Click here to watch the full video
This is a weird video that went viral on the Internet a few years ago.
The video shows that it was recorded in 2006,
The title is "Real Falling Angels Captured by Camera".
A hunchbacked, thin, skeleton-like creature appears in the final seconds of the video.
I don't know how people feel when they see this video.
My first impression was, regardless of the authenticity of the video,
But you call this thing "angels"?! That's inhumane.
The angels we remember are such elegant and holy images,
Or in a white robe with swan wings,
Or with a glittering aura on your head, or a sword of Cupid in your hand, like a cute baby.
How can this ghost thing in the video also be called an angel?
With this question in mind, I went to look up some information about angels.
The result is not known, and when I check it, I am shocked, and the real angel is not what we imagine it to be.
In Luke 1, the New Testament,
Zechariah, the righteous priest, prayed to God to have a child with his wife.
When one of the angels of the Lord appeared to Zechariah, Zechariah was terrified,
The angel said to Zechariah, "Do not be afraid, the Lord has heard your prayer."
In Luke 2, on the night of Jesus' birth, the angel sent a message to the shepherds sleeping in the wilderness.
The shepherd was also very frightened when he saw the angel, and the angel said to the shepherd
"Don't be afraid, I have come to tell you the good news, your Savior is born."
Why is it that when an angel appears, the first words he says to people are always "Don't be afraid, child"?
The New Testament book of Revelation prophesied that when the Last Judgment came, the Savior would save the world.
But have you ever thought that the end times may have been initiated by God?
And it is the angels who serve God who blow the trumpet of doom?
Today we will talk about the true face of the angel,
and the truth about the "Last Judgment," which is largely misunderstood.
Heavenly order theory
The word angel comes from the Greek word angelos, meaning "messenger," which is, to put it bluntly, God's messenger.
In the early Middle Ages, there was a Middle Eastern scholar who was obsessed with the study of angels, named Dionysius.
He wrote a book, De Coelesti Hierarchia.
The angels in the Bible are divided into three levels and nine classes.
Since a Greek official named Dionysius appears in the New Testament book of Acts,
Therefore, some early Christians regarded the writings of this Middle Eastern scholar as documents written by biblical figures.
Hold the Heavenly Order Theory as a credible external text.
6th century, 64th Roman Catholic Pope,
Gregory I. in Commentaries on the Gospels
（Gregory’s Homilies on the Gospel (593)）中写道：
"Those who take angels as examples will approach the realm of God."
This phrase later evolved into the "angelic imitation theory", which is equivalent to the church's recognition of the "Heavenly Order Theory".
But after the 16th century, the church underwent massive reforms,
It is stipulated that believers can only worship the Lord of the Trinity, not angels, who are only messengers of the Lord.
After that, the theory of angelic three levels and nine ranks was gradually watered down by the church.
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992,
The Theory of the Heavenly Order was judged to be the work of pseudo-Dunicius, and the concept of the Heavenly Order completely withdrew from the stage of history.
But this does not prevent many people from using this book to know the angels of the Bible.
In the Heavenly Order Theory, angels are graded as: upper three, middle three, and lower three.
The upper three levels are also called the "sacred class", and the middle three levels are also called the "sub-class";
The lower three levels are also called the "class of the Holy Spirit."
In each level, angels are divided into three classes, and the higher the level, the more incredible the angel is.
It is worth mentioning the seven archangels we know:
Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Carmel, Raphael, Jophael, and Sakil actually belong to the lower three levels,
Because of this, they are also relatively good-looking.
Today we will focus on talking about the highest level of the upper three angels,
These include the Blazing Angel Seraphim, the Wise Angel Cherubim, and the Seat Angel Ophanim III.
In Isaiah 6 of the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord's appearance.
I saw the Lord sitting on a high throne, his robe hanging down to cover the temple.
