Do you think Revelations is enigmatic?

[Evang.Benincasa]

Originally Posted by Amanah

everyone sees Rome as being the beast
* first century saints see Imperial Rome
* Reformation saints see The Roman Church
* most people today see a revived empire.

it seems like figuring this out is key.

First century church was persecuted by the Judean religion they were once a part of. The Apostle Paul was protected by his status in Imperial Rome. Because he was by his name Paulos part of an Empirical Roman Patrician family as Yohanna Marcus was. Could be one of the reasons they were at odds with each other. Mystery Babylon had the blood of the prophets and the saints. We tend to see saints ONLY as church members. The saints here are OTs, not just NTs.

Keep in mind that the Reformation (like ex-Apostolic Pentecostals) had axes to grind. Reformation wanted to fit the Roman Catholic Church into the book of Revelation. You will find this throughout church history, any enemy of any group gets wedged into the book of Revelation. Obama lost his antichrist position and Donald Trump had to pick up the baton. Interpreting the book of Revelation through current events have been happening since the day one of Revelation's publishing.

People today? See it as the revived Roman Empire? You mean like Mussolini? People today wouldn't know what a revived Roman Empire would look like. Sir John Bagot Glubb's book Fate of Empires is a good explanations of any world empire. Nebuchadnezzar's image wasn't an outline of empires since Babylon. Because then the image is missing empires who rose and fell since Babylon. The empires of the image had one thing in common. They all held power over Judea through occupation. Until you get to feet which has the potters clay baked with Roman Iron. Only time we see that going on is when the religious Judeans threaten a Roman official with "If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar." Which is complete with the Judean priestcraft leadership proclamation of "We have no king but Caesar,"

You have to keep this in its Judaic confines, and stop dragging it over to Mom's apple pie, baseball, and Chevrolet. It was written to an ancient people for their situations, which they understood better then we. It was written to them, and it benefits us now.

The flaming sword has been removed and we have access to Eden.