@@danielclingen34Well, Revelations wasn't written back then, it came a little later no matter who you ask. Still, I'm sure some people back then were sure they were experiencing the apocalypse.
Yes, the "end times" industry is addicting for both providers and consumers. Fear sells; "we have the special insight you need to know" provides a lot of money to vendors of end-times fear-mongering. But for the consumers, they experience the emotional payoff of feeling special (God saved for me the end times, I know things that "those" people don't, I'll be ready when "they" continue to sin). It's an addiction cycle that won't be broken easily.
@@solidstorm6129? I'm not sure I understand your point. If I understand you correctly, you are talking about Christianity only being able to continue by Christians making themselves out to be on the suffering end of society? If that's true, then that's not accurate because not every thinks like that and I'm sure Dan doesn't.
Thank you so much. I grew up SDA, which built their ideological framework around being persecuted and oppressed as god's people find themselves in Daniel and Revelation. And Jesus was always coming next Tuesday. Countless harm was done to many by those wrong ideas - hunting for ways to make today fit into the Biblical narrative, hunting for a way to make 19th, 20th and 21st century US politics fit into the Biblical narrative. Thanks for setting this straight. your work is much appreciated.
I have a half sister who was raised SDA and she was so affected by the constant conspiracy theories she learned at the SDA church that she ended up in the Hebrew roots movement, her paranoia about prophetic conspiracy theories turned into mental illness. She lost custody of her kids. She can't hold a job for more then a couple of weeks and is constantly looking for the second coming to happen.
@@shervinmarsh2456 Only if the apocalyptic claims are untrue. For example, Jerusalem was taken by IDF paratroops in the midst of the Six Day War, 2300 years from 7 June 334 BC = June 1967. Adam Clarke, Commentary (1830), predicts this based on Alexander’s conquest of Persia (Daniel 8:5,14).
@@BobSmith-lb9nc Adventists make so many end times predictions, something is going to line up eventually. You know what didn't line up? Any of the 1843 and 1844 prophecies. You know what absolutely will never happen? A national or international Sunday law. This is coming from someone who grew up Adventist and had to memorize the prophecies.
I am just so grateful to have the opportunity to listen to someone who understands what they are talking about in relation to the Book of Revelation, because there is so much hatred that lies behind other claims of understanding. Thankyou Dan, please keep the brilliant work going, the world needs to hear you.
Similarly, the idea of the Rapture has been predicted repeatedly for the last 150 years or so. Different preaches from different denominations have used different methods for deciding the date that the Rapture will take place on. But they all do have one thing in common.
@@christasimon9716 This year will the 180th anniversary of "The Great Disappointment". I always loved the way people were "disappointed" the world didn't end. smh
I’m not always a fan of Ehrman’s content, though he is a good primer on many topics. His book “Armageddon” lays waste to many modern Christian’s fantasies about the book of Revelation. A must read.
@@infiniti28160 so Christ had in mind confusion, fear, torture, hatred, and broken promises? And after thousands of years of everyone misunderstanding scripture, it was you who he decided to give the correct interpretation to? Your Christ sounds terrible
@@infiniti28160 Only because there are people who actively work to bring those prophecies to fruition. The prophecies become self fulfilling because of this. There are those who take every single word of scripture literally. Mankind has no need for gods or devils, we can fuck things up nicely all on our own
My dad was obsessed with end times study. He was sure it would happen in his lifetime (spoiler: it didn’t). He would train us that, if for whatever reason we weren’t raptured, we should be willing to let everyone we know and love die to avoid forsaking Jesus.
I remember worrying about accidentally taking the mark after the meteor was supposed to hit and the apocalypse was supposed to begin a couple times... I'd rather live through the apocalypse though than the rest of my life, get the suffering out of the way quicker!
Outstanding. I can remember when I was 21, back in 1973. In the face of personal chaos and loss, I began to watch Pat Robertson and buy into all of his fear-based nonsense (I was raised Southern Baptist and my parents actually knew Pat, so it was a natural fit). It was a daily dose of the tribulation, Gog and Magog, the impending battle, a giant computer in Belgium, the mark of the beast, the Arab oil embargo. What a horrible atmos"fear" for well-meaning people who wanted to avoid hell. I'm so thankful to be free of all of those lies.