Above the Lord stands Seraph,
Each seraphim has six wings, two to cover the face, two to cover the feet, and two to fly;
Crying out to one another, "Holy! Holy! Holy! Jehovah Almighty; His glory fills the earth!
Seraph is the blazing angel, also known as the six-winged angel,
It can communicate directly with God and is a spirit of pure light and thinking.
Its duty is to fly around God every day, singing hymns day and night to praise God.
The red flame around the body is the symbol of the blazing angel,
In the Middle Ages, some churches believed that the blazing angel burned,
It is because they fully understand God's love,
So I felt joy, and this joy was too high, and I burned myself.
It is worth playing that the fiery angel, although known in various religious texts as God's most faithful servant,
But there are also several traitors among the blazing angels,
The most famous is the fallen angel Lucifer.
According to legend, Lucifer refused to surrender to Christ the Son,
Lead one-third of the angels of the heavenly realm to raise the anti-flag in the northern realm of the heavenly realm,
Lucifer was later known as the greatest Satanic king in hell.
In addition to the prophet Isaiah, another prophet, Ezekiel, also described the strange appearance of angels.
When Ezekiel was 30 years old, he saw a vision by the Gabaru River.
It was also in that year that he was called to be called a prophet.
The first chapter of the Old Testament book of Ezekiel reads:
A fierce wind blew from the north, and then a large cloud of sparkling fire appeared, and four living creatures appeared in the cloud.
Ezekiel apparently didn't know that the creatures were angels at first, so he called them living creatures.
Each of these living creatures has four faces and four wings.
The front is the human face, the left side is the cow's face, the right side is the lion face, and the back is the eagle face.
Under the wings there are human hands, legs are straight, and the soles of the feet are like the hooves of a calf.
The wings of the four living creatures meet one after the other, and they walk without turning around, and go straight forward.
This is actually the wise angel, also known as cherubim.
The most obvious physical feature of the wise angel is that it has four heads.
Above the ark of the covenant, the holy relic of the Israelites, sits two wise angels.
In the Old Testament book of Genesis, the guardian of the Garden of Eden,
And later the angel cherubim who drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden were wise.
In addition to the wise angel, Ezekiel also saw an angel,
This should be the most indescribable of all the angels.
The angel described in the first chapter of Ezekiel looks like,
The image of the wheel set the wheel, the color of the wheel is like water and jade.
The rim is covered with eyes, symbolizing the angel's ability to see all things.
Angels generally appear together with God, fiery angels, and wise angels,
Wherever God and other angels go, the angels follow, a bit like God's private car.
The angels have all looked like this, no wonder when they appear before humans,
The first words spoken are "Child, don't be afraid."
In addition to not being very friendly and kind in appearance, angels are also cruel in punishing humans.
In the Old Testament book of Exodus, chapter 12 says that one night on Passover,
The angel of the Jehovah sent to destroy him, and in one night he killed the eldest son of all Egyptians,
From Egyptian princes to prisoners' sons, none was spared.
In 2 Samuel 24 of the Old Testament, it is recorded that
The Lord ordered angels to bring down the plague in Israel, which lasted for three days and destroyed seventy thousand people.
When the angel was ready to reach out and destroy Jerusalem, the Lord had mercy,
Then he said to the Angel of Destruction, "Enough, stop!"
But these are just the appetizers, and the lethality of the angels in the Last Judgment is called the destruction of the heavens and the earth.
The Last Judgment
The book of Revelation is the last book of the New Testament, written by John,
It describes the doomsday vision that John saw and predicted the future fate of mankind.
Revelation 1:9 implies,
John was imprisoned on the Aegean island of Patmos at the time of the book of Revelation.
It was a place where the Roman Empire used to exile prisoners.
Traditionally, the Christian church considers John, the author of Revelation, to be John of the Twelve Apostles,
He was the beloved disciple of Jesus and the author of the Gospel of John.
But in modern times, many Bible scholars have a different view on this.
