Chapter 6 begins the major theme of this fascinating and mysterious book. It has intrigued multitudes in every generation especially during troubled or dangerous times. It has inspired and comforted those who might otherwise have lost hope. It has spurred on countless believers to overcome daunting opposition and exalt the name of Jesus worldwide.
This brief overview of the book beckons us all into a glorious future in which the “kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and Christ.”
With Chapter 6 we are led from the first century perspective into the future. This future holds a short period of glory for the Empire followed by a seven-fold judgment in which the Empire ceases to exist and Christianity spreads in victory to
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This is described in Chapter 9 and occurred when the Moslem Arab armies conquered most of the Asiatic and African areas of the Empire and converted them to Islam.
The Third Judgment against Rome occurred as the Moslem Turks conquered the Eastern Roman Empire with the fall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453 (Chapter 9).
Rome revived in the West under the Popes who rebuilt an ecclesiastic Roman Empire called the Roman Catholic Church. They ruled from Rome over territories called the Papal States. It looked much like a Roman Empire in miniature. It also began a greater Roman Empire in the West called the Holy Roman Empire with the crowning of Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day in 800 A.D.
The Holy Roman Empire was judged and brought to its end by Napoleon over a thousand years later after he crowned himself Emperor in 1804 (Chapter 16:8–9). The papal Roman Empire ended with the loss of the papal states and Rome itself voting in 1870 to become a part of the Kingdom of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel (Chapter
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The sixth judgment took place when “the king’s of the whole world” went to war; it was called the First ‘World’ War. With it, the Caesar of Germany (Kaiser) fought the Caesar of Russia (Czar) and brought an end of both who claimed to rule in succession of Rome and New Rome, Constantinople (Chapter 16:12–16).
The final judgment on The Empire occurred in World War II as Hitler and Mussolini tried to restore the Roman Empire and bring in a 1000-year reign. This last war, the air war (16:17), ended all claims of anyone to be Rome’s successor.
The Roman Empire was no more and Christians were numerous and powerful. Now the victorious church had to face new foes beyond the Empire (Gog and Magog). This Millennial struggle was to continue until Christ’s return and total victory (Chapter 19–21).
With John’s great work, Revelation, we are privileged to be an insider to the most amazing upset victory in all time. Jesus the King of kings triumphs over all His foes!
Take note that according to the World Almanac, 2004 edition, page 612, in mid 2002 there were 2,038,905,000 Christians worldwide making them the most numerous on every continent but Asia. The second largest religion is Muslims with 1,225,403,000 adherents. Muslims hold that Jesus is a prophet. The third largest religion is Hindus with 828,130,000 adherents. Many Hindus consider Jesus a god, one of their most popular ones in
The book is divided into chapters regarding idols of history, humanity, money, nature, power, and religion. Then it hesitantly offers a prediction if the current trends hold, and instruction for the Christian community whether or not the trends hold.
1. Carter’s book focuses on the diverse ways the Early Christians dealt with their world, where imperial politics, economics, culture, and religion were mixed together (x). Furthermore, the author organized his book around important imperial realities that New Testament writings negotiate (x). The audience for Carter’s book includes high school or college students, Bible study groups, Sunday school students, clergy, and scholars interested in insights about passages in the New Testament to study.
Jenkins, Phillips. The Lost History of Christianity. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. Print. Phillips, Jonathan.
