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NASB | Revelation 16:8 ¶ The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Revelation 16:8 ¶ Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given power to scorch humanity with [raging] fire. |
Bible Question: Just wondering what your guys take on the apocalypse is. Believe it? Believe the world is actually ending 2012? Anyone want to translate Revelation 16:8-9 into standard English for me? |
Bible Answer: Spike Revelation 16:8, 9 is about one of the bowl judgments and some who do not take a literal interpretation of the Bible do not believe it will happen as prophesied by John. A literal intrepretation of the Bible would mean that it is going to come true sometime in the future. I say future because Revelation, although it does use figurative language is a real prophecy and no prophecy that is in the Bible has failed yet. Revelation chapter 1 is about an angel announcing a Revelation to John from Jesus Christ. In Revelation 1:19 the angel tells John that this is about the past, the present, and the future. The past is Revelation chapter 1, the present is Revelation chapters 2, and 3, the future is Revelation chapters 4 through 22. The prophecy of the Great Tribulation starts at chapter 6 and lasts until chapter 19 when Christ returns. In the Great Tribulation are a series of real judgments that are described using some figurative langauge to describe real events - for instance there are locusts with faces that go out and sting people that may be demons, - the beasts have horns that represent people and, or nations, or kingdoms and there are figurative depictions of two different women one good, one bad that represent the church and the evil economic and spiritual empire of the beast. But the bowl judgments and the trumpet judgments are meant to be real things to happen in the future. The one thing about Revelation is that the bulk of it, the chapters 6 through 19 are suppossed to happen within 7 years split up into two parts and the judgments happen during this time. So where Revelation 16:8, 9 says that an angel pours out a bowl on the sun and that the sun scorches men with fierce heat and that they curse God, we can count on that it will happen because the Bible does not lie. Many have been saying for years that Jesus is going to come at a this date or that certain date. They got the first dates they came up with wrong, now they have choosen other dates. Jesus says - Mathew 24:36 But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, not the Son, but the Father alone. If Jesus did not know, and if the angels do not know, it is certain that these people cannot say with any certainty that te world will be ending in 2012. Another reason why this cannot be so is that all the things that have to happen in order, starting from chapter 6, would have had to have started in 2005, and they did not happen at all, so the end of the world cannot come by 2012 because we would have to be 4 years into a set of judgments that have not happened yet. blessings abound, bowler |