When Q said it was going to be Biblical, I don’t think of that primarily in terms of scale. I think of it in terms of prophecy being fulfilled. It leads me to believe we are living in time when that is happening, and that prophecies are right now being fulfilled in ways that are quite different from what people have been taught to believe about them. For example, no one could have reconciled the many prophecies about the Messiah until they looked back at them in hindsight, even though they thought they had it pretty well worked out at the time. The prophets said the Messiah would come from Egypt, from Nazareth, and from Bethlehem, and only after His advent did people understand how those three things fit together without creating a paradox. The powers that did be at the time completely rejected Him because He didn’t fit into the box they made from their interpretations of prophecy (the conquering hero), even though He was fulfilling prophecy by doing unprecedented miracles right in front of their eyes. The same sort of interpretive box-making is still going on today, in precious doctrines of men people think are the doctrines of God, and neither will they see it when prophecy begins to unfold all around them.
In light of all that, I think it would be good to consider how the following prophecies might relate to current events:
(Psalm 2: 1-6, NKJV) Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break their bonds in pieces And cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.”
(Isaiah 24:21-22, NKJV) It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones, And on the earth the kings of the earth. They will be gathered together, As prisoners are gathered in the pit, And will be shut up in the prison; After many days they will be punished.
(Revelation 18:1-3) After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”
(Revelation 18:7-8, NKJV) In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.
I realize am presenting these scriptures out of context, to which some might rightly object; but even though I am a great fan of context, there is much that can be inferred in these sections of texts. I only present them here for consideration in light of world events and in light of what we know has been happening behind what we can see. We know what Babylon is. We know that God is taking it down. We know that the great ones of the earth have conspired to drive God out of the consciousness of mankind. We know they are facing punishment for their crimes. And, we know that God has already won the war before they ever picked up a sword.
Free note: In Psalm 2, “Yet I have set My King on my holy hill of Zion.” “My King,” is Jesus. Zion is the hill of King David’s city where the king’s palace was and where the Temple of God would be erected by his son. This is a metaphor declaring that God has complete and utter control in spite of whatever his enemies might plot against Him.
I too have considered the what if both sides are evil with intent to lead us from the current known evil into a yet unknown evil.
Ultimately, I determined that it would be sinful to willfully ignore the known evil in our midst to pursue the status quo. The scripture teaching which I lean on in this case are:
James 4:17 "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." -- if we know this evil is happening and see do not deal with it then we become accessories to the evil that we allow to continue.
Deuteronomy 21:1-9. -- basically this reinforces that God intends that his people be stewards of justice in the lands/nation he has provided them. So the Israelites were specifically instructed to not ignore clear sin/evil in their midst (in this case an unsolved murder). Implicitly, the scripture indicates they are to try to determine who is responsible, but if it cannot be determined, the leaders in the nearest community (city) to the incident must sacrifice an (unworked) heifer by taking it to a stream breaking its neck and symbolically washing their hands in the stream over the dead beast while testifying before God they did not murder the man and were unable to determine who was responsible. Now I'm not saying we must live by the law of the Old Testament, but I do say Christ fulfilled the law and showed us the law was given from the Father. Therefore the intention behind the law is from the same Father whom Jesus advised he was following and that intent to be righteous still stands as we are to follow Jesus who follows The Father. Bottom line I take this passage as a lesson to us that evil in our midst cannot be ignored and that we should seek to remove it when it is found.
Matthew 5: 13-18 -- this passage deals specifically with being the salt of the earth and identifies if that salt loses it's savior it is good for nothing and is trodden into the ground underfoot. Additionally the passage discusses being the light of the world and not hiding your light from the world but shining forth in good works that glorify God the Father. Finally Jesus explains his purpose in fulfilling the law.
