Wayne Jackson, A Church of Christ elder, editor of the online newspaper "Christian Courier", and author of his books: The Bible and Science, Creation, Evolution, and the Age of The Earth, and The Bible on Trial. Wrote an article regarding of the Battle of Armageddon called Armageddon: The Next of the "Left-Behind" series.
I am familiar of the Left Behind Series and I have a big support for the theory. But I want to say that I want to make some few points to his commentaries to the end times.
Wayne Jackson teaches Idealistic eschatology and Amillenialism. These doctrines leads the body of Christ vulnerable and into a false sense of security.
Idealism sometimes teaches that the Old testament prophecies and New testement teachings were not literally past fulfilled or yet to be literally future fulfilled but were symbols referring to a Christian life such as the Daniel's prophecies. Idealists could suggest and sometimes imply that Nebuchanezzar's kingdom would not be conquered by other kingdoms but that he had a head of wisdom (Head of Gold) which is the desire to build an golden image of himself in Daniel chapter 3 and his kingdom would be spiritually crushed by Jehovah God Himself The Christ Jesus (The Rock) and the Tree (as according to Idealists, the Tree of Life) would be cut off from Babylonian King himself. Mr. Jackson surely wouldn't suggested that, would he?
Idealism teaches that the Old testament prophecies were not a past fulfillment nor will be a future fulfillment whether or not regarding to the prophecies of the Messiah, but a interpretation about the Truth of God, which is partially redundant and partially inaccurate. The Book of Revelation in Idealistic view according to Wayne Jackson is a proclamation of hope and victory rather than a book of things to come or events that are to occur in the future. The Idealistic interpretation removes the Fear of God from us, just like the false doctrines of Ultimate Reconciliation and Preterism (including Full Preterism).
Why do amillenialists/anti-chiliastics think that these events of today have nothing to do with the Book of Revelation or the Old Testament. Sure that some of prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the Messiah were fulfilled. And of course, the Kingdom is within us but the Kingdom of God and Christ are separate.
But the prophecies such as regarding Damascus has yet to be fulfilled and it is being fulfilled today. Damascus was conquered in 732 BC but apparently the city was still standing even Paul went there, and was preaching the Gospel there after the blindness was removed from him. Supposedly Amilllenialists suggested that this type of Damascus was referring to Jerusalem as Preterists suggested that it was destroyed in 70 AD.
The Book of Revelation is both literal and symbolic. Not just for believers to remain faithful but the judgments that is written, both literally and symbolically, reminds us and the whole world that we all must fear God, repent, and turn back to Him.
Wayne Jackson wrote regarding about the frogs and Armageddon:
Surely even the most inexperienced exegete ought to be able to discern
the figures employed within this context. Are literal frogs literally
going to come from the literal mouths of literal creatures to literally
engage in battle on the literal plain of Megiddo? I would assume that
even modern millennialists do not believe that the battle of Armageddon
will be fought by frogs.
Why does Mr. Jackson think that we are suggesting that millions of literal frogs going to fight in Megiddo? It does sound silly. But these frogs are symbols of demons coming out of the mouth of the One World Leader televising himself calling to the military of the all nations of the world to battle against the Lord Jesus Christ However, Wayne Jackson is right that the Valley of Jehoshaphat or Megiddo is too small for millions of soldiers in every nation to fight in. But the armies will be probably be small enough to fit inside the valley due to the result millions soldiers and civilians being killed in World War III and the Tribulation Judgments.
Second, The valley of decision is an event where leaders of the world would be judged. Ahmadinejad will be judged for developing nukes, Kim Jong Il and his son will be judged for killing the people of North Korea, Even our leader here will be judged for killing unborn children. Hitler will be judged
Conclusion
The Amillennial-Idealistic view of the Old Testament, the Book of Revelation and Armageddon is partially incorrect. It removes the Fear of God and causes preachers of the Gospel to backslide just like Universalists and Eternal Security teachers. Armageddon is not just spiritual but literal as well. Revelation 22 warns us that we are not to leave the literal interpretation out with just the spiritual alone.
Wayne Jackson needs to get his head out of the spiritual clouds and look what going on in these End Time events.
God bless.
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