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

by free2beme 23 Replies latest jw friends

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  LittleToe

  SPAZnik:
  Where do you find encouragement in Revelation to treat people in the manner you suggest?

  I would posit that Holy books and religions have been abused to support political agendas. Reading the Koran you would be unlikely to become a suicide bomber, yet a minority have been taught that "way". Similarly only a minority of Bible followers committed the atrocities you refer to. It's not a far stretch to think that some idiot could turn even an innocuous work like "The Cat in the Hat" into a rallying point for brewing unrest.

  In the newly constitutied "Fascist Arts Front" Dr Seuss, Roaald Dahl and Jackson Pollark are the unholy trinity
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  Xirian

  Hecklerboy wrote:

  I just watched a program on this and they suggest that John was writing in code to the Christians. Since it was illegal to write anything bad about the Roman goverment at the time.

  For example: When he talked about 666 he was probably talking about emperor NERO. Since every Hebrew letter has a numeric counterpart and when you match 666 with Hebrew letter it spells out NERO. Also the beast with 7 head could refer to Rome since it sat on 7 hills.

  Gaiagirl wrote:

  I'm sure that Revelation was specifically written as a political slam against Rome, who at the time was ruler over the lands formerly belonging to Israel. The former nation of Israel was not at all happy about this, and longed for a time when Rome would fall, kind of like some people in the Southern U.S. still resent having lost their attempted secession from the Union, and would like to see the North fall. At the time John wrote Revelation, there had already been one failed attempt by Jews to revolt against the Empire. John was writing to disgruntled Jews who longed for deliverance from Roman rule, and that is the entire meaning of Revelation, no secrets for the modern day. Christians living during and after the rule of Constantine considered Revelation to have been fulfilled when the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the state religion.

  I tend to agree with these explanations. I watched a similar program to the one Hecklerboy watched and it really made a lot of sense to me.
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  SPAZnik

  LT -
  
  Did I suggest I find encouragement anywhere in Revelation to treat people as anything in particular?
  
  What can I say, except my attempts to communicate/share my thoughts in words can be as easily bastardized as anyone's. :)
  
  SPAZ I AM
• 

  Frannie Banannie

  All of the prophetic allegedly prophetic "visions" written in the scriptures, particularly John's Revelation in symbols......are like a RODEO....

  There's a grand parade with lots of glitter and fanfare, starring artists, lots of clowns, plenty of wild, bucking, snorting animals......injuries and sometimes even death.

  But remember............just because you find a lot of fertilizer around a tree (imprinted papyrus leaves in a book/ aka, engraved images), you shouldn't believe someone's given you a horse to ride.