Christian Liberals & Progressive People of Faith

are literal predictions of specific future events.

It always devolves into a circular argument, with me defining what the genre of apocalyptic literature is really about (encouraging persecuted groups with the deep symbolic assurance that God is in control and Good will ultimately prevail), and them spouting out-of-context scripture.

I don't know if you've ever seen Jack Van Impe on TV, but he has a weekly show where he connects prophetic scripture with contemporary events (one of his loopier claims was that UFOs are "spirits of the air" driven by demons). He's been doing this now for over 30 years.

Van Impe also likes to rattle off rapidly book/chapter/verse numbers (i.e., Revelation 4:10) as he claims it foretold some current event. Whenever I've watched him, I have looked up the chapter and verse numbers he cites and more often than not, it means something entirely different than he said it did.