February 21, 2006
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The fifth seal has to do with the martyrs,
When this seal is broken, John saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
The word testimony in Greek is marturia (which is the same root that we get the word martyr from). They will cry out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
They will be given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brother, who would be killed was completed.
So, at this time not all who would be martyred have been. This makes sense for there will be many killed who will refuse to take the mark of the beast or worship the idol. There will be many converted by the events taking place on the earth and by the testimony of the two witnesses and the 144,000.
Regarding white robes, there are many in heaven who will wear them. The church at Sardis (the one which was dead) if they hold fast and repent, not defiling their garments, they will walk with Jesus in white. and not have their name blotted from the book of life.
Also those who accompany Jesus on his second coming will be wearing white,
There are many ways that people interpret Revelation. Each has their rationale, and this is not to cause division, for no matter what we believe, what God has prophesied will come to pass, and the end is the same for all of the beliefs.
One school of interpretation for Revelation is Preterism, this states that many of the events have already come to pass, and there are three categories in this, mild, moderate, and extreme. The moderate state that the Millennium is the kingdom which Jesus established with his first coming, and Christians are now reigning as kings on the earth. Some have an early date for the writing of Revelation, before the destruction of Jerusalem in ad 70. and the temple in Revelation is believed to be the one destroyed in AD 70, with the 7 kings being the Roman Emperors.
The next school of interpretation is Historicism – and this states that the current church age is the tribulation or Daniel’s 70th week. it is based on a day-by-day theory so that the 1260 days of Daniel and Revelation are literal years, rather than days. The goal of the historist is to figure out when the antichrist (usually believed to be the Roman Church and Papacy) came into power and then add 1260 years to discern when Jesus will return. They try to correlate events of this current age with the prophesies in Revelation. They take a more spiritualistic approach to the Word of God.
Futurism holds to the view of predictive prophesy as future to the current church age, and would believe that the events of Revelation 6-20 have yet to be fulfilled and will correlate the time of Daniel’s 70th week to the day of the Lord with a literal 1000 year reign of the Christ on the earth. They hold to a literal interpretation of the Word that allows for figures of speech and symbolic language.
Idealism holds that they cannot interpret the passages in Revelation literally for they don’t believe that the timing is important or knowable. They look for the principles or lessons that they can glean for their lives through the prophetic passages.
I guess by now you can assume that the viewpoint that I have is that of FUTURISM, for when, through the Kay Arthur studies, I have listed out the events mentioned in Revelation, many haven’t taken place yet on earth, so rather than trying to squeeze into Revelation events, I have chosen to take Revelation at it’s word. My rationale is that this is a book of prophesy, and that the past prophesies in the Bible have come to pass, or are confirmed by the prophesies in Revelation, so I am trusting that these prophesies in Revelation will come to pass just as God has spelled out.
But please know that we, as the body of Christ, do not need division among us. We need to grow together and trust that God will reveal truth to us as we study the Word, and not argue among ourselves, but just love.
Heather
Comments (14)
What an honor it would be to die for the sake of Christ!
Have a blessed day!
Michele
Christianity and Media… what do you think, what is appropriate media for Christian’s to read/listen/view/play? Should parents protect their children from destructive media? How tight should the reigns be? What about the V chip? Does media have to be produced by Christians to be appropriate? What about secular music?
Click on the Photo to talk amongst yourselves
what a deep student of the word you are!!! Have a wonderful day! ~gena~
You’re so right about intervening at the right time. Good study of Revelations. It’ll be good after it all comes to pass.
RYC – thanks for the wellness wish. The singers and speaker are a part of the Passion movement, which is a movement focused on reaching college students. My exposure to them came while I was in the midst of college ministry a number of years pack. Matt Redman is probably the senior songwriter/worship leader of the bunch – If you’ve ever sund ‘Heart of Worship’ or ‘Blessed Be the Name’ – he wrote them. Blessings … Bernie
Also when I did my studie on the mark of the beast their is also a mark of Gods children or if you will seal of God ppl. .. How I wish I could have keep my notes and not have lost them it would have been a great studie comparing them.. but right now I am teaching on something else.. Thanks for the studie you have God bless you..
hey, great thoughts! as always, your writing is very consice. you know, for almost two thousad years (with a couple hundred years here and there) there was pretty much one accepted view considered orthodoxy regarding that which will come. many of the views you discussed here are very modern, some are some repeats of older views, but generally were hashed out within the last hundred years or so.
gosh, Revelations seems so complicated! i go to Bible studies on thurs nite, and we just finished the same book. but it took us over 8 months!
Hope you are having a blessed day! I just wanted to stop in and say hello!
Take Care & God Bless!
~Rebekah~
Psalm 27:14 Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
Hey Heather! Just have a quick break, so I wanted to stop by and read your great study…I was reminded of a fella who was asked his position on end times…He commented that while some were pretrib, some mid-trib, and some were post-trib; he just believed it would all pan out in the end! ANyway, I, too, follow Kay Arthurs’ line of thinking. And we will see HIm face-to-face…Wow! How amazing is that?!
WIth much love and mnay prayers,
Paula
Hi Heather, Again I appreciate your study, and your manner of sharing various views, & your peaceable manner. I happen to agree with your views of Futurism, as well. God bless this ministry you have over the “net”! Love in Christ, Carolyn
Hi Heather ~ Just stopping in for a minute to “catch-up”. Hope you are well. Have you had time to read that book I recommended (which one did you get)? I have enjoyed getting to know you. Just wanted you to know that. God bless you. ~ jenny
I love your depth.
Oh boy, I have some catching up to do.