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Revelation: Illustrated and Made Plain
This commentary revolves around the person, the work, and the future plans of Jesus Christ under three main headings: Christ and the Church Age, Christ and the Tribulation, and Christ and the Future.
325 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
379 people are currently reading
846 people want to read
About the author
Tim LaHaye
781 books2,291 followersTimothy "Tim" F. LaHaye was an American evangelical Christian minister, author, and speaker, best known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, which he co-wrote with Jerry B. Jenkins.
He has written over 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction.
He has written over 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
March 21, 2013
While writing my own book, Roadmap Through Revelation, I found this and many other books to be very helpful. As far as the much ado about being a Catholic basher, it's not bashing individuals to simply put the truth out there about their organization. The fact is the RCC has adopted many pagan practices and is Babylon of Revelation (see The Two Babylons: Or The Papal Worship proved to be the worship of Nimrod and his wife.). She has the blood of saints all over her.
Another great book by Brother LaHaye is Charting the End Times: A Visual Guide to Understanding Bible Prophecy (Tim LaHaye Prophecy Library(TM)).
I agree with brother LaHaye that the Bible should be taken as literally as possible, and I believe the biblical view of the Rapture of the church is a pre-Tribulation view. Revelation is yet to be fulfilled, and those that teach otherwise find themself performing, as LaHaye puts it, "exegetical gymnastics" to prove their point of view.
The book is very down to Earth, personable, and most importantly it is easy to read. There are enough high-brow, dry, dusty doorstop commentaries on Revelation out there as it is!
The only thing of note that I really disagree with him on is the order of events in Revelation. I do not believe they are chronological from beginning to end. I believe that the book of Revelation contains four separate accounts of the Second Coming of Christ, just as the four Gospels contain four separate accounts of the first coming. That is the premise of my book.
Regardless, this is a good book and would make a great addition to any dispensationalist's library.
Another great book by Brother LaHaye is Charting the End Times: A Visual Guide to Understanding Bible Prophecy (Tim LaHaye Prophecy Library(TM)).
I agree with brother LaHaye that the Bible should be taken as literally as possible, and I believe the biblical view of the Rapture of the church is a pre-Tribulation view. Revelation is yet to be fulfilled, and those that teach otherwise find themself performing, as LaHaye puts it, "exegetical gymnastics" to prove their point of view.
The book is very down to Earth, personable, and most importantly it is easy to read. There are enough high-brow, dry, dusty doorstop commentaries on Revelation out there as it is!
The only thing of note that I really disagree with him on is the order of events in Revelation. I do not believe they are chronological from beginning to end. I believe that the book of Revelation contains four separate accounts of the Second Coming of Christ, just as the four Gospels contain four separate accounts of the first coming. That is the premise of my book.
Regardless, this is a good book and would make a great addition to any dispensationalist's library.
November 6, 2011
I actually give this book 0 stars because of the numerous factual errors I encountered from the outset. I thought at the very least that I would get some insight into the "rapture" crowd, but clearly LaHaye would like readers of the Bible to stick with literal translations of the text while he goes way off the rails with his reading into the text. All-in-all, this book is for those people who fear death and cannot live in a world of ambiguity. (Anna, supposedly we've been "very close" for about 2000 years.)
September 6, 2011
This is typical dispensationalist, pretribulational doctrine. LaHaye misinterprets, or simply misunderstands many eschatalogical passages and reads them out of context through his dispensational glasses. Not recommended at all!
January 19, 2012
I do not follow dispensationalism in its entirety. I respect many believers who are dispensationalists. This is a great book to understand their position.
February 9, 2014
First published in 1999, Revelations Unveiled is one of the main source texts for the End Times movement that has swept the United States since Hal Lindsay published The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970.
In it LaHaye interprets The Book of Revelations, the last book in the New Testament, which prophesies the return of Christ to earth. His analysis rests upon the belief that all prophecy constitutes “love letters from God.” But as anyone who has read the Bible knows, prophecy in general and the Book of Revelations in particular is full of bizarre imagery and indecipherable ramblings. While LaHaye writes that “It simplifies Bible interpretation greatly if we accept God’s word at face value and do not try to force upon it any other meaning” (p. 150), he then, somewhat tragically, confines himself to searching for God’s love in hallucinogenic visions of supernatural torments unleashed by a vengeful, rampaging deity.
His efforts would be merely misguided if he were a bumpkin preacher screaming at his congregants in a shack somewhere. But he’s not. In the 1990s LaHaye’s fictional Left Behind series, which portrayed the End Times taking place in contemporary America, sold over 65 million copies in a nation of 310 million people. More than any other preacher, LaHaye succeeded at making the End Times a common Evangelical belief as that faction rose to prominence in the Republican Party.
Indeed, George Walker Bush turned to LaHaye for advice as a candidate and as President. Certain that they would soon witness the Second Coming, largely because of the analysis in Revelations Unveiled, Evangelicals’ desire to publically prove that they were true Christians became extreme. The 2000 campaign, more than any other in modern times, was fueled by religious passions. Bush overtly sought to assure Evangelicals that he agreed with their extreme positions on issues like gay rights and abortion. He never publically declared he believed in the End Times, but he made scriptural references throughout his campaign to reassure Evangelicals that he was a believer.
It is striking that over the same years that led to Bush’s election End Times preachers crisscrossed the country to tell people that Saddam Hussein was the Antichrist. General William G. Boykin, most egregiously, did so while wearing his military uniform. When terrorists attacked on September 11, 2001, the End Times movement took a quantum leap forward. Televangelists with audiences in the hundreds of millions preached that the attack was God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of gay rights, abortion and other perceived moral failures. They also characterized the attack as Satan’s opening End Times salvo.
End Times beliefs informed the Bush Administration’s real-world response. Even when it became clear that Al-Qaeda had orchestrated the attack, Bush focused the nation’s attention on counter-attacking against Iraq. For over a year President Bush never mentioned 9/11 without mentioning Iraq in practically the same sentence. I believe that he associated them because Babylon, which is mentioned by name in the Book of Revelations, is in Iraq; because Boykin and others had demonized Saddam Hussein as the Antichrist; and because Bush’s Evangelical constituents understood the attack as an End Times event.
