[OBW]

I'm with awareness on this, at least somewhat.

We really don't know what Revelation means. It does indicate a coming judgment. And a restoration of the earth, complete with the open coming of the kingdom of God to it.

But what does almost any of the rest of it mean? Full of imagery. Little of which is "clearly" anything specific.

Of course, we love to declare that certain parts are not imagery, but are literal. Yet what is the evidence that it is so literal? That the imagery wasn't so "out there?" That it must therefore be real?

And if a thousand years is as a day, and a day as a thousand years, then the 7 weeks might really be 49,000 years. Besides, other than the common reference to weeks, what makes these 7 weeks precisely equal to the final 7 weeks in Daniel. Or even if so, what makes the extended timeframe of the weeks entirely identical as they seem to have been in the first parts of the prophecy. Seems to make the whole thing into a formula that has been laid out for us, therefore causes a question on the claim that the day is not known. If we can get it really close, then why would there be two in the field and one taken? Seems that it would be so obvious that no one who would actually be among the taken would be out in the field. They would be on the mountain top, just like in the days of the great disappointment, and more recently for the followers of that crackpot in California.

God made man to bear his image on the earth. And it was very good. Seems a little odd to then be in such a hurry to have nothing to bear that image to other than the trees and cows that are just along for the ride.

And therefore asks every one of us whether we really know what Revelation is about. I see warning of judgment. Its time is uncertain. That should make me more aware of my present condition. And, despite the evidence that anyone can die any day, and then after that, the judgment, we often live as if there is a lifetime to worry about it.

And since the warning is to the church, not to the heathen, then what does it mean? Does it mean that the salvation that gets you through this, or around it, or whatever, is not so simple? That there is more to be concerned with than your eternal security?

Most of the answers, and most of the things that are spoken of out of Revelation are, unfortunately, rather trite. Oh, the "Left Behind" kind of discussion is serous. But is it as much on the mark as we think?

And all of this to create a place where we get to walk on golden streets and live in really big houses (for one kind of thinking), or spend our eternity falling prostate in worship to God (and it seems that he created man for a purpose different than that). Maybe we are focused on the wrong parts of the imagery. Looking too much at the details and not enough at the picture it paints. But I am not the one to see it. That is for sure.