My interpretation of Revelations is that the Anti-Christ and the False Prophet have already come and gone. And we are now at the stage of the drying up of the Euphrates River. I think a few hungred years from now people will romantisize this age as the ega of Armmageden. They will then select from the available candidates who the principal characters of this age are.

Here are my choices. The False Prophet is Hitler who prophesized the rule of the Third Reich for a thousand years. He got the number of years right, but from Revelations it`s the rule of peace, not Nazis. The Anti-Christ has to be Stalin who killed 36 million people, mostly Christians, and whose espoused philosophy was vehemently anti-christian.

The battle plan of revelations as published in "The Late Great Planet Earth", has already happened, and it happened in WWII. After the threat from the north(read Axis) gets defeated by the revived Holy Roman Empire (read Allies), the threat from the East with 100 million militiamen(only China has ever had that many under arms, and they no longer do) faces the threat from the West (read US) across the Euphrates River. When the river dries up (read NOW), they clash, but the Lord saves the world for a thousand years of peace.

A consistent interpretation of a statment by Jesus is that the return of Christ will be within one generation of the rebirth of Israel. To the Hebrews, one generation is a jubilee, or 50 years. Within one generation can therefore mean plus or minus 50 years around 1948, the rebirth of Israel. Or essentially the 20th Century. Clearly we have had the greatest depression and famine and war during this period of time.

We await the appearance of the last principal character of the Book of Revelations. It should not be too long now. Of course, as in the case of Stalin and Hitler, we may have to figure out who it really is. "He comes from the clouds." But in this age of the airplane, almost anybody going any distance does that.