the us wanted to play this game

[Red Ships of Scalla-Festa]

trashcan, i totally sympathize with what your saying. i never took offence to it anyway, cause i made sure that i was prepared for backlash.

and to be honest, their is a side of me that wants to bomb the living shit out of anything in the middleeast for this, but i do know its wrong, and i can realize that my anger is only going after revenge not justice.

i also feel lost. but then i read revelations, and i think well...maybe were getting closer to the end of the book...

anyway, everything was totally cool, and im sorry if i came off to strong, i really didnt want to come across as being insensitive.

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-deathbear

 

[Trash Can]

"Revelation".

Oh boy. Funny how people have a hard time believing in God; believing in the unconditional forgiveness and love of God, yet jump on the Book of Revelation bandwagon with ease. We do like the scarey and self-punishing aspects of our life now don't we??

I'm not putting you down, deathbear. If your faith or Christian denomination asks you to believe that the Book of Revelation is prophecy and a look into our future, or better yet into our demise, then I must respect that.

I, as a Roman Catholic (American Roman Catholic, because the Vatican may not hold this view!)choose to follow my faith's belief that the Book of Revelation was a letter written by "John" in "code". It is our belief that John wanted to give his fellow Christians hope and strengthen this faith by sending out this letter while he was under arrest. In order for the Romans not to destroy this letter of "hope", he wrote it in such a way that the Romans would think of it as insane nonsense and leave it alone, yet the early Christians would recognize it as very symbolic and would "read between the lines".
That is what some scholars have professed, and that is what my church ( I mean the parish I attend) has taught me.

I ALWAYS look to the Gospels for re-assurance. I forget which Gospel it is, but Jesus assures us that we will NOT know when the time for His second coming will be. Only The Father knows it. Hmmmm... He may have said something about turmoil though.
I'd have to look it up...( How embarrassing :rolleyes

My point is, I try...TRY to have hope, and look to today and now, and not try to decifer a letter and guess when the end of times will be.

Peace.

------------------
My love for you
It's in the things I do and say
If I wanna live I gotta
Die to myself someday.
Surrender.

 

[Red Ships of Scalla-Festa]

well, i do not believe that the end times are all about guesses. beleive what you want to. but killing innocent lives, is something so uncool, and that is the main point. i was using revelations as an example to this thread, though i believe it.

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-deathbear

 

[melon]

The Biblical book of Revelation is a book in code, as all Christian texts would have been seized during the Roman Empire at the time. Much of the apocalyptic symbolism is about their anger toward the Roman emperors and their own oppression at the hands of them.

However, such things are universal and have repeated themselves time and time again. Even historians at the time understood this. Charlemagne's empire was seen as the second Roman Empire, and Russians saw themselves as the third Roman Empire in the 1500s. Destruction of these "empires" is also universal. The Roman Empire fell to Germanic tribes, the Byzantine Empire fell to Turks, Charlemagne's empire fell to Vikings, Imperial Russia fell to Communists, and it will go on forever. Even the United States, arguably the latest in lines of successive "Roman Empires," will fall someday, hopefully later rather than sooner. Likewise, while the book of Revelation was written to reflect the Roman Empire in code, it still has meaning today, perhaps best expressing the universality of "the end."

Just a random interpretation...

Melon

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How long must we sing this song?!

 

[80sU2isBest]

Melon, waht you wrote is entirely correct. There are many methods of interpreting the Book of Revelation, besides the "future" outlook.