Emphasis Preaching Journal

Apocalyptic visioning is nothing new. Every civilization, and especially those that were dying, has had end-times doomsayers. Even the Bible shows evidence of that. When the Assyrians stormed through Israel and devastated it in 722 B.C., little Judah to the south was engulfed in a cloud of moody and frightening prophecies, including dozens collected in Isaiah’s volume. The book of Revelation would serve much the same purpose in the early Christian church as the early days of power and glory gave way to the darkening killing fields of persecution.