End Times Prophecy is Intentionally Cryptic
The Unseen Psyop and Black Swan Moments
I recently completed a 6-week long study of Revelation. I was already in the process of reexamining my thoughts on biblical prophecy regarding the End Times. I now believe my opinions are fairly sound. By “sound” I don’t mean to say I have all prophecy figured out but things in Revelation are a little clearer now. Some may think what I’m about to write later is heretical. That said, I don’t think anybody has prophecy completely figured out.
Revelation says in Chapter 1 verse 3, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.”
Therefore, in an attempt to put that verse into action, I think well-meaning preachers and scholars past and present give us conclusions they’ve derived from the text of prophecy based on presuppositions and systems that attempt to help us understand. They’ve given us lenses or spectacles, even rose-colored glasses to view the latter days' events. These teachings are meant to help us grasp the complexity, or “craziness” of end-times prophecies. I believe most prophecy teachers are sincere in wanting to help others see clearly. I have my informed opinions of course, but I don’t discount those who have different opinions as unsound thinkers. We’re all in the same foxhole as we attempt to figure this out.
I was aided by a series from Dr. Micheal S. Heiser’s podcast on the subject. It’s a study showing how the Old Testament’s imagery and symbology are embedded in Revelation. Click here to access the in-depth study. I only understood a bit of it and it was still mind-boggling. It was my first time to go through the study and I missed far more than I grasped. It was too much for me on the first run. But I’m glad I did it anyway. For example: Heiser helped me stretch my mind to areas of truth that have been there all along about which the well-meaning Hal Lindsey had theorized wrongly in the Late Great Planet Earth.
Without thinking about pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib rapture at all, it was refreshing to read the text without reading into the text things that I thought or wanted to think were there because of presuppositions instilled in me as a young man growing up in a Baptist church. God providentially prepared John for this vision. I just wanted to know what God was conveying through John as clearly as possible for me.
Here’s how my study of Revelation helped me be content with prophecy for the closing of the age.
We are still peeling back layers of John’s ancient letter. It would be the same for a person of the ancient world to understand a letter from our future. If a person from the ancient Near East studied the letter from our contemporary time about history and then journeyed into the future to our days; that person would witness events referred to in the letter that they previously did not understand completely even though they had thoroughly studied it. Those events would become obvious when the knowledge gaps are filled in the present. They’d have a lot of ah-ha moments when the dots connect. “Ah, so that’s what that meant!” In retrospect, they’d realize their deep study had prepared them to understand future events in the time of testing. The letter had, in a cryptic way, smuggled ideas under the radar of the “rulers of the age” that would make sense later.
As much as we study the prophecies of the latter days we probably won’t completely understand them until they unfold before our eyes. But it’s not like the truth has not always been right in front of us. Like the time traveler from the ancient Near East, we’ll have “ah-ha” moments when the dots connect. You will not understand the events of Revelation at all unless you study as we are exhorted to do (2 Timothy 2:15 and Acts 17:11). Even then it might be only in hindsight that even the well-learned fully grasp events as they unfold because there will lying signs and wonders. That’s why Jesus told us through his words to his disciples, “Let no man deceive you” in Matthew 24:4 when telling them about the signs of his coming.
I see the latter days as a test for which we must study. Our Great Teacher is Yahweh. He has given us precisely the truth that we need but He has not given us all the answers to the test. He has given us the ancient letter, the Book in which to study. So that when events occur, if we have been like the Bereans in Acts 17, then we’ll be able to discern occurrences that seem like a 1 Black Swan moment to others.
I believe prophecy is cryptic on purpose because the powers of Darkness listen and watch too for they hate us and wish to kill, steal, and destroy Yahweh’s family. “And they cried out, saying, 'What business do You have with us, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?'" (Matthew 8:29). They knew who Jesus was then and they know who He is now. They watch. They ambush. There is a cosmic war going on in the unseen realm and I believe Satan’s testing of Jesus was among many things a reconnaissance mission. The war has been going on since Genesis 3:15. I believe an ongoing spiritual 2 Psyops is going on. God tells us in Job 4:18 that can’t even trust His angels. And this is why Paul writes “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,” in 1 Corinthians 2:7-8. 3“Rulers” in verse 8 are fallen territorial supernatural beings. So it stands to reason that we do not have all the information meticulously indexed and figured out.
We’ve been to this rodeo before. The Old Testament prophets didn’t reveal everything. But in searching the Septuagint, the scripture of their day, the Bereans figured out in hindsight what the apostle was saying. It’s on a need-to-know basis and right now we don’t need to know exactly every minute detail. But in the future, when Black Swan moments happen, because we’ve studied diligently, and while others stand slack-jawed and agast at the lying wonders, you and I will have an “ah-ha” moment.
When I finished the study I took a deep satisfying breath. These aren’t my last thoughts on Revelation but they are very important to my continuing study.
In John’s letter, the Earth is going to be wiped clean of chaos. When the wrath of God is finally unleashed completely it will be so appalling it will cause about half an hour of dread-filled silence in heaven (Revelation 8:1). The Earth will be prepared to again be the sacred space it was meant to be for the Most High God, Yahweh. That’s primarily what John’s letter is about. The Earth will be made new again for the reoccupation and dominion of God. It will be a new Eden with God’s own family and a reconstituted heavenly council which you and I will be but only if Jesus is our victory (1 Corinthians 15:57).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_warfare
https://bnonn.com/why-think-the-rulers-of-1-corinthians-2v8-are-gods/