Ride the Ark Through

ARMAGEDDON

A Survival Guide for Mankind

 

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(This is only a small section of the book proposal for Ride the Ark Through Armageddon; to see the entire proposal click on Book Proposal for Ride the Ark Through Armageddon)

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

OVERVIEW

 

        Many people at one point in their lives begin a search for answers to the mysteries of life.  It’s only natural for people to seek spiritual answers to life’s questions.  The Bible contains these answers.  However, those who turn to the Bible alone are often still left with questions.  Such was the case with me when I was a teenager.  I spent years reading the Bible, but I just couldn’t understand it.  For example: I didn’t know what a Sabbath Day was, and I wondered why Jesus was always getting in trouble for healing people on the Sabbath.

        I remember gazing beyond the clouds thinking, “Is there really a God out there?”  If I had a guidebook back in those days to lead me step-by-step on my journey, I may have found the understanding to life’s mysteries more easily.  A book that started with foundational teachings, explaining the story of Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man, the battle between good and evil and how Satan usurped Adam’s dominion could have been so helpful.  Ride the Ark Through Armageddon—A Salvation Guide for Mankind covers those topics.  After a solid foundation is laid, I lead my readers to an understanding of God’s plan for them, including salvation through Jesus Christ

        When I sat down to write Ride the Ark Through Armageddon, I took my own spiritual pathway into consideration, as well as working to envision what the average person needed in a spiritual guidebook.  I created a balanced synopsis of God’s plan for mankind; Ann McKinney of Prep Publishing thinks I got it right.  In a readers report, McKinney wrote “Kelsey demonstrates the general theme that runs through the entire Bible.”

 

        Back to my own life:

 

        In my mid-teens, I read a tract by Jack Chick entitled The Beast.  On page 9 under the heading, “SATAN RAISES UP A LEADER THAT THE WORLD WILL LOVE” a picture shows a huge statue starting to move about, with small chunks of it falling to the ground as it begins to move.  A crowd exclaims in fear, “It’s alive!”   Thinking about a future time on earth when a statue would come to life left me thinking, “This is ridiculous!”

        Today, I see exactly where the author of that track went wrong.  Jack Chick interpreted a passage in Revelation literally and he ended up with a really bizarre message; I’m surely not the only one who was turned off by his unbelievable tract.            

        When I was 19 years old, a friend loaned me a book by Hal Lindsey entitled, There's a New World Coming.  Lindsey’s book led this young soul on a journey to understand the Bible’s Book of Revelation.  Understanding the mystery of Revelation’s meaning became my life’s quest.  Lindsey did something marvelous back in the 1970s — he sparked an interest in millions of readers to understand Bible prophecy.  Many people undoubtedly became Christians as a result of reading his books.

        Yet, from my perspective today, I can see that Lindsey erred in his work, much in the same way that Jack Chick erred with his tract.  Hal Lindsey looked at what the Apostle John recorded in Revelation and tried to explain what John saw using objects in today’s world.  In his vision, John saw stars falling from the sky; Lindsey surmised that what John was actually seeing was modern weaponry.

        Hal Lindsey did not take into account that men and angels are likened unto stars over and over again in scripture and that stars falling could also speak of people falling from their faith in Christ due to persecution.  This is where my work differs from Lindsey’s.  I compare the symbolism in Revelation to the same symbolism used in the rest of the Bible and I explain Revelation’s prophecy in the light of that symbolism.

        Let me give you an example of Revelation’s symbolism.  Revelation itself gives us an example of how to interpret the “waters” spoken of in its pages: “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages” (Rev. 17:15). 

        Many popular books about end-times on the market today still cling to the way Hal interpreted Revelation.  Hal Lindsey spelled out in his books that Revelation’s waters are Earth’s oceans.  But what if Revelation’s symbolism remains consistent throughout its pages— with the “waters” in one chapter symbolizing the same thing as the “waters” in another chapter?  Isn’t time for a fresh perspective on Revelation; one that makes sense?  One editor said about my work, “I have never read or heard a better, more intellectually acceptable interpretation of the book of Revelation.” — Judi Wu, PREP Publishing

 

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ABOUT THE BOOK

 

 

        I believe we can agree that many people on the face of the planet would benefit from reading a book that spells out a realistic prediction of Revelation’s prophecies.  Revelation paints a grim picture of the future.  It forewarns people of a time to come when Satan will be cast down from the heavens to Earth.  Revelation’s pages tell of a day when the devil will endeavor to kill all those who will not worship his image through the Antichrist.  Satan is also shown opening a pit unleashing his demon host to torment men.    

        A book that points out the deception to come and how to see through that deception would be most useful.  Right now, there’s a huge void in the marketplace for books about Revelation’s warnings where authors actually explain Revelation’s symbolism in a manner that is believable. 

        What is out there right now is the same old faulty spin that began in the 1970s with Lindsey’s book, There’s a New World Coming.  Hal Lindsey didn’t connect the symbols in Revelation to the same symbols in the rest of the Bible, which leads to unsound teaching.

