The acceptance of the book of Revelation {ecumenical}

During the 1st century CE, Judaism was composed of about 24 separate religious groups. Some of these were the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, various groups within the Christian movement, followers of John the Baptist, etc. One which had a strong political agenda was the Zealot party. The Zealots taught that a military-political Messiah would soon appear, as prophesized in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). He would conquer the world, and rule for a thousand years from Jerusalem.

This concept of millennialism was promoted during the second century CE, by Montanus, a recent convert to Christianity. He prophesized that the New Jerusalem would shortly descend out of the clouds and land in a town called Phrygia. He set a date for the event, thus becoming one of the first Christians to predict when the end of the world would occur. His teachings were rejected by the rest of the Church. At the Synod of Iconium in 230 CE all baptisms performed by the Montanus sect were declared invalid. The Council of Constantinople in 380 CE went further, and declared millennialism to be a heresy.

the Church was slow to accept Revelation as scripture. Origen, an early Christian theologian, used the term antilegomena to describe those books -- including Hebrews, James 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation -- whose inclusion in the official canon of the Bible was actively disputed. In the fourth century CE, when the canon of the Bible was assembled from among the approximately 50 gospels and hundreds of epistles then in use by the Christian movement, Revelation was only reluctantly included. To this day, Orthodox churches do not use Revelation for scripture readings during worship.

Martin Luther downgraded the significance of Revelation. It portrays God as inflicting horrendous punishments on humanity -- a concept that is today sometimes called "Ambush Theology." Luther concluded that he could not readily harmonize the God described in Revelation with the God to whom Jesus prayed to as Abba. When Luther translated the Bible into the German language, he downgraded Revelation by relegating it to an appendix.

Read this.

The Founder of Rome

The founder and first king of Rome was Romulus. The Roman Empire was named after him. His name, the name of a man, also is the name of the kingdom. And every citizen in the kingdom bears the same name -- a Roman.

When John wrote this Revelation, telling us to count the number of the beast, he wrote in the Greek language. Consequently, we should look for this name, and the number 666, in this language recognized in the Bible, not in the Latin.

We are all familiar with the Roman numerals, where letters are used for numbers. All understand that I is 1, V is 5, X is 10, etc. But many do not know that the Greek language, in which the book of Revelation was written, also uses letters for numbers.

In the Greek, the language in which Revelation was written, this name was understood in the second century A.D. to have originally been spelled Lateinos. It signifies "Latin man" or "the name of Latium," from which region the Romans derived their origin and their language. This word, too, signifies "Roman." In the Greek, L is 30, A is 1, T is 300, E is 5, I is 10, N is 50, O is 70, S is 200. Count these figures. They count to exactly 666!

It is indeed no coincidence that the name of the kingdom, its founder and first king, and of each man in the kingdom, counts to exactly 666!

Certainly the beast stands identified!

And Mussolini, Too

But the same numbers also branded in Latin on the man who dominated the puny sixth head of the symbolic beast.

Mussolini called himself "Il Duce." Italians shouted "Viva Il Duce!" which means "long live the chief." Everywhere in Italy was the printed sign, "vv il duce." The "VV" is the abbreviation used for "Viva." A "V" is used instead of the "U" as is very commonly done. While this is a greeting, or title, Mussolini actually employed "Il Duce" as a name. It is in Latin. Count it.

V is 5, V is 5, I is 1, L is 50, D is 500, V is 5, C is 100, E has no number. Now count them, and you have exactly 666!

Thus this number 666 is indelibly branded upon the Roman Empire!

But, some will ask, does not this number apply to the Pope? Some teach "the words 'Vicarius Filii Dei' are on the Pope's triple crown." The Pope does, on some occasions, wear a triple crown, but these words are not on it! We should be careful to prove all things.

Furthermore, these words are in the Latin, not a Bible language. This is not a name, but a title, and it is the name of the beast, and the number of the name of the man of the beast we are told to count. Further, this Latin title does not apply to a kingdom, or empire, but alone to a man.

And so the number 666 is branded on the Roman Empire, on the founder and first king of the Latins, on every Roman, and even on Mussolini.

Could anything be more conclusive?

the name of Latium,DIV

Dude! Your Catholic right! Yet you dont know what your talking about yet you want to teach others? and express your opinions. You couldnt even mention Sennarcherib and Nebuchadnazzar from the bible when it was appropriate to me. These times in Catholic Prophecy: Bible and Catholic saints prophecy agree that these times are whats known as the little chastisement, although we wont consider it little, with the Big chastisement being the second coming.

Try reading some of the below,all of which carry book reviews by me:
http://www.amazon.com/Trial-Tribulation-Triumph-Before-Antichrist/dp/1882972732/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Power-Glory-Catholic-Church/dp/0761516042/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Soon-Unlocking-Revelation-Applying/dp/193101826X/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

http://www.amazon.com/Prophets-Times-Rev-Gerald-Culleton/dp/0895550504/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

http://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Prophecy-The-Coming-Chastisement/dp/0895550156/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

http://www.amazon.com/Warning-West-Aleksandr-Solzhenitsyn/dp/0374513341/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

Please I dont wish any further correspondance nor do I wish to further enlighten you. 9 times out of 10 my comments are addressed to ‘none’, I addressed mine to your name the article poster, my mistake.
Reading is the path: The Bible, Prophecy and History. Good day.

“WISDOM’ is a reference to Solomon(Solomon was renowned for and prayed for wisdom)”

Our pastor last Sunday did a brief description of Revelation.

He described it as truth being told using fantasy. “This would make SUCH a GREAT movie!” He talked about how one word would have evoked a thousand words in the mind of the Hebrew reader. The DRAGON (satan, sin, evil, etc.) Red (blood, covenant, temple sacrifice, Jesus’ sacrifice, the prostitute’s red sash, the blood on the doors during Exodus, etc.)

He said in the 22 books of Revelation their are 250 references to the Old Testament.

And just as the prophets of the OT, some of it is interpretation of current events (when it was written) and also of future events. I was surprised to learn a few weeks ago that the OT prophets spent most of their time (and words) on describing and interpreting current events. Not as much time spent on foretelling of events in the future.

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