Book of Revelation.

[AzrealGelert]

Book of Revelation.

Does anyone else have issues with this Book? I am currently coming to the Catholic church after avoiding it for many years.

This book still confuses me, I read it, dwell on what I read, pray, read it again, and still do not fully understand. Sometimes I think this book holds great meaning, more so that others, but the teaching is being lost due to the way it was written, like its almost, a maze, one must try to find their way through.

Maybe I am over thinking. Anyone offer advice on how to approach reading/studying this book?

 

[COPLAND_3]

I recommend first of all to come to the realization that the greatest minds in Church history have given expositions on Revelation, and they have come to various conclusions and taken different approaches. Some have taken a Christological, Ecclesiastical, Historical, Eucharistic, Futuristic, etc,. approaches, and all have their strengths and weaknesses. I believe the book is complex enough and deep enough to be taken in those various senses. If the book was meant to be taken in one rigid and absolute way then I am certain that the book would not have been so complex and interpreted in so many ways by so many great saints of the Church.

I have compiled an exposition on Revelation that is made up of quotes from expositors from every generation of Church history for the Aquinas Study Bible, here is the link sites.google.com/site/aquinasstudybible/home/revelation/introduction

The one thing that I do find challenging about Revelation is how this apocalyptic work is not arranged in a chronological order, and it often recapitulates itself. I have, to the best of my ability, to provide a chronological order of the events as they have happened and are suppose to happen. Here it is

Below are all the events of the book of Revelation that have to do with what happens on earth and Judgment Day as well as the future glorification of the earth and the Church. I have not included those heavenly visions that St. John has of Heaven since those are within eternity and are outside of time.

Pre-Church Age

12__________________Incarnation of the Lord
6:12-16______________Crucifixion

Church Age Before Great Tribulation

2___________________Lord Addresses the churches in Asia
3___________________Lord Addresses the churches in Asia
6:1-11_______________Opening of the first 5 seals- events of the Church
12:17-18_____________Satan sets out to battle Christians
20:1-6_______________The Church Age-1000 year reign

Great Tribulation

7:1-8_________________Prior to Tribulation; sealing of the 144,000
8:7- 9:21______________The trumpet judgments
11:4-14_______________The 2 witnesses-Enoch and Elijah
13___________________The Antichrist and the False Prophet
14:6-13_______________Fall of Babylon
16___________________The Bowl Judgments
18:1-20_______________Fall of Babylon

Armageddon

16:13-21
19:11-20
20:7-9

Judgment Day

1:7
14:14-20
20:11-15

Final Glory

7:9-12_______________Tribulation Saints in glory
21- 22:5______________New heavens and new earth and New Jerusalem

 

[jcrichton]

Book of Revelation.

Does anyone else have issues with this Book? I am currently coming to the Catholic church after avoiding it for many years.

This book still confuses me, I read it, dwell on what I read, pray, read it again, and still do not fully understand. Sometimes I think this book holds great meaning, more so that others, but the teaching is being lost due to the way it was written, like its almost, a maze, one must try to find their way through.

Maybe I am over thinking. Anyone offer advice on how to approach reading/studying this book?

Welcomed to the forum!

…and welcomed Home!

…here’s my take…

Read Genesis 3:15 and Apocalypse (Revelation) 12… you will find the eternal battle, prophesied in Genesis, expanded and brought to its fullness (not end) in the final verse of Apocalypse 12… throughout you have various revelations, which includes the sanctioning of the Church (I don’t believe it’s exclusive to some 7 churches during the early Christian history but rather, as it happens with so many prophecies, it is a revelation within a revelation: the Eternal Church’s Spiritual status throughout time), the assertions that Christ is God and that He and the Father are inseparable, we are even given a minor window into Heavenly affairs (4 living creatures, 24 elders, 144K, millions of Christian martyrs, super angels, God’s Spirit, offerings changed from temporal animal sacrifice to prayers which are admininstered by the saints…); then there are the dark episodes: plagues, torment, wickedness, the work of the Beast, humanity’s open rejection of God and its alignment with Satan… still throughout we continue to find Jesus as the Sacrificed Victor Who has Full Power and Authority and on Whom Believers find Solace and Salvation: even death is forced to surrender its captives and those who Belong to Christ are resurrected into Eternal Life with God…

In spite of all of hollowood’s (and its satelites) morbid and defeatist vision, Good does overcome evil!

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[onenow1]

Book of Revelation.

Does anyone else have issues with this Book? I am currently coming to the Catholic church after avoiding it for many years.

This book still confuses me, I read it, dwell on what I read, pray, read it again, and still do not fully understand. Sometimes I think this book holds great meaning, more so that others, but the teaching is being lost due to the way it was written, like its almost, a maze, one must try to find their way through.

Maybe I am over thinking. Anyone offer advice on how to approach reading/studying this book?