They believe that John, the author of the Gospels,
John of Patmos, the author of Revelation, and John the Apostle, may have been three different people,
Because the three books of John, 3 John, and Revelation are very different in style, content, and theme, and do not seem to be written by the same person.
No matter how the experts fight, we just need to know one thing.
The person who receives and communicates God's end-time revelation claims to be John.
Let me take a look at how this doomsday judgment happened.
One day, John on the island of Patmos suddenly heard someone calling his name,
He turned around and saw seven golden menorahs, in the middle of which stood Jesus the Son of Man.
He changed his kind and kind appearance in the past, and he appeared to be extremely intimidating.
Wearing a robe that hangs to his feet, his eyes are like flames, and he holds seven stars in his right hand,
A double-edged sword came out of his mouth, and his face shone like a scorching sun.
The double-edged sword that Jesus spit out was used to attack and punish demons in subsequent judgments.
Jesus asked John to write a letter to the 7 churches in Asia about the vision he saw.
John did so, and John was then taken to heaven.
There, he saw a one surrounded by a rainbow,
A throne of lightning and thunder stood, on which the Lord God sits.
There are also twenty-four seats around the throne on which sits 24 elders.
God Jehovah and the elders have four living creatures,
The first has a lion's head, the second has a calf's head,
The third has a human-like face, and the fourth looks like a flying eagle.
Each of the four living creatures has six wings, and the whole body is covered with eyes, singing day and night:
"Holy Ah! Holy! Holy! Lord, God, Almighty, the One who was, is and will come!"
Most church people believe that these four living creatures should be fiery angels.
Because they have the six wings of the Blazing Angel's signature and they sing hymns non-stop.
John also saw that the Lord God was holding a scroll in his right hand,
Writing was written inside and out, and the scroll was sealed by seven seals.
Then before the throne, a lamb appeared,
The lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, covered in blood, as if it had just been killed.
The Lamb stepped forward and took the scroll from God's hand.
This lamb symbolizes the crucified Jesus, also known as the "Lamb of the Lord."
The Lamb opened the seven seals on the scroll.
When the first seal is opened, a white horse knight with a bow appears, representing the "plague".
When the second seal is opened, a knight of the Red Horse with a large knife appears, representing "war".
When the third seal is opened, a black knight with a scale appears, representing "famine".
When the fourth seal was opened, a knight on a gray-green horse came empty-handed, symbolizing death.
With the arrival of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a quarter of the people on earth were killed.
Fortunately, when the fifth seal was opened, the greater disaster did not happen.
John saw only the martyred souls crying out under the altar
"Holy and true Lord! If you don't judge us and get justice for us, how long will you have to wait?"
The Lord gave each of the martyrs a white robe, which meant that they would be allowed to enter heaven.
And reassured them that they would have to wait a little longer until the number of martyrs killed was satisfied.
Yes, you heard it right, God has not yet initiated the Last Judgment because the number of martyrs is not enough...
Then, when the sixth seal was opened, disaster returned.
Earthquakes occur, the sun turns black, the moon turns bloody, and the stars keep falling to the ground.
As if the heavens had been split, and all the kings, ministers, officers, powerful men and women of the earth,
And the slaves hid in caves and among the rocks.
When the seventh seal was opened, the disaster temporarily stopped, and there was a half-hour silence in the sky.
But don't think that the apocalypse is over, and an even greater catastrophe is brewing.
John saw seven angels appear before God, and they were given seven trumpets.
The first angel blew the trumpet, flames mixed with hail were scattered on the ground, and a third of the earth was burned.
The second angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sea turned into blood,
One-third of life at sea died, and one-third of ships were destroyed.
The third angel blew the trumpet, and a burning star called "Absinthe" fell from the sky,
One-third of the earth's rivers and other water sources became absinthe, and many people died of contaminated water.
The fourth angel blew the trumpet, a third of the sun,
One-third of the moon and one-third of the stars were destroyed.
One-third of the day is without light and one-third of the night is without stars.
