Should Christians take the Book Of Revelations literally?

Question

Do you take it literally? Is it meant to be taken literally? Or should it be viewed as a allegory or a series of symbols?

Answer 1

Yes, take it literally

Rev. 1:3 (NIV)
Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Answer 2

I'm not really sure what is the book of revelations but i think that any book have to be taken to literally (more if is religious and from another time), for example look at the bible, it is not accurate in some facts. Ex. it said in the bible that moses traveled in the desert for 40 year, but it is known that the Israelites wandered in the desert for approximately 400 year.
What im am saying is the old religious books have lots of metaphorical fraces so they shouldn't be taken to literally.
That is only one of the reasons the other one is that old books had to many translations and a lot it changed or lost in time. Ex. the bible has been translated in more han 3000 languages or dialects.
Sorry for the misspelled words , I'm LATINO.
(i used the check spelling botton)
Greetings from Uruguay.

Answer 3

It is the only book not meant to be taken literally and admits to being full of symbolism, but it is the only book Christians do take literally and the other scripture which is meant to be literal they take figuratively.

/Example:

When Revelation speaks of a thousand year reign they take this a a literal thousand years, but when Mark 16:16, acts 2:38 and several others I usually quote speak of baptism being literal and even gives examples in Acts where people;l submitted to baptism after being told the, then those scripture are figurative and not literal.

I find this odd because Even John himself said he was being symbolic due to the immediate pending persecution. but again Christians believe that which John said must soon come to pass, is still in the future.

In short they believe what they want to believe and twist scripture to back up their already held belief.

BB

Answer 4

It is hard one there

I think its been written in the same context as the old testament. one that should always been take literally, This is what i personally believe so could quite easily be wrong.

I think it will happen but maybe in a different way. and over a long period of time.

You can look at it at a way where if you think about it, we are in the middle of revelations. Take tht it says the rivers of babylon will be damaged. Babylon now in iraq.

To be fair there is not one answer, theres many ways to look at it and no one will ever know untill it happens and even then we won't be able to understand it .

Answer 5

According to the VERY beginning of this book there is the Key to this answer...
Revelation 1:1 says
" The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him to show His slaves the things that must quickly take place, and He made it known by SIGNS, sending it to His angel to His slave John"

The revelation in this book is composed mainly of Signs , i.e symbols with spiritual significance, such as the seven golden lampstands signifying the churches, the seven stars signifying the messengers to the chruches. Even the New Jerusalem is a sign signifying the Ultimate consumation of God's Move and Plan and hearts's desire. This book then is a book of signs through which the revelation is made known to us. John's Gospel is a book of signs signifying how Christ came to be our life to produce the church..the Bride of Christ. Revelation is a book of signs showing how Christ is now caring for the church as the High Priest walking in the midst of the Lampstands and how He is coming to Judge and possess the earth and bring the Church, His Bride into God's full purpose and Plan for eternity.

Answer 6

The imagery and allegories of much of the book of Revelation appears to be spiritual in nature.

It can be hardly doubted that the book of Revelation is a book of predictive prophecy fulfilled toward the end of time.

Note that much of the imagery in Revelation can be found in Old Testament prophecies:

http://quietearth.freeyellow.com/page53.html

Answer 7

Back when I was in college there was one particular literature class in which I had to do a metaphor analysis of the Book of Revelation.

I can't quite remember, now, what metonymy and synecdoche mean exactly, but what I do remember is that Revelation is not only metaphor and allegory, but layer upon layer of them.

Even the instructions to the 7 churches are metonymous (or is it synecdochious?) because they are to be read by Christians of all times in a "you know who you are" kind of way.

Answer 8

Jesus tells us in the beginning of the book that this is a spiritual and symbolic book by the fact that he tells us what the candles and the lampstands represent. No, the book is totally symbolic except for the instructions to the 7 churches.

Answer 9

The whole book of "Revelations" is just a revealing of what is already in the Old Testament. If you understand the spiritual implications of the Old Testament, you understand Revelations...

BOTH ! It is like the old testament, having re-interants.

Answer 10

this dude, Bonhoffer, was like known for his understanding of Christianity...

...he was like "there's the literal and there's the implied ..."

...He's like "Jesus told the sarcastic rich young man to sell his stuff and follow him...
...to that young man Jesus literally meant for him to sell all his stuff and walk with him as he continued his ministry here on earth...
...to us today, Jesus implied that we should live with an inward detachment toward our belongings...

...BUT the key here is that we have no right to the implied unless we are truly able to understand and be willing to accept the literal...

Answer 11

Revelation is entirely allegorical, and was written as a source of encouragement for the early Church during a time of ongoing persecution.