Expecting Armageddon: What Does the Book of Revelation Reveal? 

Yes, it was! See Matthew 24.

@@thesolarengineer Shhhh ... are you crazy. I need weekend off. I don’t need another assignment.

I dont think you have been paying much attention or maybe you skipped some of his lectures. How do you know what the true message of Jesus is?

I cherry pick my ideas. I believe only the parts I want to believe.

@@johnbennett757 That makes sense. As long as it works for you.

Bravo,I applaud you! I admire and am grateful for many devout people of many faiths, but I deplore the fanatics of those same faiths. I like how Francis of Assisi put it, "I preach the Gospel continuously,and when I have to,I even speak."

That’s too bad you have had such a negative experience with Christians acting in this manner. Ah, to err is human. Personally I feel like I need to be so much more… with humility and grace. I hope you meet more people who can show you kindness, acceptance, and reflect carefully on your perspectives and engage in meaningful conversations to explore scripture and Gods hope for mankind.

There are many Christians that believe the body of Christ must endure the tribulation.

There are 4 schools of thought on this subject amongst most Christian Sects. Pretribulation, Midtribulation , Post tribulation and no rapture at all. Many of the Fundamentalist groups are Pre Trbbbers and you can see it in their literature. It has a tone of " Question what we say? You will get yours" Now Judaism denies all of this. Rabbi Singer slices and dices both Paul and Revelation with a scriptural quisinart

@@september211978 don't you mean man's hope for god? The bible has sure trained a lot of people to have incredibly poor reasoning skills.

@@september211978 Sadly the most obnoxious ones are seen the most these days.

Bart Ehrman never had real faith, now he is confused about what he believes, he also turns away from the faith people who are superficial about the christian faith, those who do not care to dig deeper.

This is so factual it's unreal🤣

Don't be so sure....

What you mean dopey dog?

@@mochiebellina8190 I believe he's alluding to the Dunning-Kruger effect

Salvation is by Faith in JESUS.

I hear he was deported yesterday , he's back in Mexico. He didn't have a green card or visa .

Jn

I've recently watched two of his older videos, from 2004, and they definitely hold up. And for the brief little mentions he makes about politics at the beginning of them, his sentiments about the George W Bush administration and his base aren't that far off from when they voted for Trump in 2016. Our friends, family members, and coworkers leaving us scratching our heads, like I thought you were better than this. The writing was certainly on the wall, though.

?

For those that know no truth and are easily brainwashed from their lack of knowledge.

because we tried to embed it in the 1st through the 20th century too. There is too many roots to explain without turning this into a rant, but thats the bottom line. Hell and Armeggedon exist in many ways for the same reason, to create an impetous for conversion or staying in the faith. You don't have time to turn to God later, because he might come tomorrow and then it'll be too late. Pair this with our cognitive bias to both put ourselves at the center of existence and believe that us or our society is struggling in unique and unprecedended ways and of course people keep coming back to this. As long as there is trouble in the world, there will always be soothsayers predicting the end and telling you you have a important part to play. Man is born with a hammer in his hands. Breaking or building, he wants to do both.

@@grigorigahan I think u have made a number of very salient points. So essentially apocalyptic prophesy is more of a tool for social coercion than any attempt to tell the future. The beauty of it is u can use it at any time as the future is always bleak depending on what u choose to focus on

I have often cited this promise by this Jesus in revelation chapter 22 where he says three times " I am coming soon " " ( quickly ) ! Also , the time for this to happen " was near " ! And John of patmos is instructed " not to seal up the scroll " indicating also his imminent coming ! Of course this long overdue promise is most highly unlikely ever to occur to the chagrin of the Christian faithful who seem to refute the revelation 22 promise !

It doesn't defy building a good meal-ticket.

Can't believe how many people fall for this illogical nonsense.

Study the evidence! In facts and evidence you will find truth to remove most doubt. No doubt is science. It's rare when you can tie up every loose end.

First of all the beast is not defeated by human power but by a coming of the Lord. If you read Zech 14 the mount of olives is split in two to make a way of escape from the surrounding armies. Those armies are defeated by God not man. Its still a future event.

