundation it bears. Many like it just because it’s a great book to debate with the ages. Whatever the attraction, the fact remains; it is the most accurate historical piece of literary writing known to mankind.
Let’s take a look at some biblical history—handpicked minds by the mind of God.
Biblical history is extraordinary because it involves a God who inspires. Most historical accounts of events and people are written by the minds of the people, and thus, what comes into question, is the people who wrote them. This is not the case with the Bible. Man and God are seen as making this history as a unified team. Unique? No, but impossible without the supernatural control of God through the Holy Spirit. Now, the critical element here is, does the writer have the indwelling life of the Holy Spirit living within him? Without the Holy Spirit indwelling the writer, it falls under our first category, and that is a man writing for man. With the Holy Spirit living inside the believer, the writings can now be inspired, and that’s precisely what took place with the writing of the book of Revelation.
God reveals Himself in His writings through man while having a constant interaction via angels sent from Heaven, or by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Is this tough to believe? It doesn’t matter if one believes it or not; each person will see the Truth someday. They are going to see on the other side exactly how God wrote the Bible through man. But debating with man today whether God could write the Bible, particularly the book Revelation, through man is not worth arguing. The only one who can prove Truth is Truth, and Truth is a Person, and that Person is Jesus Christ.
Without God, The Bible would be “just another history book” written by a man. Therefore, it would be able to be manipulated by man. To stop this vulnerability from occurring, God kept Himself active in the lives of the people as He was forming His-story (Biblical History).
We must understand the two forms of history:
The first form is Social Scientist. This is the study of what is seen, heard, and then recorded by man. It is subjective data gathered by the observation of man, with man. This is what I classify as Horizontal History.
The second form is the Creational Concretization. This is data gathered by a Creator, then passed to man through the power and workings of the Holy Spirit, the angels (Old Testament), and the inspired thoughts of man. This is what I will be referring to as Vertical History.
By looking at the past through Vertical History, God is the main character in history being recorded. This requires Divine Providence and Intervention. Divine Providence Intervention is not an addition to an existing account. It is the making of history through a Being (God), overpowering the mind of the recorder. The issue arises regarding the sinful interpretation of man’s mind. This is why it must be an overpowering influence that is Divine and accurate. To prove God’s point, He reveals the same historical data to many different individuals over a multigenerational timespan. What this means is that He says the same thing to various prophets. He says the same something to multiple individuals—for example, Judges in the Bible or a commoner in the Bible. He says the same thing, using the same words recorded by different people, which comes out as the same message. This is why it is easier to believe that the inspired Word of God is from God.
Let’s take a look at the Biblical Narrative of Divine Inspiration.
All Biblical writers provide perfect illustrations of the dynamic approach to history. What do I mean by this? Each illustrative story (actual events) were role-playing the message of the book of Revelation. One of the many examples is the pathway of Moses: the bondage of Egypt (Adamic nature), being set free from Pharaoh (hands of Satan), walking through the Red Sea (Salvation), forty years in the wilderness (working out of self-life), crossing the Jordan (identity in Christ), and entering into the Canaan land (Victorious Life of Christ). We can take these same historical events and walk through each chapter in the book of Revelation, and this would be true.
The Vertical History God writes it is miraculous. It is impressive and precisely accurate. Every story recorded in the Bible can be directly related to the Gospel and to the end-times message that we are studying today in the book of Revelation.
One of the unique and critical parallels that we can look at is Abraham and the covenant. The Biblical records of Abraham (formerly known as Abram) are significant in understanding the book of Revelation. It is the establishment of the covenant (signature by blood). Remember, God makes His commitment and promise to Abraham. Also remember, God already knew what land would be fought over in the book of Revelation. He was quick to make and keep that promise to his servant. God already knew and could see what was to come.
