And the 7th Angel Sounded
An Apologetic Book on Eschatology
What the BIBLE Says About the End Times
- How much do you know about the Bible?
- How much of the Bible have you actually read for yourself?
- How much of what you think you know is based on what you’ve been taught by others?
- Is your view of the Bible colored by interpretations, conclusions, and opinions from Sunday School teachers, pastors, and other well-meaning Christians, whose own understanding is trusted simply because those people are trusted, and assumed to be smarter on the topic?
“The only barrier to truth is the presumption that you already have it.” The late Dr. Chuck Missler is credited as having coined the phrase, and that belief is the reason why there is so much division in the Church with regard to what the Bible truly says. If the Bible is meant to be understood by God’s children, and we’re God’s children, then it is meant for us to understand.
The topic of eschatology, or study of the end times, is an excellent example of this concept. Our understanding of the end of time is often what has been preached from the pulpits of our churches, from pastors who themselves were taught from their seminaries. The fact that there are so many different interpretations of biblical passages dealing with the end times proves that people are reading the same words, but wearing different filters on their glasses, and therefore coming to different conclusions.
The reason for this divergence of understanding? Either preconceived beliefs, or a “spiritualizing” and allegorizing what may have been written to have been understood literally by the biblical author. When one can make a passage mean anything, it means nothing. Spiritualizing allows one to twist-to-fit a verse to support a belief, commonly known as “proof-texting.” Unfortunately, it forces the person to then begin spiritualizing other verses in order to keep their house of cards from tumbling down, and results in strong, emotional defensiveness against anybody trying to question their position.
What is an apologetic on eschatology?
According to the Oxford dictionary, an apologetic is “a formal defense or justification of something such as a theory or religious doctrine.” The book takes the view that the biblical authors including Old Testament prophets, New Testament Apostles, and the quoted words of Jesus Himself were meant to be clearly understood and taken literally unless context demonstrates otherwise.
It also means that the entire Bible is fair game for searching out the answers to questions on the end times. “And the 7th Angel Sounded…” cites sixty of the sixty-six books in the Bible, quoting most of the biblical authors across both Testaments. Those verses are then laid out in such a way as to be clearly understood in their contexts, as well as where they fit as part of a unified whole.
“And the 7th Angel Sounded…” challenges the reader to “find a mistake.” The book dares the reader to read the Bible for themselves, lay aside what they think they “know”, and see what the Bible itself has to say about the last days of earth. Martin Luther’s concept of “Sola scriptura” (where the Bible interprets the Bible instead of using outside filters, to include other books, doctrines or “esteemed” people) is applied here. If there is a disagreement with any of the forty-eight Propositions in this book, then challenge the Proposition, but using only the Bible as your source.
Do you believe the words of Jesus in the “red letters”? Of Matthew? Mark? Luke? John? Peter? Daniel? Ezekiel? Isaiah? The rest of the biblical authors? The goal is to get you reading your Bible, and as God’s child, understanding it as a letter to you, personally. In II Corinthians 13:5a, the Apostle Paul challenges you to “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; prove your own selves.”
What do you believe? Why do you believe it? Can you defend it? “And the 7th Angel Sounded…” wants you to know the answers to those questions for yourself. I Peter 3:15 says in part, “…be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you…”