The Book of Revelation is perhaps one of most discussed book of the Bible. Does it foretell the future?
There are many people that believe that the Book of Revelation predicts the future. That it foretells the end times. That it lays the groundwork for what is to come, and how to ensure your place in heaven.
What most don't take into consideration is the context in which and the style with which it was written. When taken these two into consideration, it becomes not a book that predicts impending doom and destruction of the world as we know it, but a book that provides a timeless source of inspiration and motivation to keep your thoughts focused on what is good and worthy, despite whether or not you even subscribe to any major religion or whether or not you believe in God at all.
The context in which it was writing was during the first century AD. Christianity was growing, but was still being heavily persecuted by the Romans. Christianity wouldn’t accepted as the official religion of the Roman Empire for another two hundreds years. As such, they were looked up as rebels who threatened the authority of Roman rule. So Christians were subsequently captured and punished, sometimes horribly so. It was these people that were being killed for their beliefs hat the book of Revelation was directed to. But in order to avoid detection, and avoid tipping off the Romans to it's real purpose, it was written in an obscure style.
This style it was written is called Apocalyptic Style. Filled with rich metaphors and end times imagery, this style was popular from about 200 BC to about 200AD and was likely seen as some fringe writings by the Romans and not taken too seriously. The book of Daniel is another book that is written heavily in the Apocalyptic style. Fully seventy five percent of the imagery and symbolic descriptions in the Book of Revelation are literally copied directly from the Book of Daniel.
So what is the message to the persecuted Christians in the first century? It is a beautiful on of hope:
Hang in there. You are on the right path. Even though you are being persecuted for your beliefs, things will turn out ok. Even though you are powerfully outnumbered by a government that wants to capture and kill every last one of you, don't worry. By holding fast to your beliefs that you know to be true , you will succeed.
A powerful message indeed to any people, in any time, under any repressive government.
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