The Anti Christ - Seven Year Reign or Forty Two Month Reign?

My dear friends, a few more key points and challenges I would like to make to Bible scholars is for them to see how many times the person of the "anti Christ" is found in the first half of the seven year tribulation period in comparison to the second half. The passages referring to the anti- Christ in the second half of the seven year tribulation are much more abundant and display him in a place of total global dominance and authority, while in the first half he is lightly esteemed. The Anti Christ/Messiah does NOT come to ABSOLUTE TOTAL power UNTIL AFTER the 1260 day ministry of the Two Witnesses is completed which will start the second half of the seven year tribulation period - (Rev. 11:3-7,13:1-5); thus he will be absolutely no match for Almighty God's Two Witnesses' ministry nor the dominant man of power as many make him to be during the first half of the seven year tribulation. There are only a few places in which we find the Anti Christ in the first half of the seven year tribulation period and in all cases it is a place of secondary standing (Dan.9:26-27, Rev. 17:8, 10, 11, 2 Thess. 2:3, 6-8).

The Two Witnesses of Almighty God - will be at this time GREAT BURNING lights of Divine REALITY and TRUTH unto Israel and the entire world (Rev. 11:3-6) for Almighty God. In a post unregenerate church age world (Rev. 6-16) because of the Rapture of the Body of Christ - John 14:3, 1 Cor, 15:51-57, 1 Thess. 4:13-18, 2 Thess. 2:5-8, 1 John 3:1-4, Rev. 4:1), these Two will ABSOLUTELY DOMINATE the first half of the seven year tribulation period with ALL AUTHORITY, POWER, SIGNS and WONDERS (Rev. 11:3-6). In Revelation 11:3-6 we see the ABSOLUTE TREMENDOUS POWER that these Two Individuals can wield upon the godless nations of the world; including against Gog (the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal) and his confederacy (Ezek. 38-39). Whosoever opposes their Divine ministry for Israel and who are for her total destruction will be immediately dealt with (Rev. 11:3-6). During their Divine ministry they will absolutely TORMENT the world for 1260 days and will be totally UNDEFEATABLE at this time (Rev. 11:3-10)! No wonder that after their 1260 days are fulfilled and then murder at the hand of the beast that the satanically driven world will greatly rejoice with great exceeding joy and give gifts to each other as they now proclaim in its right season (Rev. 11:7-13), "Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him (Rev. 11:7-10, 13:4)?" It will be this common bound of hatred towards Almighty God's Two Witnesses that will be the common tie that binds all nations against the established REALITY of Almighty God's RIGHTEOUS Person, call to global repentance and the 666 alliance of desolation under the resuscitated anti Christ (Dan. 9:27, Matt. 24:15, Rev. 11:3-17, Rev. 13; Rev. 17:7-17).

Dan7:8,11,20,24,26; Dan 9:27; Dan 11:36-45; Dan. 12:11; Matt. 24:15,Mark 13:14, Luke 21:20; John 5:43, 2 Thess. 2:4-10; 1 John 2:18, 4:3, Rev.11:7, Rev. 13; Rev. 14:9-10; 15:2, Rev. 16:2,10,13, Rev.17:3,8,10-17, Rev. 18:2

WHO (or WHAT) IS THE ANTICHRIST?

The antichrist is mentioned in only place in the Bible—1 John 2:18; 4:14. To the surprise of some Christians, it is not found in Revelation.

In his first epistle, John refers to multiple antichrists which had ALREADY COME. This reference may mean anyone who had opposed Christ. But THE antichrist—or at least his spirit—was ALREADY IN THE WORLD. Since John insisted that THEY were ALREADY in the LAST HOUR (1 John 2:18), the imminency of the message precludes a yet-future fulfillment. To say that a bogeyman antichrist is still in our future is simply not biblical. It is best to simply rely on John’s description of the antichrist without adding a lot of unbiblical assumptions. John’s antichrist is:

1. false believers who went out from the church (1 John 2:19)
2. anyone who “denies Jesus is the Christ” (1 John 2:22)
3. anyone who “denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:23)
4. “every spirit that does not confess Jesus” (1 John 4:3)

(This is an excerpt from my book CHRISTIAN HOPE THROUGH FULFILLED PROPHECY.)

See my articles about Bible prophecy, including Who is The Beast of Revelation here:

http://prophecyquestions.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/articles-by-charles-meek

This man of Islamic faith seems to agree with you that Revelation is history.

Amazing :-)

http://islamiat101.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-problem-with-book-of-revelation.html

The Problem With Book Of Revelation
Bismillah Hir Rehman Ir Raheem
Start In the Name Of Allah The Most Beneficent The Most Merciful

The Problem With Book Of Revelation

The Book of revelation often known as Revelation is usually been criticised because of its content and different from all books.
The book of revelation describes Jesus as not the one of Gospel but gives entirely different image of him.

1- Is this end of world?
Anyone who has read the popular “Left Behind”novels or listened to pastors preaching about the “rapture” might see Revelation as a blow-by-blow preview of how the world will end. Pagels, however, says the writer of Revelation was actually describing the way hisown world ended. She says the writer of Revelation may have been called John – the book is sometimes called “Book of the Revelation of Saint John the Divine” but he was not the disciple who accompanied Jesus. He was a devout Jew and mystic exiled on the island of Patmos, off the coast of present-day Greece. Revelation was an anti-Roman tract and a piece of war propaganda wrapped in one. The message: God would return and destroy the Romans who had destroyed Jerusalem.