I remember seeing Hal Lindsey himself (TheLate Great Planet Earth) in 1971, explaining how the original six members of the European Economic Community were about to add four new members- the UK. Ireland, Denmark, and Norway- in an obvious reference to the Beast with Ten Horns, and everybody being very excited about this. Alas, Norway rejected membership in a referendum, and the poor old Beast had to limp along with only nine horns. Though there were heaps of articles proclaiming this prophecy, they were all immediately deep-sixed, and they all went on to the next 'revelation'.
It's comforting though. Knowing that no matter how screwed up the world gets, God is in charge and he's going to set everything right. No more suffering, no more pain, no more anxiety.
When I first believed that the end was imminent, I took "things of this world" less seriously. After all, we might not be around in 50 years, so why worry about a career, retirement... I'm still feeling the effects to this day, decades later.
@@juliachildress2943Well said bro/sister, I've been through very similar, though not to the level or extreme some I have heard have done. So with you on the statement you made about preachers preying on people.
My brother-in-law is like that. He quit his job during the Covid pamdemics and most of the time he reads apocaliptic literature, waiting for the end of days. His wife is working and they have 3 daughters, and his parents are helping. Nobody wants to tell him anything, they just play along. His house is in a bad shape, his yard is full of trash that he is collecting for the end of civilization etc. I tried to talk to him, but he is convinced in his ideas, his wife is quiet (good Catholic wife) and his parents and brother always say that he is on to something, if not completely right. It's a nigthmare and you can't do anything about it...
Brother Dan there are many well known pastors on this path. There hearts are set on this. From Geag Laurie to Benny Hinn. What I found somewhat off base is they have been on this train ride for over 20 years. What helped me is when I heard someone say the Bible was written for us not to us which I hold to now. Continue with equipping the saints. Grace to you.
A thought that keeps me up at night is the various possible ways we as a society could sleepwalk into catastrophe. Authoritarianism, civil conflict, backsliding democracy, climate disaster, nuclear war and its fallout. When I think about how bad things could be and how much suffering it could cause, it's particularly disturbing to imagine a significant faction of our country believing that they have a prophecy that tells them it has all been foretold, and perhaps this is even ordained by God. They look at these threats of catastrophe and get excited, perhaps even welcome its prospect. New Jerusalem and the return of Christ is on the other side of the birthing pains, after all. They welcome that first ICBM rising out of North Korea, or that fracturing of the ice shelf.
I used to play poker with Jerry Jenkins, the “real” author the Left Behind series, which deals with the rapture. Nice guy, actually. I was wondering why I haven’t seen him in a few a years. Turns out, he’s a big deal in the evangelical sphere, and was on the board of Wheaton College, a conservative Christian college. Anyway, he pushed to amend the rules of conduct of the school to allow gambling, in particular for poker. The word got out, and it looks like he got shamed into dropping the change, and stopped playing poker publicly. Kind of a weird deal.
My wife and I were just talking about this topic from one of your other videos about one minute ago and now suddenly this video popped up on RU-vid! 😂😱 Keep up the great work, Sir!
Me too! I've been having this discussion with my father, who believes it to be prophecy. However, I may not share this video in order to keep peace in the family. Dan is awesome, and I love the "fit of the day."
@@Pearlstrand I agree. That’s something you have to decide individually if it’s worth keeping in the quiet. Though, if you’re having open and honest and educated discussion about the topic already with him, I wonder what your father‘s opposition would be to hearing a Bible scholar discuss it? It may help him think deeper and open his eyes to more truth. But who knows. Some people just aren’t open to that. LOL
It also requires religious groups to play with time, to make it seem like they are living in the last days shortly before Jesus comes back. JWs adapted a second fulfilment of Daniel 4 (tree dream) to make 2520 years span from 607bce to 1914ce. Time has proved them all wrong
That was another great analysis, Dan. But you cannot tell a bibliolator ANYTHING. They are 100 percent certain of absolutely everything. And that's why fascism appeals to so many of them.
@@markb3786 I should have been more clear I was just looking for the argument to the contrary . Not a statement from an authoritive stance because the truth is we won’t know for sure until we die .
@@davidnoneyabiz1412 I didn’t say it’s dried up I said drying . I’m aware that it fluctuates but from what I saw it said that it can be completely dry by 2040 due to the use of dams, reduced rainfall and higher evaporation rates
Thank you Dan, these are pertinent comments. A significant segment of the modern church has actually failed to heed its message, aligning themselves with imperial power and reliving the role of the "false prophet".
