About this Book of the Revelation of John, I leave everyone free to hold his own opinions. I would not have anyone bound to my opinion or judgment. I say what I feel. I miss more than one thing in this book, and it makes me consider it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic.(Original German; English translation)
First and foremost, the apostles do not deal with visions, but prophesy in clear and plain words, as do Peter and Paul, and Christ in the gospel. For it befits the apostolic office to speak clearly of Christ and his deeds, without images and visions. Moreover there is no prophet in the Old Testament, to say nothing of the New, who deals so exclusively with visions and images. For myself, I think it approximates the Fourth Book of Ezra; I can in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it.
Moreover he seems to me to be going much too far when he commends his own book so highly [Revelation 22]—indeed, more than any of the other sacred books do, though they are much more important—and threatens that if anyone takes away anything from it, God will take away from him, etc. Again, they are supposed to be blessed who keep what is written in this book; and yet no one knows what that is, to say nothing of keeping it. This is just the same as if we did not have the book at all. And there are many far better books available for us to keep.
Many of the fathers also rejected this book a long time ago; although St. Jerome, to be sure, refers to it in exalted terms and says that it is above all praise and that there are as many mysteries in it as words. Still, Jerome cannot prove this at all, and his praise at numerous places is too generous.
Finally, let everyone think of it as his own spirit leads him. My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christ is neither taught nor known in it. But to teach Christ, this is the thing which an apostle is bound above all else to do; as Christ says in Acts 1[:8], “You shall be my witnesses.” Therefore I stick to the books which present Christ to me clearly and purely.
Are there any that are enjoyable to read, if one isn't a Christian? I love the idea of the Left Behind books, but don't want to read them. Just books like them. But better.The ones that would be interesting to a mass market are thematically indistinguishable from your traditional disaster epics or Zombie Apocalypse stories: the arc revolves around a sudden, catastrophic event and a progression of terrible things happening until the day is saved. The problem is that there isn't a lot of incentive for anyone to write a book like that in the "Rapture Fiction" genre without also stuffing the story full of pet theology like a narrative thanksgiving turkey.
"Now thou shalt go at last to Gondolin, Turgon, . . . and I will maintain my power. . . so that none shall. . . any more find there the hidden entrance against thy will. Longest of all the reals of the Eldalie shall Gondolin stand against Melkor. But love not too well the work of thy hands and the devices of thy heart; and remember that the true hope of the Noldor lieth in the West and cometh from the Sea."*Similar It seems pretty clear that Tolkien was working out his eschatology, among other things, in his mythos, channeling passages like the following:
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. . . .That's from Jeremiah 29, of all places,** but it hardly describes the attitude of someone who thinks that we shouldn't care about the world we live in because it's all going to burn anyway. I think you'll find that a lot of thoughtful Christians have a conflicted attitude towards this present age, but it's one that encompasses a love for the world and the people in it, even as it recognizes that the eschaton, however conceived, is where true hope lies. It's a balancing act, a truth within tension, and as is so common in other areas of theology, Christians frequently err by falling off one side or the other. For every Christian that has completely forgotten the love of the world, there's one that's completely forgotten the need for heaven.
. . .For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. . . . I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
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posted by Devils Rancher at 6:48 AM on October 12, 2010 [24 favorites]