God end times judgements as described by the Apostle John
"Son of man" appears 25 times in Luke, a copy (c. 800) shown here. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Interpreters of John’s Apocalypse have struggled since earliest times with the language that he uses to describe the visions that the risen Jesus Christ granted him. How much of the detail of the three series of judgments, and of the later visions, does John want to be taken literally? How much is symbolic? Some of John’s descriptions are easy to recognize as symbolic (or metaphorical). For example, when the risen Jesus promises to the Christians in Philadelphia, “If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God ” (Rev. 3:12), even interpreters who want to explain the contents of the book of Revelation as literally as possible state that “this is of course a figure of speech.” Since the Reformation , the importance of a literal interpretation has been recognized and emphasized by evangelical interpreters of Scripture. However, the expression “literal inter