What Does The Book Of Revelation Really Mean?

Evidently Israel's confrontation with Iran is conjuring up visions of the End Times for some... Take another look.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-carey/revelation-2012_b_1168906.html

Excerpt:

What Does The Book Of Revelation Really Mean?

Here's the truth: no academic interpreter of Revelation understands the book as a roadmap for the future, much less as telling contemporary Christians that these are the last days. Instead, scholars understand that Revelation originally spoke to the conditions of its own time and place. It offered a specific group of first century Christians not only hope for the future but also an interpretation -- a "revelation" -- of the world they inhabited.

In other words, the best way to understand Revelation does not require an official Dick Tracy Apocalyptic Decoder Ring. We best understand Revelation when we read it like any other ancient text, in its own historical and cultural context.

What makes biblical scholars so certain that Revelation does not provide a roadmap for the future? Two basic considerations lead us to this conclusion.

First, the book itself insists that it's addressed to a specific group of churches to speak to their own circumstances. Let's begin with Revelation's introductory words (my translation, with notes):

A revelation (Greek: apokalypsis) of [or from] Jesus Christ, which God gave by means of him to show his [God's? Christ's?] slaves the things that must happen soon, and he [God? Christ?] made it known by sending his angel to his slave John, who testified to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, everything he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud and blessed are those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is near. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia...

Working back, we observe several things. First, Revelation is addressed to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. We'd locate them in western Turkey today. Identified in chapters two and three, these churches inhabited some of the major cities in the Roman Empire, including Ephesus, a top five city of the day. Second, Revelation's author John describes the vision as speaking to things that must happen "soon" for "the time is near."

This is no minor point, nor is it to be spiritualized to mean something other than what it says. At several points Revelation reminds those ancient Christians to expect their redemption to come "soon" (1:1, 3, 19; 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20).

Revelation was written not to tell us what to expect in our future but to give ancient Christians hope for dealing with their own. While modern interpreters disagree on many points, almost all agree on the basic historical circumstances addressed by Revelation.


Second, we know a lot about the kind of literature Revelation represents. Revelation is an apocalypse, a form of literature with which biblical scholars have grown quite familiar. Indeed, Revelation constitutes the first book that calls itself an apocalypse. (The Greek word apokalypsis stands as the book's very first word.)

Between the third century B.C.E. and the second century C.E., Judaism and Christianity produced several great literary apocalypses, along with a host of related literature. See my book "Ultimate Things" for an introduction to this literature or my entry, "Apocalypses," in the new "Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible.")

All of these books share some distinctive features. They all relate a vision experienced by a single visionary. The visionary receives instruction and guidance from a heavenly being, usually an angel. And the vision reveals either otherworldly affairs or the resolution of history. Readers encounter what's going on in heaven, the arrival of the messiah, and the final judgment, among other topics. Striking images that require imaginative interpretation are common to all these works. Revelation provides a classic example of an apocalypse, as it includes every one of these features.

 

Fyi.........................

 

every religion predicts one..

it's like some seminal trick to suck people in and make them feel part of the survival team

 

The Book of Revelation is NOT a roadmap to the future.

 

i agree..

nor are the plethora of apocalyptical scenarios built into all the religions....

 

Revelation was NEVER intended to be a roadmap to the future.

 

it predicts the end of the world...yes/ no

sounds like you have a different take..

 

No.. it talks to seven churches about a new age... Its about the victory of the Word (Jesus) ... and the success of the first coming that freed Christians from spiritual death.

Nothing to do with the end of the world..

That's Scofield heresy.

 

Then explain what it is about

 

I just did...................

 

No you gave a vague excuse. Revelation says much more than that.

This is more of your hate towards Christians and the church

 

Revelation talks about current events and the victory of Jesus as well as the end of an age, not the end of the world.

They have survived the tribulation.. and the Roman emperor's cult..

They have survived the passing of six empires..

They are living in a new age of salvation from spiritual death because of the Lamb.

Its a message of tremendous encouragment.

Then along came Darby, followed by Cyrus Scofield who turned it into an end of the world scenario.

The New Jerusalem is spiritual.. the Battle of Armageddon was spiritual and Jesus won.

There is NO Temple..

John of Patmos was writing to existing Christian communities who understood the symbolism perfectly.. they didn't need Hal Lindsey types to invent all manner of futuristic BS.

 

What about the war in revelation and the blood that flows like rivers?

You are not addressing much of what Revelation says like Jesus coming back on a white horse as a warrior.

 

Are you really asking a muslim to tell you what a book in the bible is about?!

 

Blood flowing like rivers is not actual rivers of blood... As I said the battle of Armageddon is a spiritual war and Jesus won.

The four horses symbolize Conquest, War, Famine and Death.. all were terrible during the Tribulation.

Later in Revelation.. Jesus riding a white horse is a symbol for his victory over death.. faithful and true.. over spiritual death in perfect justice.

 

Muslim eschatology is very different, but I am not well informed on it.

I think that many Christians have bought into some idea that Revelation was written to the Seven Churches about events thousands of years in the future...and there are a lot of Charlatans who earn their living claiming that Babylon is the US or that Russia will attack Israel and all manner of foolishness.

Revelation is talking about current events.. about what had recently happened in their world or would soon happen..

Its about Rome, the emperors who persecuted the Christians, the destruction of the Temple and the end of Jerusalem.

Its about worldly, apostate Jerusalem that rejected the Messiah...

And its about the 3 and a half year period of tribulation that ended in 73 AD.

 

This poster keeps starting threads to demean Christians and this poster also claims to be Christian

 

That is your opinion and you are not correct. Revelation is about the future and the end of life on earth and the final judgement and final war of God and evil.

 

exactly.

every system of beliefs has stories passed down about how some idiot finally unveils (apocolypse) truth

we are ALL a part of the team; mankind

 

That's very recent theology... basically since the late 1800s and it was considered heresy even then...

Its politically motivated... It was promoted by Samuel Untermyer if you recall.

Revelation is about the victory over spiritual death because of the first coming of Jesus.

Do you realize there is NO Temple in Revelation?

Do you understand the parable of the fig tree?

Israel would never again bear fruit.. the old age has passed and a new age is born.

See Matthew 26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

 

More of your opinions. You should admit you are not a Christian and you hate the Bible

 

Actually I love the Bible.. and that should be apparent even to you.

The Book of Revelation isn't a political tool.... as it is currently used by Christian Zionists.. its about the new age based on salvation and the sacrifice of Jesus.

Go back and READ it.. John of Patmos is very clear who he is writing to and that all we be fulfilled SOON... before this generation passes.

 

No you hate the Bible and have to give false interpretations to show you hate for the Christian church.

Go back where and read it?

http://jesus-is-the-way.com/RevOutline.html

 

Well.. then if you are convinced of the Scofield heresy then so be it.

I wonder which version.. with the US as Babylon or Babylon as Babyon or the EU as Babylon..

 

What a wonderful example of profound ignorance .