We now know that the Bush Administration intentionally lied when it came before the United Nations and presented its case for pre-emptive war. By the time attack began, in 2003, over 90% of Americans erroneously believed that Iraq was responsible for 9/11. Many Americans understood the war as a battle between Christ and Satan, and it was widely referred to as a “war of civilizations.”
In this context, I think we can say that LaHaye’s enormous success at convincing people to believe the End Times had begun had a direct impact on American history. Of course, he was not the only one proselytizing these beliefs, but in 2005 Time magazine named him one of the twenty-five most influential Evangelical preachers because of his leadership in this realm.
Therefore it is important to understand what he believes, and why.
Let us start with the Book of Revelations itself. It has a tawdry history. Since it is clearly the ranting of a mentally unstable zealot, many detractors tried to prevent it from becoming part of the Bible. At the Council of Nicea in 323 C.E., where the Christian Bible was first compiled, it was hotly debated and ultimately rejected because, as the scholar Eusebius commented, “it contained nothing of spiritual significance.” It didn’t become part of the Bible until 419 C.E. at the synod of Carthage. Even centuries later when Martin Luther re-organized the Protestant Old Testament, he almost excluded it from the Protestant New Testament for the same reason.
But LaHaye considers it the most important scripture of all. He says “[it] is the only book in the world that truly presents [Christ] as He really is today.” (p. 247). That statement reveals a great deal about LaHaye’s Christianity because even a casual reading leaves no question but that it is a hyper-violent fantasy about a jealous god wreaking bloodthirsty havoc on non-believers. Yet in LaHaye’s hands the book’s grotesque nature – including sadistic monsters, horrific epidemics and extensive descriptions of torture – all become secret messages revealing God’s instructions to his faithful.
His interpretation – complete with charts and graphs – validates hatred towards non-believers: “Any church that preaches a gospel other than the gospel of Jesus Christ is a synagogue of Satan, regardless of what it is called” (p. 55). Revelations Unveiled crystalizes around this “synagogue of Satan” idea, returning to it over and over. In his analysis, all non-believers are minions of the Antichrist: “Once a person receives the Antichrist as his or her master, he or she will have made a decision for eternity” (p. 150).
Since LaHaye was one of Bush’s advisors, I do not think it is a stretch to align that sentiment with Bush’s black-and-white declaration, on the eve of the Iraqi war, that “you’re either with us or against us.”
While it is easy to establish that Jesus deplored absolutist interpretations of scripture by contemplating his eloquent Sermon on the Mount, LaHaye never bothers to address such an obvious criticism. Instead, he expands the “synagogue of Satan” concept into contemporary social issues.
In the Book of Revelations the author speaks to several churches in the ancient world, loosely following the structure of Paul’s Epistles, and the church he hates the most is the one in Laodicea. For LaHaye, the Church of Laodicea becomes a stand-in for everything progressive in American society, beginning with the Transcendentalists and continuing on to modern civil rights movements: “The church of Laodicea has the distinction of being the only one whose conduct was so reprehensible that even Christ of Glory, who knew all about her, could not find one thing on which to commend her…The Laodicean church age began around 1900 and is increasing in intensity at a breathtaking pace...[Laodicean] churches are usually more interested in social action than gospel action…Consequently, they are sickening to the Lord…[The Laodicean church] today would be at the forefront of the gay rights and feminist movements and be leaders in the ordination of women and the feminizing of the deity.” (p. 85-86)
In this way LaHaye justifies the social agenda of the Evangelicals. Since Christ hates gay people, feminists, and progressives, true Christians must be deeply conservative. “The only time Christians have the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit at their disposal is when they are obedient to the will of God,” he writes. “When they disobey God and make alliances with the world, they are entering into a powerless state that will enmesh and ruin them.” (p. 62)
Moreover, people who demand change – especially those who demand civil rights – are also in the “synagogue of Satan.” “Whenever a person rebels against God,” he explains, “whether the person be Cain, Lamech, Nimrod, Pharaoh, Judas, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, or Robert Ingersoll, one is deceived by the devil.” (p. 347). I love the reference to Thomas Paine, because Paine was adamant about individual rights and the separation of church and state. To LaHaye, freethinking itself is satanic: “The spirit of rebellion in the heart of any person signifies that he or she is a subject of the Antichrist even before he arrives.” (p. 213)
Rebelling against bigotry is even more odious: “People today demand religious tolerance for all,” he writes, “which is why Christians and the Tribulation saints cannot go along with it.” (p. 211) Moreover, “The most pitiful people in all the world are the religionists who, representing modernistic liberalism or the cults and the ‘isms,’ do not understand who Jesus Christ really is.” (p. 247) Tolerance is sinful because “...Christ is not only the truth, but the ultimate truth. No truth will be given to this world other than the truth revealed in Jesus Christ.” (p. 80)
Throughout Revelations Unveiled statements like the ones above are woven into interpretations of prophecy that LaHaye believes prove that the End Times are happening now. Most of these are so poorly argued they are simply silly, but I’ll review the one that has impacted American society the most to show you how just how sloppy these widely held “interpretations” of scripture actually are.
The one that “proves” we are living in the End Times is about the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. In the Book of Revelations, Jesus returns to earth at this Temple. LaHaye’s argument begins by asserting that in order for Jesus to return, the Temple must exist. It used to, but currently it does not. Moreover, the Temple must be tended by Jews, and that’s where LaHaye’s historicism comes into play. To understand it, you need to know the Temple’s history.
The Jews took over Israel around 1,200 B.C.E., and by 1,000 B.C.E. Solomon ruled over a united Jewish kingdom and built the Temple for the first time. Then Nimrod invaded Israel in 587 B.C.E., destroying the Temple and driving the Jews out of Jerusalem into slavery in Babylon. They remained there until 539 B.C.E., when Cyrus the Great allowed them to return to Jerusalem and build their Temple the second time.
Safe in Jerusalem, for the time being, by 250 B.C.E. the Jews had written down their sacred Pentateuch, or the five books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In those stories the Jews are God’s “Chosen People” and he gives them Israel, the “Promised Land.” Also by that time the Roman Empire had become a force to reckon with in the Mediterranean.
