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The Apocalyse of John

Is it wise to read scripture with little or know appreciation or acknowledgement of the context withing which it was written. Without context, we are doomed to think that the ancients saw things the same way we do . . . and of course, they did not.

The Book of Revelation, or more properly the Apocalypse of John, provides a great example of how many of us are inclined to search for meaning and subsequently find it wherever we can. The Apocalypse or John provides the zealous with ample opportunity to discover whatever they wish about the end-time. What often goes unnoticed however is that 2000 years ago, when the text was written, Jews (soon to also be known as Christians) understood that the end was near and that before this time came, one should accept Jesus as lord and savior, else be resigned to the toil of eternal death. Some may dispute this simple claim but the fact remains, many Christians are still singing this same song. Why? Because the flock (herd) responds well to it.

I am so stupid but know enough to have questions and find answers, so I subscribed to a digital course called - The History of the Bible: The making of the New Testament Canon by Bart Ehrman - more. It provided a number of valuable insights. In response to those who regularly point to the Book Of Revelation as proof of God's divine plan for humanity, I provide the audio for a 30 minute lecture entitled, Apocalypticism and the Apocalypse of John - as well as the following study notes.

Please take some time to listen to the presentation. Comments are welcomed.

LECTURE NOTES

Apocalypticism and the Apocalypse of John

Scope: Probably the most intriguing and least understood book of the New Testament is the Apocalypse of John, otherwise known as the Book of Revelation. In it is described the future course of history, in which widespread disaster and calamity strike the earth until the very end of time, when God intervenes in the affairs of the world to destroy the forces of evil and establish his perfect Utopian kingdom on earth.

But is this book actually giving a description of events yet to transpire? This lecture seeks to place the Book of Revelation in its own historical context, to see how it would have made sense to readers of the first century, who were imbued with a religious perspective known as apocalypticism and who would have understood the symbolic descriptions of the Apocalypse to have applied to events transpiring in their own day.

Outline

I. Now that we have discussed the Epistles and Gospels of early Christianity, we can move to consider one other genre represented in the New Testament: the apocalypse.

II.   There were numerous apocalypses written in the ancient world, even though today people are,
      by and large, familiar with only one of them, the Apocalypse of John (also known as the Book
      of Revelation).

A. As with all genres, the apocalypse had set forms and features, which if understood, can
help explain any particular book of the genre.

B. One thing that all apocalypses have in common is that they set forth, in narrative form,
an apocalyptic worldview.

C. Thus, it is necessary to learn something about this worldview— sometimes called
apocalypticism—if we are to make sense of a literary genre that presupposes it.

III. The worldview of apocalypticism can best be understood by tracing the history of its
development in ancient Israelite thought.

     A. In very early times, many Israelite thinkers subscribed to a kind of covenantal worldview,
          which claimed that God was on the side of Israel, had made a covenant with Israel, and
        would always protect Israel from its enemies.

B. This covenantal worldview was severely challenged by the events of history, when Israel
did not appear to be protected at all.

   C. There emerged a. prophetic worldview that explained Israel's ongoing sufferings:
          According to the prophets, Israel suffered as a punishment for its sins; if it would return
          to God, he would relent, and Israel would once again thrive and prosper.

    D. This prophetic worldview itself came to be severely challenged by the events of history,
          as some Jews realized that even after repenting, they continued to suffer and that those
        who were evil, on the contrary, actually prospered.

    E.   The apocalyptic worldview rose from the ashes of fallen prophecy. According to
          apocalypticists, the people of God suffer not because they are being punished for sin,
          but because there are powers of evil in the world who are opposed to God and his people,
        who are intent on destroying all those who side with God.

F. More specifically, apocalypticists subscribed to four major tenets:

     1.   Dualism: They maintained that there were forces of good and evil in the world, and
               everyone sided with one or the other; moreover, history itself was dualistic, with this
               present age governed by evil powers, but the age to come to be governed by all that
               is good.

