Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Manhunter analysis - part 14: The biblical book of Revelation

CATEGORY: MOVIES

In the previous post, we observed that Lecktor's book code refers to the biblical book of Revelation. Here in this post, we will look at a general description of the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation, also called the Revelation of St. John, the Apocalypse of John, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is the last book of the Christian bible's New Testament. It is the only biblical book that is wholly composed of apocalyptic literature. Apocalypse is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the majority of humankind. Today the term is often used to refer to the end of the world; this is the topic of the book of Revelation.

Revelation is divided into seven cycles of events. The number seven appears frequently as a symbol within the text. The chapters of Revelation present a series of events, full of imagery and metaphor which detail the chronology of God's judgement on the world. Exact interpretations of the chronology of Revelation vary extensively. The work may be interpreted literally, as a chronological list of events that will occur as the time of Revelation grows near. At the same time, the imagery can be seen to contain symbolic commentaries on the world during the historical period in which Revelation was written, or "pre-commentaries" on our world today.

The futurist view of the book of Revelation assigns all or most of the prophecy to the future, shortly before the second coming; especially when interpreted in conjunction with Daniel, Isaiah 2:11-22, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-5:11, and other eschatological sections of the bible. Futurist interpretations generally predict a resurrection of the dead and a rapture of the living, wherein all true Christians and those who have not reached an age of accountability are gathered to Christ at the time God's kingdom comes on Earth. They also believe a tribulation will occur - a seven year period of time when believers will experience worldwide persecution and martyrdom, and be purified and strengthened by it. Futurists differ on when believers will be raptured, but there are three primary views: 1) before the tribulation; 2) near or at the midpoint of the tribulation; or 3) at the end of the tribulation.

The various views on tribulation are actually a subset of theological interpretations on the Millennium, mentioned in Revelation 20. There are three main interpretations: Premillennialism, Amillennialism, and Postmillennialism. Premillennialism believes that Christ will return to the Earth, bind Satan, and reign for a literal thousand years on Earth with Jerusalem as his capital. Thus Christ returns before ("pre-") the thousand years mentioned in chapter 20. Amillennialism, the traditional view for Roman Catholicism, believes that the thousand years mentioned are not a literal thousand years, but is figurative for what is now the church age, usually, the time between Christ's first ascension and second coming. This view is often associated with Augustine of Hippo.[a] In Postmillennialism, Christ's second coming is seen as occurring after the one-thousand years.


a. Wikipedia, 'Book of Revelation'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Revelation.


      





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