The fifth angel blew the trumpet, and a bottomless pit on the ground was opened,
Black smoke came out of the pit, and a large number of locusts swept with the black smoke.
These locusts have long human faces and long hair, and teeth as sharp as lions,
On the chest there is a chest armor, and the sound of flaring wings is like the sound of a chariot,
The tail resembles a scorpion, with a stinger.
The locusts were ordered to torture humans for 5 months, but not to harm the vegetation on the ground.
Nor can it hurt God's followers who have been imprinted on their foreheads.
The sixth angel blew the trumpet, and the four messengers who had been bound to the Euphrates River were released.
These four messengers were prepared for this calamity,
They will kill a third of the earth's humans.
Remember that the appearance of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse just now had wiped out a quarter of the people on the earth?
Coupled with this wave of four messengers who were released, more than half of the human race was annihilated.
Reading this, I am a little messy, how I feel that angels are more lethal than demons.
The seventh angel blew the horn, and just as when the seventh seal was opened, the catastrophe was pressed the pause button.
The 24 elders threw their faces on the ground and worshiped God.
There was a loud noise in the sky,
"The kingdom of the world already belongs to our Lord and His Christ;
He will reign forever and ever!"
Then a woman dressed in the sun, on the moon, and with a crown of twelve stars on her head appeared.
The woman became pregnant and cried out in the throes of labor and the torment of childbirth.
The call attracted a fiery red dragon with seven heads and ten horns,
The dragon waited there, trying to eat the woman's child after she gave birth.
This woman is actually the Virgin Mary, and the child she is carrying is Jesus Christ.
As soon as the woman gave birth, the child was brought up to God and God's throne.
The woman also fled to a wilderness where God had prepared for her to be safe.
Then Michael the archangel defeated the dragon.
The dragon symbolizes the Satanic Demon King and fallen angel Lucifer.
The dragon fell from the sky, but before dying, put his power,
The throne and power were given to a beast in the sea.
This sea beast looks like a leopard, but has seven heads and a mouth like the mouth of a lion.
One of the seven heads was mortally wounded, but miraculously healed.
The people of the earth were amazed, they once worshipped the dragon,
The dragon gave authority to the beast of the sea, and the people worshipped the beast,
Say, "Who can compare with this beast?" Who can fight it?"
At the same time, a beast appeared on the earth, resembling the Lamb of God,
But a closer look reveals that the lamb has only two horns and speaks like a dragon.
It symbolizes the Antichrist.
The Antichrist constantly deceives the people of the earth, speaks blasphemous words, and forces people to believe in the beast of the sea.
All who have followed the Antichrist and the beast of the sea,
The right hand or forehead will be branded with the 666 beast seal.
As more and more people on earth joined the demonic camp, so did the wrath of God.
Just now we said that the world has experienced seven seals,
The calamity of the seven horns has now ushered in seven golden bowls.
The four living creatures before the throne, that is, the four fiery angels,
He gave the seven golden bowls to the seven low-level angels,
The bowl was filled with the wrath of God, which were the seven plagues.
The first golden bowl was poured to the ground,
Those with animal marks on their right hands or foreheads began to have poisonous sores.
The second golden bowl was poured into the sea, and all the creatures in the sea died.
The third golden bowl was poured over the river and all the water sources, and the water turned bloody.
The fourth golden bowl was poured on the sun, and the sun began to burn the people on the ground with flames.
The fifth angel poured the golden bowl in his hand on the throne of the beast,
The kingdom ruled by the beast immediately became dark,
The worshippers of the beast cut off their tongues in pain.
The sixth angel poured the golden bowl in his hand over the Euphrates, and the river dried up.
Then all the kings of the world were summoned to a place called "Armageddon."
This is where good and evil will have their final showdown.
The seventh golden bowl was poured into the air, and an unprecedented earthquake struck,
The cities of the nations collapsed, and all the islands and mountains disappeared.
Large hailstones in 40 kilograms fell from the sky and fell on people.
