Prophecy expert and author Jeff Kinley believes the book of Revelation is unique and important as it’s the “last book of the Bible” and the final word God gave “His church.”
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Kinley, whose latest book, “God’s Grand Finale: Wrath, Grace, and Glory in Earth’s Last Days,” explores this topic, believes the end times themes in Revelation are “very critical” and offer insight into God’s nature — something some believers might not realize.
“It does tell us about the end of time, the whole Tribulation period, heaven … the Second Coming, the Antichrist, many different things,” he said. “But, interestingly enough, most Christians don’t realize that the book of Revelation actually reveals who God is to us.”
Kinley also broke down what he said is the biggest error people make when discussing Revelation: embracing the belief the prophetic text was never meant to be understood.
“The biggest misconception about Revelation is the [claim] that no one can understand it,” he said. “If you think about it, the word ‘revelation’ means ‘to reveal,’ so it doesn’t make sense that God would write a book, name it the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and then embed it into some undecipherable code that nobody can understand.”
Kinley continued, “I think it can be understood, if you just read it in its plain sense.”
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Kinley said some Christians back away from such a reading though due to the apocalyptic language and symbols within, finding themselves confused by the First Century language and simply tuning out.
He pointed back to prophecies in the Old Testament to make an important parallel to how he believes Christians should view eschatological Scriptures in the New Testament.
“When you look at all of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the first coming of Christ, they were all fulfilled literally and precisely as they were written in the Old Testament,” Kinley said. “Now, as we look at the New Testament prophecies about Jesus’ Second Coming, the rapture … of the end times, we would expect God to also fulfill those literally and exactly as prophesied.”
Kinley said the events described in Revelation do not appear to have unfolded at any other time in history, meaning they’re still, in his view, yet to be fulfilled.
And while some might see end-times theology as pointing to terrifying ordeals, Kinley believes there’s another aspect often overlooked: eschatology and the Book of Revelation should bring people hope surrounding God’s reconciliation of His creation and the creation of the Lord’s kingdom on Earth.
He said the imagery presented tells readers, “God is in charge of the universe, that all is well, that whatever John’s going to see in the rest of Revelation, just know God’s saying, ‘I got this.'”
In the end, Kinley said Revelation makes it clear this new kingdom comes along with the expulsion of evil.
“It’s what we pray every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer — ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven,'” he said. “And there is hope there — hope to know that Christ is going to do away with evil, do away with unrighteousness, injustice, all the things that we all long for Jesus is going to bring that to pass, and that gives us great hope.”
Kinley said he’s hoping “God’s Grand Finale” will help inspire readers to get to know God more intimately — “in ways and in a depth that they never have before through the Book of Revelation.”
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