12/2/13
The Book of Revelation
By John of Patmos
What really hard things are happening in this text? Are these things happening in the world now? Where?
I continued my further dig into the bible after watching a Sunday morning television block, and it was on the approaching end of the world. I forget who was giving the sermon, but I felt very startled about what the man said, and what he said made sense.
The bad things John is shown is the opening of the seven seals, but I will only talk about the first four (only ones I understand). The openings of the first four seals by Jesus Christ unleash the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, who are released when man faces the end of the world. (Remember, Jesus isn't a bad person, but in order to return again, the seals must be broken.) The four horseman are War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. Each given their own crown and sword to rule humanity over. These horseman plunge humankind as we know it into oblivion, and will kill off 1/4 of the population. This is known as the period of tribulation, where god will test the might of men, and punish all of those who have sinned against him.
What I read in Revelation 1-13 talked about these figures and plenty more about crazy scary stuff, but I began to wonder if we are already facing the tribulation? I am not some crazy person, but we could be facing the tribulation right now.
War. The first horseman doesn't only represent actual war, but corrupt leadership. We see this in many places around the war. I may not be able to name a war, but I can describe the revolts and uprising happening around the world, especially in the middle east.Not to mention corrupt global leaders who do little for their people.
Famine. We see that in many places in the world, natural disasters leave people with not only little food, but with little resources. The Hurricane in the Philippines (called Typhoon there) left many Poole with little.
Pestilence. We see that with the latest pandemic state of H1N1, that there are many different pathogens that are becoming increasingly difficult to contain and cure. There are now rising super bugs that can't be treated at all.
Death. Death represents lots of things in the bible than actual death. This is the hardest one to pinpoint. We see the with all of the above happening in the world, many people are dying. I just hope we don't see actual increase in deaths.
There's a lot of crazy things going on, but will we be able to beat these horseman if we stand together as one, as we were supposed to?
I think this is a really easy book to connect to the real world, and you did a good job of it. You chose good supporting details to follow the issues you chose. I also like how you finished your essay with a thought provoking question. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI like how you organized your topics and then talked about your thoughts. I also liked how you talked about symbols in the book, for example the horseman. Your ending sentence was very strong. Good job!!
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