I have a couple of questions about the Book of Revelation

[someperson]

Hey everyone. So I saw online that a couple of Christians (Protestants I believe) were saying how the coronavirus vaccine was the “mark of the beast”. I don’t believe it is the mark of the beast but it did give me a couple of questions:

1. Why do they believe the vaccine to be the mark of the beast?
2. From my understanding, the beast is not satan, but a man (Emperor Nero, correct me if I’m wrong) and that the mark of the beast was the Roman currency
   3a) Does the book of revelation predict future events?
   3b) If it doesn’t, what should I make of the end times?

Thank you.

 

[fhansen]

There’s never an end to the theories and speculations out there concerning prophecies in the book of Revelation. And somehow I think we’ll really know only when we can actually ask St John what the heck he meant. But the theology in general and the exhortations for holiness in that book offer much to be appreciated.

 

[Theosis]

The Book of Revelation is certainly very enigmatic and mysterious. No doubt about that. Yes, it undeniably tells of future events but in a cryptic way. However, I am not much help in deciphering its full meaning.

What I can say, if you’re looking to “keep watch” and pay attention to the signs of the times, is re-read our Lord’s words in Matthew’s Gospel Chapter 24. Ask yourself, is the state of the Church getting holier or more worldly? How about the state of the entire world? Better or worse?

In short, no matter when it comes, seek holiness, stay clean, grow in virtue, pray without ceasing, and persevere. Today has enough evil of it’s own to battle. Death could be at any moment anyway.

I’m of the mind that we are approaching the End as it has been told to us by our Lady; the visions of many Saints confirm the same. Fortunately, Churches are currently still offering Confession and the Sacrifice of the Mass…

 

[Mintaka]

Historically, there were papers issued by the (pagan) Roman government that certified that you had sacrificed incense to The Genius of the Emperor. And during certain persecutions, you couldn’t legally buy or sell stuff in the town market without one of these papers, which was why a lot of Christians got the heck out of Dodge and went and lived somewhere rural.

There were also allegedly various pagan sects that would have arm necklaces or tattoos on the forehead or on the arm that showed their allegiance to various gods, which Christians and Jews saw as a sort of demonic mockery of Jews wearing phylacteries on the head and arm, with verses from the Bible. But I don’t know much about this, or whether it is historically true.

So yeah, whenever Christians hear about countries demanding that people have X papers or Y card in order to legally buy and sell, there are people who tend to announce that this is the Mark of the Beast. And usually, even if it’s not the Mark of the Beast, it is either something weird or something worth worrying about. So yeah, it turned out that packaging bar codes were not the Mark of the Beast, but you can’t discount every worry as being silly.

 

[Mintaka]

As for your other questions:

In a historical reading of Revelation, as its original readers would have understood it, there is absolutely no question that the Number of the Beast spells Nero’s name, and they were talking about stuff hitting the fan during Nero’s time. However, John taught in his letters that there are many Antichrists. And it’s pretty clear that the stuff happening was not all necessarily happening at the same time, but rather “soon,” which isn’t necessarily “soon” as we see it. Anything after the Ascension but before the end of the world is “soon” in God’s eyes.

So Revelation is a book about what Christians can expect, which is persecutions of various kinds and severities, and about how God’s justice and mercy will eventually deal with everything. It’s also a sort of cosmic description of Mass.

 

[Dan_Defender]

If one goes by the preterist interpretation of the book of revelation, everything has already happened until right before Rev 20:7.