The prophetically significant Book of Isaiah was written around 100 B.C.E. It is not a core sacred text to the Jews; its actual purpose was to revisit the concept of the “Promised Land” from the Pentateuch. Working from oral traditions about Isaiah, the authors made him a prophet who, forseeing the Nimrod disaster, prophesied that a Messiah would come and return them to Jerusalem so they could rebuild their Temple. They made Cyrus the Great that Messiah.
It is critical to understand that the “prophecies” in the Book of Isaiah were inserted long after they had been “fulfilled.”
For the next couple hundred years the Jews lived in Jerusalem and their Temple became an important trading center, which was the typical function of all temples in those days. The Romans colonized Israel, but the Jewish Pharisees in Jerusalem dealt with them so they could keep their Temple and the wealth it generated. They let the Romans dominate the poor Jews in the countryside. Needless to say, those Jews did not appreciate that their rich leaders cooperated with their colonizers.
Jesus was one of many messianic Jewish rebels who protested against the Pharisees and their alliance with the Romans (read Zealot by Reza Aslan). His rebellion inspired people spiritually, but political success didn’t come until thirty years after he was executed. The rural Jews revolted and overthrew the Pharisees and expelled the Romans from Jerusalem.
The Romans retaliated in 70 C.E. Not only did they destroy the Temple for the second time, they also massacred all the Jews they could find and drove the rest of them out of Israel altogether.
The Gospels of the New Testament were written in that time of crisis. The writers were Jews, and the “prophecies” in the Book of Isaiah gave them an inspiration. Cyrus the Great could not have been the Messiah because the Jews were again driven out of the Promised Land. So when they wrote the Gospels they showed that the prophesied Messiah was actually Jesus. The last and most elaborate Gospel – that of John, written about eighty years after Jesus was executed – was carefully constructed to show that Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies in the Book of Isaiah.
LaHaye ignores this history completely. Instead he writes, “As the Word of God, the Scriptures predictably reveal superb planning and organization.” (p. 16)
So here’s the End Times believer's main problem: if Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Book of Isaiah, why weren’t the Jews back in the Promised Land with their Temple? Because, according to LaHaye and two thousand years worth of End Times believers like him, Jesus is going to come back again. The Second Coming. And in order for him to come back, according to the Book of Revelations, the Jews must rebuild the Temple of Solomon to welcome him.
Fast-forward nearly two thousand years. LaHaye believes that when the Jews established the State of Israel in 1948 they were beginning to fulfill the prophecy in the Book of Revelations. To him, the existence of the State of Israel is an “Infallible Sign” that Jesus is on his way. Now that the Jews have Israel, he argues, surely they will soon rebuild the Temple. In fact, LaHaye knows that they will do so within his own lifetime. He knows this because in Matthew 24:34 Jesus says, “I tell you this: the present generation will live to see it all.”
To LaHaye, that means the generation alive in 1948 will witness the rebuilding of the Temple and the Second Coming. He and others like him have convinced millions that this belief is an expression of God’s love for Christians. As for everyone else, beware: “When Christ came the first time, as a Lamb, though he displayed certain powers, he did not manifest all of his power. When he comes the next time, as a Lion, at his glorious appearing, it will be in the manifestation of his omnipotence, his all-consuming power.” (p. 128) He goes on to describe how “Christ the Lion” will inflict vast vengeance upon non-believers.
LaHaye says that he proselytizes this belief to bring people into his Church. He seems to truly believe that by doing so he is saving souls from eternal damnation.
However, his actual impact has been to create a modern war god. He anchors that war god in contemporary history, and he puts all non-believers into the “synagogue of Satan.” In classic war god fashion, he declares that his war god is the true god, and all other gods are actually Satan. This is an ancient, primitive religiosity used by rulers throughout history to embolden their people as they set out to attack their enemies.
It’s time we abandon it. Christians would better prove their spiritual attainment by proselytizing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, not LaHaye’s Revelations Unveiled.
In it LaHaye interprets The Book of Revelations, the last book in the New Testament, which prophesies the return of Christ to earth. His analysis rests upon the belief that all prophecy constitutes “love letters from God.” But as anyone who has read the Bible knows, prophecy in general and the Book of Revelations in particular is full of bizarre imagery and indecipherable ramblings. While LaHaye writes that “It simplifies Bible interpretation greatly if we accept God’s word at face value and do not try to force upon it any other meaning” (p. 150), he then, somewhat tragically, confines himself to searching for God’s love in hallucinogenic visions of supernatural torments unleashed by a vengeful, rampaging deity.
His efforts would be merely misguided if he were a bumpkin preacher screaming at his congregants in a shack somewhere. But he’s not. In the 1990s LaHaye’s fictional Left Behind series, which portrayed the End Times taking place in contemporary America, sold over 65 million copies in a nation of 310 million people. More than any other preacher, LaHaye succeeded at making the End Times a common Evangelical belief as that faction rose to prominence in the Republican Party.
Indeed, George Walker Bush turned to LaHaye for advice as a candidate and as President. Certain that they would soon witness the Second Coming, largely because of the analysis in Revelations Unveiled, Evangelicals’ desire to publically prove that they were true Christians became extreme. The 2000 campaign, more than any other in modern times, was fueled by religious passions. Bush overtly sought to assure Evangelicals that he agreed with their extreme positions on issues like gay rights and abortion. He never publically declared he believed in the End Times, but he made scriptural references throughout his campaign to reassure Evangelicals that he was a believer.
It is striking that over the same years that led to Bush’s election End Times preachers crisscrossed the country to tell people that Saddam Hussein was the Antichrist. General William G. Boykin, most egregiously, did so while wearing his military uniform. When terrorists attacked on September 11, 2001, the End Times movement took a quantum leap forward. Televangelists with audiences in the hundreds of millions preached that the attack was God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of gay rights, abortion and other perceived moral failures. They also characterized the attack as Satan’s opening End Times salvo.