So bringing these passages together and taking into account other passages which warn against Israel allowing evil to remain in their midst, I conclude that the evil that is known (crimes against children, women, and humanity itself) must not be ignored lest we open ourselves as Christians to receiving the judgements on this earth (ie our nation and our people) that God allows when evil goes unchecked. We may not suffer the final judgement of hell as believers in Christ (although I will point out believers would follow Christ teaching, so for a group of professing believers to show no sign of actually following Christ teaching is itself a concerning predicament and brings to mind the church described as laodicea in Revelation - a topic for another day perhaps), but we will suffer in this life the earthly consequences of the sins which we did not stand against in our midst.
When we remove the current evil leaders and rulers and their masters hiding in the shadows who partake in human trafficking, blackmail, rape, torture, human sacrifice, genocide, and murder: if it does turn out that we realize the group replacing that old guard of evil leaders is also partaking in their own evil and intends to lead the people away from Jesus and away from God, then we again should rally to yet another coarse correction while steadfastly praying that God will be merciful upon us and our people to allow us to succeed inn removing the evil leaders again and to grant us leaders who are God Fearing whom follow Jesus teaching in spirit and truth.
It is my contention that most of the book of Revelation is written in dream language, AKA, a language of symbols, and we see that when the angel interprets some things for John. I think much of it has been historically fulfilled. Remember that the Lord told John that these things would shortly begin to come to pass. The futurist interpretation that puts all of it in future to occur in only 7 years is an error that comes of a misinterpretation of the 70 weeks prophecy in Daniel 9, where for no good reason they divide the prophecy about the Messiah concerning his 31/2 year ministry, his death, and 31/2 years of ministry to the Jews before the gospel was given to the other nations. The first part of verse 27 is still speaking about the Messiah, although it is preceded and succeeded by prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem, which the Romans accomplished in 70 AD. As Jesus said, the generation he was speaking to didn't die out before that happened.
Personally, although I think it is the time of Babylon's destruction, I do not think it is the end when Satan is loosed for a short time to do as he wills. I think that once again the devil has jumped the gun, trying to bring on his world government before God allows it. I think he will once again be humiliated and that this time it will last for many generations. The third watch has 978 years to go. Jesus didn't come in the first watch or the second. He will come in this one, but I do not think people will be able to tell by the state of things when that will be. He said they would be saying peace and safety before sudden destruction comes upon them, and I haven't heard that in my lifetime.
I think that is a plausible argument. If you think about it, the futurist interpretation of Revelation, which no one believed or even heard until it was dug up in the last 150 years or so, is a picture of unavoidable doom. It took vast numbers of Christians out of the game, putting them in an unproductive defeatist attitude. After all, why resist evil if it is inevitable? This is God's will, and besides, He will helicopter us out of here before it all goes down. Jesus will rescue us, so instead of resisting evil, look to the sky for a rescue. Very clever.
There will be a rapture, but it will not be what they think. It will not be a rescue. The Greek word used to speak of the event is very specific. When a dignitary was approaching a city, the leading elders and officials would come out to meet him to escort him the rest of the way. That is what the Greek word, Parousia, actually means. Jesus is coming back for a spotless bride, a bride without spot of wrinkle. We are not there yet. A major cleanup needs to happen first. He is not going to be happy with a half-blind listless bride who comes hobbling out to meet Him in a dirty dress.
Consider also how they reinforce the fear of an apocalypse through popular culture and science. New ice age, no, wait, global warming, nuclear holocaust, aliens coming to destroy us in movies, world-ending disasters in movies, zombie pandemics in movies, endless predictions of horror on the news, gloom and doom and fear. The population was well prepared. What a perfect time to manipulate people when they already have this bug win their ear. It's hard to believe that a conspiracy could be that broad and interlaced, but it is, and it does indeed seem that they are trying to make it happen. Not this time, though. God has other plans, and although we are seeing prophecy happen before our eyes it is not the devil's day. The One who resists him is still in the earth and God's people are learning how they should walk and what kind of authority they have in Jesus to change things in His name.