@@randyw.8781 Or maybe, maybe it's just someone's made up fantasy... Is that a possibility?

Trump is the Beast...666...

@@randyw.8781 Actually in a sense Rome was defeated by God when Constantine had Christianized the Roman Empire. After all, Christianity was one of the reasons why Rome fell aside from corruption and political instability. When the book of revelation talks about how the world will become the kingdom of God where the streets are made of gold, I’m pretty the book of revelation is talking about the eventual Christianization of the Roman Empire. It’s basically saying “The Roman pagans may try to stamp out Christianity but they will lose in the end!”. When revelation talks about the “world” it’s talking about Rome, you have to think back then people thought all the territory the Roman Empire ruled over was literally the entire world. Authors of the New Testament weren’t as knowledgeable about the world back then. They were probably aware of China or India, but they didn’t know anything about the existence of the Americas, or anything beneath North Africa past the Sahara desert. Mind you I’m an agnostic and I’m saying this.

@@randyw.8781 Then the lord (of course you mean jesus) better buckle up because this time he would not survive the cross, christians have crosses almost everywhere on earth. Ready, patiently expecting and waiting to crucify his hiney.... Who is the antichrist?? This is my conspiracy theory....... CHRISTIANITY = CHRIST_ANITY = CHRIST_ANIT_ = CHRIST_ANTI = ANTICHRIST.

With fairly recent discoveries in Pompeii everything folks think they know about Nero aren't true. As far as Roman emperors go he wasn't all that bad. There's really no evidence he persecuted Christians, apparently he was very proactive during the fire also. Among other things he supposedly did or didn't do most of which was written by Christians that hated Rome in general.

Not the first time I've heard this. It will be interesting to know how it's hashed out over time. Who knows, we may yet see a reformed Nero. Regardless, there did appear to be a level of concern over the proposition that he might return.

Would that include 64 virgins ? I'm down.

@@bradmason4706 Isn't it 72 virgins? Someone seems to be downsizing.

@@junevandermark952 I'm not greedy.

@@bradmason4706 LOL

that's not true

Can it be that "...the end of the end times " will be the end of time? When the final curtain is dropped on the stage of global history, there will be no more encores and no more altar calls. Now is the time to get these things done in massive quantities. We cannot get them accomplished when we are dead. Now as we live while God Our Heavenly Father allows us the priceless opportunity to do so. Just do it.

Listening to his description of it, I was wondering when Lord Xenu was going to make his appearance.

Reactions is like an acid trip on steroids. Bye bye.

The more we know the more we ask questions and the truth is is what we all seek as individuals.

Christianity for dummies, vols 1-144, 000.

The Bible as we know it was not assembled until well after Rev was written.

@@GaryKirkpatrick exactly so assuming it's connected to everything else is presupposing univocality

Yes, academic scholars have an honest meal-ticket, teasing out meanings within an old context, to present them for modern examination.

It was needed in some form to explain why jesus didn't for full most ot prophesies. .. ie, all the non fake able or hard to lie about ones, Eg 1000 years of peace for Israel.

Good points! A deeper understanding from a broad perspective is helpful.

You fail to understand plain English - a normal person will be able to discern the context of Bible verses and it is very evident which passages are literal and historic and which are illustrations and symbolic. All you need is a bit of common sense.

Yes, just as the founding fathers of our country did! How dare them! Using Judeo Christian principles to establish the greatest self governing nation on the earth. What were they thinking???

@Lureeality 🎶🎵 Charter schools, Relogios schools and home school associations have the highest education outcomes ! Why subject the future to the debauchery of the public school systems where your daughters get raped by mentally ill adolescent males who pretend to be females? It's called freedom of choice - I bet you believe in freedom of choice!

@Lureeality 🎶🎵 LOL.....eye live u to

Yes! For some Church fathers, they included it

Also the Apocalypse of Peter. Very nearly made it. Matter of fact it was cannon in some early churches and played a big role in shaping contemporary beliefs about heaven and hell.

@@ngusumakofu1 yup!!!

Never of heard of the shepherd book before

@@BigDaddy-vr2ut yea it's called the Shepard of hermas

It does get cold in many parts of Israel during the winter so I imagine that fig trees do lose their leaves and go dormant, albeit for a shorter time than other areas.

