I have in my library
the book The Revelation Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on
the Prophetic Book of the End of Times[i]
by Henry M. Morris – a commentary on the final book of the bible and a sort of
bookend companion piece to his similarly named commentary on Genesis. And it is a howler, ridiculousness on nearly
every page, far too many to share them all...
Morris states in his
preface to the book that his is “following the literalistic, futuristic,
sequential, Premillennial, pretribulational, interpretation of the book. “ He adds that “This approach has been assumed
to be the most natural and therefore the most proper way to understand the
book.” For Morris it is the “most natural, most scientific, most Christ-honoring,
and most soul-satisfying way to understand Revelation.” [ii]
This is foundational to
the dispensationalist system – a strictly literal interpretation of the
words. Unless it is patently and completely
obvious that a passage should be understood figuratively, dispensationalists
insist that the scriptures should be read as literally as possible. In fact Morris says that “a ‘literal
interpretation’ is a contradiction in terms, since one does not interpret (that is ‘translate’ saying ‘this
means that’) if he simply accepts a statement as meaning precisely what it
says. … Literal is literal.” [Emphasis is his] [iii]
But while all dispensationalists
insist that they are following a strictly “literal” understanding of
Revelation, each of them …fudges a bit here and there. None of them are able to abide by their own
rule of allowing the words to mean precisely what they say. And Morris is no exception.
When, in chapter eight,
John writes, “And the second angel sounded, as it were a great mountain burning
with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood.”[iv] Morris goes on at great length to tell us
what this means. You see, while John
said blood he didn’t actually mean blood, not literal blood.
“The ability to turn
water into blood, either by filling it with the actual blood of dead animals
or, more likely, by transforming it chemically or biochemically into blood-red
water, poisoned by multitudes of dead microorganisms (as in the well-known ‘red-tides’
which occur infrequently in modern oceans), made such an impression upon
ancient Israel that it was recounted in their songs.”[v]
Even though Morris says
he holds to a strictly literal reading of John’s words, and even though John
wrote “blood,” Morris believes that it is more
likely to be something other than actual literal blood.
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