Then one of the seven angels with the bowl came and said to John,
"Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who sits on the waters."
The waters here refer to the "doctrine of the devil."
As for the great whore, some Bible scholars believe that it symbolizes the Roman Empire that persecuted Christians.
But others believe that the Great Whore refers to other religions built on numerous Satanic doctrines,
These religions worship idols, advocate temple prostitutes, indulge in drinking and revelry, and glorify false gods.
Engage in all kinds of obscene and ugly deeds, and even sacrifice people to people.
The book of Revelation says that the great whore had a mysterious name "Babylon the Great" written on her forehead.
John saw an angel descend from heaven,
Crying out in a powerful voice, "Collapse!" Babylon the Great fell!"
Then, another voice came from the sky,
He said, "She will be burned in the fire, for the One who judges her is strong."
The kings of the earth who have been in arse and adultery with the great adulteress,
When he saw the great whore being burned, he beat his chest and wept, and stood far away and said:
"Woe to you! Woe to you! The mighty city, the mighty city of Babylon! In an instant, your judgment will come!"
When we talked about the history of Christianity earlier, we mentioned that in 586 BC,
The Neo-Babylonian Empire invaded the southern kingdom of Judah,
The Jews experienced their first annihilation.
The temple was destroyed, and the people were forced into exile in Babylon for decades, known as the "prisoner of Babylon."
As we all know, Christianity originated in Judaism, so Christians did not have any affection for the city of Babylon.
But in 539 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was destroyed by the Persian Empire.
By the 2nd century BC, under the relentless cleansing of the years,
Billowing yellow sand buried the former glorious city of Babylon.
The New Testament of the Bible was written between 50 AD and 100 A.D.
The city of Babylon was long gone, so biblical scholars agree that
The "city of Babylon" in the book of Revelation actually refers to the city of Rome.
The end of Babylon is described in Revelation chapter 18:
A powerful angel took a stone like a large millstone and threw it into the sea,
He said, "The great city of Babylon will be thrown down like this, and it will never be found again!"
This actually conveys the attitude of Christians towards the Roman Empire at that time.
Then, in Revelation 19, Jesus Christ appears on a white horse.
His eyes were like flames, he wore many crowns on his head, and a sharp sword came out of his mouth.
This echoes the image of the Lord Jesus that John sees in Revelation 1.
Jesus struck the nations with the sword of his mouth, and the army of the beast was completely defeated.
The demon king Satan was locked up in a bottomless pit and bound for a thousand years.
Jesus resurrected those who were martyred and those who did not have the seal of the beast on their heads.
During these 1,000 years, Jesus Christ led people through a period of happiness and peace.
Time is fleeting, 1,000 years will soon be over, and Satan will be released from prison.
At this point, the final judgment finally came.
The beasts, the false Christs, and the false prophets were all thrown alive into the lake of burning fire,
There they were tortured day and night, forever.
The dead rose from the sea and the underworld to line up before the throne of God to be judged.
God's judgment is based on the book of life,
It says what each person's behavior did during his or her lifetime, and it also determines where everyone goes after the trial.
The climax of the book of Revelation comes in chapters 21 and 22 at the end,
After the Last Judgment, those who do good and believe in Christ usher in a new world.
They were taken to the new holy city, the New Jerusalem.
Whoever is unclean, who does abominations and falsehoods, cannot enter the new holy city,
Only those whose names are recorded in the book of life by the lamb may enter.
It was a cube building with a length, width and height of 2,200 kilometers.
The cornerstone of the city wall is decorated with various gemstones, and there is a river called "Life Water" in the city.
The river is as bright as crystal, and its source is the throne of God and the Lamb.
On both sides of the river there are trees of life, which bear different fruits every month, and the leaves of which heal all nations.
There are no more births, old ages, sickness and death in the city, no night, and no need for lights,
For God's light will illuminate the whole city forever and ever.
That's all for the whole book of Revelation.
