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“A Short Suffering”
Categories: NEW TESTAMENTI was reading the question posted by the author, Reveling in Revelation, and became confused by your answer:
"After the time period of peace, the devil will once again be loosed for a short time to do much harm and severely persecute christians by deceiving the nations (Rev 20:7-8). Most theologians do not believe that time of severe persecution has begun yet."
I thought I had somewhat of a clear picture of the book of Revelation. I agree with everything you say, but I was under the belief that since the time of Rome during which Christians were persecuted HORIFFICALLY, NEVER AGAIN will Christians be persecuted to that "extent". I thought Christians were now, at this present time, at a place in history where we are simply waiting for Christ's return.
Of course, "persecution of Christians" has always been and continues to be seen in our modern day history, but I never imagined that we could experience persecution like the first century Christians did.
Have I misunderstood your words? Obviously, as a Christian, this can be a scary thought! It's one thing to be "discriminated against" for being a Christian and another when those early Christians back in history were burned at the stake, fed to the lions, and beheaded, etc!
Sincerely,
Tired of Terror
Dear Tired of Terror,
No, you didn’t misunderstand us. At the end of the great period of peace, which we are most likely enjoying right now, there will be a short time that Satan will be loosed out of his prison to deceive the nations once more (Rev 20:7-8). At the end of that short period of time, the devil will be finally and permanently cast down into eternal fire (Rev 20:10). In fact, those verses are a great example of how the pre-millenial doctrine cannot be correct. If the pre-millenialist is right about Jesus having a thousand year reign upon earth… that reign ends in disaster!
To be fair, this is only one view on the book of Revelation, and good and faithful brethren do disagree on the details of this particular book. We would be careful about being too dogmatic on any of the specifics within the book of Revelation.
