On October 7, 2023, the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah, as many as 2000 Hamas terrorists began a large scale rocket barrage, breached the wall between Gaza and Israel, and attacked Israelis at a military base, an outdoor concert, and in several towns/kibbutzim near the border. As many as 1500 Israelis were killed with ~200 kidnapped. As of October 21, exact numbers are unclear because of poor communication with their captors and the devastating nature of the attacks, which left many bodies unidentifiable. There were numerous reports of rape, horrific torture, and arson including of houses with living people in them. Israeli government sources called it the largest mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust. Reporting, including video, of unarmed Palestinians following the armed ones suggest that they also participated in atrocities in the aftermath of the armed assault. ~1500 Palestinians were killed inside Israel as Israelis counterattacked to retake the military base and affected areas.
In response, Israel began to strike Hamas targets within Gaza from the air, shut off utilities it normally provides to Gaza, and ordered Palestinian civilians to leave northern Gaza in preparation for a ground assault. The resulting mass displacement and lack of necessities threatens ongoing and substantial harm to Palestinian civilians.
Revelation, Current Events, and the Church
In 1970, Dallas Seminary graduate and Campus Crusade employee Hal Lindsay published The Late Great Planet Earth, which identified nations in Revelation and Old Testament prophetic books with modern nations and claimed that the End Times of Revelation were imminent. The book sold 28 million copies and helped spawn a small industry of speakers, films, and books (including numerous other books by Lindsay and Edgar Whisenant’s 88 Reasons the Rapture will be in 1988).
The proliferation of related ideas resulted in part from the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel and subsequent wars for its survival. Jews returned from all over the world to a new political state of Israel, resurrected Hebrew as a living language, and, in many ways that appeared miraculous, brought new life to the land and defended it against hostile nations.
Although the fascination with Revelation and world events is understandable, it warped many Christians’ understanding of the Bible and, arguably, was a terrible witness to many others. It primed western Christians to look to the news to interpret prophecy, resulting in innumerable lost hours speculating about current events rather than seeking the meaning of God’s word at its source - the Bible itself.
The Bible and the Past as Prologue
As we’ve seen in our study so far, the Old Testament is a reliable source of information about Revelation. Revelation points toward our ultimate future with God, often by picking up imagery and patterns from the Old Testament, especially the Prophets. Revelation’s prolific use of Old Testament concepts communicates the unchanging nature of God’s character and purpose. He remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. He works in similar ways across time and space. His priorities remain the same in the end as they were in the beginning.
Already But Not Yet
In the Gospels, Jesus prophesied judgment on the generation he was speaking to (i.e. Matthew 23-24), and in AD 70, it appears that judgment occurred. After years of conflict with insurgent Jews, Rome assaulted Jerusalem, razed the Temple, killed hundreds of thousands of Jews, enslaved as many as 100,000, and left fewer than 50,000 free in the region.
Many scholars see this catastrophe as the direct fulfillment of passages in Revelation, believing that Revelation was written to, and to be understood by, its original 1st century audience, that its events primarily occurred in their day. This is certainly far more plausible than believing that 1988 was the year of prophetic fulfillment.
In the Old Testament, there are numerous narratives that contain a series of events - God brings people into a fruitful land to be in relationship with him; people reject God’s calling and purpose and become increasingly corrupt; thorough corruption threatens the fulfillment of God’s desire for relationship with his people in a fruitful land; God judges via de-creation, exile, and death; God restores a remnant to a fruitful land and establishes a new paradigm for life with him.
We are currently living in the period between Jesus’ terrestrial life and his return. As a result, we are likely to see events that parallel those in Scripture - increasing violence and corruption leading to judgment. In the Bible, there are many such cycles, so we can anticipate that prior to Jesus’ return we will see many more. He told us we would (“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars…” - Matthew 24), and we certainly have over the intervening centuries. No one cycle is compelling evidence that the ultimate end is near.
What Now?
Because we can see God’s character in his repeated actions, we can have confidence in Revelation’s account of God’s desire to establish a permanent new land where he will be in relationship with his people. Despite our flaws and repeated failures, his purpose will ultimately prevail.
In the interim, we can diligently study God’s word, follow Jesus’ teachings, and be his representatives and intercessors in the world when and where he’s placed us, so that when the end comes, we may hear “Well done good and faithful servant.”