Should Revelations be studied?

[LittleLambofJesus]

For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water. - 1 Kings 18:4

The spirit of Jezebel is to control, dominate, persecute, and to kill.
I tell you LLOJ, in earlier times we would be sitting in a dungeon somewhere with somekind of medieval torture device on our body, with a monk awaiting we to recant!

Thankfully, we are not living in those days

http://www.kingdombiblestudies.org/Revelation/rev46.htm
JEZEBEL

Rev 2:20
But I have against thee a few things:
That thou dost suffer the woman Jezebel, who is calling herself a prophetess, to teach and to lead astray, My bondservants to commit whoredom and idol-sacrifices to eat;

Thyatira is the fourth church, and in her we see the rise of the woman Jezebel. No such lady of that name is known except the wicked wife of Ahab, Israel’s worst king.
In the church at Thyatira we find that the spirit of Jezebel was alive and at work in the midst of the Lord’s people! Some of the believers in the church at Thyatira were in the JEZEBEL CONDITION!

There is one name in the Bible that no parents would think to give to their daughter, and that name is Jezebel. The name Jezebel sweeps across the pages of the Bible.
The typical Jezebel of the Old Testament was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre and Sidon. The name Ethbaal means “with Baal.”




.

 

[rockytopva]

Thankfully, we are not living in those days

Yea verily!

 

[rockytopva]

It is also said that the Thyaterians were known for their charity. I have many Catholic friends and there are also many good Catholics on this board. I also do all my power equipment business with a Rodney Smith, owner of the Blacksburg Power Equipment, who is Catholic.

But... I have family in northern Michigan who are very much still old school Catholic. I have a cousin who goes to one of those local Charismatic churches. One Sunday he decided to ask his Catholic dad, Uncle Frank, to go to church with him. Uncle Frank did not like the way they did communion and threw such a fit in the middle of service that everyone there will not soon forget the outburst!

 

[MoreCoffee]

Brother rockytopva, If you have some time (43 minutes) and the inclination to listen to a scholarly discussion about the Apocalypse then click the following link. I enjoyed listening to it:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/iotr/iotr_20030717-0900a.mp3​

 

[rockytopva]

Brother rockytopva, If you have some time (43 minutes) and the inclination to listen to a scholarly discussion about the Apocalypse then click the following link. I enjoyed listening to it:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/iotr/iotr_20030717-0900a.mp3​

I thank you my good friend and brother. I must say that I have not problems at all with today's Catholic church. If that is where you feel the Lord wants you that is a good place to be.

"A partnership with men in power is not safe."

I forgot where I got the above quote, but it is true. It is not good for a religious organization to get too big. They loose their humility. Proud and haughty, they loose their way.

"Success, which advances ego, can make you loose your way. " -Lao-Tzu

I am really sure that the seven churches unraveled in ages. I think the spirit of Jezebel is currently plaguing Islam... Which is a good place for it.

 

[NorrinRadd]

As Christians, and those anticipating the coming of our Lord, should it be of importance to the body of Christ to study and understand the last book of the bible?

There are many incorrect theories floating around about what Revelations teaches, this being the case, shouldn't the church have the best understanding (as good as possible that is) in regards to this book?

Even move, do you think that Revelations is important to salvation and our mission to preach the gospel?

I definitely believe we should study it closely enough to observe that the title is "Revelation," not "Revelations.

 

[MoreCoffee]

I thank you my good friend and brother. I must say that I have not problems at all with today's Catholic church. If that is where you feel the Lord wants you that is a good place to be.

"A partnership with men in power is not safe."

I forgot where I got the above quote, but it is true. It is not good for a religious organization to get too big. They loose their humility. Proud and haughty, they loose their way.

"Success, which advances ego, can make you loose your way. " -Lao-Tzu

I am really sure that the seven churches unraveled in ages. I think the spirit of Jezebel is currently plaguing Islam... Which is a good place for it.

In the early church there were two events that caused theological turmoil:

1. The first was Galerius' edict of toleration in 311 AD soon followed by the edict of Milan (313 AD) which legalised Christianity in the Roman empire, and
2. the second was the sack of the city of Rome on 24th of August 410 AD.

These events left Christians in a quandary because

1. First, with toleration and then legalisation, Christianity had to adjust its thinking and the ways in which its faith was expressed about the wicked rulers of this world who were instruments in a spiritual battle against Christ and his people (Revelation 12:4-6) to the new reality in which the Roman empire was more of a protector than a persecutor, and
2. second with the fall of the city of Rome the civil authority that had been depicted as a beast with seven heads required a theological reassessment because now it was the invading and fearful Visigoths who threatened the peace and security of Christians and the Roman authorities were missed since they could no longer protect Christians from the invading Visigoths.

That is why we find saint Augustine writing The City of God as a Christian reinterpretation of The Apocalypse that presented the disastrous event of the invasion as a spiritual illustration of the principles contained in the visions of the apocalypse. No longer was the physical city of Rome to be considered the beast but rather a city of human-power and human-wealth and human-pagan religion became the beast and the new Jerusalem became a spiritual city of God. Saint Augustine was not unjustified in making these connections and explaining the great tumult of his time as a partial and spiritual fulfilment of the terrible visions of judgement and destruction in the Apocalypse but he was also not following the pattern that had previously been accepted among Christian while they were under persecution by the Roman empire.

All things considered the reinterpretations we see offered from time to time by Christian teachers and christian revolutionaries is a revival of the kind of expectations that second century christians had about the coming destruction of worldly powers and the judgement of the wicked. Basically, The Apocalypse is about vengeance against the enemies of the faithful meted out by God and his armies of angels and about the final and glorious triumph of God and his redeemed people over the wicked.