2. Pessimism: Given that the forces of evil were in charge of this world, things were only
going to get worse.

         3.   Vindication: But at the end of this age. God would intervene to overthrow the forces
               of evil and bring in his good kingdom. At that time, he would raise all those who had
               died, and they would face judgment. The evil would be subjected to eternal punishment,
               but the good would be granted an eternal reward.

         4.   Imminence: For Jewish apocalypticists, this coming kingdom of God was right around
               the corner, to arrive at any time. Therefore, people needed to prepare for it by repenting
               and turning to God.

IV. One way this apocalyptic worldview was conveyed was through a literary genre, the apocalypse.

    A. Like all literary genres, the apocalypse had certain characteristic features. In general, it was
         an account of visionary experiences that explained the suffering of the present age in view
         of heavenly realities.

B. More specifically, apocalypses shared certain literary features:

1. Most (not all) of them were pseudonymous, written in the name of a religious person
from the past.

2. This person is given a set of visions that usually contain some very bizarre imagery.

3. The visions are normally explained by a heavenly angel.

         4.   The visions are not meant to be taken literally but are symbolic statements about either
               what was happening now on earth or what would happen in the near future. The angelic
               explanations sometimes provided the key to interpreting the symbolism.

5. These apocalyptic visions typically have a triumphalist ending: God will ultimately prevail!

6. Their function, as a rule, was to encourage believers to hold and keep the faith, because
their present sufferings would soon be vindicated.

V. When the Book of Revelation is read as an ancient apocalypse, its message makes
considerable sense.

    A. In terms of its basic plot, John, an earthly prophet, is shown the heavenly realities about
         what is soon to transpire on earth: disaster, catastrophe, and rampant destruction, until the
         very end, when Christ returns in judgment upon evil and all those under its sway.

B. The most important point to stress is that this was not written as a blueprint for our own
future: It was written for Christians of the time.

C. This can be seen especially in the symbolism that comes to be explained by the angelic
mediator in the book.

1. As an example: The whore of Babylon in chapter 17 refers to the political and
economic exploitation the world was experiencing under the power of Rome.

2. And the Antichrist—666—is a reference to the first anti-Christian emperor, Caesar Nero,
the letters of whose name actually add up to 666.

    D. The point of the book was that those experiencing hardship and persecution at the time were
         to hold on just a little while longer, because God would soon intervene in history, overthrow
         the forces of evil, and bring his good, eternal kingdom to earth.

VI. The Book of Revelation was a book for its own time, and it should not be ripped out of its
     own historical context and made to speak about something that its author did not have in
     mind at all, our own future here at the beginning of the 21st century, some 1,900 years after
     it was composed.

Tags: apocalypse, bible, revelation

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Permalink Reply by Kernel John on December 3, 2011 at 4:39pm

***** Attached below is Audio File #1 *****

Attachments:

History-of-Bible-Apocalypticism8-1.mp3, 3.4 MB

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Permalink Reply by Kernel John on December 3, 2011 at 4:41pm

***** Here is second of 2 Audio Files for listening *****

Attachments:

History-of-Bible-Apocalypticism8-2.mp3, 3.6 MB

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Permalink Reply by Robert DeFord on December 3, 2011 at 6:14pm

The Book of Revelation was a book for its own time, and it should not be ripped out of its
own historical context and made to speak about something that its author did not have in
mind at all, our own future here at the beginning of the 21st century, some 1,900 years after
it was composed.

This guy is so cemented into this world and its form of reasoning and logic that he cannot begin to approach the bible as it is inteneded to be approached. It is written by the Spirit of prophecy putting visions and prophecies into the mind and mouth of prophets and is timeles in its purpose and not at all limited to any time perios unless it is dealing with histories as it sometimes does..but mainluy it is a story of His Story..of the man that god produced in an exact moment and period of the planets history and that very same person..Jesus..will return to rules and reigin in a world of Peace..but first the AntiChrist will come to Iraq..Babylon in particular..a dn create a couterfeit variety of systems..of religious, economic, and govornment that will "seem" to be just what humanity needs.so they will worhip him as a GodMan (like you do with your dumbed down form of yoga..as compared to solar yoga..think about the sun and its incredible power streaming directly into your skull..pineal gland and the energetic system that permeates the nody as mapped out in the ancient acupuncture charts controlled by the subtle flowerlike centers or chakras..that in yopu Kernal are sound asleep..or mostly asleep take your pick.
As for who Jesus is He is the Sun...for all practical purposes and was with His Father in the beginning.
You can remain in your rigid controlling, cult if you wish but why?