End Times beliefs informed the Bush Administration’s real-world response. Even when it became clear that Al-Qaeda had orchestrated the attack, Bush focused the nation’s attention on counter-attacking against Iraq. For over a year President Bush never mentioned 9/11 without mentioning Iraq in practically the same sentence. I believe that he associated them because Babylon, which is mentioned by name in the Book of Revelations, is in Iraq; because Boykin and others had demonized Saddam Hussein as the Antichrist; and because Bush’s Evangelical constituents understood the attack as an End Times event.
We now know that the Bush Administration intentionally lied when it came before the United Nations and presented its case for pre-emptive war. By the time attack began, in 2003, over 90% of Americans erroneously believed that Iraq was responsible for 9/11. Many Americans understood the war as a battle between Christ and Satan, and it was widely referred to as a “war of civilizations.”
In this context, I think we can say that LaHaye’s enormous success at convincing people to believe the End Times had begun had a direct impact on American history. Of course, he was not the only one proselytizing these beliefs, but in 2005 Time magazine named him one of the twenty-five most influential Evangelical preachers because of his leadership in this realm.
Therefore it is important to understand what he believes, and why.
Let us start with the Book of Revelations itself. It has a tawdry history. Since it is clearly the ranting of a mentally unstable zealot, many detractors tried to prevent it from becoming part of the Bible. At the Council of Nicea in 323 C.E., where the Christian Bible was first compiled, it was hotly debated and ultimately rejected because, as the scholar Eusebius commented, “it contained nothing of spiritual significance.” It didn’t become part of the Bible until 419 C.E. at the synod of Carthage. Even centuries later when Martin Luther re-organized the Protestant Old Testament, he almost excluded it from the Protestant New Testament for the same reason.
But LaHaye considers it the most important scripture of all. He says “[it] is the only book in the world that truly presents [Christ] as He really is today.” (p. 247). That statement reveals a great deal about LaHaye’s Christianity because even a casual reading leaves no question but that it is a hyper-violent fantasy about a jealous god wreaking bloodthirsty havoc on non-believers. Yet in LaHaye’s hands the book’s grotesque nature – including sadistic monsters, horrific epidemics and extensive descriptions of torture – all become secret messages revealing God’s instructions to his faithful.
His interpretation – complete with charts and graphs – validates hatred towards non-believers: “Any church that preaches a gospel other than the gospel of Jesus Christ is a synagogue of Satan, regardless of what it is called” (p. 55). Revelations Unveiled crystalizes around this “synagogue of Satan” idea, returning to it over and over. In his analysis, all non-believers are minions of the Antichrist: “Once a person receives the Antichrist as his or her master, he or she will have made a decision for eternity” (p. 150).
Since LaHaye was one of Bush’s advisors, I do not think it is a stretch to align that sentiment with Bush’s black-and-white declaration, on the eve of the Iraqi war, that “you’re either with us or against us.”
While it is easy to establish that Jesus deplored absolutist interpretations of scripture by contemplating his eloquent Sermon on the Mount, LaHaye never bothers to address such an obvious criticism. Instead, he expands the “synagogue of Satan” concept into contemporary social issues.
In the Book of Revelations the author speaks to several churches in the ancient world, loosely following the structure of Paul’s Epistles, and the church he hates the most is the one in Laodicea. For LaHaye, the Church of Laodicea becomes a stand-in for everything progressive in American society, beginning with the Transcendentalists and continuing on to modern civil rights movements: “The church of Laodicea has the distinction of being the only one whose conduct was so reprehensible that even Christ of Glory, who knew all about her, could not find one thing on which to commend her…The Laodicean church age began around 1900 and is increasing in intensity at a breathtaking pace...[Laodicean] churches are usually more interested in social action than gospel action…Consequently, they are sickening to the Lord…[The Laodicean church] today would be at the forefront of the gay rights and feminist movements and be leaders in the ordination of women and the feminizing of the deity.” (p. 85-86)
In this way LaHaye justifies the social agenda of the Evangelicals. Since Christ hates gay people, feminists, and progressives, true Christians must be deeply conservative. “The only time Christians have the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit at their disposal is when they are obedient to the will of God,” he writes. “When they disobey God and make alliances with the world, they are entering into a powerless state that will enmesh and ruin them.” (p. 62)
Moreover, people who demand change – especially those who demand civil rights – are also in the “synagogue of Satan.” “Whenever a person rebels against God,” he explains, “whether the person be Cain, Lamech, Nimrod, Pharaoh, Judas, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, or Robert Ingersoll, one is deceived by the devil.” (p. 347). I love the reference to Thomas Paine, because Paine was adamant about individual rights and the separation of church and state. To LaHaye, freethinking itself is satanic: “The spirit of rebellion in the heart of any person signifies that he or she is a subject of the Antichrist even before he arrives.” (p. 213)
Rebelling against bigotry is even more odious: “People today demand religious tolerance for all,” he writes, “which is why Christians and the Tribulation saints cannot go along with it.” (p. 211) Moreover, “The most pitiful people in all the world are the religionists who, representing modernistic liberalism or the cults and the ‘isms,’ do not understand who Jesus Christ really is.” (p. 247) Tolerance is sinful because “...Christ is not only the truth, but the ultimate truth. No truth will be given to this world other than the truth revealed in Jesus Christ.” (p. 80)
Throughout Revelations Unveiled statements like the ones above are woven into interpretations of prophecy that LaHaye believes prove that the End Times are happening now. Most of these are so poorly argued they are simply silly, but I’ll review the one that has impacted American society the most to show you how just how sloppy these widely held “interpretations” of scripture actually are.
The one that “proves” we are living in the End Times is about the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. In the Book of Revelations, Jesus returns to earth at this Temple. LaHaye’s argument begins by asserting that in order for Jesus to return, the Temple must exist. It used to, but currently it does not. Moreover, the Temple must be tended by Jews, and that’s where LaHaye’s historicism comes into play. To understand it, you need to know the Temple’s history.
The Jews took over Israel around 1,200 B.C.E., and by 1,000 B.C.E. Solomon ruled over a united Jewish kingdom and built the Temple for the first time. Then Nimrod invaded Israel in 587 B.C.E., destroying the Temple and driving the Jews out of Jerusalem into slavery in Babylon. They remained there until 539 B.C.E., when Cyrus the Great allowed them to return to Jerusalem and build their Temple the second time.
