And that's a rap - the end of everything begins
A sceptical
Bible reading – Revelation –
introduction
Of all of the
Bible books I wish to deconstruct, Revelation is highest on my list. It’s vivid
imagery; symbolism and sheer amount of colourful action, and its complexity
make it the Bible’s greatest and most enigmatic work. None of that necessarily
makes it true of course.
The Bible certainly knows how to end on a note of
spectacle, and this graphic, often terrifying vision of the end of the World
offers some of the greatest horror story writing in print. Many horror movies
draw on elements from it, taken grossly out of context, most notably The Omen
movies where the Devil incarnate, Damien Thorn literally carries the Number 666
on his head. The real contextual significance of the number will be revealed in
these essays.
Fully and
correctly titled The Revelation Of St. John The
Divine, and sometimes as The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, and the book is
sometimes called The Apocalypse,
which actually just means Revelation, or simply, as I use here, it is called
Revelation. Many commentators, including practicing Christians often
erroneously add an S and make it say ‘Revelations’, but the story is presented
to John in a single streaming, rolling very graphic prophetic revelation.
John is believed by some scholars to be the same apostle
chap who wrote the Gospel attributed to John, and several epistles. Several
other commentators, including myself, dispute this though, as the writing style
and attitude are very different. This author was probably not one and the same
man as the Gospel’s John.
Typically, Old Testament visions came directly from God or
through angels. John receives his directly from Christ (God again of course,
but in his human incarnation). It involves a time travel journey to Heaven
where John gets a ringside seat on the destruction of our planet, though he will be given
a significant task of his own in the course of the proceedings. His vision
comes at the price of participation.
Arthur Chappell
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
LINK
TO THIS PAGE http://arthurchappell.me.uk/bible-revelation-an.introduction.htm
E-mail arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk
LINKS TO MY OTHER PAGES.
LINKS
TO OTHER PEOPLES PAGES UPDATES MYSPACE - http://www.myspace.com/arthurchappell
FACEBOOK - http://www.facebook.com/arthur.chappell
FACEBOOK BLOG http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blogpage.php?blogid=85623
FACEBOOK FAN PAGE http://www.facebook.com/pages/ARTHUR-CHAPPELLS-WRITING-POETRY-MODELLING-PHOTOGRAPHY-FAN-PAGE/366778907731?ref=mf
MY BOOKS - http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=952521
MY FLIXYA PHOTO PAGES http://www.flixya.com/user/arthurchappell
MY TWITTER
PAGE - http://twitter.com/arthurchappell
PHOTOS OF ME
& GENERAL
PHOTOGRAPHS
MY WOOPHY
PHOTO SHARING PAGE - http://www.woophy.com/member/Arthur+Chappell
MY FLICKR PAGE http://www.flickr.com/photos/arthurchappell/
MY MODEL
MAYHEM PAGE http://www.modelmayhem.com/arthurchappell
MY MODEL
URL WEB PAGE http://modelurl.com/arthurchappell
BOOK
REVIEWS AND ABSTRACTS - http://www.shvoong.com/writers/arthurchappell/
MY SHARE
A LINK PHOTO PAGES http://www.shareapic.net/user/arthurchappell
Shetoldme – Website summaries portal – many reviews of my pages - http://shetoldme.com/referral/7368b651
YOUGOV SURVEY
PAGES - http://my.yougov.com/go.aspx?id=83d4324b-e38d-4022-af7d-44ee3ab4f4c9