Although in the end ushered in a beautiful happy ending,
But I don't know if you have any doubts in your hearts after listening to it.
Why are the images of angels in the Bible so hideous? Why is the mark of the beast seal 666?
Seven seals, seven horns, seven golden bowls, and seven heads of the fiery red dragon and the beast of the sea,
Why does the number 7 appear repeatedly?
Now, let's step out of the Christian perspective.
From a historical and literary point of view, try to restore the truth behind the Last Judgment.
The truth behind the trial
Many people say that the book of Revelation is the most puzzling book in the New Testament.
The Lamb, the adulteress, the dragon, the beast of the sea, the beast of the earth, the whole book is full of all kinds of inexplicable visions.
To understand the specific meaning behind these intentions, let's first look at the background in which the book of Revelation was written.
There are currently two mainstream opinions about when the Book of Revelation was written:
One thought was in the Roman Emperor Nero
It was written during the first persecution of Christians during his reign, circa 68-69 AD;
Another view is that it was in the last years of the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian
Written during the Second Persecution of Christianity, around 94-96 AD.
Regardless of the view, one thing is certain,
When the book of Revelation was written, Christians were not having a good time in the Roman Empire.
In the previous video, we talked about it,
Christianity originated in Palestine under the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD,
What began as oppressed religions, in the first three centuries of the spread of the Roman Empire, was filled with tragic traces of blood and tears.
Beginning with the first public persecution of Christians by Emperor Nero of the Roman Empire in 64 AD,
By 313 AD, Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan, recognizing Christianity as a legitimate religion,
For 250 years, Christians suffered many large-scale persecutions by Roman authorities,
and countless bullying, humiliation and discrimination by the general Roman population.
The 2nd century theologian Tertullianus said:
"The blood of Christian martyrs became the seed of the Church."
Although this statement is exaggerated, it also reflects the situation in the era of the Great Persecution.
In the beginning, the majority of Christianity was Jews living in the Roman Empire.
At that time, in the eyes of ordinary Romans,
Christianity is nothing more than a foolish superstition from the East,
Many Romans confused Christianity with Judaism.
The Roman Empire in the 1st century AD, vast and culturally mixed,
Various strange religious beliefs poured into the Roman Empire along with great material wealth.
For the utilitarian Romans,
As long as these foreign religions did not threaten the rule of the Roman Empire,
Not endangering the material interests of the Romans, they usually adopted an attitude of resignation.
But soon after, the rituals practiced by Christians,
For example, gatherings to pray, receive communion, etc., began to arouse the antipathy and disgust of the Romans.
Add to this the fact that Christians do not worship the Roman emperors and the many gods that the Romans have revered for generations,
They worshiped only one Lord, which was in great conflict with the traditional ideas of the Romans.
For the Romans, who were addicted to material pleasures at that time,
Christians are like a bunch of fanatics with anti-human tendencies,
They advocate a clean and self-disciplined life.
The one who believed was a man crucified by the Romans.
They are full of hatred and disgust for the real world,
But fanatically yearning for an illusory life on the other side.
In 64 AD, a terrible fire broke out in the city of Rome, and the fire lasted for six days,
It affected 10 of the 14 administrative districts of the city of Rome, 3 of which were completely burned.
Regarding the cause of the fire, the official record is an accidental fire.
But the folk have always spread that it was the tyrant Nero himself who set the fire,
The aim was to build a new palace on top of the ruins.
In order to shirk responsibility, Nero poured dirty water on Christians, who were already quite disgusted by the Romans,
Christians were brutally persecuted.
The apostle Peter and the apostle Paul became martyrs in that persecution.
Nero put some Christians in the arena,
Let them put on animal skins and force them to duel with the beast, while they watch with relish from the sidelines.
He would also tie Christians to crosses, pour oil on them, and use them directly as torches.
The attitude of the Roman emperors after Nero towards Christianity was basically negative,
But the intensity of persecution varies from person to person and from time to time.