Safe in Jerusalem, for the time being, by 250 B.C.E. the Jews had written down their sacred Pentateuch, or the five books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In those stories the Jews are God’s “Chosen People” and he gives them Israel, the “Promised Land.” Also by that time the Roman Empire had become a force to reckon with in the Mediterranean.
The prophetically significant Book of Isaiah was written around 100 B.C.E. It is not a core sacred text to the Jews; its actual purpose was to revisit the concept of the “Promised Land” from the Pentateuch. Working from oral traditions about Isaiah, the authors made him a prophet who, forseeing the Nimrod disaster, prophesied that a Messiah would come and return them to Jerusalem so they could rebuild their Temple. They made Cyrus the Great that Messiah.
It is critical to understand that the “prophecies” in the Book of Isaiah were inserted long after they had been “fulfilled.”
For the next couple hundred years the Jews lived in Jerusalem and their Temple became an important trading center, which was the typical function of all temples in those days. The Romans colonized Israel, but the Jewish Pharisees in Jerusalem dealt with them so they could keep their Temple and the wealth it generated. They let the Romans dominate the poor Jews in the countryside. Needless to say, those Jews did not appreciate that their rich leaders cooperated with their colonizers.
Jesus was one of many messianic Jewish rebels who protested against the Pharisees and their alliance with the Romans (read Zealot by Reza Aslan). His rebellion inspired people spiritually, but political success didn’t come until thirty years after he was executed. The rural Jews revolted and overthrew the Pharisees and expelled the Romans from Jerusalem.
The Romans retaliated in 70 C.E. Not only did they destroy the Temple for the second time, they also massacred all the Jews they could find and drove the rest of them out of Israel altogether.
The Gospels of the New Testament were written in that time of crisis. The writers were Jews, and the “prophecies” in the Book of Isaiah gave them an inspiration. Cyrus the Great could not have been the Messiah because the Jews were again driven out of the Promised Land. So when they wrote the Gospels they showed that the prophesied Messiah was actually Jesus. The last and most elaborate Gospel – that of John, written about eighty years after Jesus was executed – was carefully constructed to show that Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies in the Book of Isaiah.
LaHaye ignores this history completely. Instead he writes, “As the Word of God, the Scriptures predictably reveal superb planning and organization.” (p. 16)
So here’s the End Times believer's main problem: if Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Book of Isaiah, why weren’t the Jews back in the Promised Land with their Temple? Because, according to LaHaye and two thousand years worth of End Times believers like him, Jesus is going to come back again. The Second Coming. And in order for him to come back, according to the Book of Revelations, the Jews must rebuild the Temple of Solomon to welcome him.
Fast-forward nearly two thousand years. LaHaye believes that when the Jews established the State of Israel in 1948 they were beginning to fulfill the prophecy in the Book of Revelations. To him, the existence of the State of Israel is an “Infallible Sign” that Jesus is on his way. Now that the Jews have Israel, he argues, surely they will soon rebuild the Temple. In fact, LaHaye knows that they will do so within his own lifetime. He knows this because in Matthew 24:34 Jesus says, “I tell you this: the present generation will live to see it all.”
To LaHaye, that means the generation alive in 1948 will witness the rebuilding of the Temple and the Second Coming. He and others like him have convinced millions that this belief is an expression of God’s love for Christians. As for everyone else, beware: “When Christ came the first time, as a Lamb, though he displayed certain powers, he did not manifest all of his power. When he comes the next time, as a Lion, at his glorious appearing, it will be in the manifestation of his omnipotence, his all-consuming power.” (p. 128) He goes on to describe how “Christ the Lion” will inflict vast vengeance upon non-believers.
LaHaye says that he proselytizes this belief to bring people into his Church. He seems to truly believe that by doing so he is saving souls from eternal damnation.
However, his actual impact has been to create a modern war god. He anchors that war god in contemporary history, and he puts all non-believers into the “synagogue of Satan.” In classic war god fashion, he declares that his war god is the true god, and all other gods are actually Satan. This is an ancient, primitive religiosity used by rulers throughout history to embolden their people as they set out to attack their enemies.
It’s time we abandon it. Christians would better prove their spiritual attainment by proselytizing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, not LaHaye’s Revelations Unveiled.
November 20, 2019
Where would be Humanity today helped by the "babble" of the Bible? Humanity needed LaHaye to explain the text.
May 3, 2016
Awesome, awesome book! One of the best books on explaining biblical prophecy I have ever come across. If you are reading Revelation and find it difficult to understand, or just are a life-long student of prophecy, this is a wonderful resource. The author takes the book of Revelation chapter by chapter and explains them, almost verse by verse.
There is a good section on the ancient history of the Roman Catholic church. The author hardly lets a chapter go by without at the end explaining man's need for salvation and asking the reader to consider it today.
And, no, Revelation is NOT an easy book to understand if you do not make a habit of picking up the Word of God regularly and spending time with Him. But I DO believe that God rewards the diligent student, and if you seek to understand it, you will. The word "Revelation" (or "Apocalypse" from the Greek "Apokalpsis") means "lifting of the veil" or "uncovering". Why would God desire to make it super hard for His children to comprehend? He does not, but rewards those who diligently seek Him.
There is a good section on the ancient history of the Roman Catholic church. The author hardly lets a chapter go by without at the end explaining man's need for salvation and asking the reader to consider it today.
And, no, Revelation is NOT an easy book to understand if you do not make a habit of picking up the Word of God regularly and spending time with Him. But I DO believe that God rewards the diligent student, and if you seek to understand it, you will. The word "Revelation" (or "Apocalypse" from the Greek "Apokalpsis") means "lifting of the veil" or "uncovering". Why would God desire to make it super hard for His children to comprehend? He does not, but rewards those who diligently seek Him.
May 22, 2008
Very good study on the book of revelation. I think we are very close. The agenda for the North American Union is well advanced. I expect the next president will preside over the end of our country as we know it. When America goes down we will take the world with us.
