Revelation Unveiled At
Last!
...for the last time
Growing up Presbyterian, we never heard of the
Book of Revelation and I recall no sermon ever given about it. It was certainly
not considered a book for our times and it was not used to make world events
"unfold", "become clear," or "revealed." It was just a strange book that had
no place in the Presbyterian view.
On the other hand, it's an attention grabber and without the Book of
Revelation, all fundamentalist churches and Churches of God would cease to
exist. Revelation is the book that motivates and can certainly be made to mean
whatever the need calls for. It truly is a book for all times. Whenever you
lived you could make it mean whatever you needed it to mean. You could make
your King the Beast and your clergy the False Prophet. You can find a couple of
Witnesses if need be and use the words "soon" and "shortly" to keep the pews
filled and the funds flowing for thousands of years.
The Book of Revelation has been nothing but a theological pain in the ass since it was written. While the Church of God claim to unveil or reveal it, they actually don't and know precious little about it's origins or original intent. I will plainly say that the Book is NOT for our time and was NOT written for our times. It is a failed first century prophecy or really a book meant to encourage Jews and Christians alike around the chaotic time of the sacking and destruction of Jerusalem , by the Romans, in 70 AD.
Revelation was written by a man, not THE man who called himself John. It may have been written either just before the Fall of 70AD or just after to encourage the Jews and also, with adaptations, Jewish Christians in the siege or surviving the aftermath to hang in there. It promised that the Romans would be gone in three and half years max and the Messiah would come and rout the Romans. Revelation has a lot of wowisms in it. With hyperbole and hubris, the author was using the Book of Daniel as the template for his visions of Revelation. It was not uncommon to go back into the Old Testament to find scriptures that helped explain the new times one found themselves living in. Daniel was a book written in the 160's BCE (not in the 500'sBCE) by priests trying to encourage the Jews in their struggles back then with the Romans. The author of Revelation, John (not any disciple or Apostle John) reasoned that if Daniel was meant to encourage Jews against Romans back then, it could be used to encourage Jewish Christians against Romans in his time. The author himself may have been greatly traumatized by the fall of Jerusalem or what he saw coming.
Revelation is a Jewish Christian document. The book harbors precious little toleration for Gentile Christianity under the "Apostle" Paul. It is very likely that the Beast was, to the author, Vespasian who had laid siege to Jerusalem and was not going away. Even more fascinating and in my view as well, the False Prophet of THAT day was our dear Gentile Christian Apostle Paul.
To the Church in Ephesus
Revelation
2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus
write:
These are the words
of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand
and walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2 I know your deeds,
your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked
people, that you have tested
those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my
name,
and have not grown weary."
Coupled
with and understanding the NT disdain James, Peter and John had for Paul and him
for them...
I
Timothy I :15
"You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me,
including Phygelus and Hermogenes."
That's an amazing and stunning statement. Paul admits that
ALL in Asia, where Ephesus is, had forsaken him. That can be a very nice way
for Paul to not admit they kicked him out and did not consider his gentile views
of Jewish Christianity to be right. Paul caused near riots among the Jewish
Christians (not the Jews) wherever he went. He was accused of teaching against
the law , which he did, and told to disprove this in Acts 21: 19-36. Of course,
this story is not Paul's story. It is Luke's story about Paul meant to show the
charges were not true. But they were.
19 Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had
done among the Gentiles
through his ministry
20 When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said
to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed,
and all of them are zealous
for the law.
21 They
have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to
turn away from Moses,
telling them not to circumcise their children
or live according to our customs.
22 What
shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, 23 so
do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a
vow.
24 Take
these men, join in their purification rites
and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved.
Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports
about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.
25 As for the Gentile believers, we have written to
them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from
blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”
26 The next day Paul took the men and purified himself
along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the
days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of
them."
We should all know that in reality,
the Apostle Paul did not believe in the Mosaic Law any longer if he ever did.
He did teach Gentiles to shun them and Paul even reneged on his promise in Acts
15 to abide by the Noahide rules which answered the question of how could
Gentile Christians become Jewish Christians. The Noahide rules were originally
used to answer the question about how could a gentile become a Jews so it was
much like using Daniel to write Revelation. Same problem, different
circumstances. I Corinthians 8-10 make it very clear that Paul did not teach to
abstain from meats sacrificed to idols and it was probably this issue that Peter
called Paul out for at dinner in Galatians. However, Paul wrote Galatians so
Peter was confronted by Paul, not Paul by Peter.
All this to say that "Revelation
was the swansong of Militant Jewish Christianity. When Jerusalem was destroyed,
when Rome waxed greater and more powerful, when the False Prophet gained more
and more followers, when the book itself was proved totally false within two
years, when it became evident the Jewish Messiah/Christ would not come, the
Hebrew Christians lost their virility and their cult faded under the combined
assault of Orthodox Judaism and of Gentile Christianity." (The Religion of the
Occident, pg 479).
