"You must prophesy again..." Rev 10:11 (For an Impending Time of Judgment)

This article is  posted in response to “Most Christians Will Take the ‘Mark’”  That is so, because they are not aware of a better option brought to view by an understanding of Christ’s wedding parables in this brief three part series.

In 1844 there was a Great Disappointment when about 50,000 followers of William Miller, a Baptist preacher, told others that Christ was coming–that judgment would fall on those who didn’t prepare. (Wikipedia) Nevertheless, the Bible seems to endorse the movement as the “bitter belly” experience that John had in Revelation 10:10 after eating the little book that was sweet in his mouth.

The news of Christ’s return in 1844 seemed sweet, but their misunderstanding of Daniel (similarity of Daniel 12 to imagery in Revelation 10) resulted in a “bitter belly” and most Christians turn from any idea of knowing more than we do in spite of Revelation 10 ending with “You must prophesy again…”

The purpose of this article is to see how they got it wrong so we can get it right for our time.

First, they misunderstood the vision at the time of the end in Daniel 8:17. They thought it was the 2300 days/years pointing to 1844, but the most authoritative sources say the word for vision referred to the earlier ram and goat vision [chazon] in Daniel 8, explained in verse 20 as the Medes and Persians.

But Alexander’s victory over the Medes and Persians was not “the time of the end,” so this begs another application. The Medes and Persians are now Iraq and Iran and the US coalition fit the imagery of flying from the west (first historic air war) coming “from the face of the whole earth” (troops from US, S. America, Canada, Korea, Australia) to support “the-time-of-the-end” application for us.

Since that vision of the end points to now instead of 1844, we want to consider the message they gave to see again where they were wrong if we “must prophesy again.”

#1. The Millerites had a Bad News/Good News message. The bad news was based on Revelation 14:7, “the time of God’s judgment is come.” They expected Christ’s return to cast sinners into the lake of fire.

#2. The Good News was “the Bridegroom comes,” Matthew 25:6. They misunderstood that also. We look now to see how each of these may fit for our time since the correct view of “the time of the end” from Daniel 8 points to an impending war with Iran.

#1. “The time of God’s judgment” in Revelation 14:7 is not about a lake of fire as they thought in 1844. The Greek word for “judgment” is krisis (crisis) and who can deny that the world seems headed there? Pick any system: medicine, education, justice, government or religion to name a few: huge problems.

#2. “The Bridegroom comes” is not a visible coming in the sky as they thought in 1844. Bible scholars recognize the Rule of First Use, that where a word or phrase is first found, it often has a context or meaning that may fit end-times because Christ is “Alpha and Omega; the First and the Last” Rev 1:11.

“The Bridegroom comes” is the midnight cry in Matthew 25:6, and the first cry at midnight was in Exodus 12:29,30 when a calamity fell on Egyptians. God came as Bridegroom and took Israel to Sinai where they made a covenant and He later said, “I am married to you,” Jeremiah 3:14.

The point is, we are looking for a prophetic calamity in which the wise will seek a covenant relationship and are highly rewarded as suggested by an understanding of the wedding parables. This is the end of Part I of III. Email me for Part II, [email protected] Thank you for considering it.