Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (33 page)

St. John consciously borrowed the outline of Daniel as he wrote The Apocalypse. Both books start with God’s people standing up for Him, but finding it dangerous to do so. Both then relate the central, initial vision, revealing the mystery of the Messiah’s Kingdom. After that, both authors insert events from the lives of important historical people to help the reader understand the initial vision more fully. Both books proceed to recapitulate the initial vision, while providing proof concerning the coming of the Messiah. Finally there is a thematic summary of each book. (In Daniel, this thematic summary is part of the deuterocanonical portion of the book.)

This reliance on Daniel is evident in more than just the outline of The Apocalypse. St. John alludes to or quotes from the Old Testament 518 times in the 404 verses of this book. Almost seventeen percent, or eighty-eight, of these allusions and quotations are from Daniel alone. Since there are twenty-two chapters in The Apocalypse, on average there are four references to Daniel in every chapter.

The similarities go beyond language. Daniel was a man of God suffering under a government that commanded him to disobey his God by eating the food of idols and worshiping the king; the Christians of The Apocalypse were suffering under a government that commanded them to disobey Christ by worshiping the emperor. Daniel’s response was worship and prayer, which St. John recommended to the early Church. When both Daniel and the Christians continued to worship and pray to their God, the state used deceit and power to throw them to the lions. In both cases, the faithful response was always prayer.

With all of these similarities, it should not surprise us that the visions of The Apocalypse reflect the visions of Daniel. We will be seeing many of the same events being described. The Apocalypse concentrates on the time during which the Old Covenant passes away and is publicly replaced by the New Covenant. Daniel focuses on the last of his seventy weeks—as will St. John in The Apocalypse. This week encompasses the seven decades of covenantal transition. As in Daniel, The Apocalypse deals with the final eschaton only briefly, at the end of the visions. This is as we would expect.

No one should ever try to understand St. John’s Revelation without first becoming thoroughly immersed in Daniel. If you ignore Daniel’s outline when examining The Apocalypse, you can easily fall into the mistake of placing the visions of The Apocalypse in chronological order. As anyone can attest who has carefully studied under a rapturist, this makes the book absolutely indecipherable! Rather, the visions of The Apocalypse reveal the same events from different perspectives, with different details over slightly different periods—in precisely the same manner as Daniel’s visions did.

This outline does not, as far as I can determine, negate the idea that St. John also wrote The Apocalypse to parallel the Liturgy of the Mass. The Eucharist is essential to understanding St. John’s visions. When the Church on earth celebrates the Eucharist, it is united to the triumphant New Jerusalem in Heaven. These ideas could certainly be investigated more fully, but that is not the purpose of this book.

But before delving into St. John’s masterpiece, we need a timetable to determine which prophecies are past, which are present, and which are future. For those reading the book in 68 A.D., almost all of The Apocalypse would have been future, but not for us. The same was true of Daniel’s prophecy. When he wrote it, it was almost all future, but later readers must take into account the fulfillment of some of his prophecies. We will make this timetable reflect our perspective in the twenty-first century, not that of the first century.

Notice that the timetable overlaps the book outline. Events present to us in the twenty-first century take up only five verses, until St. John returns to the present state of affairs in the thematic summary at the book’s end; future events encompass only about one chapter. The vast majority of The Apocalypse is history now. We will refer back to this timetable, but will use the outline for headings.

Rather than proceed exhaustively and meticulously verse by verse, which would entail writing a complete commentary on The Apocalypse, we will look at the overall flow of the book, paying particular attention to how the symbols relate to the events of the Great Tribulation and the Jewish-Roman War. We will examine all the symbols that have become well-known in the rapturist system, but we cannot hope to discuss every single symbol here.

We will keep in mind two questions: Were these prophecies fulfilled adequately in 70 A.D.? Is there anything that necessitates our acceptance of the belief in a future secret rapture, future seven-year Great Tribulation, or future Millennium?

Much of our work will be to illustrate that the events surrounding 70 A.D. really do fulfill the visions of St. John. Then there will be no reason to look to the future, except as these events themselves may foreshadow the future eschaton (GR3).

The historical setting

The first three chapters of The Apocalypse give the historical setting. Immediately, St. John begins using numbers in a symbolic way.
Seven
is the number that symbolizes God’s perfect workings in the world (GR2). The speaker in the vision, Christ, is envisioned standing in the midst of “seven golden lampstands … and … in His right hand He held seven stars.… The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches” (1:12–20).