Also you imagine you have a SOUL RIGHT? Please share with us what that sould does for you. ow do you benefit from it?
How do you recognize it?
Where is it residing inside you?
Is it growing? If so how do you know?

Solar contemplation is very very (very ) ancient indeed but now Jesus and His Holy Ghost are acceleerating the solar activbity and showering new information to earth I juast thought you might be interested since you "think" favorably about yoga in its many forms and you seem to be interested in Jesus a little bit (but not quite enough yet to ask Him into your life and master you?

This guy Bart Ehrman does not have a clue about the bible because he is on the outside peeking in and thinks he is smart (God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise"..and "There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is death Kernal D E A T H.. The only way the bible makes sense is after one received the Holy Spirit that wrote the bible. It is partly encoded and the cipers need to be deciphered. It is the most mysterious book on the planet and the least understood by non Christians (and all too often "cxherry picked by Christians), because it requires a significent anount of light filling the reader because "In the befinning was "Light" and we are returning to that very same light once God flushes the toilet.

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Permalink Reply by Adriaan Braam on December 4, 2011 at 2:04pm

How about an explanation of the book by the One that had it written in the first place? Sounds to far out? It would seem closer to a good source than some literal interpretation by a human 'expert.'

Please give this first volume a try and see where it will take you..

https://sites.google.com/site/liveitupspiritually/home/writings/Apo...

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Permalink Reply by Kernel John on December 4, 2011 at 4:13pm

Adriaan, do you believe the Aplocalypse of John was not written for those 1900 years ago but rather for people today? Ehrman suggests that John's Book of Revelation, like various other apocalyptic texts of that period, was written to describe the impending end-time (destruction). As it turned out, John's end-time never manifest, however, people of subsequent generations continue to be told that the end-time is immanent. So, who was the Book of Revelation really speaking to? People 200 or 300 years ago thought it was for them and today, people like you believe it was written you, yet it tells us that the end is nigh - does it not? Ehrman maintains that you and all those hundreds and hundreds of millions before you were incorrect in your understanding that The Apocalypse of John was written for you and not for the people of the time in which it was written.

When given an opportunity to explore and analyze the scholarly opinion of a human 'expert' or a supernatural explanation claiming that God wrote the Bible, I do not dismiss the scholarly opinion over supernatural belief. I am waiting for a coherent explanation of the supernatural understandings you infer. What I usually get are explanations that either require the suspension of common sense in favour of FAITH or explanations that are built upon increasing levels of complexity.

Adriaan, I don't read much, well or fast. How about you step up and give us what you think to be the main points of the 650 page document you so kindly provided. Geez, I provided a 30 minute audio file and a two page written synopsis and you return a document that would require an investment of 100's of hours chunking through this:

Are you kidding? Give me a break. We come to places like this to share our personal thoughts, ideas and understandings - not to simply exchange tracts. Look, I have invested considerable effort objectively looking into Christianity during the past year and I will peek at you PDF file - but certainly you should be convincing the your fellow Christians here to look take a serious look into The New Christianity (Swedenborgianism).

Please, why should people pay attention to Swedenborgianism? I'm interested in what you have to say.

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Permalink Reply by Adriaan Braam on December 4, 2011 at 10:33pm

Hi Kernel, I had sent you volume 1 of The Apocalypse Revealed but later I saw a recommendation that another set of 6 was better under the name The Apocalypse Explained. If you want those, just let me know.

The Bible is written for each individual's personal application, whenever they did, do or will live on earth. Genesis and Exodus are about development and getting on the way, spiritually. The Book of Revelation is about 'judgement' on the way. All these books are explained, often word for word, to their spiritual sense in different sets of books. I have taken the liberty to use info on a website in England.