Hi Azeral, Maybe thinking about where St.John is when he wrote the book, seeing ships come in with all kinds of creatures on the bow of the ships,Roman soldiers etc.etc.

God Bless
onenow1

 

[R_C]

I read it twice without giving it much thought, and I don’t recommend to try and read too much into it I think the right people in the Church will be granted the gift of understanding when the time comes. Notice how often the Lord addresses specific communities in the Church and ends by saying: “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what The Spirit is speaking”? Well, I can safely assume I don’t have that ear to hear So I read it and to some extent can understand some of it, but I don’t even hope of fully understanding it unless it be God’s specific will one day.

Think about it this way: even the phrases that the Lord spoke in the Gospels have many layers of meaning, some of which go through the whole Sacred Scripture…how much more is this true for the Revelation

The one thing I gather from the Revelation is this: we are not yet in the very final days (though these are the “end times”), when we get to the very final days, we’ll notice

 

[WordHeavy]

Maybe pick up a copy of, The Lambs Supper by Dr. Scott Hahn, it helped me a great deal both with the book of revelation and understanding the mass and how they fit together.

The peace of the Lord be with you,
WordHeavy

 

[TimothyH]

Book of Revelation.

Does anyone else have issues with this Book? I am currently coming to the Catholic church after avoiding it for many years.

This book still confuses me, I read it, dwell on what I read, pray, read it again, and still do not fully understand. Sometimes I think this book holds great meaning, more so that others, but the teaching is being lost due to the way it was written, like its almost, a maze, one must try to find their way through.

Maybe I am over thinking. Anyone offer advice on how to approach reading/studying this book?

My advice is that the Book of Revelation was placed at the end of the Bible for a reason. It is not so much how it was written, but its placement in the Bible as a whole. It is at the end because it is expected that the reader will have read and will have attained a basic understanding of that which came before it. One wouldn’t read only the last chapter of a novel and expect to understand what is going on. One should not have that expectation with the Bible either.

Revelation is all but incomprehensible outside of the context of the rest of Scripture. Many of the themes, images and passages in Revelation are drawn from the Old Testament. Much of what is written in the Book of Revelation is meaningless apart from the Jewish culture and religious history which produced the work. Reading Revelation without at least a basic understanding of the rest of Scripture - especially the writings of the prophets - will surely lead to great error.

My advice is not to dwell on it but to engage in a study of scripture as a whole, maybe an overview course such as the “Bible Timeline” by Jeff Cavins or something similar. Revelation is very understandable for anyone who takes the time to read and study scripture as the unified whole which it was intended by God to be.

-Tim-

 

[Patrick1540]

Book of Revelation.

Does anyone else have issues with this Book? I am currently coming to the Catholic church after avoiding it for many years.

This book still confuses me, I read it, dwell on what I read, pray, read it again, and still do not fully understand. Sometimes I think this book holds great meaning, more so that others, but the teaching is being lost due to the way it was written, like its almost, a maze, one must try to find their way through.

Maybe I am over thinking. Anyone offer advice on how to approach reading/studying this book?

Hi Azreal, The Book of Revelation is the most Catholic Book in the Bible. It is full of the Mystery of Christ Bride the Church. It is probably more than three fold in understanding a prophetic Book. 10 Fulfillment like the Book of Daniel for the Persecution, the Early Church was going through and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Daniel was written for the persecution of the Jews by Antichous IV Greek empire and Macabean Revolt. 2) Revelation reveals the Church age and the final persecution the Church will suffer.
3) Liturgical Worship in Heaven which has already posted on here.
Great Wisdom and understanding of the Churches teaching is needed to understand the text. It is prophecy which is complex i understanding what God is trying to communicate.Look through just history is only one side of the prophecy,but it does give you a better understanding of what the Early Church suffered. Josephus is a Jewish historian the wrote on what was going on in the 1st century.

 

[PoorKnight]

Maybe pick up a copy of, The Lambs Supper by Dr. Scott Hahn, it helped me a great deal both with the book of revelation and understanding the mass and how they fit together.

The peace of the Lord be with you,
WordHeavy

This!

I haven’t read Dr. Hahn’s book, but I’ve listened to his audios on the Supper of the Lamb and the Fourth Cup and they GREATLY helped me with understanding Revelation.

God Bless

 

[Patrick1540]

This!

I haven’t read Dr. Hahn’s book, but I’ve listened to his audios on the Supper of the Lamb and the Fourth Cup and they GREATLY helped me with understanding Revelation.

God Bless

Dr.Scott Hahnt does limit the Book of Revelation also has a tape series called “The End” which I found awesome. I t does limit the Book to the pretreous view,which is, fulfillment in the first century and again at the end of time.But it is still worth hearing.I got my set through St Joesph communications.
God Bless

 

[Jim_Baur]

COPLAND 3

As always, your work looks great, beyond great.

I wish I had the time and energy to read it.

THANKS