Ling live Dan, this guy makes my heart glad adding facts/context to these Bronze/Iron age books that are taken literally by orthodox/fundamentals. He is doing the world a great service, unfortunately, religions are hurting/dividing us as a people more than helping
Raised a fundamentalists Christian in a home very interested in the end times i was taught by many Christians that prophecy, especially those dealing with the end times were multilayered and had multiple meanings for different times and people. This is how they continue to stretch and twist the Bible, negotiating with the text to get it to continue to be relevant to them and to get it to mean what they want.
@@Yeshuaisthetruth33 whether or not Jesus really existed he was indeed an apocalyptic preacher as laid out in the New testament. Nothing new for that time. Doesn't make what he said true. No one knows the time of their death, but but won't be an end time scenario like many premillennial Christians think.
@@_S0me__0ne Jesus Historical.....kind of, without Evidence there is no historical Jesus nor The Biblical Jesus!? And we already know that there is enough evidence for his existence compared to Alexander the greater, Socrates, Aristotles....
@@Yeshuaisthetruth33 Have you ever read or listened to any Bible scholar who wasn't a Christian or doesn't look at the Bible as literally true, inerrant and infallible? If not, perhaps it might be worth your time. Watch a few more of Dan's videos. Check out James Tabor. Learn of a number of different scholars who've been interviewed on Mythvision. They'll do a whole lot better at explaining things such as Jesus being one in a line of apocalyptic preachers common during his time. On a tangential note, check out Esoterica as he points out the pagan storm god origins of Yahweh.
I need to read more about how Revelation became canon. It's just such a weird fever dream compared to the rest of the New Testament. Perhaps it was the exciting conclusion to an overly long story?
Especially if the church are still saying He's coming back and is waiting and telling everyone it's the next big event to happen, no one will be able to live their lives fully because of this.
That's all well and good and I agree with Dan's interpretation of Revelations, or perhaps that it was also used to explain the establishment of the Pope as Christ's representative on earth, but I know many people (including relatives) for whom the world just doesn't make any sense unless they are in the middle of the end times and playing or observing a major role in it. I myself was raised that way, so I have some idea what it would mean to them to lose Revelations as a major "guide" to understanding the world in which they live (mostly constructed in their own minds, with help from various preachers). For them right now the world makes perfect sense, and even though the preachers have had to realign world events to the text several times, their followers forgive that without question. But take it away, and they must go through an existential crisis whereby all the meaning they saw in politics goes away, and new meaning must be found. The excitement they feel at believing they are watching Revelations come to pass, the inside track on knowledge they feel they have, and the prospect of Christ's triumphant return in their lifetimes, are powerful. I think for most of them, the prospect of it not being true is too much to contemplate. It would be a lot worse than finding out Santa isn't real, that's for sure. I mean, can you imagine a whole congregation sitting in church one Sunday and coming to the realization that half their world view just got pulled out from under them? Half the reason they went to church was to get a world view. It would be extremely disorientating. It was for me. I think most people would prefer to avoid that.
My mother, who died in 2007, was absolutely certain that Jesus would come again before she died, and she would never taste death. Interesting that after her death, I found a will that she had made about 10 years earlier. I found that very intriguing.
I remember having that mindset. It was comforting to think that all the evils and misfortune in the world (and admittedly just people I disagreed with) were building up to a final conflict where the result was already determined. Everything would be ok if we just endured. It wasn't until I started noticing how giddy people were for unrest in the Middle East that I began to rethink that particular belief. It's funny how much more hope you find when you realize the rest of the world aren't evil. It's rough, but the world's a brighter place than it often seems.
I was going to post two questions for Dan to follow up on: What’s the psychology of the millions who are so (comparatively) safe and secure who believe in their own persecution? Has it been this way only in the last few hundred years and only here in America? But you’ve already tuned me in to a psychology I’m completely unfamiliar with: I was raised Catholic, and the End Times was never stressed - I can’t even remember it being taught or talked about EVER. I’m not sure, but I think there’s something of an unofficial prohibition against putting too much emphasis on it.
Don't forget the part where they look forward to the punishment of the "wicked". A lot of people take great delight in fantasizing about watching "those people" get their "reward". They use religion as a thin veneer over a vicious streak.
