Revelation Poll for diehards

[HitRed]

In Texas we have a lot of Bible Beaters (Evangelicals) and they have a lot of ideas on how the world will end. These are just a few. Being Catholic most of these phrases were unfamiliar to me.

[DoomYoshi]

So there are four main interpretive schools for Revelation.
Historical - Revelation consists mainly in symbolic writings about current events when the book was written (such as Rev 19:9 - the harlot who sits on 7 hills referring to Rome); this also includes the Preterist view which suggests that the events foretold in Revelation have already happened
Idealist - Revelation consists mainly of universal themes and symbols which can be applied in every time or place
Futurist - Revelation consists mainly of predictions about coming events

The "millenialists" are from the fourth school. What is curious is the assertion that in a book full of symbolism and allegory, the thousand year reign is taken to be literal. That isn't to say it's an incorrect interpretation - it just must be defended more than with Bible beating.

[2dimes]

I think the rapture, if it is a thing, may have happened before the dark ages, the righteous departing and the start of the great apostasy might have caused said dark ages. Makes some sense, "There will be two workers in the field, one gathered to the clouds..." The way Yeshua spoke about things like, "the time is short." And he asked someone something like, "What is it to you if I come back to collect that person before they die?" Those things that the rapture folks like to talk about don't sound like things that were going to wait 2000 years.

I believe no modern church is carrying on from the originals. It partially explains why the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not the same as the ones recorded.

When the early church folk spoke in tongues it was not gibberish to everyone, people understood it even though they spoke a different language to other people present who also understood it. Yes some present said it was because the speaker was drunk but the important part being over looked was people understanding what was being said. Drunk guys don't start babbling and people who speak different languages suddenly understand them.

Some preachers have famously pretended to heal people by touch and have caused many to assume the records of that to be an exaggeration or out right myths.

Tribulation? That is different from things like early church members being sawn in half alive for not denying their faith? That level of torture, sounds a bit like tribulation to me.

Then again, I suppose this is a good spot to say, "Time will tell." Or, "God only knows." People running churches often don't seem to.