Skip to main content
Bible Q

Why are large animals used symbolically in Daniel and Revelation?

Daniel uses animals such as a lion, bear, leopard, dragon, goat and ram to refer to nations that controlled large parts of the area around the Middle East. The lion (Dan 7:4) symbolised the Babylonians, the bear (Dan 7:5) symbolised the Medo-Persian empire, the leopard (Dan 7:6) symbolised the Greek empire, and so on. In […]

Why are there 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 7:4?

And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of […]

Who is the rider on the white horse in Revelation 6:2?

And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer. (Rev 6:2) The four horses in Revelation 6 represent four threats: conquest, bloodshed, famine and death. The riders do not seem to represent any specific people. […]

Who are the 144,000 chosen ones mentioned in Revelation?

The 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 14:1-5 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.  (2)  And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The […]

What is Revelation 7-8 telling me?

John is seeing the vision of the time of trouble during the last days before God’s kingdom. The faithful believers are to be sealed with the seal of God so that they might survive the tribulation. John hears a voice describing the sealed as coming from the 12 tribes of Israel. But when he looks, […]

Are the days in Revelation and other prophecies literal?

Revelation is a book of symbol, almost nothing within the vision recorded in the book is literal so we should probably operate on the assumption that time periods in Revelation are symbolic unless we have a good reason for supposing otherwise. There are prophecies in the Bible where time periods should be taken literally. For […]

If the Devil is used symbolically in the Bible as an evil force within mankind, why was there a need to eliminate it from heaven where there is no evil? (Rev 12:7-9)

Revelation is a book of symbols. Whenever we read Revelation we should be asking ourselves, “what do these symbols mean?” We should be cautious of assuming that some has the same meaning in Revelation as it might elsewhere. Elsewhere in the Bible, “heaven” often refers to the places where God dwells. In Revelation, it might […]