July 29, 2008

Biblical Apocalypse

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.”

That is the first line of the Book of Revelations; the final book in the New Testament, a book that describes the biblical end of the world.

KU Religious studies professor Timothy Miller says the book is attributed to Saint John, and it is thought to have been written toward the end of the first century. The book is full of coded messages because during the Roman Empire under Emperor Domitian Christians were terribly persecuted.

The Book of Revelation predicts great sufferings at the end of the world, he says. The true Christians will survive the suffering and will be ready for paradise. Some predict it as the end of the world, and it almost works as a textbook describing the end of the world, Miller says.

The book is packed wall-to-wall with symbols, images and metaphors; he says It’s visual writing, so it all has to be interpreted, Miller says.

“You can make it say almost anything you want it to,” he says.

The phrase “the end of the world” can mean different things to different people. Some might think it’s the destruction of the human race, and some may think it means the destruction of the planet earth. Either way you differentiate the meaning of the phrase “the end of the world,” everybody is interested in it.