Was anyone else shown the "Thief In The Night" series of movies as a child? It's a D-level "end times" series about seeing Revelation through an apocalyptic modern lens. It was the "Left Behind" series of it's day. It scared me, but absolutely traumatized my younger brother, who thought those events were going to happen any day, which was the whole point of the narrative. As 90's kids, the low quality 70's aesthetic just made it more traumatizing IMO. My mom was young and really regrets showing us those things now. The harm this narrative pushes really is incalculable to a lot of kids, and to the "others" of society. It was a shock when I saw those movies were up on Prime Video a couple weeks ago. I'm so grateful I found Dan's channel to give people clarity and, honestly, healing from religious trauma through education.
This is a thoughtful and interesting point, though the most interesting readings of Revelations I find are the ones that compare the empire/beast of Revelations to the USA, and the ever growing systems of surveillance capitalism.
The giant armored scorpions that spit fire from their tails sure sound like tanks, and the sea of glass that God's throne sits on sure sounds like a nuked desert...
It's difficult to convince a believer excited for the "end times" otherwise. The things that form their religious beliefs from their perspective come straight from god, even if the source is the podcast of some hack pastor from Missouri who graduated bible college in Grenada with a C+ average. I'm remembering my dad tell me about how it was about Nero and all that, and how he still believed that it was also a roadmap to the apocalypse, rapture and all.
Religion ennobles people with noble hearts and debases people with base hearts. And those base people are often quite good at warping the bible to justify their hate and fear.
It must be more difficult for people in the US as they are the Roman empire equivalent of today. But it's not about today. In the Bible it shows the dangers of trying to fulfill prophecy.
Dan, I would love a video where you take scriptures that are taken as prophecy by American evangelicals, and get technical about what the author meant. I think this will help combat the harmful fear mongering reinterpreting we see today. (Rapture, tribulation, etc)
As Humans we are VERY good at "othering" people we see as not belonging to our particular in-group. I'm sure at one time, perhaps in our hunter-gatherer past it was helpful to hold us together as a small tribe. It's not so useful now.
The thing that has always confused me about people asserting that prophecies like those in Revelation are really about today is that, if they're correct, then God didn't give a shit about the people he charged with transmitting those end-times prophecies or their audiences. Imagine 2,000 years of people believing that the end of days could come within their lifetimes, who lived as though at any point Christ might return and the final Judgment commence. Imagine the anxiety, the trauma, the stress and the fear that came about of believing that your entire life... ...only to realize that centuries or millennia after your death, when you've been resurrected for Judgment, the prophecies in fact referred to nations you didn't even know would exist, political and economic systems and institutions you've never heard of (or had been taught were evil when you were alive but were now happily accepted), and technologies you couldn't possibly dream of (like nukes, tanks, cars, planes, microchips and all that). If modern end-times theorists are right, then God never cared about the impact these prophecies would have on the people of the past. God only cared about us in the 21st century and _our_ reading of the prophecies. Sure, everyone would end up getting judged, but the prophecies leading to the Judgment would only be relevant to us because we're the only ones with the context to understand and appreciate them. Only we have been truly and fully enlightened, while the people of the past have been divinely allowed to remain terrified and ignorant of what's to come. Kinda makes God seem a little more dickish than he already comes across in the biblical literature.
@@infiniti28160 I'm just going into a theological implication of folks' insistence that end-times prophecies that have been around for millennia are specifically about our modern age and geopolitical landscape. Whether my mind is warped and what warped it is between me and a therapist.
The way modern Christians have interpreted the Book of Revelation means believing that this deity is playing some sort of weird game, in which the “good” guys need his aid - subtle aid, in the background for some reason - in order to defeat the “bad” guys, like this omnipotent, all-powerful entity couldn’t just smite all of the “bad” guys on a whim. I guess we’re YHWH’s version of a video game? Weird.
I mean, actual scientists are now positing hypotheses that the entire universe is a simulation or a hologram. Maybe God doesn't play dice with the universe because he plays The Sims?
The Second Great Awakening (the Burned-Over Distrinct especially) really left a mark on American Christianity. Miller is such an interesting case because he was so obviously wrong, but his ideas still echo in sermons and politics today.
@@chronoplague I was raised with Jehovah's Witnesses on one side of the family and Seventh Day Adventist on the other. Both those religions came out of that Millerite movement. It took a lot of deconstruction...
Your channel is the best Bible study channel for me. I always feel like I’m wrong for the way I think but I really love my relationship God and I just don’t agree with that book and the more I learn the more I feel convicted about what I already thought.
