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--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector-Apocalypse Now
Why the Book of Revelations is Must Reading
By GARY LEUPP
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, and the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all dressed for her husband.
Revelation 21:1-2
A Godsend for the Warmongers
In my naively believing childhood, when I eagerly devoured the whole Bible, acquiring in the process a love of stories (if not of history), I read the Book of Revelation, fascinated by its awe-inspiring imagery and promise of glorious punishment and reward at the end of the human record. I later learned that Martin Luther, puzzled and troubled by the work, doubted whether it should ever have been included in the New Testament. (Some might conclude from this that one can be a Christian while not accepting this particular text.) He could "in no way detect that the Holy Spirit had produced it."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
He also doubted whether the Epistle of St. James should be considered canonical, since it appears to challenge the doctrine of salvation by faith so central to Pauline theology. In the end he included both books in his German translation of the Bible. Had he omitted James, there would have been little impact on the subsequent Protestant movement, but had he jettisoned Revelation, the world might be rather different now. The book is more central to the beliefs of some churches than to others, but it has greatly affected the way many view current events. Sixteenth century Protestant preachers were sure that the Pope was the Antichrist, and descriptions of the Wars of Religion draw upon its apocalyptic imagery. Even today people draw upon it, as the War on Terrorism threatens to become a War of Religion. Some think Revelation 18:8-10, in which Babylon is doomed "within a single hour" and "burnt right up" refers to the 9-11 attack on New York.
Revelation is must reading nowadays, especially for the nonbeliever. I have returned to it, many years after abandoning the above-mentioned childhood faith, not because I think it is inspired prophecy, there being in my opinion no such thing, but because many other people (including many I'd grant are "good" people) think that it is. And because some of them think this piece of Holy Scripture somehow justifies ongoing imperialist war, which they (with their commander-in-chief) conceptualize religiously as a war of Good versus Evil. And because that conviction causes believers to support, on faith, Bush's efforts to remold the Middle East in the way the neocons (who are overwhelmingly not fundamentalist Christians, but who assiduously court them) want to do it. One should read Revelation to see how it can be used, and to see what sort of worldview the book encourages.
It is truly a godsend to those in the administration who want to transform the Muslim world, acquiring strategic control over Southwest Asia while enhancing Israel's security situation, that a considerable portion of the U.S. population consists of persons who take the book seriously. The neocons and patrons manipulate the Christian devout who adulate Ariel Sharon like a rock star, believe Israel (miraculously reconstituted half a century ago, in fulfillment of Ezekiel 37:12-14) can do no wrong, have little concern about Arabs' rights, and think Islam is a teaching of the Devil. Rev. Jerry Falwell calls the Prophet Muhammed a "terrorist." Rev. Franklin Graham calls Islam "a wicked, evil religion" and says its God is not the Christians' God. These reverends' followers are very useful supporters of the war on the human mind that is the "war on terrorism," the focus of which shifted so swiftly from al-Qaeda to Iraq (alike in little save their Muslimness), and could shift to Syria or Iran or Pakistan suddenly tomorrow. When you mix the anti-Islam pronouncements with Bush policy decisions and millenarian faith, you have an explosive combination.
Apocalypses
But fire will come down from heaven and consume them. Then the devil, who misled them, will be thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and false prophet are, and their torture will not stop, day or night, for ever and ever.
(20:10).
This ancient, mysterious Book of Revelation is itself incendiary. It's one example of a popular type of literature (apocalypse in Greek) which, using richly symbolic language encouraging multiple interpretations, reveals that which is hidden, including events in the future. There are many other examples of such works written between 300 BCE and 200 CE; Jewish ones include the Book of Enoch and the Apocalypse of Ezra, Christian ones include the Apocalypse of Paul and the Apocalypse of Peter. (For translations, see Willis Barnstone, ed., The Other Bible.) The Apocalypse of Peter was very popular in Rome as of the third century, but didn't make it into the Bible; at a synod at Rome in 382, the present canon of 27 New Testament books was fixed. The Apocalypse of Peter, and numerous gospels and letters, were denounced as "false" and often burned.
Authorities differ on the dating of Revelation, some favoring the late 60s (soon after Nero's persecution of the Christians), more favoring ca. 95 (after the dispersion of the Jews from Roman Palestine). It is of unknown authorship; although traditionally attributed to Jesus' disciple John, its language is so different from the Gospel of John and that of the three letters attributed to John in the New Testament, that most serious scholars doubt it was written by the apostle. Authored by a Jewish Christian who had spent time on Patmos (a tiny Aegean island used as a penal colony by the Romans), it expresses great rage at the Roman Empire, referred to here as "Babylon," the name of the empire that had conquered the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and dispersed their populations centuries earlier.
Biblical prophecy, a cousin of Zoroastrian and Buddhist and other prophecy, and harbinger of prophetic writing from Mani to Nostradamus to Jeanne Dixon, rests on the assumption that the future is pre-determined, as part of God's plan, and can be foretold by those whom God decides shall do so. Some biblical prophecy was in fact composed after the events the prophet is purported to have predicted; the Old Testament Book of Daniel, which predicts the fall of Babylon to the Persians, and Persia's fall to the Greeks, was written around 167 BCE after all these things had already happened. Unless it's demystified, prophecy is one of the spookiest and most powerful elements in religion, and can be deftly deployed to play upon fears and earnest expectations alike. James Warren Jones, architect of the Jonestown Massacre, convinced his followers that he was the Second Coming of Christ. Aum Shinrikyo guru Asahara Shoko could persuade very sophisticated, intelligent Japanese people to randomly gas others in the Tokyo subway by manipulating bits and pieces of Christian, Buddhist and Hindu prophecy about the end of the world. Far more sophisticated and well-funded religious leaders can draw upon faith in a foregone future to get people to abet that future's fulfillment---for example, by supporting administration actions in the Middle East believing they portend the Second Coming.
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