        Let me spell out an example of how I approach Revelation’s symbolism compared to the way Hal Lindsey sees it: First, let’s look at an example from my work:

        In Chapter Eight of Revelation we see something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea.  Instead of look­ing at this prophecy as representing a literal object hitting Earth’s oceans, I explain the mountain’s symbolic application.  Mountains elsewhere in the Bible, including Revelation, are symbolic of world government.  So I teach that the mountain all ablaze is symbolizing a world government impacting the nations.

        Speaking on the same subject, it is written in Jeremiah I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain (Jer. 51:25).

        The mountain that God rolled off the cliffs—presumably into the sea—in time past was the Babylonian Empire. The same language used in Jeremiah illustrating how Babylon of old would be destroyed is also used in Revelation concerning modern Babylon’s coming destruction.

        Ancient Babylon did fall and its mountain burned out just as prophesied—God did cast its burning mountain into the sea, figuratively speaking.  However, at that time, no one on earth saw a literal mountain descend into the ocean; that was not necessary to fulfill Bible prophecy back then. Likewise, I conclude that, in the days ahead, no one will see a literal mountain cast into the sea as our prophecy in Revelation is fulfilled.

        Here is a passage from one of Hal Lindsey’s books, showing that he interprets Revelation’s great mountain burning as a colossal H-bomb:

“And the second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the see (Revelation 8:8).  Notice that this verse specifies something like a great mountain burning with fire.  Again John describes this phenomenon in terms of how it looked to him.  This is probably either an enormous meteor or, more likely, a colossal H-bomb.  A hydrogen bomb exploded in the ocean would look like a huge, flaming mountain smashing into the sea” (Lindsey, p. 118)[1]

        Let’s look at this same verse in Revelation again focusing upon the term sea:  The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. (Rev. 8:8, NIV).

        As we consider whether this text should be taken literally or if it has a figurative meaning, let’s look at some passages depicting a sea elsewhere in the same book. The word sea is found 26 times in Revelation:

1. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short (Rev. 12:12).

2. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea (Rev. 12:18).

3. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea (Rev. 13:1).

        Within prophetic Scripture the earth can represent political strongholds while the sea can be an illustration of multitudes of people, languages, and nations.[2]  The expression sea creatures is used in the Bible in reference to men, as in this passage, You have made men like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler (Hab. 1:14).  The terms, ships and captains can also have figurative meanings. For example, Jesus is the captain[3]  of our salvation.

        The devil’s fury will not be focused upon a literal sea—his woes will affect multitudes of people, of different languages, consist­ing of many nations. Many among us will be looking for natural plagues coming in the days ahead and will fail to notice the more subtle deception Satan will be using. What we believe and profess and to whom we hold our allegiance is what the devil and his demon host will be attacking.  Their fury will be aimed at our faith in God.

        Hal Lindsey’s literal interpretation of Revelation completely misses what Revelation is really about.  All of Revelation’s symbolism comes from the Old Testament—the Lamb, the Lampstands, the Altar, including the Mountain in Revelation 8, as we have just seen.  Similar mountains in the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Zechariah, as well as in Revelation 17 are clearly spelled out as illustrations[4] depicting world empires.

        If what I’ve recorded in Ride the Ark Through Armageddon is true then many who are looking for a literal fulfillment to Revelation’s prophecies could be deceived. If what this book says is false, then it will be obvious to everyone as Revelation’s plagues befall mankind.

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR         Rich Kelsey

 

        I was born in Renton WA in 1955.  I grew up as any normal child would, but God was never mentioned in my home.

        As I look back to the period of years when I was searching for God, I can see that several different people could have led me to Christ.  Some tried but they had a poor approach.  Kenny, a former high school buddy who was now in Bible College came over to speak to me in the summer of 1975.  He tried to get me to go to Bible College with him by telling me how good-looking the girls were at college.  I thought, if I’m going to attend a Christian College it will be with better motives than that.  If Kenny had explained the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ to me I would have gone to college with him.

        Then, one day a friend named Jerry invited me to study the Bible with some Jehovah’s Witnesses.  He had just been approached by two Jehovah’s Witness ladies and they were holding a Bible Study every Wednesday.  These ladies had a more refined approach than other Christian people who had spoken to me before.  I ended up getting entangled with that cult for almost two years.  To make a long story short, I did eventually give my life to Jesus, but only after I ran into a person who could refute Jehovah’s Witness’ doctrine and challenge me with a solid, believable gospel. 

        Since my conversion to Christianity from the Jehovah Witness faith, I attended Bible College for four years at Pacific School of Theology, a non-denominational born-again campus in Seattle, WA.  I have done extensive research in both theology and church history.  In the last 25-plus years I have been through various Bible related courses,  I have ministered in various capacities at various churches. 

        The long hard struggle to find the true gospel spawned something wonderful within me.  It put a desire in my heart to get a clear straightforward gospel out to the lost—a message that people can recognize as genuine.  I have woven such a message into the pages of Ride the Ark Through Armageddon — a message that needs to go out to a lost and dying world.