It is particularly in Apocalipse Explained or A. Revealed that Swedenborg highlights how the great Judgment event that is central to the visions of the Book of Revelation, is to be spiritually understood as a crucial self-judgment.

This is a judgment that each person will make as the result of an eventual breaking in of divine light that reveals a person's chosen inner state for good or ill. This is very reminiscent of the life review reported by so many of those who have undergone a near-death experience. My wife had one as a young girl. Swedenborg's presentation of judgment is of a divinely-instigated yet self-determined process within us, in which what links us with higher states of hearts and minds is separated from what acts as a barrier to such qualities. This process provides an immensely helpful and uplifting concept, contrasting sharply with any idea of a judgmental or vengeful God.

In this final book of the Bible we find a kaleidoscope of striking images: a dragon that sweeps the stars from the sky, a locust army with scorpion stings, a golden city of light, a tree with leaves that can heal the nations. These are word-pictures, frequently multi-layered and quite startling, especially in the way different images are combined. The visionary, who simply calls himself John, describes his experience of the risen Christ. This took place on the island of Patmos in the eastern Mediterranean around AD 81 – 96, probably during the reign of the persecuting Roman Emperor, Domitian.

This apocalyptic vision of the risen Christ still challenges its readers, centuries after John was told:

"Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this." Revelation 1:19

This last book also is a Biblical example of Jewish apocalyptic writing. The latter uses dramatic images and metaphor to describe the trials of the 'last times', so John describes himself as "a companion in tribulation" (Revelation 1:9). Apocalyptic writers encouraged their readers to see a time of struggle and hardship as a final bridge over which the Divine would lead them to a far better future. They encouraged 'the faithful', and by extension what is loving and faithful in us, to grasp that, through Divine intervention, all will end in triumph.

From the perspective of our individual spiritual development, we are being challenged to look more deeply at what needs to be overcome in us, even to re-examine the basis of our spiritual values. Ultimately, the purpose of all revelation is to encourage us to discover the true purpose of our existence through a fuller and deeper connection with its Divine source.

Please see the great work this group has created with pictures and short notes with each.
http://www.apocalypse-of-john.org.uk/list-of-pictures.htm

(Highlights are mine)

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Permalink Reply by Kernel John on December 4, 2011 at 11:43pm

Robert, it's difficult for you to imagine that "Revelations" was not written for you any more than it was for your great grandparents. People have been pointing to the book as evidence of the impending end-time for 1900 years now.

You can try to find fault with Bart Ehrman but a lot of serious people are listening to what he has to say because it is based on times tested scholarship. He's simply reporting what other scholars have known and written about in seminary schools for over 50 years now.

There was a time when Christians were told that the earth was at the centre of the universe. Right? There was a time when Christians were also taught that the bible was the inerrant word of God.

When faced with evidence that challenges your faith (underlying belief structures), you rebuke it. When I try to engage you in a discussion where logic and clear communication become common ground, you tell me that I cannot understand the meaning of the bible until I first become born again into the family of Christ or some blather like that. In other words, you say, only when I accept Jesus as my lord and savior can I then understand the bible like you do. Robert, that's like saying that only a woman doctor is capable of delivering a baby because men don't have babies. You thinking may not be as true or accurate as you think it to be. I know mine isn't. I am more than capable of understanding what you are saying. Because I don't agree with some of it, you rationalize that I disagree because I don't understand. Put otherwise, if I understood what you were saying, I would agree with you. I suggest, it is the points that I pose to you that make it difficult for you to respond in a clear (uncoded) manner.

As for your claim that Bart Ehrman is on the outside, I suspect you know nothing of his background or credentials. I suspect also that you are not interested in knowing who he is or what he has to say because it might threaten you insecurities. Above, I don't see you seriously address the issues he brings up. Rather, you prefer to criticize his credibility as an outsider - with you of course placing yourself on the inside. Typical.

Robert here's a link to a page I posted last August regarding Ehrman. You can either check it out and watch the 10 minute video or retreat into your familiar places.

MORE!

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