12/11/19 Henry Cao PD7

12/11/19

Henry Cao Period 7

It’s the end of the world as we know it… The Book of Revelation and the coming Apocalypse 

“The end is where we start from.” — T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland 

 How does The Book of Revelation present the Apocalypse?

• Written by John the Apostle, the last living apostle.
• Allegedly could not be killed, so he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos
• Written circa. 96 AD
• Revelation 1:19 - “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter”
• Past - “things which thou hast seen” (chapter 2-3)
• The Address to the Seven Churches
• The HIstory of the church 
• Present - “things which are” (chapters 4-19)
• The Gathering of the church
• The Great Tribulation - this is when the apocalypse occurs
• Future - “things which shall be hereafter” (chapters 21-22)
• The coming kingdom and eternity 
• “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again” — Matthew 24:21
• The Great Tribulation refers to the events of the apocalypse

How many events or elements of the tribulation can you identify from your reading of Revelation?

• Locusts - scorpion-tailed, mouth of a lion, tortured humans
• Seven angels and seven bowls - the number seven can be found throughout the text as a number that represents perfections - seven days of creation, baptisms, mysteries, notes in an octave
• Lambs, seals, trumpets, angels 
• The Lamb represents Jesus and is known as “the lamb of God”
• He is the only one worthy to open and begin the book
• Scroll - eating the scroll means to digest the scroll and though it appears sweet, it is actually bitter and quite brim 
• Dragon wiped out ⅓ of the stars - Mark of the Beast
• The seven crowned heads of the dragon could represent the Seven World Empires (Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, Assyria, and Arabia)
• Though there isn’t really anything behind the number, three itself represents the revealing of God
• The beast represents the idea of a one world order - national IDs and the pushing together of society
• The Beast will rise a lamb and imitate Jesus’ figure
• The Four Horsemen - white, red, black, pale   
• White - AntiChrist, appears white and pure like Christ (imitation)
• Red - violence and war
• Black - famine
• Pale - death and hell

The Seven Judgments of the Tribulation - from four viewpoints

•  42 months/3 ½ years of tribulation
• Story of Job is a microcosm of the Apocalypse
• Seen through the Seven Seals (6:1-8:1), Seven Trumpets (8:7-11:19), The AntiChrist [His sudden rise to power, his war against Israel, his deception of the world; His false project, and his destruction…] (12:14), and the Seven Vials (15:1-16:21)
• Through the different perspectives, the events of the Apocalypse are described differently, though they reference the same suffering.\
• The AntiChrist perspective focuses on a person - the opposite of Jesus; the Devil incarnate 
• The one Jesus is King in Mark, Servant in Mark, Man in Luke,and God in John (the Four Gospels)
• Chapters 12-14 shows how the AntiChrist tries to assume the role of deity

The Big Ideas

• Recompense - years and centuries of patience and long suffering that reaches its limit
• Ruin - the rebuilding of a broken world
• Return - idea of a figure coming to fix the world
• Righteousness - a Golden Age, the creation of a Utopia 
• Restoration - the world is restored, garden of Eden is brought back, the wrongs have been righted
• Rejoicing - rejoicing in the Heavens and on Earth - goes back to the idea of the wrongs being righted

In Chapter 21, it states:

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Just a few sentences later, it ends on a positive note:

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Student Reflection

Today's discussion highlights highlights the importance of the Book of Revelation and how the Apocalypse presents itself in the themes of many contemporary works. I learned about the four different perspectives the Book of Revelation is told from and how they each interpreted the Great Tribulation. In the four sections, narrated in the perspective of the Seals, Trumpets, AntiChrist, and Vials, the 42 month long suffering were interpreted and recorded differently, though they all shared similar accounts Furthermore, we discussed symbols such as the number seven and the Mark of the Beast. We also took a look at some specific quotes that depict the suffering and resolution by the end of the Apocalypse. The subject of the Old Testament of crucial since it demonstrates the origin of a lot of cultures and how it’s subtly referenced in contemporary media. It helps us develop a deeper understanding of the myths and stories we’ve already learned about and allows us to draw a broader connection between them. We can utilize our newfound knowledge of the Old Testament and the Apocalypse to draw parallels between it and other stories we will or have learned. For instance, the concept of the Apocalypse and natural disasters plaguing the Earth may have some connection with Ragnarok of Norse mythology.