How can you teach that Revelation has already happened?
Question:
I read your article against Jack Van Impe. I am so amazed that you can teach that Revelation has already happened. Are you unable to read? John starts right out being told these visions are of what was, is, and is to come!
But what I really want to know is who was this great beast the antichrist? Tell me their name. Certainly, there is a record of the worst seven years ever to come upon the earth. Why has God gone back on his promise to rule and reign over the earth forever after the antichrist was destroyed? There will be no more wars, etc. after. When was the antichrist cast into the lake of fire? When was Satan cast into the bottomless pit for 1000 years? Why do we have war? Why can we not see Christ sitting in Jerusalem ruling the world in justice and peace? When did that happen? This is all to happen after John was taken up and shown all these things to come. Your teaching is false, and even if Van Impe gets some details wrong, the message of the coming of Christ is real. I am sad to say, but you will have to answer for teaching people they have no hope to look forward to. You are the deceived one. Do you allow your children to play with cobras and how about those lions who eat grass with the lambs?
There are so many unfulfilled scriptures in your claim you may as well call God a liar because 1/3 of all scripture is about the second coming and the ruling forever of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Go ahead, preach your false doctrine, and be held accountable for it as well. How sad to hear this. You need to read the scriptures. Then again maybe you are not born again and cannot see the truth.
Answer:
"But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will" (II Timothy 2:23-26).
Let's start out by noting that throughout your railings not one passage was cited or few even correctly alluded to. If this is a sample of the type of people Jack Van Impe attracts, I can see why he gets away with the things he says.
You stated, "John starts right out being told these visions are of what was, is, and is to come!" I must admit that I stopped taking your note seriously at that point. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants -- things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near" (Revelation 1:1-3). The phrase "was, is, and is to come" does appear in Revelation 1, but the description of God's eternal existence was ripped out of its context and applied to God's prophecy. "John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne" (Revelation 1:4).
Like most abusers of prophecy, you randomly treat figurative language as if it is literal and literal language as if it is figurative. You ask for the name of the great beast, but there are two called beasts in Revelation, as well as the description of several ideas that were beastly in nature. The term "antichrist" doesn't appear in Revelation. There is no mention of seven years of tribulation in either Revelation or the rest of the New Testament. The phrase "no wars" does not appear in Revelation. There is no prophecy that Jesus would reign on earth; instead, we are told by Jesus, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here" (John 18:36). Many of these mistakes could have been easily avoided if you had attempted to quote God's word instead of relying on your memory.
At least you are willing to admit that Jack Van Impe does get details wrong -- an important point since no prophet of God would ever get anything wrong. "And if you say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?' - when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him" (Deuteronomy 18:21-22).
If you are interested in hearing a good summary of what Revelation is about, let me recommend Ed Smith's "Revelation for Today" series.
