The book of Revelation, the word of God, or one hell of a drug trip? (page 2)

Undecided

Those people who have had the spirit from God take over their life should be able to explain it to us. I'm waiting....

Ken P.

sundawn77

I dunno. I'm of the opinion still that Revelations actually does mean something....just not what witnesses believe. Well, not the everybody-but-us-is-going-to-die parts anyways.

When I left, I didn't leave God, I just left those people. That's why I'm frustrated because I want to know what the bible REALLY means but not from an organized religion point of view.

SPAZnik

free2beme - yes, I have totally thought that it could have been some sort of drug trip or other chemical imbalance affecting the mind.

If it was something, as important as we were told, then why does there appear to be no consistent explanation? Maybe it is because, it was never meant to be anything then an old man's rambling while on acid.

Leolaia

I definitely have to say "nay" on the "drug trip". This is a misreading of the book as some sort of hallucinatory voyage of visions actually experienced by the writer himself. Of course, the mantic character of the book is a literary convention, very well established in earlier prophecies and apocalypses on which the author is quite consciously literarily dependent. The visions of beasts rising from the sea, of locusts, of merkabah visions of the heavenly throne, of falling stars and horns, of chaining demonic entities in an abyss, etc. etc. are all based on earlier literature of the OT and the pseudepigrapha, especially Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Zechariah, and 1 Enoch. Revelation evidences a literary recombination and retelling of these well-established motifs, and it is also self-consciously a very political anti-imperial document. The author wrote with a definite purpose and goal in reforming the "lukewarm" and apostate Christian community through eschatology, tho organizing haphazardly a body of apocalyptic traditions which he himself may have inherited from forebears.

LittleToe

There's no evidence that John was tripping. Instead it appears to be an ingenious stitching together of several alleghorical works in the apocalyptic tradition. Should I believe that Dr Seuss was on acid when writing the Cat in the Hat, just because it's a little strange? To blow off Revelation in such a manner seems to be more of an excuse full of conjecture, rather than a reasonable conclusion based on fact.

LT, of the "modified preterist" class

SPAZnik

LT - re: Dr. Seuss, not at all. Nor would you be expected to find some myriad ways to dominate judge burn at stakes etc etc...millions of your fellowman based on unprovable, war-causing, family splitting, interpretations of green eggs and ham.

SirNose586

The use of mind altering drugs, alcohol and so on, were not something that did not exist back then.

Can't tell you about drugs, but alcohol is one of mankind's oldest concoctions. Egyptians were brewing it...Mesopotamians too, as I recall...

free2beme

Well, wasn't Jesus first mircle to turn water to wine?

Navigator

During a visit by a Seminary professor, Phd type, our Sunday school Class President shared with him that we were studying the book of Revelation and asked him what was the most that we could expect from the study. His reply was "The most you could hope for is to complete the study and still be good friends".

I believe that Little Toe is correct. It is clear that the writer had the book of Daniel open on the desk and borrowed heavily from the symbology contained therein. The central message seems to be the same as in Daniel. Hang On! God is in charge. Just as the Jews were under great stress from the Greeks when Daniel was written (about 167B.C.), the Christians were under great stress from the Roman Government, especially the Emporer Trajan.

The book of Revelation, the word of God, or one hell of a drug trip?

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