The Sky is NOT Falling: A Brief Survey of Apocalyptic Symbolism - Pt 1

In this short series, I would like to take you on a brief journey through some of the apocalyptic and symbolic language found in the Old Testament Scriptures. I will be taking a look at the types of verses that set the stage and lay the solid ground-work for understanding the New Testament prophecy verses that seem to confuse so many readers of the Bible these days. 

Sadly, when it comes to the New Testament Bible prophecy scenario, so many readers are oblivious to how so much of the same language is used frequently in Old Testament prophecy, and so they total miss and misunderstand what is being said by this language. 

Probably the biggest cause of this, is the fact that so much attention is given to the New Testament writings alone, and so people get a truncated understanding of language. Instilled in the hearts and minds of so many believers is this false dichotomy that the Old Testament was for those old people, and the New Testament is more for us. And due to that, people have misused and abused so much of the New Testament that it has made the gospel message so twisted. But worse yet, it has made the stories of the New Testament to be taken out of context fully.

Review: Revelation and the First Century: Preterist Interpretations of the Apocalypse in Early Christianity - Francis X. Gumerlock

What a great book! Very similar to the edition the author co-wrote with Gray DeMar (The Early Church And The End Of The World) but with much more content and more recent translated documents.

In a nutshell, this book has one goal - to close the mouths of those who speak as if preteristic understandings were totally absent in all of church history. As the author states in the introduction:

One common criticism against preterist interpretations of the book of Revelation is their alleged lack of representation in Christian history. Oponents of preterist interpretations of Revelation say that such views did not exist in ancient Christianity but were introduced into Christianity in the 1600s by the Jesuit names Luis Alcasar, sometimes spelled Alcazar. This, of course, implies that such interpretations are novel. For Christians, "novel" tends to mean that such interpretations are un-orthodox and not in agreement with the ancient faith handed down to us by the apostles.