THE MOST EMBARRASSING BOOK IN THE BIBLE

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Book of Revelation

Really, read all of Deuteronomy 28 and tell me that whoever wrote that was not severely mentally damaged. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.

For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

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Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. It's a fantastic way to keep the people obedient and giving their money to their betters. Thanks for checking out the blog and C. Many Christians would not agree that this is the most embarrassing verse of Scripture and a lot of us would not agree with how Lewis reconciles it with the verse that says no one knows when Christ will return.

To be honest, though, I don't see much difficulty with the verses you quote. To be sure taking a single verse out of its context can often be shocking. Order a copy Copyright or permission restrictions may apply. We will contact you if necessary. To learn more about Copies Direct watch this short online video. How do I find a book? Can I borrow this item? Can I get a copy? Can I view this online? Similar Items What is a family? Members of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Maori communities are advised that this catalogue contains names and images of deceased people.

Christian Gnostics "believed in the Forgiveness of Sins, but in no vicarious sacrifice for sin James Morgan Pryse was an esoteric gnostic who saw Revelation as a western version of the Hindu theory of the Chakra. He began his work, "The purpose of this book is to show that the Apocalypse is a manual of spiritual development and not, as conventionally interpreted, a cryptic history or prophecy.

But Christopher Rowland argues: The presence of the threads which stubbornly refuse to be incorporated into the neat tapestry of our world-view does not usually totally undermine that view. The Book of Mormon states that John the Apostle is the author of Revelation and that he was foreordained by God to write it. Doctrine and Covenants , section 77, postulates answers to specific questions regarding the symbolism contained in the Book of Revelation.

This interpretation, which has found expression among both Catholic and Protestant theologians, considers the liturgical worship, particularly the Easter rites, of early Christianity as background and context for understanding the Book of Revelation's structure and significance. The Mass as Heaven on Earth , in which he states that Revelation in form is structured after creation, fall, judgment and redemption. Those who hold this view say that the Temple's destruction AD 70 had a profound effect on the Jewish people, not only in Jerusalem but among the Greek-speaking Jews of the Mediterranean.

They believe the Book of Revelation provides insight into the early Eucharist, saying that it is the new Temple worship in the New Heaven and Earth. The idea of the Eucharist as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet is also explored by British Methodist Geoffrey Wainwright in his book Eucharist and Eschatology Oxford University Press, According to Pope Benedict XVI some of the images of Revelation should be understood in the context of the dramatic suffering and persecution of the churches of Asia in the 1st century.

Accordingly, the Book of Revelation should not be read as an enigmatic warning, but as an encouraging vision of Christ's definitive victory over evil. The radical discipleship interpretation asserts that the Book of Revelation is best understood as a handbook for radical discipleship; i. In this interpretation the primary agenda of the book is to expose as impostors the worldly powers that seek to oppose the ways of God and God's Kingdom. Adventists maintain a historicist interpretation of the Bible's predictions of the apocalypse.

Seventh-day Adventists believe the Book of Revelation is especially relevant to believers in the days preceding the second coming of Jesus Christ. Many literary writers and theorists have contributed to a wide range of theories about the origins and purpose of the Book of Revelation. Some of these writers have no connection with established Christian faiths but, nevertheless, found in Revelation a source of inspiration. Revelation has been approached from Hindu philosophy and Jewish Midrash. Others have pointed to aspects of composition which have been ignored such as the similarities of prophetic inspiration to modern poetic inspiration, or the parallels with Greek drama.

In recent years, theories have arisen which concentrate upon how readers and texts interact to create meaning and which are less interested in what the original author intended. His lasting contribution has been to show how much more meaningful prophets, such as the scribe of Revelation, are when treated as poets first and foremost. He thought this was a point often lost sight of because most English bibles render everything in prose.

Had he done so, he would have had to use their Hebrew poetry whereas he wanted to write his own. Torrey insisted Revelation had originally been written in Aramaic. This was why the surviving Greek translation was written in such a strange idiom. It was a literal translation that had to comply with the warning at Revelation According to Torrey, the story is that "The Fourth Gospel was brought to Ephesus by a Christian fugitive from Palestine soon after the middle of the first century.

It was written in Aramaic. Subsequently, this John was banished by Nero and died on Patmos after writing Revelation. Torrey argued that until AD 80, when Christians were expelled from the synagogues, [82] the Christian message was always first heard in the synagogue and, for cultural reasons, the evangelist would have spoken in Aramaic, else "he would have had no hearing. Christina Rossetti was a Victorian poet who believed the sensual excitement of the natural world found its meaningful purpose in death and in God.

