During the dark ages the Bible was not available to the common folk. Instead, the Church provided a great army of clergy to interpret the Scriptures. The interpretation of scripture was thought to be dangerous to the common man, who, by reading the text might be lead to question the Church. One priest asserted that reading the Scripture without the guidance of the Church would lead to a nation of men with one eye and one hand.

Unfortunately, the Church of the dark ages seldom shared any scripture and least of all its meanings. Rather, scholars that dared to translate and reproduce the Bible were imprisoned or burned at the stake.

A great cornerstone of the Reformation was a return to the literal interpretation of Scripture. The reformers spoke of this as a return to REASON. They followed the reasonable since of the Bible's words. Conversely, the Roman Church interpreted the Bible according to "Scholasticism." This school of thought wrongly applied or twisted the stories of Scripture to back up whatever scheme the Popes wanted to prove at the moment.

We agree that the Bible must be taken literally. Yet, the bible is sometimes symbolic in its language. "Behold the lamb of God!" and " I . . . saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."

Today's teachers of Futurism repeatedly boast of their literalism while expounding upon prophecy. Yet, they devalue and deny the very prophetic views of the men that first told us about the literal understanding of Scripture. How ironic! Today, few believers have a working knowledge of our father's prophetic beliefs. The reformers were men of reason and intelligence (not hype and fear to sell another book). They took the Bible both literally when indicated and figuratively when the internal evidence of scripture so directed. Such a position called for an intelligent reasoning mind.

The reformers saw the book of Revelation as symbolic. There, the eternal Christ moved among many tokens while illustrating God's plan for the ages. The symbols are sometimes interpreted with in the text. Occasionally, other parts of the Scripture interpret the symbols. Revelation should be considered from several points of view while searching for the one God intended meaning.

Does your interpretation of Prophecy birth fear, lend importance to the power of Satan, make you want to hide, drain resources away from evangelistic efforts, or savor antichrist more than Christ? If these attitudes describe you, you should reconsider your prophetic views; they are certainly not the Gospel of Christ.

When we first came to Jesus we knew that Christ was victorious, Satan became a defeated foe and the Gospel was the power of God unto Salvation. We all knew that to live is Christ and to die is gain. Fear was the work of Satan and peace the fruit of the spirit. We were called to come out of the world and enter the kingdom of Christ!

Revelation must be seen as a revelation of Christ and his powerful working throughout the Church age. In the midst of withering persecution the Church springs up victoriously as Christ strikes down the powers of Satan. Finally, Christ appears in the air and gives the Devil his due.

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