I was just reading through the Book of Daniel, which contains the major apocalyptic visions of the Old Testament. And I came across a very interesting passage in it, from Daniel 11:14:

In those times many shall rise against the king of the south, and the violent among your own people shall lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they shall fail.

In some ways, this is my all-time favorite Bible quote about the Apocalypse. Especially so because people who are really hardcore into end times prophecies love to try and go back into the Book of Daniel for eschatological inspiration beyond just what the Book of Revelations has. Obviously these people missed this line though.

I can see why. It’s annoying. Right in the middle of hearing about a big crazy war, we have a warning which is easier just to overlook. It says to us that people who get too into these prophecies - and who do so in the wrong spirit - are only gonna make shit worse. In fact, they are going to actively try and fulfill the prophecies with great acts of violence. As if that’s not bad enough: they are destined to fail.

This is bad news for all the Christian Fundamentalists who are waiting with secret silent anticipation for war to break out in Jerusalem, ushering in the coming wrath of God. As we talked about in my Fulfilling Forged Prophecies article:

[…] Nobody ever said the book of Revelation and other biblical prophecies couldn’t be self-fulfilling.

In some ways, this actually makes the most sense of all end times theories - which totally totally sucks.