I read it. I got you. It's ok. These are huge concepts. At best, I can only say honestly that my own individual research on them is approaching understanding. It's hazy, at best. But the good news is, I'm not starting at ground zero. I am familiar. I am aware.
If you can be patient with me, when I make the inevitable blunder, here and there, in this discussion, in regard to the foundations you're posting, I think I'm ready to move on the next piece in the puzzle. Or perhaps, you'd like to probe my own understanding of what you wrote to confirm we are, as I've stated, on the same page.
But, I cannot stress this enough. What you brought cannot be described as anything more than a line drawing, compared the details in your mind which are producing that line drawing. It doesn't mean we can't discuss. It means I'm going to be learning from you on the fly. And that's bound to cause some problems. I'm going to make mistakes along the way.
KK Now .. we have discussed the OT .. some of the NT -- from the perspective of what the people of that time believed .. as opposed to some Literalist dolt trying to impose a 20th century trinity perspective on "Like US - in Our Image" .. Right .. who cares what your perspective or mine --as such as absolutly Zero -Nada - Nema Nishta bearing on what the inhabitants of the Babylonian City State UR in ~ 1800 BC .. .. and the identity of "God Most High" El Elyon .. at that period of time.
The Israelites -- To a Person --were polytheistic or a very rare few might been henotheistit/monolateral believing that one God was above the others and/or worshiping only that High God .. while believing in the existance of other Gods.. So when the Bible says "Sons of God" .. it means exactly what it says ... Sons of Gods - bene Elohim and everyone living during the time of King Solomon listinging to the Hymn/ Psalm/song in the Temple of YHWH knows exactly what that term means and who the sons of God are .. YHWH being a Son of EL .. the "God Supreme" El Oliun of Psalm 82 .. and now even modern biblical scholarship is in agreement .. such that Bibles are being re-written on this basis ..
New English Translation .. Psalm 82 -- Verse 1
Psalm 82[a]
A psalm of Asaph.
82 YHWH stands in[
b] the assembly of El;[
c] in the midst of the gods[
d] he renders judgment.[
e]
and if we click on footnote (c) we learn the mesopotamian story of EL .. as has been previously described ..
(c) he phrase עֲדַת אֵל (
ʿadat ʾel, “assembly of El”) appears only here in the OT. (1) Some understand “El” to refer to God himself. In this case he is pictured presiding over his own heavenly assembly. (2) Others take אֵל as a superlative here (“God stands in the
great assembly”), as in
Pss 36:6 and
80:10. (3)
The present translation assumes this is a reference to the Canaanite high god El, who presided over the Canaanite divine assembly. (See
Isa 14:13, where El’s assembly is called “the stars of El.”) In the Ugaritic myths the phrase
ʿdt ʾilm refers to the “assembly of the gods,” who congregate in King Kirtu’s house, where Baal asks El to bless Kirtu’s house (see G. R. Driver,
Canaanite Myths and Legends, 91). If the Canaanite divine assembly is referred to here in
Ps 82:1, then the psalm must be understood as a bold polemic against Canaanite religion. Israel’s God invades El’s assembly, denounces its gods as failing to uphold justice, and announces their coming demise. For an interpretation of the psalm along these lines, see W. VanGemeren, “Psalms,”
EBC 5:533-36.
OK -- so we have at least two Gods here .. and then many more are mentioned in verse 6 where the Sons of EL "Sons of the Supreme one" are mentioned .. and YHWH defeates these other sons of EL .
Don't call me crazy -- the Bible told me so
heh heh
So .. what to make of Revelations ?? Some dude .. who's name we do not know .. 99.9% was not the disciple John who was martyred according to tradition around the time of James and Peter = NOT the author of the Gospel of John either.
The Jewish People of the time were having apocalyptic dreams all over the place in the first century .. was a time of numerous messiah claimants having what was an sovereign state been made a Roman Vassal round 65 BC .. -- and these are the outer provinces .. the outskirts of the Empire .. run by some hand picked Jewish Royalty "Herod" -the church having considerable power.
In any case .. throughout the first century AD there are numerous messiah claimants .. "Davidic Figures .. "annointed by God" gonna come and deliver the Jews from the Romans which culiminates in revolution .. destruction of the Temple in 72AD .. and later in the second century .. Bar Kofba or some such thing.
Now there were many such prophetic writings .. by many authors .. both Jewish Christian and Gentile .. and traditional orthodox Jew .. these can be likened to Nastrodamas .. Edgar Cacey .. Seers getting a brief glimps of the future .. which they then try and make sense of .. in terms of their own religious filter .. attributing some divine elements of the dream to what ever divinity they believe in at the time.
Eusebius - dude who put the first bible together for Emperor Constantine sometime after 325 AD .. claimed Revelations to be spurious and did not include it in Canon .. but hey ... there are skeptics in every generation .. Right !
So .. in Revelations we have some prophecy and a depiction of an anti-christ of sorts -- but we also have a depiction of the anti-Christ from Jesus .. and the two do not mesh.. which I will attributed to a rewriting of the dream by a redactor with a trinitarian christian perspective.
So .. If I am describing some things from Revelations .. I am doing it trying to remove that overlain monotheistic perspective .. if this makes anhy sense to you .. get at what the vison really was.
So the Anti Christ is a negative energy vortex of sorts .. generated by individuals . and manifested into reality by individuals and institutions - Such as the the "Universal Church" = Catholic Church .... whose doctrine and ideology and way of being was as "Anti-Christ" as one can possibly imagine .. violating everything our good friend heyZeus == the annointed one of God == stood for. Judaism is another such institution which violated the old religious Truth of Polytheism - bringing forth the demonic Blasphemy of monotheism .. Christianity a spawn of this beast the mother beast .. now threatening to fulfill the "Fire from the Sky" prophecy in Revelations 1/3 of the world is destroyed by fire .. among others.
The Nazi's were also a negative energy vortex .. the irony that Bibi is acting just like the Brown Shirts cept the Warsaw Ghetto / Gaza Ghetto has now been turned into the Gaza Concentration Camp .. "Ethnic Cleansing" of the Land .. Just as the Bible and the Likud Charter instructs. Cleansing of the Land - From the River to the Sea - Israeli Sovereignty .. as per Deuteronomy l3:43 (must be from a translation older than the MT) .. but even the MT has the Cleansing that the Modern Bibles have removed.
Bibi himself calling forth the memory of the "Amalek" -- Can't make this sht up any better friend ..