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This is the cop-out that every heterodox religious group ever uses to make scripture fit their doctrine. What I call SPAM-Fig i.e. symbolic, poetic, allegory, metaphor, figurative anything but literal.
There is an old adage for Bible interpretation "If the plain sense makes good sense, it is nonsense to seek any other sense."
What about stiff-necked, hard-hearted people, blind sons of hell devouring widow's houses, whited sepulchres and broods of vipers?
What about the son of man, bread from heaven, blood of the Lamb?
I hope that kindles a fire within you der Alte.
Please show me any verse, anywhere which says "the fire of God's passion and zeal that results in repentance because it reveals His righteousness."
Are you kidding der Alte? Do you really just read every text atomistically, completely unrelated to what came before or goeth after?
LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them. (Isa 26:11, KJV)
O LORD, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it. They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame; Indeed, fire will devour Your enemies. (NASB)
A bit of difference as to the devouree in these translations. Still, this is a very apposite verse for this discussion methinks.
Let me explain why all this is nonsense. Rev. was written to former pagan Christians in what is modern day Turkey, Where apropos of nothing they have just converted a 1000+ year church into a mosque.
When they heard/read Rev. would the former pagans in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadephia and Laodicea understand "the fire of God's passion and zeal that results in repentance because it reveals His righteousness." or would they understand it exactly as written?
I think we both know the answer to that.
I don't think either of us know the answer. But I'd hope they'd read it in the spirit in which it was written, and with the idiom of the time. Revelation is apocalyptic literature, the sci-fi of its day. But it subverts the genre, by turning the destructive elements into a restorative purpose. You have to 'get it', rather than dryly interpreting it with a scholar's eye. Get carried up by it, man!
Here is another thought. John was a Jew from Israel, Jewish idioms would be much different than Ephesian etc. idioms.
That's right. Here we have Greek language but full of Hebraic idiom, replete with OT allusions. No wonder ppl so often get the tiger by the tail. If in doubt, just remember the bedrock principles: it's God - Jesus - good news!
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