Meditation 644
The End, Revisited
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The same day that Shirley sent in her brief comments on one of my earlier Meditations on end-times, I got an e-mail containing the following nonsense:[1][2]
Please, view this special 'MOVIE CLIP' & and advice others.
AFTER the INTRODUCTORY page, a special 4 minute movie clip, entitled: END TIME SCENARIO , can found ON THE HOME page of www.pasgom.org,
Please, it is important that you view this movie CLIP and ponder over the message, and if you like it transmit to others like; friends, relations, group members etc.
As the message suggests, one of the things promoted on the advertised web site[3] is End Times. Of course the message is that End Times are coming, and coming soon. That's no different that what those calling for the imminent arrival of the Christian version of The End have been predicting for nearly 2000 years. And they have been completely wrong for nearly 2000 years.
Let's go to the source; The Revelation to John. (which Christian theologians think was either written in about 65-69 AD or 95-100 AD) We won't bother with the body of this book which is capable of almost any interpretation, but just the first few verses of Chapter 1, those verses in which the author was still writing lucidly and in which it is possible to see what he was trying to communicate:
- This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John,
- who testified to God’s word, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.
- Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand.
If you want to view Revelation as a prophecy of End Times and the Second Coming (a point which many Christian theologians dispute,) then there is no doubt that the author saw it occurring in the immediate future. This was an event that the members of the seven churches in Asia to whom his letter was addressed could expect to see in the very near future; in their lifetimes. It would happen soon, not in the distant future. The events "must happen soon" "for the time is at hand." To interpret this as anything other than in the immediate future is to render the words meaningless. The "soon" of the writer is long past.
By the opening verses of The Revelation to John, we can see that it is failed prophecy. If the events prophesied are to be interpreted as End Times, they did not happen as prophesied. Anyone who uses The Revelation to John to threaten us with the coming end of the world just has not read and comprehended the only understandable passages[4] in the text.
Footnotes:
- Sent by someone so cowardly in his faith, he used a false e-mail address even though he is the site owner.
- Edited only to remove the bold typeface face the sender used to emphasize how important the message was. As if the underlining and CAPS were not enough!
- Even for a Christian web site, this one is extraordinary for its incompetent design.
- OK - it is a bit of an exaggeration to suggest that only Verses 1-1 through 1-3 are clear and understandable. Verse 22-6 and 7, and 22-10, in the final chapter clearly convey precisely the same message.