| If you accept the way Revelation (and the rest of the entire Bible) was presented, Christians are encouraged to pray for Jesus' return. This means a Christian is supposed to yearn for all these tribulations to happen and reject the evils of the world system even if that means dying for your beliefs in the process. When the corrupt world system (Babylon) is in its death throes, Christians will actively oppose and help speed its destruction. So, any Christians' anxiety about being alive when the end times occur likely comes from crises of faith or ignorance (which I admit to having more than a bit of each myself.) The odds of being alive in human history at the times of the tribulations are slim, but you are told to make yourself ready spiritually for anything to happen at any time. Different Christian sects have sticking points on the order of when prophesy in the bible have already happened/will happen, and that can cause some spirited disagreements. I suppose those varied viewpoints on timelines may affect peoples' anxiety on these subjects as well. What I find fascinating about the Revelation story is that the spiritual and physical worlds merge at the end of time. All people who ever lived are brought back to life physically on earth only to be immediately judged by God. People who accept Jesus are saved forever, people who reject Him are punished forever. So it's not like you "go to heaven" in the end, but rather more like "earth is remade/perfected" and God comes to live there physically with his people. Any "heaven" that exists in the meantime is like a paradisaical holding tank where you wait until the end of days. I suppose that this all reflects a more Jewish mystical view than a Greek or European one, and this view seems more grounded/attainable to me than some nebulous cherubs with harps on clouds in heaven or Valhalla of the gods. I like the Revelation story because it completes the bible in a very mystical and also very human way. It gives answers to a lot of life's questions and questions about God (like why God lets sin and sinners run amok.) The message I take from Revelation is that no person is really worthy and technically everyone should be judged guilty because we're all sinners, making us incompatible with God. Only out of one's faith in Jesus who is the savior/perfect sin offering, and by God's grace, can you live as a perfected being with God in His holy city forever. |