 | Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com. |
Religion
2010-04-01 12:04:00
Book of Revelation...is it relevant today?
Answer: The Book of Revelation was written by St. John to advise and console the early Christians, who were suffering terrible persecutions under the pagan Roman emperors Titus and Domitian and Trajan, as well as other persecutors of the Church before and after those rulers. The Apostle was concerned to encourage his converts to persevere in their faith in Jesus, Who is coming soon. As a visionary, he is writing outside the order of time, peering into eternity, where "soon" can mean proximate or well beyond our lifetime. Every generation of Christians, especially in our own times, can identify with the first and second and third generations of Christians, who suffered loss of property and exile and imprisonment and various tortures and cruel deaths, simply because they were Christians at a time when our religion was proscribed by the Roman imperial authorities. Just as Jesus had to suffer all kinds of indignities leading to his death by crucifixion, so his members throughout all time have been afflicted with similar and other sufferings, some of which are described in the Book of Revelation. The sufferings of Jesus’ members are only for a short time, until they are taken to their eternal happiness in heaven, which John attempts to describe. Also the terrible fates awaiting those whose crimes cry out to heaven for vengeance, eternal suffering in hell, are also vividly described in Revelation. We ought not seek in Revelation particular events in time; but rather a view of eternity. St. John did not intend to write a datebook or to predict specific events of the future. He attempts to describe some of the qualities of eternal happiness awaiting those who are persecuted and suffer unjustly by the devil and his servants. But John attempts to describe also some of the types of punishment awaiting their persecutors and all evildoers, who have freely chosen to rebel and fight against God. Those readers of Revelation, who attempt to apply particular scenes to current events, are generally mistaken in their specific interpretation. Each of those scenes in the Book of Revelation, describing the joys of heaven prepared for God’s people; and the punishments of the wicked, who choose to oppose God; apply to persons living in every century and every place. The saints and martyrs of our times are included among those who are singing and rejoicing around the throne of God and the Lamb of God. Evil men and women, like emperors Nero and Caligula as well as Hitler and Stalin and unrepentant thieves and rapists and murderers, are included among those who are destined to be thrown in the lake of fire to suffer for all eternity. Understand therefore that the Book of Revelation is not a timetable of happenings in the past, or prophecies about specific future events! Inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, it was intended, like all of Holy Scripture, to teach us how to live this life in a manner pleasing to God, and what to expect if we choose to ignore God and to do evil.
