Revelation written to the 1st century churches

maccauk11

Im suggesting revelation was not for us today but to the seven churches in Minor Asia. They 1st centruy faithful ones were waiting for the promised return of Messiah, like he promised them. He did in fact return on the lcouds to take them to heaven. The modern day churhces especially since the 1830's are in delusion ot think it is written for us today of some future generation. The language used is symbolic, metaphors and hyperbole and taken mostly from the Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel and Iasiah. They also used the same language which in fact was how the Jews used language ot make descriptions of events.

Messiah told those 1st century onesthat all things would occur in their generation and it did !. Just like he said. The APostles all confirmed the expectation of Messiahs return in their lifetime.

J. Hofer

i thought iCloud was invented by apple? never heared of first century iClouds before...

and by the way... what's your point?

moggy lover

It obviously WAS written for those early readers since, as you propose, the metrical devices used within that genre of literature was primarily applicable to those who best understood it.

The problem comes when one becomes dogmatically involved in insisting on exclusivity. Whether Revelation was written EXCLUSIVELY for them is moot, and has been debated for centuries by readers much later than the original recipients. The book "Revelation - Four Views" written by spealists in their own interpretive fields, allows for these four views:

1. Preterist: where fulfillment is seen within the milleu of the Roman Empire.

2. Historical :where fulfillment is viewed as having occurred throughout history.

3. Dispensationalist: which interprets the section of Revelation chapter 6 onwards as being in the future.

4. Metaphorical: Where the book is treated as a mass of apocalyptic dreams aand visions having several contradictory and unimaginable applications.

All these forms of interpretation with their contextual applications can be sucessfully defended and the believer such as the biblical perspective allows for, must decide for himself/herself what line of prophetic significance to follow.

The one totally ILLEGTIMATE application is that of Realised Prophecy which sees the fulfilment of Revelation in a given set of present day circumstances. Herbert W Armstrong and the collective Watchtower Leadership are prime examples of this folly. For the Watchtower Leadership their view is that they are the centre of the Theological Universe so ALL fulfillment must revolve around them exclusively.

Using 1914 as their base line time element, they have, throughout their history, been straining a meaning out of the text of Revelation that is patently absurd, and thus they frame themselves in a spotlight that only diehard Watchtower Followers can admire.

It is for this reason, that when a current prophetic time element becomes untenable, other sources of fullfilment have to be plundered in the name of "new light". What Russell, then later Rutherford, and even later Freddy Franz, conceived Revelation to be has largely been swallowed up by the dustbin of history.

sir82

what's your point?

Perhaps that you can take the irrational fundy bible thumper out of the JWs, but that alone doesn't make him sane?

maccauk11

Excellent summary of those 1st century events . The conditioining by man of others to put those events always in the future is to enslave others emotionally, physcologically and mentally into man made dogma. Those 1st century events written to those in that 1st century generation and for them alone.Setting oneself free from that enslavement can be a painful process. I beleive The Kingdom is within and Messiah dwells in us. There is no physical representaion of it, its not of this world, not made with human hands or with bricks and mortar. All believers have to do is enter in. They do this by entering into Christ spiritually and him alone.

Phizzy

There is absolutely no reason to believe that any of the Bible seeming prophecies have a fulfillment beyond the time they were written.

This is purely wishful thinking on believers part, that they will be part of some grand "Anti-typical" fullfillment, an idea that Rutherford and his Pooch Fred Franz were fond of fostering as some sort of acceptable exegesis of the Bible.

It is a nonsense of course, the Bible "prophets" could not even get the first fulfillment right. There was no Return of the Christ in the first, or any subsequent Century.

maccauk11

The Old Testament prophets did get it right . All prohecies pointe to Messiah in that 1st cetury generation and the fulfillment of all things in that one generation like Messiah said. The True Church , The Kingdom is now within for all eternity. God finished delaing with man in the flesh destroying the old arrangement in that 1st century and bringing in the New SPiritual Covenant which is eternal

tootired2care

God finished delaing (sic) with man in the flesh

I don't recall that being written anywhere in the bible, and furthermore if what you say is true than your bible god lied, because he promised to remove wickedness from the earth. Face it, the god of the bible is a god of contradictions, and lies. Jesus supposed great sacrifice has not brought about what was promised (over 2,000 years now and still counting), but has actually made things much worse, by holding progress back under repressive theocracies for many centuries.

Also, if you believe in the my book of bible fairytales answer this: if heaven is so great, why did 1/3 of heavens population decide to leave?

wolfman85

Hi maccauk11, you have a PM.

maccauk11

It is man that has made things worse by not not entering in to that new arrangement. Mankind does not accept the need of a Messiah so therefore reject him and his universal principles whicha re beneficial for all mankind. All we got to do each one of us is enter in. There is a light in the darkness it shies for all eternity. Seek it, find it and enter into it

Revelation written to the 1st century churches

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