The next two chapters contain letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor, struggling to stand for God in the midst of evil. For the visions in The Apocalypse describe a battle, with Christ and His truth on one side and Satan and his deceitful use of power on the other. False teachings and carnal practices are always Satan’s approach to the Church, whether in the first century or in the twenty-first.

Despite the faithfulness of many Christians, there was apostasy in these churches, which has led some to believe that The Apocalypse was written later than 68 A.D. But that view is wrong. Apostasy came early and often in the Church. In fact, Jesus warned in the Olivet Discourse that false teachers would appear before the judgment of 70 A.D. These letters prove that the heresy promised in the Olivet Discourse did in fact appear before the judgment of the Sanhedrin. The rest of The Apocalypse proves that the Great Tribulation and the Temple’s destruction that Jesus predicted appeared as well.

We learn that the Ephesian Church opposes the Nicolaitans (2:6). We can possibly trace the Nicolaitans to one of the first seven deacons ordained by the Apostles (Acts 6:5). According to Victorinus, they were morally permissive, promising “that whoever [had] committed fornication might receive peace on the eighth day” (
COA
, II).

Jesus promises to “grant to eat of the tree of life” to the Christian who “conquers” (2:7). We will encounter this tree again at the end of the book. St. John repeatedly uses the literary technique of briefly alluding to a subject and then promptly dropping it. Later, when that subject returns as the central theme of another vision, the reader is familiar with it. This gives unity to visions that otherwise might seem disjointed. We will call this technique anticipation.

The Church in Smyrna is under persecution from “those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (2:9). This should give us clear notice that the tension between the Jewish leaders and the Christians was in full bloom in Smyrna. Christ warns them that they will have a short but complete time of trial ahead, “ten days” (GR2). This reflects the ten days of trial that Daniel underwent at the beginning of his captivity. After his trial, the king granted him a role in ruling.

Christ ends with a promise of reward after successful endurance: “He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death” (2:11). It is significant that here, in the middle of trials, this Church is not promised deliverance from trouble. There is no hint of a secret rapture that will spare them the Great Tribulation ahead.

The second death will reappear later in The Apocalypse. We will discuss it then, but even in this brief instance of anticipation, it is clearly a reference to eternal damnation (
COA
, II).

Pergamum’s church had succumbed to the evil of the Nicolaitans: eating “food sacrificed to idols and [practicing] immorality” (2:14). A careful reading of these churches’ problems illustrates that in the early Church there were serious heresies that sprang up almost immediately.

The parallel to Daniel’s test is interesting. The government ordered Daniel to eat royal food sacrificed to idols. He refused, and God rewarded Daniel and his three friends for their faithfulness to His Law. Christ promises the same if Pergamum repents. If not, Christ states that He “will come to [them] soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth” (2:16). This anticipates the sword that later represents the Truth of the gospel.

The Church of Thyatira had in their midst a woman whom Christ calls “Jezebel.” She was “teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality” (2:20). This may have been linked to one of the Gnostic cults, because they had secret teachings, “what some call the deep things of Satan” (2:24). The Gnostics can be linked to Simon Magus, whom we read of in Acts. He said, “I am the Word of God, I am the Comforter, I am Almighty, I am all there is of God”
(GHF)
.

Christ assures Jezebel of the coming of His judgment if she does not repent. The result of this judgment “anticipates” one of the major themes of The Apocalypse: “And all the churches shall
know that I am
He who searches mind and heart” (2:23). The judgment of Christ vindicates His claims to godly power. It also serves as an assurance that He will judge everyone in the final eschaton, as He has predicted. Of course, those who die before the final eschaton will witness the coming of Christ upon their death for their own particular judgment.

The Church of Sardis is bluntly urged to awaken. Anyone who responds, Christ “will not blot his name out of the book of life” (3:5). Many rapturists also are strong proponents of eternal security. They do not believe that anyone can be blotted out, even if they stay asleep throughout Christ’s warnings. The letter to Sardis ought to give them pause.

St. John also anticipates a common future use of
coming
. As we saw in Daniel and the Olivet Discourse, God comes in judgment at times other than just the second advent. Christ threatens to “
come
like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will
come
upon you” (3:3). Since this is spoken only to those who refuse to awaken, it is obviously not a reference to the final eschaton. Christ possesses the ability to judge people because He is the Lion who has conquered like a Lamb.