It didn’t just happen in a day. Although others might think that the wars, government, and many others had a bigger impact, but I believe that these had the most effect. The foreign invasions made it hard to keep together. They held it together for 400 years and was bound to fall sometime. The natural disasters didn’t help either. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost. Also, their rulers didn’t last long, so the Romans had to adapt to a new ruler very frequently. 68% of the emperors were assassinated. That makes them a target for other empires to take over, because they know that they are very unstable. It’s important to explore the reasons for past civilization’s downfalls because then we can learn from their mistakes and prevent them from happening. Let’s see if we can learn from this because if it can happen to a massive empire like Rome, who knows what would happen to us if something like this were to hit us just like it hit
As the story goes, Rome was founding in 753 B.C. by two brothers Remus and Romulus who were raised by wolves. The two brothers started fighting over the leadership of the land. Eventually Romulus killed Remus and took control own his own. The city was only a small settlement at that time. As the civilization grew, the Etruscans took over. The Romans drove out the Etruscans in 509 B.C. By this time Rome had become a city. As the empire came to its peak it included lands throughout the Mediterranean world. Rome had first expanded into other parts of Italy and neighboring places during the Roman Republic, but made wider conquests and made a strong political power for these lands. In 44 BC Gaius Julius Caesar, the Roman leader who ruled the Roman Republic as a dictator was assassinated. Rome descended into more than ten years of civil war. After years of civil war, Caesar's heir Gaius Octavius (also known as Octavian) defeated his last rivals. In 27 B.C. the Senate gave him the name Augustus, meaning the exalted or holy one. In this way Augustus established the monarchy that became known as the Roman Empire. The Roman Republic, which lasted nearly 500 years, did not exist anymore. The emperor Augustus reigned from 27 BC to AD 14 and ruled with great power. He had reestabl...
After reading The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins I found that this book reminded me of a memorable passage from the movie Apollo Thirteen: a military man in the tense Houston control shares with a political figure his forewarning that the tragedy before will be the catastrophic moment for the space program Mission control flight chief Gene Kranz overhears their conversation and addresses it: 'With all due respect, gentleman, I believe this will be our finest hour.' This summarizes the book quiet well as the apparent demise of the western church (when the day comes) is forecasting on its fate over against the perceived adversaries of secularism and post-modernism. Jenkins reminds us that when view through a wide-screen lens so to speak, the inherent threat often yields to a broad outlook of opportunity, painting a clear picture of the future of Christianity in colors unaccustomed to American thinking, outlining the characteristics of the fast growing Christian churches that are outside of Western Europe and US. Jenkins also shows the possibility of conflicts between Christianity and other major religions (such as Islam or Hinduism). Speculating what affects this will have on established churches of having a Christian majority outside the west. The basic premise of this book I think is simply: the heart of Christendom has moved from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere, what is surprising about this premise is that the northern hemisphere did not see the move, and still deny that it is moving.
Rome became a powerful empire engulfing much of Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia and what seemed like this great entity called the Romans were always in the search of more territory and land to conquer and assimilate into their ever growing vast empire. However, this was not always the case, before Rome became one of the greatest empires in all of history, Rome was a republic. They were government consisted of a Senate who much like our country today represented certain classes of the citizens of the Republic. During the growth and rise of the Roman republic conquering neighboring territories and competing for land grabs was not Romans primary objectives. Romans believed in the well being and wealth of Rome, and if that meant the total destruction of a potential adversary, then as history will show that is unfortunately to the detriment of the adversary what happened.
Widely considered one of the strongest of the ancient empires to grace Earth, the Roman Empire stood for over one thousand years. Through its humble beginnings along the Tiber river, Rome expanded through near-perpetual aggression to become the dominant force throughout the Mediterranean, Europe, Northern Africa, and the Near East for almost a millennia. As the empire aged, thought, so too did it’s center of focus change. Once rich and prosperous, the Western Roman Empire, and the city of Rome itself, eventually became useful only as a namesake, their wealth and prestige long gone, and with them, the power of the Western Empire. Meanwhile, Rome, as a whole, shifted it’s focus to the prosperous east, which had continued to flourish despite the continued economic struggles of the Empire. At this time, Constantine I creating a new capital at Byzantium, renaming the city to Constantinople. Once Constantinople was established as the center of the empire, the west was mostly forgotten, both by the people and the emperor. The majority of Rome’s Citizens and wealth now hailed from the east, so the western empire was soon treated as an aside by the Eastern Empire and slowly fell into further decline. Many Historians would name a specific event or chain of events that spelled the end for the western half of the Roman empire, but I would argue that the Western Roman Empire did not suddenly collapse because of any one event, rather, it slowly fell over the course of several decades as a result of a multitude of failures. No one body was entirely responsible for Rome’s collapse, instead a combination of a decaying political structure, infighting, a continuously weakened economy, and consistent assaults by germanic tribes eventually caused the ...