It was a second century document. Nero's notoriety only really took hold in the time of Hadrian, when the real persecution of "Christians" began. They were not isolated as a separate belief system to the Romans until the second century.
You don't have to look far for the oppressors. As for apocalyptic literature, it is precisely this function, of applying it in whole or in part, that accounts for its enduring popularity.
You think it's more like an oppressed minority from the corner of an ancient oppressive empire 2000 years ago was talking about us instead of their own circumstances? 😵💫
What makes you think they are new? If you don’t throw them away just because they are a bit worn you can put together a very large collection over the years even just buying a few each year.
Most prophecy in Bible has this high school Algebra formula like quality. Isa 5-20, Jer 10-8 applies again and again so does Ezk 7-9. 8-18. man who started 7-11 store did it as warning using Ezk 7-11
Personally, I've believed that if Revalation is prophetic it was speaking about the migration period. It fits enough of the points. Rome was violently overthrown by Christian tribals.
No prophesy in the Bible was about today, or any time after the lives of the people they were announced to. They were just failed prophecies that people stubbornly refuse to accept were failed by acting like there's no reasonable time limit.
The best ways to understand Revelation are either Preterist, like the Academy, or Idealist, where none of the book is to be read literally. Trying to cast for today only makes sense if the dualistic nature of the cosmos is accepted and the church is caught in a war. Revelation is not and never was meant to be read as a historical document. Even John the author acknowledges that if Revelation represents real events, then they are events that must "soon hapoen" for his audience.
Unfortunately this is both the harm and the ‘benefit’ (in fact as I understand it from Dan, that’s the primary reason Revelation was included in the canon)
Revelation may not specifically be about today, but it is about the "end". What begins in Genesis ends in Revelation. Every logical book including the Bible has a beginning and ending. If Revelation is not it, it has no logical ending. The book parallels Matthew 24 concerning the " end of the age", and therefore represents the perfect conclusion to the plan of God for the earth, mankind, and redemption via the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. Revelation is not only the perfect compliment to Genesis, but the perfect ending to the Bible.
Selective blindness causes this absurd notion. Anyone who has actually read Revelation can easily see in the prologue that the author is addressing the Christian communities in Rome coupled with the promise that deliverance would occur within their lives. Unless I'm wrong I don't imagine there are any 2,000 year old Christians running around today.
Biblical Cosmology: The bible can be proven wrong, as the words and instructions of an all knowing god being, just on the first page alone. The Sumerians asked, "why is the sky blue?". Their best answer was, "because of a primeval sea of blue fresh water in the sky directly above the clouds." Once you create an explanation for the first question, you must then deal with additional questions created by the first belief claim. So then they asked, "why does the primeval sea not fall down on us?". Their best answer became, "because a glasslike SkyDome FIRMAMENT/vault is spread across the sky by the gods, and the firmament holds up the waters above and separates them from the waters below." The Israelites obtained their cosmology beliefs from the Babylonians, who got their beliefs from the Akkadians and Sumerians. Genesis 1:6-8 starts this ridiculous cosmological belief system, which proves the bible lacks legitimacy and credibility as the words and information of an all knowing being on the first page alone. If you believe the bible 100%, then you should believe: -There is a blue cosmic sea directly above the clouds which makes the sky blue. -A clear glasslike SkyDome FIRMAMENT separates the blue sea water above the clouds from the earth water below. -Windows and gates are built into the firmament to allow beings and water to come down. -The earth is flat like a disk or coin. -The earth is immovable and stationary. -Stars can fall from the firmament at any time. -The Sun orbits the earth from WITHIN the skydome firmament. 🥵 -The Sun is like a mere light lamp and can easily be stopped over a small geographical area, such as in Joshua when the Sun stood still for a day.(Joshua 10:12-14 kjv) -The stars are just little lights hung on the glasslike skydome firmament like Christmas tree ornaments. -We live in a giant snowglobe within a cosmic blue sea of water. No planets, no suns, no galaxies, and no universe, JUST WATER 🤭 Simply do a Google image search for "ancient Israelite cosmology" and compare it to Sumerian and Babylonian cosmology. You'll easily find over 200 bible verses to confirm the Israelite cosmology matched that of the others. Biblical writers did, in fact, believe in flat earth geocentric cosmology. The problem is they were wrong, and so is the bible. Josephus confirmed the Jewish belief in a glasslike SkyDome FIRMAMENT. He referred to it as crystalline. If Genesis is wrong, then Jesus is wrong. 🖖 Biblical scholar Dan McClellan on Biblical cosmology: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-p8dipV0xG4Y.htmlsi=mB8r3BtLBvJ0JZqw Biblical scholar James Tabor on Biblical Cosmology: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BjXcaPI-tEE.htmlsi=-l1he22iEEjaG8M3
Incorrect! The word of god LIVES ! That means it is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow! And we ARE in the last days A time of preparation for the days of tribulation , A time when the prophecy foretold in Genesis is Revealed The seed of the woman Vs The seed of the serpent The return and vengeance of the First Family The Millennial Generation Will be the LAST to grow old.