2- History, context and writer of Book
We should remember that “Revelation” was always doubted in Eastern Christianity and not generally accepted into the New Testament until AD 508. Some ancient Christian branches still do not include it in their Bibles. So, we know discussion and criticism of “Revelation” is not new and is not a disrespectful activity. The Greek literary styles of John Patmos and John Apostle were examined in very early Christianity to prove these are two different writers. Eighteen hundred years ago, Dionysius (Bishop of the Patriarchy of Alexandria) stated that “Revelation” was not written by the same person who wrote John’s Gospel and Letters, (Eusebius’ History of the Church, 7.25).

It is generally believed John of Patmos recorded his hallucination around AD 90-95. The Apostles John and Paul believed the authentic scriptures were completed during their life times. John (8:31-32; 17:20) and Paul (Eph. 3:20) wrote those opinions at least thirty years before John of Patmos wrote. Based on this alone, “Revelation” is post Apostolic literature. Obviously it was not written by the Apostle John because of its death curse at chapter 22:18-19. John wrote of God’s never ending love and did not put such an abomination in his Gospel or his letters. The fact is Book of Revelation was written in 60 C.E after so many years of Jesus departure.

Eusebius in his detailed history of the Christian Church (AD 324; see his comments on “Revelation” at Eusebius 3.25) listed uncertain books of the New Testament and included “Revelation” as one of those. So “Revelation” was doubted in the church very early. Looking at Patmos’ beliefs can explain Paul’s peevishness against such beliefs that caused him to finally say to them,“Trouble me no more” (Galatians 6:17)

3- How many books were there?
Early church leaders suppressed an “astonishing” range of books that claimed to be revelations from apostles such as Peter and James. Many of these books were read and treasured by Christians throughout the Roman Empire. There was even another “Secret Revelation of John.” In this one, Jesus wasn’t a divine warrior, but someone who first appeared to the apostle Paul as a blazing light, then as a child, an old man and, some scholars say, a woman.

Bishop Athanasius, a pugnacious church leader who championed Revelation about 360 years after the death of Jesus. Athanasius was so fiery that during his 46 years as bishop he was deposed and exiled five times. He was primarily responsible for shaping the New Testament while excluding books he labeled as hearsay. Many church leaders opposed including Revelation in the New Testament. Athanasius’s predecessor said the book was “unintelligible, irrational and false.”
So why did the revelation from John of Patmos make it into the Bible, but not the others?

4- More Criticism
Nineteenth-century agnostic Robert G. Ingersoll called Revelation “the insanest of all books.”[Robert Green Ingersoll. “The Devil”. Retrieved 2007-11-30]
Thomas Jefferson omitted it, along with most of the Biblical canon, from the Jefferson Bible, and wrote that at one time he considered it as “merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.”[Bergh: Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol.16]
Friedrich Engels claimed that the Book of Revelation was primarily a political and anti-Roman work.[”The Book of Revelation”]

Martin Luther changed his perspective on Revelation over time. In the preface to the German translation of Revelation that he composed in 1522, he said that he did not consider the book prophetic or apostolic, since “Christ is neither taught nor known in it.” But in the completely new preface that he composed in 1530, he reversed his position and concluded that Christ was central to the book. He concluded, “As we see here in this book, that through and beyond all plagues, beasts, and evil angels, Christ is nonetheless with the saints and wins the final victory.”
[ For the preface of 1522 see Luther’s Works volume 35 pp. 398–399. For the quotation of the preface from 1530 see the same volume, p. 411.]

5- Some Observations and Contradictions

A- Why does John Patmos call Jesus the “Bright and Morning Star”? (Revelations 22:16)
That is how Isaiah describes Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-14).

B- Does the strange description of Jesus (Revelations 1: 12-16) match up with the Jesus of the Gospels? Does that match your opinion of humble and humane Jesus?

C- Group judgment starts with Ephesus, at Revelation 2: 1. Patmos’ Jesus says salvation of the whole Ephesus groupdepends on them loving him more (Revelations 2:4).
Here again “Revelation” contradicts Apostle John’s Gospel that teachessalvation depends only on belief in Jesus (John 11: 25-26).

D- Christians should know they are not going to live eternally in Hell if they do not accept every word in Patmos’ “Revelation.” (Revelation 22: 18-19)

Interesting, I believe much of revelation has taken place including the destruction of Jerusalem but I believe John was seeing the whole picture rather than just a few years.

John was to write the letter to the seven Churches first and it was after this that a door in heaven was opened and he was shown things which would be hereafter.

And it is also pretty plain that revelation was written earlier than what most experts claim.

If we look at chapter 6 it is not so hard to see the big picture of the Christian crusaders on the white horses, and later the conquering of other nations such as south America,
north America, Africa, Australia plus many more and whether it was Catholic or protestant it all happen under Christian governments.

I don`t know this but it looks like it fits.

The red horse could be communism and socialism.

The black horse is for sure the economy which is what we have heard about since we have had radios.

I believe it is a cinch that most of revelation is past but there is still a little to come.

Many people who are trying to be Biblical scholars are trying to fill in the little details which John himself most likely did not understand and just confusing the big picture.

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