So what do you think, Is the Book of Revelation all about Me and My Generation?
If you want it to be, it is.
Is The Book of Revelation All About Me & My Generation?
by ClubSandwich 56 Replies latest jw friends
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DATA-DOG
" The closing chapters encourage those about to experience the persecution brought by Nero and inform them of satan's final defeat and ultimate justice restored. "
So if Revelation was fulfilled in the 1st century and Satan was defeated, then in what sense is Ultimate justice being restored? What is going on right now? What are we all doing here?! Just curious. I do not claim to know anything.
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PSacramento
Revelation deals with the immediate situation of the various congregations/churchs, it deals with the forseeable future and the persecutions happening and that will happen and it also forsees/prophecizes to a time where the final judgment and the restoration of ALL will happen.
It is a multi-layed and multi-focused letter dealing with present, past, near future, far future and end of days.
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ClubSandwich
Like all aocalypses, the prophet gets a strange symbolic vision where the future is described in metaphorical terms. They are not intended to predict the future but to give hope to the readers. And the apostle John wrote Revelation? That would be a revelation to me. I thought Revelation was written by an obscure guy named John, tons of them in the first century, who was squired away on the Island of Patmos.
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Tater-T
No it is not ......
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Pterist
If anyone is new to amilliumism /partial preterism... here is a overview if interested..
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ClubSandwich
What I also find interesting from reputable Bible researchers is that the early Christian readers of Revelation would have understood exactly who 666 was. It was the numerical code name for Rome's emperor Nero--the symbolic beast mentioned in chapter 13.
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Christ Alone
Club Sandwich, you're right that there are varying opinions on who wrote Revelation. When the author introduces himself, he does not say John the apostle, but just John, your brother in Christ. There is no other actual place in the book of Revelation that points to John the apostle as the author of Revelation. The majority of early church leaders such as Melito, bishop of Sardis, Ireneus, Tertullian, Clement, Eusebius and Papias, bishop of Hierapolis believed that the Revelation was written by John, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the Gospel of John.
On the other hand, Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria and a disciple of Origen, asserts that it is written by Cerinthus. St. Jerome also expressed doubts of Johannine authorship.
Some believe that John may have written some of the book, and then maybe dictated to someone else as his years grew and he grew unable to write. Revelations' main focal point is the wrath of God, death, whereas in John and the epistles of John the focus is on the teachings of Christ. Some say this is because someone else wrote it. Yet the different focal points could be because the theme is different. The theme of Christ's love wouldn't need to have anything about God's Wrath and vise versa.
Both arguments are compelling, which cause some to believe that the work was done by multiple writers. The writer states that the Revelation was written while he was banished on the island of Patmos, probably toward the end of Domitian's reign (between 81 - 96). There is a link to the gospel of John in that both Revelation and John use the word "logos" or "Word" when referring to Jesus.
However, this goes both ways. The word "hell" or "hades" does not appear in John's gospel, but it does in Revelation. John's gospel use words like "life", "grace", "light", and "truth", but this does not appear in Revelation.
The different word usage, as well as other textual analysis cause some to say that Revelation was written by multiple writers. But traditionally it is credited to John, son of Zebedee.
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PSacramento
I would think that, IF a prophetic vision were true, that a human would have one hell of time not only understanding ALL of what he/she was seeing but also being able to relate to that and even morse so, pass it one with imagery that his/her audience would understand.
Can you imagine a jew in 3000BC getting a divine revelation about how the universe came to be? about the process of the universe expanding and evolving, of all life forming from natural matter and energy, about animals species adapting and evolving over millions of years !
Can you imagine how he would be able to relate that to his fellow people ??
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Vanderhoven7
Pterist:I am partial preterist as well. Christ's coming (parousia) is future. "Matthew 24" by Marcellus Kik sums up Matt 24 beautifully and "Days of Vengeance" (free on-line download) by David Chilton is the best commentary on Revelation in my books.
DataDog: Every Christian in every era benefits from knowing that ultimate justice (Revelation 20 - 22) will be served at the end of time...especially when experiencing irrecoverable loss in this life...as many of the Christians under Nero were about to go through). As you can see I'm for an early date for the writing of Revelation.