Eschatology Note # 1
I have been putting some effort into studying biblical eschatology. This is, to many Christians, about like trying to learn particle physics, but it is possible (and somebody has to do it!). Certainly I do not have the remaining future to the end of the age figured out, but I find that the book of Revelation is not as cryptic as many suppose, given some knowledge of the Old Testament symbolism from whence most of it comes. For instance, the "four creatures" are Israel assembled - see Numbers 2.) Here are a couple of ideas:
1. The seven seals of Rev. 6 are the first of three "nested" sequences (followed by trumpets, bowls) and the first four are the Four Horsemen. Somewhere in the Middle Ages the idea came about that these were like the judgement of the seven bowls (and trumpets), but the facts do not fit this interpretation. First, the white horse of the first seal elsewhere is the Lamb empowered (see Rev. 19:11). What he carries is not clear from the Greek, though Bible translators have to put something down for it. It might be the "weapon" of the Word of God, or more likely, the cross, not a bow.
(Feucht's First Law of Bible Study: never assume the translators had it right! This applies to every translation simply because translation as such is impossible; whole articles are needed to adequately explain some phrases in scripture, and some of it - especially paleo-Hebrew - can have multiple possible meanings.)
Second, the Black Horse is depicted as famine. However, it has been learned since the Middle Ages that nobody is going to starve if a choinix of wheat sells for a denarius, and the luxury items (oil, etc.) are "held" - made available. This is more like prosperity than famine.
I interpret the seals as phases of civilization, from the gospel spreading (white horse), leading to a strong society, growing into an empire phase (red horse) of military expansion, to economic prosperity and its materialist emphasis (black horse), to civil collapse of a death culture. The righteous suffer (covered by the blood of Jesus "under the altar") in the fifth seal from the death-mongers, then ecological disaster, and finally the threatening reappearance of the Son of Man in space (heaven) to the Rulers, and everyone taking for the underground, especially to the under-reported tunnels and underground facilities of all large cities, who do not try to commit suicide by calling the rocks to "fall on them". The Greek word pipto also means to alight - to close the tunnels from the wrath of the Lamb.
2. Much of what happens in biblical eschatology is positioned chronologically at the "end of the age". (The English word world is etymologically were-ald - were, as in werewolf, is man and ald is old German for age, or "the age of man".) It is generally supposed (as I also had) that this time is unknown, yet for millennia, the ultimate time clock for humanity has been the stars, and also for millennia, and before the babylonian mystery religion - the source of all extant paganism including New Age - corrupted it, the 12 constellations of the zodiac were the age clock. Before the sun rises in the east on the spring equinox, whatever constellation is in the night sky at that location is the age we are in. Astronomically, this corresponds to the cycle of precession of the earth, as a spinning top wobbling on its spin axis, pointing the earth to the different constellations. The period of this precessional cycle is 25,920 years. Each age is thus 1/12th that or 2160 years. The age of Pisces, which began not long before the first advent of Jesus, is now ending and the age of Aquarius is beginning. In the arid Ancient Near East (ANE) context, water was symbolic of life, and the bearer of life is Aquarius - a fitting symbol for the next age under the rule of Christ.
What every student of eschatology wants to do is determine its chronology. If we know when various events occur (whether past, present or future) we can assemble a coherent history from it. Yet that is the ultimate challenge, and the three major schools of biblical eschatology reflect that: preterist (past), futurist (future) and historicist (all along). The celestial age clock does not nail down the dating, however; constellations span a width in the sky and offer only a time resolution of several decades which can be over a century.
I have been putting some effort into studying biblical eschatology. This is, to many Christians, about like trying to learn particle physics, but it is possible (and somebody has to do it!). Certainly I do not have the remaining future to the end of the age figured out, but I find that the book of Revelation is not as cryptic as many suppose, given some knowledge of the Old Testament symbolism from whence most of it comes. For instance, the "four creatures" are Israel assembled - see Numbers 2.) Here are a couple of ideas:
1. The seven seals of Rev. 6 are the first of three "nested" sequences (followed by trumpets, bowls) and the first four are the Four Horsemen. Somewhere in the Middle Ages the idea came about that these were like the judgement of the seven bowls (and trumpets), but the facts do not fit this interpretation. First, the white horse of the first seal elsewhere is the Lamb empowered (see Rev. 19:11). What he carries is not clear from the Greek, though Bible translators have to put something down for it. It might be the "weapon" of the Word of God, or more likely, the cross, not a bow.
(Feucht's First Law of Bible Study: never assume the translators had it right! This applies to every translation simply because translation as such is impossible; whole articles are needed to adequately explain some phrases in scripture, and some of it - especially paleo-Hebrew - can have multiple possible meanings.)
Second, the Black Horse is depicted as famine. However, it has been learned since the Middle Ages that nobody is going to starve if a choinix of wheat sells for a denarius, and the luxury items (oil, etc.) are "held" - made available. This is more like prosperity than famine.
I interpret the seals as phases of civilization, from the gospel spreading (white horse), leading to a strong society, growing into an empire phase (red horse) of military expansion, to economic prosperity and its materialist emphasis (black horse), to civil collapse of a death culture. The righteous suffer (covered by the blood of Jesus "under the altar") in the fifth seal from the death-mongers, then ecological disaster, and finally the threatening reappearance of the Son of Man in space (heaven) to the Rulers, and everyone taking for the underground, especially to the under-reported tunnels and underground facilities of all large cities, who do not try to commit suicide by calling the rocks to "fall on them". The Greek word pipto also means to alight - to close the tunnels from the wrath of the Lamb.
2. Much of what happens in biblical eschatology is positioned chronologically at the "end of the age". (The English word world is etymologically were-ald - were, as in werewolf, is man and ald is old German for age, or "the age of man".) It is generally supposed (as I also had) that this time is unknown, yet for millennia, the ultimate time clock for humanity has been the stars, and also for millennia, and before the babylonian mystery religion - the source of all extant paganism including New Age - corrupted it, the 12 constellations of the zodiac were the age clock. Before the sun rises in the east on the spring equinox, whatever constellation is in the night sky at that location is the age we are in. Astronomically, this corresponds to the cycle of precession of the earth, as a spinning top wobbling on its spin axis, pointing the earth to the different constellations. The period of this precessional cycle is 25,920 years. Each age is thus 1/12th that or 2160 years. The age of Pisces, which began not long before the first advent of Jesus, is now ending and the age of Aquarius is beginning. In the arid Ancient Near East (ANE) context, water was symbolic of life, and the bearer of life is Aquarius - a fitting symbol for the next age under the rule of Christ.
What every student of eschatology wants to do is determine its chronology. If we know when various events occur (whether past, present or future) we can assemble a coherent history from it. Yet that is the ultimate challenge, and the three major schools of biblical eschatology reflect that: preterist (past), futurist (future) and historicist (all along). The celestial age clock does not nail down the dating, however; constellations span a width in the sky and offer only a time resolution of several decades which can be over a century.
