People often say the end times are coming soon or that the end times are here, but from a Biblical perspective the end times started after Jesus was resurrected. He ascended into the heavens and now all He has to do is come back. Therefore, we are in the final pages of the grand story—we are approaching the very end of it all. (Though the Bible writers were convinced that Jesus would return very, very soon after leaving—likely within a generation—so in their mind the final page was much closer to being turned.)
Since the end times have been upon us for some 2,000 years now, we should note that some of what happens in the book of Revelation already happened a long time ago. Some of the prophetic words given were for John’s time and place in these end times, while others were for the very end of the end times yet to come.
For example, behind us are the letters written to the seven churches at the start of Revelation. The churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea are behind us, not in front of us. These were real churches of the past whom John spoke his prophetic words over, each with their own personal context. The prophetess Jezebel is not a woman who will rise in the end, but a woman that the church of Thyatira knew. Satan’s throne is not waiting to appear in Pergamum one day, there was already something there that Christians would consider Satan’s throne—possibly the great altar to Zeus. Revelation is not all about the future. Some of it refers to the past.
Jamin Bradley 