Subtropical climates have a cold season.

It’s also noticeable (at timestamp 53:12-16) that you say “Kaisar Nero(n)” instead of how we actually order those words in Hebrew: “Nero(n) Kaisar” … again, is that some Christian thing? Please help me understand.

You have to read the original text and have wisdom. 666 in the original Greek is chi-xi-stigma. (It was a symbol that was given hebrew numbers) then Go to the ancient Greek to find the answer. :) Hint Xi represent Christ. Its hard to find the ancient Greek meaning. Its shocking once you figure it out. But confirms the rest of the clues thruout the bible. The 1st commandment in hebrew for one. Deut 32:39, Isaiah 40:25, Psalms 146:3. Good luck. The truth will set you free. :) the strong delusion came in 325 ad.

It was written by a Christian Jew who therefore knew Hebrew and expected many of his readers to know it. It was a good way to keep the name Nero hidden if intercepted by the Romans. There is no doubt 666 referred to Nero.

@@lepidoptera9337 Early Christianity was different from what it became after the conversion of Constantine. By then it was more about power and wealth. There were no monasteries in the first couple of centuries..

@@lepidoptera9337 No need to take offense. Yes Rome was based on slavery and St Paul did ask slaves to be obedient to their masters. Read Alan Bullock's biography of Hitler. In his eyes, Bullock says, Christianity was a religion fit only for slaves.

@@lepidoptera9337 you need to brush up on your history, because you have a very distorted view of Christianity's role in the history of Europe and the Mediteranean world. You literally wouldn't have "western civilization" without the direct and essential role played by Christianity.

1 reason it was needed in some form is to explain why jesus didn't for full most ot prophesies. .. ie, all the non fake able or hard to lie about ones, Eg 1000 years of peace for Israel... so he (jc) has to come back and do so.

The happy ending scenario features heavily in all Western media. I am not sure if it is so common in Eastern media, film and Tv etc...

@@lepidoptera9337 A final war between good and evil where all good followers of the religion get resurrected into a new body and live in an eternal paradise on Earth? That is FAR more specific than a lake of fire. The Persians are considered to be the originators of this myth which is clearly used in Revelation. " Arising initially in Zoroastrianism, apocalypticism was developed more fully in Judaic, Christian, and Islamic eschatological speculation.[1][4][5][6][7]" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypticism There are 5 scholars being sourced here. Another who agrees with this is Mary Boyce.

