The Book of Revelation

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What are your opinions on the book of Revelation? What does it mean, and why hasn’t it been fulfilled yet? Feel free to post any studies that you have regarding the book of Revelation or anything related.
 
Look at the bottom of my post, I made this book, there you have a section about the Holy Mass and the Book of Revelation. There is also a section on why the Catholic Church is not the Whore or Beast.
 
Achilles6129 said:
What are your opinions on the book of Revelation
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My opinion is that it is that of the Catholic Church: that it is the inspired Word of God and is worthy of our serious study and contemplation.
What does it mean,
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Overall, it has numerous layers of meaning. Many people like to pigeonhole into one meaning for the entire book, but that limited approach is the seedbed of numerous disagreements and arguments.A careful prayerful study of this complex book is the best way to get a handle on it’s many layers of meaning.
and why hasn’t it been fulfilled yet?
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Some of it has, some of it will be in the future and most of it has a continually being fulfilled meaning.
Feel free to post any studies that you have regarding the book of Revelation or anything related.
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Here is one that that reflects a pretty solid Catholic understanding of the Book of Revelation. Even within Catholicism, there are different interpretations of various passages. I’m sure others can recommend other studies, but this will get you started:

Agape Catholic Bible Study–Book of Revelation
 
chero23

You book is great for me.

I haven’t read it, but I did look through your first several topics.

I really enjoyed it.
 
The whole theme and purpose of the Book of Revelation this - perseverance to the end in the face of persecution.

Christians in Asia Minor were being barred from commerce, exiled, tortured and killed because they refused to worship the Roman emperor. That is the historical context and why St. John wrote it to the seven Churches.

The overall message is that if you persevere to the end you will be greatly rewarded. Everything in Revelation has to be read in this context.

-Tim-
 
Revelation is one best to stay away from unless you feel led by the Spirit to delve into it. There are many aspects and ways to interpret it. My own understanding of it is it is a prophecy of the future of the Church given to an angel by Christ. There are some teaching for the faithful at that time followed by cryptic symbolism. Some believe it is already accomplished. I believe partially. Especially Rev 12 and the first part regarding a third of the stars. Which just shows we are about to go into Rev 13 and 14. It’s also probably symbolic in many things so one could see how God is going to conquer the adversaries. Try reading it from the end to the beginning and you get a little different view on it. Just my experience speaking here.
 
What do you guys think about the statements about Christ’s imminent coming in the book of Revelation?
 
Achilles6129 said:
What do you guys think about the statements about Christ’s imminent coming in the book of Revelation?
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People here have mentioned and if you read acts and Paul’s letters we read about how Jesus will come, and soon. I think the most important think is the lambs supper. Which I believe is in either chapter 17, 18, 19.

He is always here in the Eucharist.
 
Jim_Baur said:
chero23

You book is great for me.

I haven’t read it, but I did look through your first several topics.

I really enjoyed it.
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I know it’s lengthy but it talks about a lot of stuff others might have questions about. I went through a lot of catholic apologetic websites. It is a 192 pages long hopefully it helps you.
 
Achilles6129 said:
What do you guys think about the statements about Christ’s imminent coming in the book of Revelation?
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‘‘Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy." 12"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.’’

You also have to remember that all scriptures are meant for edification. And Christ saying ‘‘I come quickly’’ is an address to everyone. Soon the day will come when no one will be able to not have the Spirit of Christ. So that scripture may be fulfilled ‘‘28"It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.’’
 
Revelation 1:3. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the word of prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take it to heart what is written in it because the time is near
 
Like mentioned above, the book has many layers of meaning, and it takes the traditional approach of multiple senses of Scripture and takes it to the max. The book has more than one sense for almost every verse, and many parts of it can be understood in the light of historical, future, present, allegorical, Eucharistic, Christilogical, etc. But its really not wise in my opinion to privately interpret the book, simply because I feel completely inferior to do so, and personally I think most people are. I personally rely mainly on Patristic and Medieval commentators, who though are quite limited themselves and they all admitted it, but I personally think they had the best understanding even though they had a wide variety of interpretations themselves.
 
So…what exactly did Christ mean by his imminent statements throughout the book? Nothing?!
 
chero23 said:
But if you take it without any background or are profound with Scripture, you can take things out of context.
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The same can be said of any book of the Bible. The solution is not to stay away from it but to find reliable sources of information and study it properly.

The studies by Jeff Cavins/Great Adventure are excellent. The Bible is meant to be read and studied and meditated upon and prayed back to God.

-Tim-
 
Achilles6129 said:
So…what exactly did Christ mean by his imminent statements throughout the book? Nothing?!
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Before we start asking the meaning of specific verses, we have to understand the context of the story.

Asia Minor was a hotbed of emperor worship. There were many temples to the Emperors where people were forced to worship. Those who refused were banished, barred from commerce, persecuted, tortured and killed. The overall message of the Book of Revelation is that if you persevere to the end you will be greatly rewarded. All scholars - Catholic and non-Catholic agree on this basic theme. This isn’t a Catholic vs non-Catholic issue and everything flows from this theme. Without this theme in mind you will make lots of mistakes.

The next thing we have to do is read and understand everything which comes before it. The Book of Revelation is at the end of the Bible for a reason. The Bible is the story of Salvation and Revelation is the end of the story. It is unrealistic to read the last chapter of Lord of the Rings without having read all the other chapters before it and expect to understand it fully. The same is true of the Book of Revelation - expecting to understand it without having read and understood what came before it is not realistic.

So read and study the Bible - all of it - and then you will have a good basis for understanding the basic themes in Revelation. It is not that difficult of a book if you study what comes before it even a little bit.

-Tim-
 
TimothyH said:
Before we start asking the meaning of specific verses, we have to understand the context of the story.

Asia Minor was a hotbed of emperor worship. There were many temples to the Emperors where people were forced to worship. Those who refused were banished, barred from commerce, persecuted, tortured and killed. The overall message of the Book of Revelation is that if you persevere to the end you will be greatly rewarded. All scholars - Catholic and non-Catholic agree on this basic theme. This isn’t a Catholic vs non-Catholic issue and everything flows from this theme. Without this theme in mind you will make lots of mistakes.

The next thing we have to do is read and understand everything which comes before it. The Book of Revelation is at the end of the Bible for a reason. The Bible is the story of Salvation and Revelation is the end of the story. It is unrealistic to read the last chapter of Lord of the Rings without having read all the other chapters before it and expect to understand it fully. The same is true of the Book of Revelation - expecting to understand it without having read and understood what came before it is not realistic.

So read and study the Bible - all of it - and then you will have a good basis for understanding the basic themes in Revelation. It is not that difficult of a book if you study what comes before it even a little bit.

-Tim-
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Hi,

I’m afraid that this doesn’t help in understanding what the imminent statements in Revelation mean. Also, Revelation is written to all the servants of God (everywhere, at all times), so the historical context is simply irrelevant.
 
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