The Roman Emperor Domitian, who ascended the throne in 81 AD, was a good emperor.
At the end of his reign, he proclaimed himself a god and made his own idols out of gold and silver,
Placed throughout the city of Rome, commanding the people to worship,
Ask the people to call Him "our Lord and our God."
Of course, the Christians did not want to do this, and Domita ordered a large-scale search for Christians.
Their property was confiscated and they were put to death.
Between 250-260 AD, the Roman emperors Decius and Valerian
Out of protection for the decaying Roman Empire and traditional religions,
Began to kill the growing Christian church, setting off an upsurge of persecution of Christians.
They used torture, prisons, and intimidation to force Christians into submission to Roman polytheism and forbid Christians to meet.
A large number of clergy were sentenced to death,
Civilian believers were punished with humiliation, exile and confiscation of property.
This round of persecution lasted for ten years,
Until 260 AD when Emperor Valerian was captured by the Persians in war,
The Roman Empire fell into a state of division and chaos,
The emperor became a puppet in the hands of mercenary generals,
The Roman rulers, who were unable to protect themselves, could no longer care less about persecuting Christians.
Christianity gained a respite for 40 years and continued to grow,
It began to spread to the army, the government and the aristocracy.
Early 4th century AD, Roman Emperor Diocletian
The last mass persecution of Christianity was carried out.
He issued four edicts in a row, demolishing churches and burning scriptures,
Forced priesthood sacrifices were tortured and a great purge of Christians in the army and court.
However, at this time, Christianity was already full-fledged,
and won universal sympathy among the Roman population and the upper classes,
Diocletian's persecution policy did not last long.
In 305 AD, Diocletian retired from Roman politics, and the days of Christian suffering came to an end.
8 years later, Constantine the Great issued the famous "Edict of Milan", also known as the "Edict of Forbearance",
Christianity was recognized as a legitimate religion and church property confiscated during Diocletian's time was returned.
However, Constantine the Great's initial decision to support Christianity was not motivated by religious beliefs.
Rather, it is motivated by political and military considerations. In his long career as a horseman,
He was deeply aware of Christian self-discipline, loyalty, obedience and patience,
This is in stark contrast to the rambling, corruption, and insensitivity of the polytheistic Romans.
Constantine wanted to use the new religion of Christianity,
to establish a strong absolute monarchy to end the long-divided and chaotic political situation.
In any case, Christians who have been oppressed for 250 years have finally raised their eyebrows this time.
In 380 AD, another Roman emperor, Theodosius I
Christianity was established as the state religion of Rome, and from then on Christianity began to merge with the imperial regime.
Looking back at the original history of the development of Christianity, it is simply a history of martyrdom.
Although the Roman Catholic Church became the supreme authority in the Middle Ages,
becoming more and more domineering and intolerant, and began to persecute the so-called "heretics" on a large scale,
But Christianity did initially grow tenaciously under the brutal suppression of the Roman Empire.
That's why in Revelation 6, Jesus says,
There is no trial because there are not enough martyrs.
This spirit of martyrdom was what early Christianity encouraged.
The angels in the Bible are depicted so viciously,
It is also because early Christianity wanted angels to have a certain deterrent power on believers.
But over time, Christianity gradually became the largest religion in the region.
By the Renaissance, the image of angels began to become close to the people,
At this time, the angels no longer need to use "terror" to shock the world,
White wings and a gentle face became the standard for angels.
Returning to the Book of Revelation, the American biblical scholar and professor of religious history at Yale University, Dale. Martin Dale Martin argues,
We should think of Revelation as a work of literature.
Its literary genre is the once very popular "apocalyptic literature".
This kind of literature tends to start with a dream,
The author says that he saw various visions in his dreams,
Then alludes to the fact that something similar happens in real life.
The Old Testament Book of Daniel,
The long poem "The Divine Comedy" written by the medieval Italian poet Dante is also apocalyptic literature.