I thought Lehayes analysis was good. We are to know the season. I don't want any of my loved ones left behind. It will be awful. In the past there was a place to excape to. There will be no escape once the tribulation starts.
“The ten horns of the beast are ten kings who have not yet risen to power. They will be appointed to their kingdoms for one brief moment to reign with the beast. They will all agree to give him their power and authority. Together they will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them because he is Lord of all lords and King of all kings. And his called and chosen and faithful ones will be with him.” Rev 17 12-14
(EU, NAU, SAU, etc.?)
I thought Lehayes analysis was good. We are to know the season. I don't want any of my loved ones left behind. It will be awful. In the past there was a place to excape to. There will be no escape once the tribulation starts.
“The ten horns of the beast are ten kings who have not yet risen to power. They will be appointed to their kingdoms for one brief moment to reign with the beast. They will all agree to give him their power and authority. Together they will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them because he is Lord of all lords and King of all kings. And his called and chosen and faithful ones will be with him.” Rev 17 12-14
(EU, NAU, SAU, etc.?)
July 26, 2018
I might not agree with all of LaHayes interpretation, but I find this is an excellent book to start digging into what may happen and the end times. I did find that it helped me to understand Revelation better, and has caused me to be excited about living with God. It truly doesn't matter if you are a rapture believer, or any other label. The bottom line is to accept the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ for your sins, and accept His death and resurrection.
February 28, 2013
Tim LaHaye has done it this time!
Revelation Unveiled is a classic textbook-type resource, that explains in great detail, the book of Revelation.
This is a "must read," "must own" book for any serious Bible student, as well as anyone with even a passing interest in Bible prophecy.
A fantastic resource! Get a copy today!
Revelation Unveiled is a classic textbook-type resource, that explains in great detail, the book of Revelation.
This is a "must read," "must own" book for any serious Bible student, as well as anyone with even a passing interest in Bible prophecy.
A fantastic resource! Get a copy today!
August 9, 2011
Ridiculous premillennial nonsense.
June 27, 2013
Pretty dogmatic.
I am suspicious of writers who say something like, "It's easy to understand if you..." especially a interpreting a book like Revelation.
I wouldn't recommend it.
I am suspicious of writers who say something like, "It's easy to understand if you..." especially a interpreting a book like Revelation.
I wouldn't recommend it.
April 6, 2022
There was a stage in my life when I was very interested in the end times (eschatology) and I even gave some lectures on it in my local church. In the mean time I've broadened that interest to include what other religions and cultures think will happen. What I came to realize and believe about prophesy is that, even though some are definitely false, even the true ones need not happen - because we have choices. If we collectively decide that we want a better earth with less problems we will be able to change prophesy - I find biblical proof of this in the Tower of Babel (where a collective decision was made) as well as in the story of Jonah (where the collective decision of the city prevented Jonah's prophesy of destruction).
I do not hold to the idea of dispensations as it focus' on the West to the exclusion of churches outside those in the West - such as the Orthodox church and the Coptic church, as well as the historical possibility that if certain things did not happen the Church today might have been Gnostic or something else completely. Besides that, I find it ironic that the author just happen to find himself in the correct church - he attacks Roman Catholicism (no surprise there), Martin Luther, liberal Protestantism, and the ecumenical movement (Council of Churches). There are many other things I find problematic in the book which I won't mention here. However, one more thing, the author's overuse of the word "obviously". I am very glad that he find so many things in the Bible and in the book of Revelation so obvious (and continue to say that other interpretations is either false teachings or well-meaning), as for me - the more I read about topics such as this one the more I realise that nothing is obvious. We all may see and understand things different and the literal interpretation of the Scriptures is not the only or the only correct interpretation.
I do not hold to the idea of dispensations as it focus' on the West to the exclusion of churches outside those in the West - such as the Orthodox church and the Coptic church, as well as the historical possibility that if certain things did not happen the Church today might have been Gnostic or something else completely. Besides that, I find it ironic that the author just happen to find himself in the correct church - he attacks Roman Catholicism (no surprise there), Martin Luther, liberal Protestantism, and the ecumenical movement (Council of Churches). There are many other things I find problematic in the book which I won't mention here. However, one more thing, the author's overuse of the word "obviously". I am very glad that he find so many things in the Bible and in the book of Revelation so obvious (and continue to say that other interpretations is either false teachings or well-meaning), as for me - the more I read about topics such as this one the more I realise that nothing is obvious. We all may see and understand things different and the literal interpretation of the Scriptures is not the only or the only correct interpretation.
October 25, 2021
Hey y’all! Happy Monday to you all! I just finished my study of the book of Revelation and with that, the book by Tim LaHaye, “Revelation Unveiled”. I have to say, reading the book along with Revelation really “unveiled” the parts that I always struggled to understand, there is a good bit of symbolism used in Revelations. Whether it’s referring to the new heaven and earth or to the things that God will do when judgment day comes.
For that, I truly applaud the late, Tim LaHaye. I really think he dumbed it down for those of us who are not Bible scholars or who have not had Bible classes. I was able to see things in a new light and being a Christian, I think it’s really important to know what things are to come in our world, especially the Rapture, though none of us know the day or hour he will come to take his followers home.
If you’ve ever had questions about the literal translation of the book of Revelation, I would encourage you to get this book. I call myself a nerd because, as I followed along in the reading, I jotted notes into my Bible. The Bible is a literal, life serving Textbook that breaks everything down for us as Christians.
This is without a doubt, a must read. With the uncertainty in this world, look and rely on our Lord’s word. That is where the truth lies, not in our government. God loves us all and he desperately wants us all to be in eternity with him but, only you can decide whom to follow. I pray that if you’re not a Christian and haven’t asked Jesus to come into your heart, that you will after reading this prophetic word.
For that, I truly applaud the late, Tim LaHaye. I really think he dumbed it down for those of us who are not Bible scholars or who have not had Bible classes. I was able to see things in a new light and being a Christian, I think it’s really important to know what things are to come in our world, especially the Rapture, though none of us know the day or hour he will come to take his followers home.