@@lepidoptera9337 "That the Jewish people only took their myths from one place or another is... a myth." No it's standard and consensus in scholarship. Not only is it not "myth" the parallels are well documented. You have the Persian Revelations myth right in front of you and 5 scholars saying the same. If you can't see the obvious parallels with Revelations then you must be a fundamentalist who simply won't accept that the writings are not from a God. Sorry religious syncretism is part of ALL religions. No exceptions. Making weird remarks because someone is into history is odd? "In your case more of a religious belief, :" Listening to scholars is not religious because their beliefs are based on actual evidence. Believing ancient mythology as literal history is religion. Heaven as a destination for souls is another ancient myth the Hebrews adopted during the 2nd Temple Period. So no, I don't believe in history heaven or any heaven. It isn't about believe it "strongly enough" (why would you even think that??), it's about actual evidence? What happened to the education system? Let's see, a few examples: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_creation_narrative -The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth[a] of both Judaism and Christianity -It expounds themes parallel to those in Mesopotamian mythology, emphasizing the Israelite people's belief in one God.[2 -Comparative mythology provides historical and cross-cultural perspectives for Jewish mythology. Both sources behind the Genesis creation narrative borrowed themes from Mesopotamian mythology, -Zoroaster (Persian) was thus the first to teach the doctrines of an individual judgment, Heaven and Hell, the future resurrection of the body, the general Last Judgment, and life everlasting for the reunited soul and body. These doctrines were to become familiar articles of faith to much of mankind, through borrowings by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.[30] (Mary Boyce) -Genesis 1-11 as a whole is imbued with Mesopotamian myths. -Genesis 2 has close parallels with a second Mesopotamian myth, the Atra-Hasis epic - parallels that in fact extend throughout Genesis 2-11, from the Creation to the Flood and its aftermath. -Historically, the unique features of Zoroastrianism, such as its monotheism,[5] messianism, belief in free will and judgement after death, conception of heaven, hell, angels, and demons, among other concepts, may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including the Abrahamic religions (Mary Boyce) -During the period of the Second Temple (c. 515 BC - 70 AD), the Hebrew people lived under the rule of first the Persian Achaemenid Empire, then the Greek kingdoms of the Diadochi, and finally the Roman Empire.[47] Their culture was profoundly influenced by those of the peoples who ruled them.[47] Consequently, their views on existence after death were profoundly shaped by the ideas of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans.[48][49] The idea of the immortality of the soul is derived from Greek philosophy[49] and the idea of the resurrection of the dead is derived from Persian cosmology.[49] By the early first century AD, these two seemingly incompatible ideas were often conflated by Hebrew thinkers.[49] The Hebrews also inherited from the Persians, Greeks, and Romans the idea that the human soul originates in the divine realm and seeks to return there.[47] The idea that a human soul belongs in Heaven and that Earth is merely a temporary abode in which the soul is tested to prove its worthiness became increasingly popular during the Hellenistic period (323 - 31 BC).[40] Gradually, some Hebrews began to adopt the idea of Heaven as the eternal home of the righteous dead.[40] (Sanders, Wright) -Within the confines of what was then the Roman Empire, long before and during the dawn of Christianity, there were many dying-and-rising gods. And yes, they were gods-some even half-god, half-human, being of divine or magical parentage, just like Jesus (John 1:1-18; Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-35; Philippians 2:6-8 & Romans 8:3). And yes, they died. And were dead. And yes, they were then raised back to life; and lived on, even more powerful than before. Some returned in the same body they died in; some lived their second life in even more powerful and magical bodies than they died in, like Jesus did (1 Corinthians 15:35-50 & 2 Corinthians 5:1-10). Some left empty tombs or gravesites; or had corpses that were lost or vanished. Just like Jesus. Some returned to life on “the third day” after dying. Just like Jesus. All went on to live and reign in heaven (not on earth). Just like Jesus. Some even visited earth after being raised, to deliver a message to disciples or followers, before ascending into the heavens. Just like Jesus. (Carrier) -Baptism has been widely compared with initiation into the Mystery cults. In many of the Mysteries purification through ritual bathing was required as a prerequisite for initiation. -In Pagan Hellenistic and Near Eastern thought, by contrast, while the motif of a “Dying and Rising God” may be controversial there is no doubt that for millennia before Christ there had been stories of divine beings questing into the underworld and returning transformed in some way. -It is beyond doubt that substantial similarities exist between the rituals of baptism and Eucharist and the various sacral meals and initiations practised within the Mystery religions. These similarities extend beyond the forms of the rituals themselves into the purpose, symbolism and function of the rituals. (Jennifer Uzzell) The Relationship between Hellenistic Mystery Religions and Early Christianity: -during the Second Temple Period, when Jews were living in the Achaemenid Empire, Judaism was heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Achaemenids.[26][8][27] Jewish conceptions of Satan were impacted by Angra Mainyu,[8][28] the Zoroastrian god of evil, darkness, and ignoranc (Mary Boyce) The Persians also believed in a world savior, virgin born would come to save humanity. The Hebrews were influenced by this during the occupation. There is a Babylonian version of Job. Hellenistic religious practices describe the change from Judaism to Christianity almost exactly. The Greeks were occupying Israel right before Christianity. There is no doubt these are where the ideas came from. Those are some of the myths taken from other cultures but the amount of general mythic themes in the Bible are as much as Lord of the Rings: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mythology But go ahead, find a historian who disagrees.

@@lepidoptera9337 Didn't know that , wow.

@@lepidoptera9337 Actually some humans are incredibly inventive. Tolkien wrote incredible mythology that spanned thousands of years with endless characters and themes. Same with the Illiad and Shakespeare. The Hindu myths, especially the Upanishads are mind bending at times. The Bhagavad Gita is an unusually philosophical myth. Joseph Campbell illuminates so many incredible myths from different cultures and what they are attempting to convey in Power of Myth. But yes, I am aware that religious syncretism is a huge part of all religions. Nations form, sometimes quickly and writers used re-worked older myths as ways to frame their own personal take on laws, morals, ethics and society and to give them a sense of identity.

