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Originally posted by BeyondAuthority
I've been study so called Christian history for years, and Arcane is dead on the ball. Perhaps if you dont want to be taken for a fool, maybe the doomsayers should do a little research outside the bible so they don't look so uneducated. I'm sorry but its the truth.
Originally posted by octotom
First, where do you get that the Apostle John was a madman and that the early church didn't want Revelation canonized?
John of Patmos wrote only Revelation, not the Gospel of John nor the Epistles of John. For one, the author of Revelation identifies himself as "John" several times, but the author of the Gospel of John never identifies himself directly. While both works liken Jesus to a lamb, they consistently use different words for lamb when referring to him — the Gospel uses amnos, Revelation uses arnion.
en.wikipedia.org...
The debate was actually over whether it should be Peter's or John's apocalyptic writing included in the Bible. The events mentioned in Revelation couldn't have happened in the author's era either because, well, it mentions over half the population of the Earth dying, larger natural disasters than ever, and Christ's return--which hasn't happened yet, but will soon.
The prostitute that's mentioned in verse 15 is the Anti-Christ's false religion
The beast is the Anti-Christ.
The later half of verse 16 says that the Anti-Christ will get rid of the false religion. When you look at other passages, it happens 3 1/2 years into the 7 year tribulation period. At this point the Anti-Christ says that he is God and forces the world to worship him alone.
Verse 17 is saying that God is giving this evil the ability to do what they want, yet it will end up fulfilling God's purpose for history.
The final verse, 18, is probably the HQ of the anti-Christ. If the EU is the revived Roman empire, it would be Brussels, as it's the capital of the EU and the AC comes from the EU block [the EU is rising to a place of very prominant position in the world today]. Or, it could be the head of the AC's false religion/HQ which could be Rome.
Originally posted by octotom
There is a mention of the Anti-Christ in Revelation.
Revelation 6:2 mentions a white horseman. This horseman appears to be like Christ but only appears to be righteous but is extremely wicked.
It appears as though the author was concerned about heretical teachers that had been influencing churches under his care. Such teachers were considered Antichrists (2.18-19) who had once been church leaders but whose teaching became heterodox. It appears that these teachers taught that Jesus Christ was a Spirit being without a body (4.2), that his death on the cross was not as an atonement for sins (1.7) and that they were no longer able to sin (1.8-10). It appears that John might have also been rebuking a Gnostic name Cyrinthus, who also denied the humanity of Christ.
en.wikipedia.org...
He appears to be the Messiah to trick the Jews. We can see that the beast is the Anti-Christ because the two are likened together in the book of Daniel.
Whenever you're interpreting Biblical apocalyptic literature you can't do it by itself. You have to interpret it along side other Biblical apocalyptic literature (ie Daniel and Ezekiel). Doing so allows you to see what the different symbols mean.
Also, if you believe that Revelation was already fulfilled, remember that most prophecy has an immediate and future fulfillment.