It is for greater minds than mine to debate and dissect the theology of the fulfillment of end times prophesy - and yet when I read Revelation and the other accounts of the end times throughout the Bible I am filled with a sense of urgency, as if the Spirit within me, sensing an imminent approach, stirs and compels me to a state of readiness.
Like many others I use to regard Revelation as a foretelling of the end times. That it was an account of things to come. Even things perhaps in MY own future. But there was always something naggingly familiar about Revelation. A vague sense of 'deja vue'. But it was only in recent times, with recent events, that I began to understand why and to wonder if perhaps events have come upon us like a thief in the night - stealthily and unexpectedly.
It dawned upon me that Revelation was an account of things to come - WHEN it was written. I am not so sure these days that with wars and rumours of wars, earthquakes, eruptions and violent storms and floods in diverse places, the accelerating breakdown of moral standards, etc. we may be witnessing not so much the beginning of Revelation, but rather the beginning of the END of Revelation. That much of Revelation may have already passed from prophesy into our history books - we just have not recognised it. Like Jesus came, true to prophesy, but not as expected, so too Revelation may have come upon us, true to its prophesy, but not as we expected.
Revelation speaks to me like a story I have seen somewhere before. That vague sense of familiarity we often call 'deja vue'. It is the same feeling I get when I look at our history books and vague unanswered questions hang in the air. What if the first, somewhat shrouded, and largely dismissed, 1,000 years after Christ, when Christianity spread, flourished and overcame its enemies, that history would have us call the 'Dark Ages', were not really the age of darkness? What if the revival of the Greco-Roman ethos and ideas and headlong pursuit of knowledge - of any kind - that history would have us call the 'Renaissance' and of which today is the culmination, heralded the release of something other than 'enlightenment'? What if the four Horsemen have already been in the saddle many, many years?
Perhaps it is all just idle conjecture, a fancy of thought - or may be not. I don't really know - that is for you to decide. BUT I do know that when I read my Bible, and look around at the World about me something inside of me hears approaching footsteps, sees movement among the trees nearby, and compels me to utter to any that would hear - 'Hark! He comes!'

Four horsemen have grown weary
In the saddle many years,
Even Death must fill his quota,
As our appointment with destiny nears.

The Prostitute lies bleeding,
Hemorrhaging money fast.
Wormwood hurtles silently Earthward,
Along its fated path.

The Beast stirs within its lair,
Honing claws and sharpening horns.
With stamp in hand to mark its spoor
It seeks to silence those who warn.

Seven lips in Heaven are pursing,
Trumpets rise as backs unbow.
People still wonder when such will be,
But it is not when - 'tis now!

So gather oil while you may.
Let not your voice be dumb.
Trim wicks to burn more brightly,
For Hark! The Bridegroom comes!

D.J. Ludlow Copyright 2002.