Even though God knew Abraham would suffer many doubts, this didn’t matter to God. Man’s confusion does not block the pathway of God’s foretold Revelation. If it did, we wouldn’t have the Bible today. The simple deal is this, Abraham was chosen by God to lead His people into His land of Revelation. I am confident that Abraham was clueless as to what God was instigating. All He needed was his servant’s faithfulness to establish the covenant of the end-times. It’s the same thing with us believers today. All God needs is our faithfulness. He will then work out the details of our salvation and walk-in Christ in our end-times (the remaining days of our lives).
This covenant was the beginning of God’s Hebrew nation—the nation of Israel. Keep in mind that the Israelites didn’t become a nation until 1948, an event foretold in the book of Revelation. This covenant was marked with a blood sacrifice, initially, by the price of Abraham’s only son, Issac. Even in this story, we find the message of Jesus and the blood covenant.
The promises to Abraham and its correlation to Revelation should be fundamental to all of us indwelt believers. A point that needs to be accepted here is that a great nation was to come out of Abraham, namely, the nation of Israel. Secondly, Israel became a nation in 1948. Finally, Abraham was promised land, specifically the land of Canaan, which happens to be the land that is fought over every day as read in modern, updated news.
Whether the Jews physically reside inside or outside of the land, or whether anyone else may have temporary control, the land still belongs to the Jewish people by covenant. It is the reason - why Christ returns—to restore the land of promise.
Here are fourteen points I think we need to keep in mind:
- Abraham himself was to be greatly blessed (Gen 12:2b; 15:5-6; 22:15-17a).
- Abraham is the Old Testament figure of God the Father. God sending His Son to protect and heal the land of Israel is a direct reflection of this.
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Abraham’s name would be great (Gen 12:2c), just as God’s name is great.
- Abraham will be a blessing to others (Gen 12:2d) when we look at the book of Revelation, particularly, to the blessing of the 144,000 bloodline Jews who will become born-again.
- Those who bless will be blessed (Gen 12:3a). In the end-times, these are the people of the book of Revelation, fulfilling, closing, and completing the promise that was given to Abraham.
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The one who curses will be cursed (Gen 12:3b) Again, this principle is operative in the Prophets, as they pronounced judgment on the nations surrounding Israel for the treatment of His chosen people. For all those who curse the Bride, Christ will come to destroy in the final days.
- In Abraham, all the earth will ultimately be blessed (Gen 12:3c; 22:18). This is a promise of the Gentile blessing, meaning the Gentiles are grafted into the Jewish body of Christ.
- Abraham would receive a son through his wife, Sarah (Gen 15:1-4; 17:16-21). When we look at the New Testament, Mary is the symbol of God birthing His own Son through an earthly mother.
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9. His descendants would undergo the Egyptian bondage (Gen 15:13-14). We know this to be accurate; Egyptian history proves it, and most significantly, the Bible proves it. When we look at the end-times through the eyes of the book of Revelation, this is the king of the South (Egypt) who attempts to put Israel back into bondage for the second time.
- Other nations, as well as Israel, will come forth from Abraham (Gen 17:3-4,6). The Islamic states are some of these very nations foretold in the book of Revelation that will rise and revolt against Israel in the final times.
- His name was to be changed from Abram to Abraham (Gen 17:5). Jesus referenced His name-change from Jesus to The Christ.
- Abraham’s descendants become the father of nations—both in the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael. Remember, the Jewish people of today are from Isaac. The born-again indwelt Christians are from Isaac by being grafted in, and Ishmael’s descendants are our present-day Islamic people.
- Sarai, his wife’s name, was changed to Sarah (Gen 17:15). In the book of Revelation, Revelation’s mother of all nations is directly connected to Sarah.
- There was to be a token/sign of the covenant—circumcision (Gen 17:9-14). Revelation refers to this as the separation of the goats from the sheep.
There are many more parallels of the life and walk of Abraham concerning our study of the book of Revelation. But know this, each of the promises made to Abraham was for the strict purpose of setting the stage for the events in the book of Revelation, and for them to occur, according to John’s writings.
Next, I will parallel Joseph, the Judges, the Prophets, and Messianic expectations.