@@joelrivardguitar Stanislav Lem did a review of Tolkien and found him incredibly boring and stuffy. So did I while reading him. His poetry is third rate and he doesn't get tired of forcing it on you. There are examples of great poets who could write books. Tennessee Williams is one of them. Tolkien... not so much. I mean... to be fair, the Norse Sagas that Tolkien imitates to create a cheesy synthetic Saxon mythology are lifeless and stuffy like most stuff from the old days (there are exceptions like Aristophanes and Lucian, of course). One can also find more humor in half an hour in an average British pub than in the entirety of Tolkien's work. He just didn't have a funny bone and he takes himself seriously at all times. He also overuses trivial theatrical devices like the deus-ex-machina technique. One shall not mention Tolkien in the same paragraph as Shakespeare. That's an insult to Shakespeare. In any case, the OT is a collection of texts from at least five centuries. They were written in changing political environments to achieve changing political goals. Of course the book doesn't "come together". It wasn't written for that purpose. It was more "collected" than written. The NT is basically the work of a committee and it shows. From a literary point of view both documents are worthless. They are nowhere close to the best products of their times. Homer's work was written approx. one century before the bulk of the early OT even takes shape. It's both older and better literature. And if I want to learn something about god and angels and the devil, I will gladly binge watch "Lucifer", the tv show, again. It is, by far, the more artfully written human product than the bible. It is warm, human, funny and upbeat. It doesn't threaten me with genocide, slavery and eternal torture. In it even the devil has a heart, can learn to love and find a calling far more worthy a son of god than the judging and eternal torturing that the biblical Christ does. As such it is by far more "true" than the bible ever will be.

:c

Ah the angel's gospel, glad tidings of great joy for all mankind, all will be saved. Bad for business but.

Could it be Earth in the lower case, earth, as in the dirt, ground, or as you suggest land? Some say the Earth represents our carnal nature or the lower carnal mind as opposed to the higher divine mind, one's God or Christ consciousness.

Do any of those commandment-keeping faithful keep slaves?

@Vincent Verona The god of the Old Testament is not God the Father (El) of Jesus. He is an evil angel/Elohim Jehovah that arrogantly wants to be god. One needs to see the original language to see the many words translated into god or lord but they mean different things. The text was translated in a way to sway beliefs. There were two priesthoods one lower of Jehovah god and one higher of Melchizedek of El

Well, much of religion is "a bad dream". But for so many it is just a nightmare.

I'm going to write his biography and call it "The Late (Not So) Great Hal Lindsey" 😇

@@chainedmindsasylum Once they get a good taste of the money, they just can't stop.

@@GetMeThere1 True. I didn't even realize he was still alive

@@chainedmindsasylum Zzzzzing!

Trump used these evangelicals to cash on on their gullible nature's. Enough said.

The big selling points of god's city: fruit year round, endless clean water, and 24/7 illumination. All things we can already do.

John’s revelation in Greek shows 666 not as a number, but as symbols Chi Xi Stigma. Stigma meaning a prick or branding on the forehead or right hand. You will see used by Arabs to denote Allah as god or even secret societies like the Knights of Malta using it on their official seal.

Constantine put the Word of Yahweh into the Greek that was originally in the Hebrew.

No one knows who wrote any of the gospels. They are anonymous and our earliest manuscripts are in Greek and were most probably written in Rome by learned elites, not by illiterate Palestinians.

@@mnamhie Luke sais he traced all things

@@Sportliveonline But we can’t be certain that Luke wrote the gospel attributed to him, despite internal claims. It was very common in those days to write pseudepigraphically. The fact is that nowhere does the author explicitly identify himself. And despite the common belief that the writer of the gospel and Acts is one and the same person, I have my doubts. In the gospel Jesus ascends to Heaven the very day of his resurrection. But in Acts the author says Jesus remained with the disciples for 40 days after his passion.

@@mnamhie yer bart Erman wrote it lol