What do you think about REVELATIONS?

Misconception of this book : Revelations indirectly predicts the future of the world

On the 5th of June, we were glad to have Mr. Bruno(not Dr. or Fr. or Your Grace) to speak on the book of Revelations in the Bible. This is what he said in the opening of his lesson : "We'll focus on Chapter 12 and 13 of the book of Revelation because according to scholars, if we are to understand the whole idea of this book, we just have to understand the basics in Chapter 12 and 13"

Important points to note :
1. From Chapter 1 to 3, the book is addressed to 7 churches in Asia i.e. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea in that order.

2. Chapter 12 speaks about a vision of a woman in labour crying in the pangs of childbirth. There was a red dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns waiting to swallow the child that is to be born. War broke out in the heavens and Michael attacks the dragon and throws it down to Earth. A beast comes out from the sea and the dragon gives all its power to this beast. A second beast came out from the ground and forced the people to worship the first beast that came out from the sea.

3. The number on the beast - 666 - represents the name of a man.

According to Mr. Bruno, in order to understand Revelations and dispel the common misconceptions, we have to look at the historical backdrop of this book.

1. Emperor Nero(54ad to 68ad), in a politically motivated move to get Rome united(the Roman empire was at that time, a multi-cultural and multi-racial community), he declared Julius Caeser(an earlier emperor) as Lord and God and Roma as the goddess. He erected emblems and statues of JC and Roma. Citizens were expected to put their hands towards the chest and bow when see the emblem of JC and Roman.
Evidence of this can be seen in many remaining artefacts and a script from Tiberius, Emperor when Jesus was crucified, saying that he received a letter that Julius Ceasar was worshipeed as god.

2. The catholic community, however, didn't want to follow the law and persecution of Catholics were started by Nero - peter and paul was persecuted in 64ad

3. In 68ad, Rome went into crisis as 2 new emperors were assasinated, and 1 sacked in that year because they deemed him incompetent.

4. Vespacian(68ad to 79ad) became the emperor, and herealised that the policy of execution was flawed. He tabled a new law; it was compulsory to put to death anyone practising christianity or those who were protecting the Christians.

5. Titus, his son - took over for another 2 years. Persecutions carried on.

6. Titus was succeeded by his son, Domitian. Domitian realised that Nero's and Vespacian's policies had flopped. He pressured the christians to recognise the Roman emperor as god; and he declared persecutions that were opened to the whole Roman empire, not only in Rome.

7. During Domitian's reign (81ad-96ad), christians were thrown to lions. In nero's time, christians were burnt. Between these times, the churches went underground - thus, giving birth to the catacombs.

8. The book of revelations was written in 95ad. That was still during Domitian's reign.

With this in mind, Mr. Bruno put us into "misery" by asking us what all of these related to the book of Revelations.

1. dragon with 7 heads - the Dragon represented the roman empire, 7 heads to represent the 7 emperors who persecuted the catholics, from Nero to Domitian.(now, go count all the BOLDED emperors!)
However, modern scholars disagree on the 3 short-termed emperors who were either assasinated or sacked. Instead, they argue, the 7 emperos includes Julius Ceasar, Augustus Ceasar, and Caligula(earlier emperors)

2. red - violence and bloodshed in Hebrew

3. 10 horns - represents the senate who was helping the dragon to carry out persecutions

4. the number 7(for 7 heads) - 7 represents totality or completeness in hebrew, and it is represented with a head because the head is deemed very powerful and controls everyhthing of the body.

5. the woman in the vision - the church in Rome, also known as mother church

6. the first beast - julius ceasar as the first beast was demanded to be worshipped

7. the second beast - nero - who forced people to worship the first beast(julius ceasar)

8. the woman was crying in the vision - the author pictures the mother church crying and struggle, in the effort to spread Christianity during the times of the persecution when the Roman empire was strong

9. 7 churches in Asia - the author was attempting to ask these 7 churches not to give up, in times of hardship and oppression from the Roman emperor. Times were so hard that the 7 churches intended on giving up on the faith.

10. 666 - the name of emperor nero. In Hebrew, each letter is assigned with a numerical value. When the numerical value of Emperor Nero's name was added, it gives 666. The name in hebrew is "nun, resh, waw, nun - quoph, samech, resh"

Thus, the author actually thought that the future was upon his community. He also thought that the world was going to end in 95ad and Jesus was going to come and save the world from the Roman empire. With persecutions going on, he wrote to the churches in Asia to describe how the situation was in Rome.(though somewhat figuratively) Each element in the description is related to the actual situation in Rome.

Practical question :
Why was the book of Revelations placed at the end of the Bible?
- the Roman church at the time when the Bible was compiled had the impression that it signals the end of the world - transition between the critical and pre-critical period
However, the bible doesn't predict the end of the world. Modern studies have proven it, sadly, it has not reached the grassroots. (But in this website, for you readers, hopefully it has!)

With that in mind, as a closing, Mr. Bruno said that Revelations indeed does NOT predict the future. We should use it to predict the future anyhow, because if we do, we will wreck our lives. Imagine if you are still thinking the world will end soon .....