I’ve never read such stuff and nonsense about a book that is so clouded in imagery and metaphors! The Church says very little on it-if you look at the cathechism it is very succinct. Do not read into apocalypses that which is not there. Apocalyptic texts are vague, full of vivid imagery almost indecipherable . It is a biblical genre that comes out of fear,apprehension and hope. They were written in times of great turmoil when the world seems out of balance. “here we are the Chosen and we are suffering” The apocalyptic writer gives voice and imagery to these concerns and say “God’s in charge-everything will turn out all right- just hang in there” that’s Exactly the whole message of “Revelation” is. We get caught up in the violent imagery and get paranoid about it- and when we start reading into the imagery and who the Anti Christ is(not mentioned in Revelation but letters of John) we are treading on very dangerous ground. we can easily veer off into ideas and prejudices that those in the past had that have nothing to do with reality. Seeing the Jewish people as potential anti christs is ludicrious and wrong headed. Look up your catechism Golden Arrow. not St John - he is human dealing with human bigotry - the magisterium is where you need to get your answers from! For some reason a whole lot of catholics have gotten caught up in this " end is near" nonsense that Our protestant brothers are so hot on. Too many Catholics read the "left Behind "series and are mixed up with millenial garbage.- there is definitely an anti- intellectual element in our church that has been influenced by fundamentalists- whether they admit or not… Our own personal judgment is what we should be more concerned about- not universal. as far as the anti christ- sometimes all we have to do is look in the mirror-“we have met the enemy and they are us” Pogo