Brooks and A.J Gordon (Balmer 34). Dispensationalism has been gaining followers for many years and its popularity can be seen in many places, such as in the Left Behind series which has captured the minds of many people around the world (Pagels 1). Now with historical context in mind, it is time to see what Dispensationalism teaches. Dispensationalism has three distinct characteristics: Rapture of Christians, Millennium Rule of Christ, and the Unfulfilled Prophecies of the Bible. For the purpose of this paper they will all be examined separately. The Rapture is the belief that Christians will be brought up and not have to endure the Tribulation (Robinson). The term “rapture” does not occur in the Bible but instead comes from a Latinized version of the word arpadzo which comes from “caught up” (Witherington 94). The belief in the Rapture for Dispensationalists is based on 1st Thessalonians 4:16-17 which they claim describes an event where living Christians return to heaven with Christ (Robinson). Secondly, the Millennium Rule is the belief that Jesus Christ will literally rule over earth for 1,000 years after the Tribulation (Robinson). The key here is that (as opposed to the Post-Millennial views) the believers have no part in setting up his reign
Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation. Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989. Mounce, Robert H. The Book of Revelation. Revised.
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire is a scholarly article written by Justin Ott about the Roman Empire and the events leading up to its fall. The article mostly focuses on the military and economy of Rome in the third century A.D. It lists in the beginning a few of the different theories people have of how Rome fell, including led poisoning and the spread of Christianity. The article seems to want to disprove these theories, showing how they are not the main causes for the collapse of Rome. “Gibbon’s arguments in these sections can be accurately summarized as “the insensible penetration of Christianity in the empire fatally undermined the genius of a great people.” The problem with this conclusion is two-fold. First of all, this explanation is too narrow as it is difficult to believe one single factor brought down the empire. More importantly, it is clear that the Eastern Roman Empire was by far more Christian than the West, therefore if Christianity was behind the fall, the East should have fallen first.” The article’s audience appears to be historians, or those who are interested in history, or just the Roman Empire. It
Verstraeten, J. Scrutinising the Signs of the Times in the Light of the Gospel. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2007.
This did not do the Western Half of the Empire many favors. Enacting this move did make the Western Half of the Empire vulnerable to attack from Germanic Tribes, and less prosperous(The Fall of the Roman Empire). It did also preserved and the Eastern Half of the Empire, as the Byzantine Empire. So,when people refer to the fall of the Roman Empire, they are only taking about the Western Roman Empire that fell in 476 ACE. The Byzantine Empire fell 1000 years later, when the Ottoman turks conquered them(Beck 176).
The Roman Empire is said to have completely collapsed when the German barbarians overthrew the last Emperor, Romulus Augustus in 476 and introduced a more democratic form of government which was very short-lived.
The term millennium does not appear anywhere in Scripture. The idea originated from a thousand year period of time that characterizes the reign of the Messiah. In fact, the phrase “thousand years” is stated six times in Revelation 20. There are three main schools of thought based upon one’s view of the thousand-year reign of Christ. These views are: Amillennial, Postmillennial and Premillennial. Over the centuries these prophetic differences have caused conflict within the body of Christ and are still currently widely debated. Instead of the book of Revelation being the basis of comfort (1 Thess. 4:18) among Christians it has become a bone of contention. However, this controversy should not deter Christ’s disciples from receiving the blessings that Revelation has to offer (Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). Rather, one should study prophecy under the Spirit’s guidance and look at the data provided within the full context of the Word assessing each of the views for correct motives and presuppositions. Therefore, this paper will examine the nature, timing, and duration of the millennium as well as the occupants of the millennial kingdom and the relationship of Israel and the Church to the millennial kingdom. The aim of this paper is to address “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1, ESV).