The Book of Revelation is the famous book in which John the Evangelist put everything he knew. In fact, the Book of Revelation, known as the Apocalypse, is very entertaining and mysterious. She draws attention to herself like a charming woman. Many people come up with all sorts of outlandish interpretations of the book in order to attract attention, thereby doing more harm than good. Their delusional explanations reflect their biases and arrogance more than their real ability to understand.
Many commentators who are obsessed with the Book of Revelation use it to support both covert and overt anti-Catholic views. Fundamentalists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses have long associated the famous Babylonian Harlot, the “mother of harlots” from Rev. 17: 5, with the Catholic Church. Even some Catholics use passages from the Book of John to create doomsday scenarios that are difficult to reconcile with church teaching. There are five most common misconceptions associated with the name of Jonah the Evangelist and his book.
The book of Revelation says that the end of the world will come in our time
Many fundamentalists, some evangelicals, and even Catholics believe that Revelation describes many events that are bound to happen soon, including a global nuclear catastrophe and the death of almost the entire population of the earth. For this type of people, the Apocalypse is just a big mystery that needs the right key to reveal all its dark secrets.
The Book of Revelation has provided food for pessimists ever since it was created on the island of Patmos. One such group was the Montanists, a heretic sect founded by the self-proclaimed prophet Montan in the 170s. After reading the book, they began to wait for the return of Christ, who would create a new Jerusalem.
In the 15th century, a sect of Taborites appeared, who began to kill everyone they considered sinners, and these were all those who did not join their movement. They were convinced that such violence was necessary in order to secure the Second Coming. Such movements were not uncommon in Europe in the 14-15th centuries.
From the late 1960s onward, books from the Bible Prophecy series began to appear, originating from American fundamentalism. The most famous works from this series to this day remain the books of the anti-Catholic fundamentalist Tim La Haye. He tries to convince readers that his books interpret the Book of Revelation.
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Attempts to interpret Jonah's vision in light of current events have resulted in some amusing predictions. The infamous number of the beast (Rev. 13:18) was associated with numbers on credit cards and on amusement park tickets. Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein, and Mikhail Gorbachev were called Antichrists (a term that is not even in the Apocalypse). And some argue that New Jerusalem will be like a huge cube thousands of miles in area, hovering above the ground like a UFO.
All of these interpretations are futuristic, that is, in other words, they assume that the Book of Revelation describes the events that will occur in our day. But this approach completely ignores the historical context in John's writing.
Christ will reign on earth for a millennium
The twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation is a vital message to all those who interpret the book futuristically. It contains only the description of the millennium in the New Testament. It cannot be said for sure that the author was referring to a literal period of a thousand years, and did not use a metaphor, talking about the period of time when Christ will rule.
Controversies on this matter arose even in the early Church. Some completely denied this interpretation of Revelation, while others put forward their own versions. So the Cistercian abbot, a certain Joachim, divided history into three eras, where each of the Holy Trinity was assigned its own time. The time of the Father is the Old Testament, the time of the Son is the New Testament, and the approach of the time of the Holy Spirit will become a time of millennial bliss.
Christ will rule from the city of Independence, Missouri, no, from Jerusalem, no, from the heavenly holy city …
The Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution rekindled a fever of anticipation of the millennium of Christ's kingdom, which has not subsided to this day. At that time, some Protestants believed that the papacy would last 1260 years, and in the late 1700s it was just coming to an end. These calculations were based on passages from Revelation 11: 1-3 and 12: 6, where each day was interpreted as a whole year. When Catholicism in France was destroyed by the French Revolution and French troops entered Rome in 1798, Millennialists linked these events to what was written at Revelation 13: 3.
This theory has long been a part of religious life in the United States. As a result, movements such as Mormons, Dispensationalists, the Watchtower Society, and Seventh-day Adventists have emerged.
Mormons believe that the Kingdom of Heaven will be located in Independence, Missouri. Dispensationalists are confident that Christ will rule from the newly restored Jerusalem. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that only 144 thousand people will go to heaven, and the rest will remain on earth, which will become paradise. Seventh-day Adventists claim that the earth will become a desert and only Satan and his angels will be on it, and then, at the end of the millennium, Christ will descend on earth with his saints and the Holy City will appear on earth.
The Babylonian harlot is a catholic church
Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other reformers agreed with Augustine's views on the end of the world, with only one difference: they viewed the papacy as the Antichrist and the Catholic Church as the Babylonian harlot.
Luther and subsequent Protestants interpreted the Book of Revelation using the historicist method, which is an attempt to match the various elements in the book with events in church history. The main idea of Protestant historicism is the belief that the papacy is the antichrist.
Some fundamentalists believe that since Rome is built on seven hills, the Catholic Church is a woman, who is also a city, who sits on the “seven mountains” (Rev. 17: 9), in other words, the Vatican is meant.
I will already be at peace when the Great Tribulation comes
The most influential American millennial movement is the premillennial dispensational movement. The Book of Revelation does say that Christians will be chosen on earth (Rev. 15:19), but this does not mean that they will be taken away before the Great Tribulation.
The book of Revelation is undoubtedly very complex and full of mysteries. But this is a deeply Catholic creation, revealing the essence of Christ, in which there are many liturgical and divine images.
And as John wrote in the book: “the time is near” (Rev. 1: 3). “Christ is eternal, he is the alpha and omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13).