While i agree with a good chunk of this, the vilification almost never leads to any kind of action, it's really just about maintaining fear to keep the believers in line. Hard to control people for God when they don't have anything to be afraid of... On the other hand, fewer and fewer people believe in any of this anymore. Christianity is on the way out and the power systems that people are so afraid of won't be in place much longer...
The Apocalypse of John shares much symbolism and themes from Daniel and from ancient Egyptian religion. It is possible that it was reworked by Christians from a pre-Christian text.
Wow, this is great ammunition for my arsenal when conversing with believers who ask why I’m so bothered by american evangelicals. I wish Dan would speak more on his apparent endorsement of religion as a whole. Why continue to bother with it at all? Does anyone truly benefit from “belief” specifically, or is the community/tribalism that religion tends to establish the real benefit. Sorry, I always gotta hate. Would like to see peace in this world.
Dan's description of Revelation is aphoristic and nontechnical and perfectly uncluttered. A clear and clean message so easy to understand, but when the people are in need of persecution, they shut out the obvious.
We are always living in the end times, or are just a day or two away from the second coming. We have to be patient though, god has a different concept of time than we do. It might seem like 2000 years to us, but to him only a few moments have passed. Everybody that went before us will be rewarded for thier piety, and they totally didn't waste thier lives waiting on something that didn't happen. It's totally about to happen now, because drag hour story time has let Satan back into the world.
It's bizarre to hear a Christian say that there's nothing more to be revealed. It's like you think their authors were too stupid to couch assurances for the people of their time within a language game meant to be solved in another time, and such a position is absolutely not supported by the textual or iconographic data. If you think everything has been revealed, give a thorough explanation of the Magdala Stone, the Pillar Capitals of the Second Temple, the Capitals of the City of David and their relationship to Phoenician representations of the Tree of Life. You are just another Christian claiming much more knowledge than you have if you think the Thronos is not related to a flower. Honestly... you studied linguistics. Go reconsider the data.
It's too bad no one ever talked about how to treat the "other." It would be especially helpful if they, like, included parables or sayings to help me understand.
@@chronoplague For the vast majority of human history, humans have overwhelmingly been concerned with their own tribe at the expense of others. Dan is advocating dogmatically for a modern view of morality-one which ironically is the legacy of Christianity in the West, and with which I personally agree. But I want to understand 1) why he holds these moral views and 2) why he accuses others of being dogmatic when he shamelessly promotes his own dogmas?
@@weirdlanguageguydo you happen to remember the video title ? I know revelations is supposed to be taken as allegory and symbolic/imagery but the river thing always gave me cause to pause
@@loomiere-gs1qc I found it and just watched it . I don’t believe people are hearing chains dragging and all those fear mongering tactics. That being said though the river is on a trajectory where it could be completely dried in the relatively near future
Now hold on. How many times has that happened? Last I recall being told, it’s happened multiple times in the past. If that’s the case, it’s probably just a coincidence.
Hey all Christians I have a question. How many times did Jesus tell the religious Church leaders, the scribes and the pharisees, the Jews as a whole. Hey, you got it right this time, good job??? I'll wait in anticipation... But when Jesus revealed the truth to John the Revelator, he made an interesting statement. Revelation 2:2 “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:” I have found them all to be liars as well... The apostles tell us of a second coming of Jesus... The prophets prophesied of his first coming, calling him the BRANCH, the offspring of David Jesus said I am the vine, you are the BRANCH Jesus said, If David then called him Lord, how is he his son?
I don't think there is a need to find an enemy - the enemy is exposed in the book itself - the Anti-Christ and the False Prophet - none of whom are a particular race or creed or orientation. All the people you named are not named as enemies - the Lord wants everyone to come to his fold. The dogma that looks at everything in terms of power structures and identity politics - will cause more harm than anything in that book.