The False Prophet, as labeled by
Jewish Christians, along with the Beast Vespasian, did not get cast into the
Lake of Fire. They actually won. The Messiah did not come for anyone, Jew or
Christian and all resurrections were off.
What's the point? Simply that
without the Book of Revelation being "Unveiled at Last" by the Churches of God,
they'd probably not survive as long as they have. I'd say the Adventists would
also not survive if Revelation was understood as it actually happened and not as
some current events explainer.
I asked a non COG minister once what
he thought of the Book of Revelation. He said that it originally was hotly
contested as to its worth in the official canon and whoever wrote it had good
drugs. He also understood it was not to be used to explain our day or our
circumstances on this planet today. The author was writing about his trauma and
about his experience with his people. Revelation is a failed prophecy that,
like a cat, has multiple lives depending on how one wants to play with it.
Whole religions can be built on it.
The Book of Revelation is full of
astrology and astrotheolgy. You can almost date the writing of the book by
reading how the woman was clothed in the sun with the moon under her feet. On
September 29, 75 AD, this is exactly what you would see with the sun in Virgo
the Virgin and the full moon under her feet at night. The Sun is in Virgo, or "Clothes" Virgo in September so it may have been around September the Book of Revelation was written, or began. In addition, when the
author of Revelation says in chapter 4..
1 After this I
looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice
which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said,
Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
2 And immediately I
was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat
on the throne.
Looking North, where God's throne is
said to be in scripture, you see the "W" of Cassiopeia, "the throne." It circles
the North Star Polaris and never sets as neither does the Big
Dipper.
3 And he that sat was
to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow
round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
4 And round about the
throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and
twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads
crowns of gold.
There are 24 Elders because there
are 24 hours in the day
5 And out of the
throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were
seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of
God.
The Throne in the Sea of Glass with the Seven Spirits of God in front of .
Cassiopeia/Milky Way/Big Dipper
These are the seven stars in the Big
Dipper which is opposite or "in front" of Cassiopeia the
Throne
6 And before the
throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of
the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes
before and behind.
The Sea of Glass is the Milky Way
that goes through and in front of Cassiopeia, the Throne in the sky. The Four Beasts are the four stars Cassiopeia and full of eyes are the background stars. On a summer
night, it is spectacular and looks like a sea of glass. John was looking up to
the north in the sky for his descriptions of God's throne.
The Sea of Glass Like Crystal
7 And the first beast
was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast
had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
Summer/Leo the Lion-Spring/Taurus
the Bull-Winter/Aquarius the Waterman and Fall/Aquila the Eagle. Descriptions
of beasts and Cherubs comes from the signs of the Zodiac , the Mazzaroth as the
Bible calls it, through which the Sun passes in one year. These four signs are
exactly 3 months apart and are the signs of the seasons. (4x3=12) That's how you make a
Bible Beast. Ezekiel did the same thing
8 And the four beasts
had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of
eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God
Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
Full full of eyes is full of stars.
Six wings times Four Beasts = 24 hours
9 And when those
beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who
liveth for ever and ever,"
So why explain the Book of Revelation this way, both historically and astro-theologically? BECAUSE IT MATTERS! The Book of Revelation has been used to inflict untold misery, speculation, behaviors, loyalties along with financial, moral and psychological tyranny on the ignorant but well meaning folk who want to explain their own world. Prophets, Priests and even Kings have used it to forward their own agendas. It is being used today to make the Middle East and all the players seem to fit into Prophecy Comes Alive scenarios. Materialists use it to keep people coming back and to rope in new members. The Churches of God would crumble if they had to face the true origins, intent and meaning or not meaning of the Book of Revelation. The Philadelphia/Restored and Living Churches of God would shake in their boots to realize they must not read the Book of Revelation like a newspaper or a website. Bob Thiel would have to give up being a prophet as would Ron Weinland and of course the illustrious Mr. Pack. You can bet the brethren have been soaking in the Book of Revelation over the Fall Holy days.
Remove the Book of Revelation as a book for our times, which it was not, and you might have to actually read the New Testament for it's real message. You'd get more from the Gospels and would understand more fully that the New Testament Players, such as Peter, James, John and Paul did not get along, did not agree with each other, did not believe the same things and probably did not even like each other. Someone threw Paul out of Ephesus, where John lived and preached and declared him a false prophet and not the friend of Jewish Christianity.
Then someone, traumatized by the fall of Jerusalem and the failed predictions of the Apostle Paul wrote a book that was for that time. It failed to deliver as promised as well. It almost didn't make it into the New Testament. It has haunted and plagued humankind ever since
The Book of Revelation is not a book for our times. It was not a book ahead of its own time. It was a book of THAT time and is not for THIS time. This is something the Churches of God will never look into or consider. Too much rides on it being available to explain the unknowable future as if they knew.
How many failed prophecies does it take to screw in a light bulb. Lots..... And while I don't actually expect many lights to actually go on, I thought you should know I have hope.