Of course, the most classic apocalyptic literature is the Book of Revelation.
Professor Dale Martin said that what makes Revelation difficult to read,
It's because it doesn't have a clear timeline,
Instead, it builds a spiraling circular structure.
Disasters and crises are put together like Russian matryoshka dolls,
When anxious emotions accumulate to their peak, suddenly release them and start the next cycle.
For example, when the lamb unveils the 7 seals,
The first four seals brought the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse symbolizing "plague", "war", "famine", and "death".
A quarter of the people on the earth were destroyed.
The 5th seal, let us breathe, God calmed the souls of the martyrs under the altar.
The sixth seal, disaster returns.
The 7th seal, another breath, the sky was silent for half an hour.
Then, 7 trumpets strike, starting a new cycle.
After the 7 horns, there are 7 golden bowls, and a new round of tension and anxiety is full.
In the end, the ultimate battle, God won and began the final judgment,
He who deserves to go to hell, he who deserves to go to heaven goes to heaven.
This way of writing guarantees that those who read the book of Revelation will always be nervous,
But at the same time will not be overwhelmed by such emotions.
So the question is, what is the purpose of this writing in the book of Revelation?
Professor Dale Martin's teacher,
American theologian Adela Collins. Collins
In her Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of Apocalypse
According to the book Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse,
The Book of Revelation mobilizes 2 sets of emotions:
A group of people in the indulgent Roman Empire, the small life may be good,
Then the calamity described in the book of Revelation will lift the spirits of this group of people instantly,
Revisit the brutal rule of the empire.
The other group of people, they may themselves be at the bottom of society, oppressed, excluded, discriminated against,
The days have passed very badly, so the beautiful new holy city depicted at the end of the book of Revelation,
It will bring spiritual relief to these people, give them confidence, and let them stick to their faith.
In short, whether you lived well or badly in the Roman Empire at that time,
After reading the book of Revelation, your emotions can be brought out.
This is the brilliant point of the method of writing the book of Revelation.
Professor Dale Martin believes that
The Book of Revelation is full of Christian dissatisfaction with the evil Roman rulers of the day.
The number 7 appears repeatedly because Rome is also known as the "City of Seven Hills".
In Revelation 12, the fiery red dragon that tried to eat the newborn Son Jesus had seven heads;
The beast of the sea in chapter 13 also has seven heads;
In chapter 17, the Great Whore rides on a crimson beast that still has 7 heads.
It can be said that all the villains in "Revelation" are related to 7,
The meaning is very obvious, the villain refers to the Roman Empire.
In addition, according to the algorithm taught by Dale Martin,
Beast seal 666 actually refers to the name of the Roman Emperor Nero.
If Nero's name is written in the Hebrew alphabet,
Add up the numbers corresponding to each letter, and this combination is exactly 666.
The book of Revelation is written so cryptically to escape the literal hell of the Roman Empire.
Of course, some people think that the 7 recurring in the book of Revelation,
Represents the 7 Roman emperors who persecuted Christians.
Nowadays, some people say that Beast Seal 666 refers to human chips.
There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people.
In general, Revelation is not so much a prophetic book,
Rather, the book of Revelation is the cry of the hearts of the oppressed Christians of that time.
In real life, in the face of the mighty Roman Empire, they did not have the slightest chance of victory,
So we can only hope for the doomsday complex, hoping that one day God will punish evil and promote good,
Overthrow the old system and establish a beautiful new order.
This is why doomsday prophecies are rampant whenever society is in turmoil.
Actually, from the point of view of physics,
Earth, as a planet in the solar system, depends on the Sun in its lifespan.
And the lifespan of stars is limited.
So the end will come, the problem is that this end is tomorrow,
Or thousands of years, hundreds of millions of years from now, tomorrow someday.
I personally very much do not want the end to come, after all, angels look like that,
Even if you barely pass the final judgment and live with such angels for eternity,
It doesn't seem to be a particularly wonderful thing.