I spend a lot of time managing fear and anger – not my own, but the fear and anger that people project into me. One of the principal reasons for writing The Soul Comes First was to deal with the Book of Revelation, which contains murky and frightening imagery that allows psychopaths to manipulate victims by linking fear to the promise of redemption that emanates from the Cross.
An example of the consequences of such manipulation is organized criminality in the guise of religion, where “leaders” of inspirational movements demand that their “flock” emulate the early church, surrendering their worldly assets for management by the “community.” You can be assured that those at the top live in luxury, while the “flock” scrapes by in poverty.
So, while I would love for people to read the book, let me summarize the main points regarding Revelation. The most important is that John’s experience of the angelic realm should be interpreted as the experience of someone following links on Wikipedia. The flow of events is not strictly linear, and John tends to emphasize events on Earth that are sometimes tangential.
- The seals were opened billions of years ago. The six symbols seen by John are not manifestations of God’s glory, but manifestations of selfishness: domination, infestation, opportunism, death, vengeance and fury. They are released onto the Earth so that their captives can work themselves free through the process of living.
- The 144,000 were spirits gathered (billions of years ago) not from the tribes of Israel themselves but from the angels that became the patrons of the tribes of Israel. The are sent down to Earth to facilitate the liberation of the captives.
- The trumpets correspond powerfully with the facts that paleontology has revealed regarding the great extinction episodes over the last billion years.
- The Age of Man does not begin until the angel stands with one foot on the shore and one in the sea.
- The beast with the number ‘666’ represents the spiritual collective that arose on the sixth day of creation, which is not Man, but the mammals.
- The bowls represent the consequences of our exploitation of the resources that we were told to harvest. Those consequences are coming to full force right now in the modern age.
One of the great and marvelous consequences of the love that emanates from God is that it empowers us to grasp the truth, and moreover to move with confidence and determination to respond to the demands it makes upon our compassion.
Please share this with anyone that you know to have been trapped in fear through manipulation of the teachings of the Book of Revelation.
everdeepening 
Again, we might say that the seven seals prophesy the fist seven teams in the baseball standings with as much reason from the text. He told us to preach the gospel throughout the world, and then the end would come. He also told us many would come in his name falsely.
Try not to be too angry or afraid, but again, it is possible to question our own hypotheses, the assumptions that these opinions are based on. The guy who said the world would end on a certain date, 1848 or 2012, based this on an assumption, or even a few of them, had certainty, and it was false. There is a calculation in Daniel, but we do not know what date to begin with, and are continually surprised by how these things pan out. The Jews called Essenes thought the end times were when the lowly messiah came, not when he returns, because they could not imagine it, and disbelieve him to this day because they do not believe that the messiah will be killed, but that he will rule the world from Jerusalem. Maimonides and the Essenes may be the best readers of the Old testament ever, and they know Hebrew. Still, we think they are wrong.
I’m still guessing that these thought do not come from you, but from Mormonism or scientology. They told you are involved in the “work” and have the heart of Christ, and you are not allowed to question this. I will be surprised if you thought these things up for yourself.
I am not forbidden to read any book, and want to read yours. The Jahovah’s witnesses have taught me a lot, but I must say I take offense at their interpretation of the 144,000. It does not even say they are a special aristoi, but rather, 12,000 from each of twelve tribes. By the way, did the heart of Jesus notice that one of tribes is missing from the list?
We are Socratic and Jeffersonian Christians, as independent of any Church as Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island.
So, why was Mary Magdalene the first to whom the risen Christ is revealed? I do believe that his heart knows this, and that he loved her, and did not sleep with her, as the vulgar da Vinci’s teach
As I ask the Baptists, if you want a religion of law, why not obey the Pope? and if they want a religion of law, why not become jews? He is not a legislator, but the savior!
You seek to categorize me with the structures imposed by the mind. I do not adhere to any of those structures that purport to reveal “truth”, because I seek to become a new truth. As one involved in creative co-creation with reality, what is “true” is not nearly as important to me as what is possible.
Ok. Why read scripture at all, then?
Because it speaks to me and informs my journey. I do not deny scripture – I simply interpret it through an experience that has been at times dangerous, exhausting and sorrowful. Obviously you find my interpretation to be scandalous and frightening. I am not responsible for that reaction. I demand nothing of you. But I also will not bow down to the conventions of human interpretation unless the speaker is able to do the things described of the Apostles in Acts. Their conduct and powers were evidence of their surrender to Christ.