REVELATION SIGNS: ASTROLOGY CONDEMNED AND DISCOVERING WHAT GOD SAYS by Alan E. Gattis

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Discover the story behind Revelation Signs as author Alan Gattis shares why he believes God called him to write this thought-provoking book about Revelation, biblical prophecy, and the end times.

Gattis (Wife) My wife kept telling me I needed to write a book, and I was like, ‘Me write a book? Nah.’ But eventually God had me do just that.

Sam: Some books begin with an idea. Others begin with years of research. Alan Gattis believes his book, Revelation Signs, began more than twenty-five years before he ever wrote the first page.

Theme – Curated Chapter

Sam: Today on The Curated Chapter, we are going to look at the book Revelation Signs: Astrology Condemned and Discovering What God Says. By Alan Gattis. He says, years of studying Scripture eventually convinced him that God was preparing him to write a book about one of the Bible’s most mysterious—and often debated—books: Revelation.

Gattis (25 years) God had me write it. Over the last 25 years, he’s been giving me bits and pieces of information regarding the book of Revelation. My wife kept telling me I needed to write a book, and I was like, me write a book? Nah, but eventually God had me do just that. It took a year and a half to do it, but it’s got 25 years worth of stuff in it.

Sam: Now, Gattis has combined those twenty-five years of study into a book that he believes reveals a deeper understanding of the book of Revelation.

At the heart of Revelation Signs is Gattis’s belief that biblical prophecy, symbolism, and even the constellations point to God’s plan of salvation and offer insight into what he sees as the signs of the end times.

Gattis (End Times) Well, it’s about the fact that we are in the end times. God told Daniel to seal up the book that he was given until the end time, when many people were rushed here and there, and there would be an explosion of knowledge. That’s Daniel 12.4. And high-speed trains and ships and jets make global travel an everyday thing now. And we live in the information age. Anything you want to know, it’s at your fingertips for Google. And then Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians about the great falling away. Some versions say the apostasy, some say the great rebellion, but we are experiencing this right now.

Sam:  According to Gattis, that wasn’t about hiding Scripture forever. He believes the book of Revelation was sealed until the time when people would be able to understand its symbolism, imagery, and prophecy more completely.

He also argues that the world described in Daniel—a time of rapid travel, unprecedented knowledge, and spiritual change—is the very world we’re living in today. And if that’s true, he believes Revelation can now be understood in ways that weren’t possible before.

That’s also what he says sets Revelation Signs apart from other books on the subject.

Gattis (Why it’s different) But there are many books that are written about the book of Revelation. But what separates this book from all the others is this is the Holy Spirit’s interpretation, not mine. I just wrote what he gave me. 2 Peter 1 verse 20 says the Holy Spirit gave the prophets all the prophecies. It requires the Holy Spirit to interpret those prophecies for us. But God had me write this book to share it with all believers in the end times.

Sam:  One of the most surprising ideas in Revelation Signs is Gattis’s invitation to reconsider the Zodiac—something many Christians have been taught to avoid altogether. But he’s not talking about astrology. He’s talking about the constellations. 

Gattis (Southern Cross) Absolutely. God put what he was going to do through Christ in the stars, in the constellations, in the night sky. A lot of people don’t know, in the Northern Hemisphere particularly, that the Southern Cross constellation exists because they can’t see it from the Northern Hemisphere. The only way you can see it is if you’re around the equator or below it. It’s kind of close to the South Pole. People use it for navigation, North Star for navigation here. Well, one of the stars in the Southern Cross constellation, they use it for navigation in the Southern Hemisphere. But most people in the Northern Hemisphere don’t even know it exists. But if you go back to the 80s, the musical group Crosby, Fields, and Nash had a hit song called the Southern Cross. They were singing about sailing the South Pacific and seeing the Southern Cross constellation in the night sky.

Sam:  This wasn’t an idea Gattis says he came up with on his own. He traces his interest in the constellations back to a sermon by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy and Kennedy’s book, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac. From there, he began reading other Christian authors who explored similar ideas.

Gattis (Blown away)  I had read the book and when I was reading Revelation 12 again, it absolutely blew my mind when the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to this. For five or ten minutes, I’m not sure how long, all I could do was walk around the house from room to room to room to room. My hair was standing up because I was so blown away.

Sam:  Gattis says that realization became a turning point in his understanding of Revelation. According to Gattis, the constellations weren’t created to predict anyone’s future. They were created to tell God’s story.

Gattis (Prophecy) They are God’s message to the world from the week of creation because he put them there in the night sky during the week of creation to prophecy about what he was going to do through his son, Jesus Christ.

Sam: Gattis argues that many Christians have misunderstood the word “Zodiac.” 

Gattis  (Zodiac) The word Zodiac is God’s word. That’s His name for the constellations. It’s what He calls them. We were taught the signs of the Zodiac were all about astrology and witchcraft, but they don’t have anything to do with what month you were born, how the stars, sun and moon influence our lives and the horoscopes they write. That’s the demonic deception and witchcraft of the astrologers. Evil can’t create anything, only God can.

Sam: Gattis says these ideas didn’t come all at once. While writing the book, he says there were times he reached passages he didn’t fully understand. Rather than relying on his own conclusions, he says he stopped and prayed for guidance

Gattis (Process) It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what you know, what you don’t know. When God has something for you to do, he will provide you with what you need to fulfill that task. And that’s a testimony I have for that. I didn’t know everything in the book of Revelation. There were moments when I was working on it that I had to stop and ask the Holy Spirit, what does this mean? Because I didn’t have any idea. He’d given me a lot of information, but he hadn’t given me all of it. And it was so wonderful. All I had to do was ask. And he gave me the interpretations as I was writing. And that required a very close and intimate relationship with him in order to do that. And I still miss that time. And it’s not to say he’s finished with me, because he’s not. But it was an awesome time for me.

Sam:  Whether you agree with his conclusions or merely find his perspective intriguing, one of my take-a-ways is the Revelation Signs invites all of us to look at some of the familiar bible passages through a very different lens.

Over more than twenty-five years of Bible study, Alan Gattis became convinced that God was preparing him to write this book. Along the way, he developed a perspective on Revelation, biblical prophecy, and the constellations that challenges many of our traditional assumptions and because of that he encourages readers to look at the Scriptures and decide for themselves.

Gattis (Awesome) The information that the Holy Spirit gave me is not just more information. This is mind blowing information that you can’t just sit down and do it in one reading. You read bits and pieces of it and then you have to lay it down and kind of chew on it for a little while and then you can go back and pick it up.

Sam:  The full title of the book is Revelation Signs: Astrology Condemned and Discovering What God Says.

I’m Sam Youmans, and this has been The Curated Chapter from Webtalkradio.com. Thanks for listening.