English translation of a review of How Near Armageddon by Elana Janson published in the Afrikaans South African Sunday newspaper, Rapport on 30 April 2000.

The review was written in Afrikaans by Kobie Coetzee, a minister of the Presbiterian church in Randburg, South Africa.

People will debate this prediction of the end time.

 The title of Elana Janson's How Near Armageddon is a reference to Revelation 16:16. Armageddon, in Hebrew, the mountain of Megiddo, is the place where - according to Revelation - the final battle between the forces of Christ and Satan will take place.

With the end time as the theme and her unique interpretation of the Revelation of John, Janson has Bible readers talking. Besides Revelation, she also implicates the Dead Sea Scrolls in her interpretation. The reference at the beginning of Revelation to the seals of the scroll made her think that there might be a possible link between Revelation and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

With her background as a doctor of history, it was easier for her to discover the key with which she could correlate the "Revelation of John" with the course of the world history since Christ.

Step by step she brings the history of the last two thousand years in relation to the "Revelation of John". Even if the reader does not agree with her basic approach, the abundance of historical data makes the book worth reading.

The idea that the end time is near, is supported by the return of Israel to the promised land as well as the rejection of Christianity and its moral values by certain nations and political leaders. She is convinced that not only these signs, but also the history of the world is predestined in Revelation.

After a personal experience in which she believes, God commanded her to make known what she knows, she tackled the gigantic task to delve into the history of the past two thousand years in order to correlate the history of the past 2000 years with Revelation.
Janson is convinced that God, through the correct interpretation of revelation wished that believers must know when the end time is near.

This correlation of Revelation with the history of the past two thousand years convinced her that the final battle at Armageddon will take place in the vicinity of, or shortly after 2004. ( It is interesting that according to the calendars of the lost Maja tribe, we are living in the last period of time that is going to come to an end by a great catastrophe on 22 December 2012.)

That How Near Armageddon is a great work, that required much research is clear. Everyone will not agree with Janson's approach and method of interpretation. If Revelation predestines the history of the world, it means that man has no freedom, for he is doomed by a predestination.

Also the supposition that certain decisions by certain ecclesiastical councils were made under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, cannot be assumed without question. Who decides which decisions are made or not made under the guidance of the Holy Spirit?
Furthermore, she herself says in her introduction, that some regard Revelation solely as a book to give hope to those Christians facing persecution at the end of the first century.

It is therefore not a calendar for the 2000 years after Christ.

The idiom so many men, so many minds can be applied to How Near Armageddon. Still it remains a great work that many Bible students can read fruitfully.

The book is well produced with good diagrams and maps, that make it easier for the reader to follow her argumentation.