If you’ve ever had questions about the literal translation of the book of Revelation, I would encourage you to get this book. I call myself a nerd because, as I followed along in the reading, I jotted notes into my Bible. The Bible is a literal, life serving Textbook that breaks everything down for us as Christians.
This is without a doubt, a must read. With the uncertainty in this world, look and rely on our Lord’s word. That is where the truth lies, not in our government. God loves us all and he desperately wants us all to be in eternity with him but, only you can decide whom to follow. I pray that if you’re not a Christian and haven’t asked Jesus to come into your heart, that you will after reading this prophetic word.
December 12, 2017
As any reader of Tim LaHaye would know, he is most known for his Left Behind series which is a Christian fiction classic. Therefore it was interesting for me to read this commentary on the Book of Revelation from the author. In my opinion it was very well researched and written. There is no question about LaHaye's sincerity of his work and the commentary it provides.
I was concerned in one area of the book where LaHaye connects the Roman Catholic Church with the power that will rule the earth in a new religious order until Satan destroys it in the second half of the Tribulation period. Other biblical scholars are not as convinced that the Catholic Church has such a major role in deceiving humanity in such a major way. LaHaye also seemed to take literary license in several other areas of the book where his exegesis extended beyond what I believed the words of the bible to support.
But overall I found LaHaye's work to be very informative and helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of this most complex subject of end times prophecy. I would recommend it to any student of the bible as a good resource in this area.
I was concerned in one area of the book where LaHaye connects the Roman Catholic Church with the power that will rule the earth in a new religious order until Satan destroys it in the second half of the Tribulation period. Other biblical scholars are not as convinced that the Catholic Church has such a major role in deceiving humanity in such a major way. LaHaye also seemed to take literary license in several other areas of the book where his exegesis extended beyond what I believed the words of the bible to support.
But overall I found LaHaye's work to be very informative and helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of this most complex subject of end times prophecy. I would recommend it to any student of the bible as a good resource in this area.
May 21, 2024
It is said that those who read the >i>Book of Revelation or study it's contents will be blessed. After I completed the <,i>eft Behind series of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, I found this unique study tool entitled Revelation Revealed by LaHaye. I found it to be somewhat informative, however, there wasn't as much commentary as I had hoped. Two things in particular stood out to me: 1) how is the United States playing a role in end time prophesy because there has been much discussion moving the United Nations out of this country and in the mid-1990s, the US participated in a program dealing with nuclear proliferation, or Swords to Plowshares, and 2) the Antichrist is said to rise out of Rome. Regardless, one item i never considered was that since water is a source of generating electricity, when the water turns to blood, it won't matter how secure national power grids or their ages.
April 10, 2023
Very good, in depth study of Revelation. The way I recommend reading this is to read 1 chapter a day along with your Bible. I love how Tim Lahaye connects to other areas of the Bible with different sections of Revelation! Also how he show’s different beliefs and then proves how the literal interpretation of the Bible can be the only interpretation! We cannot pick and choose which scripture we like and which we do not!
Definitely a must to study the book of Revelation. Also a great companion book for the Left Behind Series!
Jesus is coming soon. Remember our time is not God’s time. In God’s time a day is 1000 years and 1000 years is a day, as Paul says. We must be sharing the gospel with unbelievers and supporting believers on their journey to sanctification! Be ready for Jesus to return! What have you done with Jesus?
Definitely a must to study the book of Revelation. Also a great companion book for the Left Behind Series!
Jesus is coming soon. Remember our time is not God’s time. In God’s time a day is 1000 years and 1000 years is a day, as Paul says. We must be sharing the gospel with unbelievers and supporting believers on their journey to sanctification! Be ready for Jesus to return! What have you done with Jesus?
March 27, 2023
Fantastic! I've done several other studies recently of Revelation, but I really felt like this one put the pieces together for me, so that I have a much better grasp of the whole. I didn't agree with him on some of his arguments (how does he know that the seal judgments and the trumpets are the first two quarters of the tribulation, while the bowl judgments are the last half, for instance? So far as I can tell it doesn't say that anywhere). But even when I disagree, the scriptures are right there in the book so that I can make up my own mind (even though I did go look up a lot of them myself as I went through it as well). I'm still going through and integrating my notes from this book into my overall study notes on the book of Revelation. Really helpful!
September 11, 2024
I’m coming to believe that right-wing evangelical Christian literature is the Rosetta stone for understanding why everything is so fucked up and awful now. It’s everywhere, although it couldn’t really be called “popular,” and it’s also a distant but prolonged shriek of total madness. I think some of our decision makers are true believers, and most realize it benefits them to go with it. None of this is a new observation, of course; but it’s one thing to abstractly be aware of all that, and another to peer down into the deep darkness yourself.
August 10, 2021
Tim LaHaye puts forth a well researched and easily read explanation of the prophesies of John and Daniel. There are many opinions on these; LaHaye's is only one.
Pre-Trib Dispensationalism is a heterodox doctrine, and one I do not think is sound. Even so, this book is something all students should read, as he explains it well. It is on my shelf next to "The Blessed Hope" by George Eldon Ladd, which is the correct doctrine of the Second Coming.
Pre-Trib Dispensationalism is a heterodox doctrine, and one I do not think is sound. Even so, this book is something all students should read, as he explains it well. It is on my shelf next to "The Blessed Hope" by George Eldon Ladd, which is the correct doctrine of the Second Coming.
December 3, 2020
Written by the author of the "Left Behind," series before he became famous.
Everything you wanted to know about the end times.
And, more importantly, what you need to do so you are not around to suffer through it!!
Helps move your focus from this world to the next, and from earthly concerns to heavenly ones.
An important book and a much needed one.
I'm glad I read it!!
Everything you wanted to know about the end times.
And, more importantly, what you need to do so you are not around to suffer through it!!
Helps move your focus from this world to the next, and from earthly concerns to heavenly ones.
An important book and a much needed one.
I'm glad I read it!!
August 10, 2021
Eye opening
Excellent book explaining the end times. It helped to reveal the depth and meaning of the book of Revelation. As some one just beginning to study the word, I highly recommend this book.