In her view, what Revelation has to teach is patience. The relevance of John's visions [89] belongs to Christians of all times as a continuous present meditation. Such matters are eternal and outside of normal human reckoning. Winter that returns not to spring Recently, aesthetic and literary modes of interpretation have developed, which focus on Revelation as a work of art and imagination, viewing the imagery as symbolic depictions of timeless truths and the victory of good over evil.

Vision of a Just World from the viewpoint of rhetoric. John's book is a vision of a just world, not a vengeful threat of world-destruction. Her view that Revelation's message is not gender-based has caused dissent. She says we are to look behind the symbols rather than make a fetish out of them. In contrast, Tina Pippin states that John writes " horror literature " and "the misogyny which underlies the narrative is extreme.

Lawrence took an opposing, pessimistic view of Revelation in the final book he wrote, Apocalypse. Instead, he wanted to champion a public-spirited individualism which he identified with the historical Jesus supplemented by an ill-defined cosmic consciousness against its two natural enemies.

One of these he called "the sovereignty of the intellect" [96] which he saw in a technology-based totalitarian society. The other enemy he styled "vulgarity" [97] and that was what he found in Revelation. And nowhere does this happen so splendiferously than in Revelation. His specific aesthetic objections to Revelation were that its imagery was unnatural and that phrases like "the wrath of the Lamb" were "ridiculous.

In the first, there was a scheme of cosmic renewal in "great Chaldean sky-spaces", which he quite liked. After that, Lawrence thought, the book became preoccupied with the birth of the baby messiah and "flamboyant hate and simple lust Modern biblical scholarship attempts to understand Revelation in its 1st-century historical context within the genre of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature.

Under this interpretation, assertions that "the time is near" are to be taken literally by those communities. Consequently, the work is viewed as a warning to not conform to contemporary Greco-Roman society which John "unveils" as beastly, demonic, and subject to divine judgment. Although the acceptance of Revelation into the canon has from the beginning been controversial, it has been essentially similar to the career of other texts. Scholar Barbara Whitlock pointed out a similarity between the consistent destruction of thirds depicted in the Book of Revelation a third of mankind by plagues of fire, smoke, and brimstone, a third of the trees and green grass, a third of the sea creatures and a third of the ships at sea, etc.

A Zoroastrian influence is completely plausible". Much of Revelation employs ancient sources, primarily but not exclusively from the Old Testament.

For example, Howard-Brook and Gwyther [] regard the Book of Enoch 1 Enoch as an equally significant but contextually different source. There is an angel ascending in both accounts 1 En Academics showed little interest in this topic until recently.

For example, an anonymous Scottish commentary of [] prefaces Revelation 4 with the Little Apocalypse of Mark 13, places Malachi 4: The message is that everything in Revelation will happen in its previously appointed time. Steve Moyise [] uses the index of the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament to show that "Revelation contains more Old Testament allusions than any other New Testament book, but it does not record a single quotation.

Revelation concentrates on Isaiah, Psalms, and Ezekiel, while neglecting, comparatively speaking, the books of the Pentateuch that are the dominant sources for other New Testament writers. Methodological objections have been made to this course as each allusion may not have an equal significance. To counter this, G.

Beale sought to develop a system that distinguished 'clear', 'probable', and 'possible' allusions. A clear allusion is one with almost the same wording as its source, the same general meaning, and which could not reasonably have been drawn from elsewhere.

A probable allusion contains an idea which is uniquely traceable to its source. Possible allusions are described as mere echoes of their putative sources. Yet, with Revelation, the problems might be judged more fundamental.

from “The World’s Last Night,” Excerpt 4 of 7

The author seems to be using his sources in a completely different way to the originals. For example, he borrows the 'new temple' imagery of Ezekiel 40—48 but uses it to describe a New Jerusalem which, quite pointedly, no longer needs a temple because it is God's dwelling. Ian Boxall [] writes that Revelation "is no montage of biblical quotations that is not John's way but a wealth of allusions and evocations rewoven into something new and creative.

He sets out a comparative table listing the chapters of Revelation in sequence and linking most of them to the structurally corresponding chapter in Ezekiel. The interesting point is that the order is not the same. John, on this theory, rearranges Ezekiel to suit his own purposes.

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