Understanding The Book of Revelation (Villegas Religion 13)

Understanding the Book of Revelation is the third and final book in the series about the conflict between Paul and Domitian over Paul's version of Christianity which is found in the gospels. My goal is to elaborate on the story hidden between the lines of the Pastorals (Coded Messages in the Pastorals) , the sealed letters of Revelation (The Seven Letters of Revelation - A Radical Interpretation) and this book (Understanding the Book of Revelation) . My goal with this last commentary is to finish the study, and, of primary importance, to demystify the Book of Revelation. Toward this goal, I seek to show that it was written by humans and not by gods, that it is a description of past events and not a prophesy for the future. I will show that the ideology of the Book of Revelation is a continuation of religious themes that were "in the air" of the AD 90s city of Ephesus and the other six cities mentioned in Revelation. These themes were derived from various sources that we will identify and do not represent, in the whole, an innovation created by the spiritual Jesus Christ as we have come to know him. The Book of Revelation, especially, is not about a coming World War or a coming cosmic destruction. Yet, the apocalyptic nature of Revelation causes people nightmares and distorts human perception and psychology. It establishes a cosmological framework fraught with demons, dragons, angels and sundry other creatures which have nothing to do with the real world. I want to help people understand that Revelation was written by a man who had his own internal demons, not by a god or even by Jesus. I'd like to explain that Revelation was not a prophesy of future days but a nightmare description of genocidal human sacrifice, a horrific event that has been lost to history.