Excellent book explaining the end times. It helped to reveal the depth and meaning of the book of Revelation. As some one just beginning to study the word, I highly recommend this book.
September 6, 2022
It was interesting and I did learn some things, but it was also very slow and repetitive. I think it might have been a better one to slowly read through a bit at a time rather than listening to it straight through as I did. Maybe I will try that sometime.
August 8, 2021
I have read this book multiple times. Love it, and recommend it to others to help understand the book of Revelation.
August 8, 2021
Good book to have for discussions in regards to the Book of Revelation. Thought provoking. Provides understanding of the events being described.
December 28, 2024
I loved it! Tim LaHaye always challenges me to reaffirm my faith in God. This is possibly the best explanation of Christianity I have ever read.
July 25, 2020
Wow! Wow! Wow! I have always been intimidated by Revelations and actually never read it. Not so much for the content but understanding all the prophecies and symbolism. LaHaye walks you through scripture by scripture and helps the reader understand what the book is actually saying. He also shares other interpretations of the Book and which is correct using Biblical scripture. All I can say is that I am so thankful to be a child of God! The tribulation period should be a wake up call to non believers. It’s a must read!
July 18, 2016
2.5 stars
I have read and studied eschatology since Hal Lindsey’s early 1970s publication of The Late Great Planet Earth. I have no formal training, but I place value on the credentials of the speaker/author as well as my own discernment.
There is no question that Tim LaHaye is a learned authority on the subject. Revelation Unveiled (1999), published at the time when millions were following the Left Behind series, is a comprehensive study that is supplemented with charts and tables to increase understanding. Part 1 – Christ and the Church Age gave me an interpretation that I had never been exposed to, as did other sections such as the history of Babylon. Because it was written nearly 20 years ago, some of his conjecture has not come to pass and other information needs to be updated (ex., How has the city of Hillan fared since the destruction resulting from the war in Iraq?)
My problem with the book – and know that I read it very slowly, studying it and highlighting as I went along-is the social commentary, sometimes bordering for me as the reader on hatred and intolerance. How can I place credence in the authority of his study when he counters with repeated vitriolic attacks against institutions such as “the monstrosity that is the United Nations”, “atheists’ role in education”, and claims that social causes including “gay rights and the feminist movement” are “sounding boards for “racial agitation”? He puts down the National Council of Churches more than once. On p 322, he tells us that psychiatry is one of Satan’s evil forces and concepts. Satan is also the reason for the propagation of Islam (generalized, apparently, to all members of the faith). And, while claiming on p 269 he is not anti-Catholic, he repeated slams Catholicism and “liberal Protestantism” for dark periods in their past as well as their tolerance in today’s (i.e., 1999s) world. Thus, my takeaway as I balance the well-studied theology against the bias: How can I know what to trust and what to discard? Prayer and discernment.
A quick glance at my Goodreads list shows that in addition to the Left Behind series, this is the 3rd LaHaye/Jenkins book that I have documented having read. My rankings reveal a pattern. I do not expect that there will be others.
I have read and studied eschatology since Hal Lindsey’s early 1970s publication of The Late Great Planet Earth. I have no formal training, but I place value on the credentials of the speaker/author as well as my own discernment.
There is no question that Tim LaHaye is a learned authority on the subject. Revelation Unveiled (1999), published at the time when millions were following the Left Behind series, is a comprehensive study that is supplemented with charts and tables to increase understanding. Part 1 – Christ and the Church Age gave me an interpretation that I had never been exposed to, as did other sections such as the history of Babylon. Because it was written nearly 20 years ago, some of his conjecture has not come to pass and other information needs to be updated (ex., How has the city of Hillan fared since the destruction resulting from the war in Iraq?)
My problem with the book – and know that I read it very slowly, studying it and highlighting as I went along-is the social commentary, sometimes bordering for me as the reader on hatred and intolerance. How can I place credence in the authority of his study when he counters with repeated vitriolic attacks against institutions such as “the monstrosity that is the United Nations”, “atheists’ role in education”, and claims that social causes including “gay rights and the feminist movement” are “sounding boards for “racial agitation”? He puts down the National Council of Churches more than once. On p 322, he tells us that psychiatry is one of Satan’s evil forces and concepts. Satan is also the reason for the propagation of Islam (generalized, apparently, to all members of the faith). And, while claiming on p 269 he is not anti-Catholic, he repeated slams Catholicism and “liberal Protestantism” for dark periods in their past as well as their tolerance in today’s (i.e., 1999s) world. Thus, my takeaway as I balance the well-studied theology against the bias: How can I know what to trust and what to discard? Prayer and discernment.
A quick glance at my Goodreads list shows that in addition to the Left Behind series, this is the 3rd LaHaye/Jenkins book that I have documented having read. My rankings reveal a pattern. I do not expect that there will be others.
March 14, 2023
I have some serious concerns about some of the author's remarks. I just felt that he had a very egotistical tone. There's room for nuance in interpretation and he's seems to have an aura of "I have discovered the One True Way'' - while dogging other theologians who have felt the same way. Very tired of Christians fighting with each over things we will not understand.
January 10, 2015
I am an Evangelical Christian through-and-through, and, as such, I was raised on the the Hal Lindsey/Tim LaHaye model of eschatology, including its core tenet, the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Revelation Unveiled is Dr. LaHaye's "official" doctrinal statement of his beliefs about the End Times, and when I read this just a few months after it was published in 1999, it inspired me to begin writing my own book series on the topic of the Last Days, These Final Days. However, my inspiration came from a startling realization as I read Dr. LaHaye's book that his doctrine--especially the Pre-Tribulation Rapture--is, at best, problematic from a biblical standpoint. I discuss this in great detail in my book series.
Apart from this, Dr. LaHaye--like his main inspiration, Hal Lindsey--has truly helped to bring the topic of the End Times into mainstream Evangelical thought, and LaHaye's work has even crossed over into the secular realm. For this, he is certainly to be commended.
Apart from this, Dr. LaHaye--like his main inspiration, Hal Lindsey--has truly helped to bring the topic of the End Times into mainstream Evangelical thought, and LaHaye's work has even crossed over into the secular realm. For this, he is certainly to be commended.
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