THE ALLEGED AUTHOR of Revelation was Jesus’s personal friend and disciple, John (not to be confused with John the Baptist, a different person).
Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos by Hieronymus Bosch, 1505
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[John of Patmos (also called John the Revelator, John the Divine, John the Theologian; Ancient Greek: Ἰωάννης ὁ Θεολόγος, romanized: Iōannēs ho Theologos) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Book of Revelation. Revelation 1:9 states that John was on Patmos, an Aegean island off the coast of Roman Asia, where according to most biblical historians, he was exiled as a result of anti-Christian persecution under the Roman emperor Domitian. Nicolas Poussin's Landscape with Saint John on Patmos (1640) Christian tradition has considered the Book of Revelation's writer to be the same person as John the Apostle, purported author of the Gospel of John. A minority of ancient clerics and scholars, such as Eusebius (d. 339/340), recognize at least one further John as a companion of Jesus, John the Presbyter. Some Christian scholars since medieval times separate the disciple from the writer of Revelation.]
John appears to have been the most influential of Jesus’s disciples, and an earlier biblical text that is attributed to him, the Book of John, seems to come closest to conveying the strong mystical leanings of Jesus’s backers and of the early Christian church.
Some scholars believe that Revelation was written by John while he was living in exile on the Greek island of Patmos many years after the crucifixion of Christ.
Others are convinced that disciple John was not the author of Revelation because Revelation was not discovered until about two hundred years after John’s lifetime.
According to Joseph Free, writing in his book, Archaeology and Bible History, the linguistic qualities of Revelation are inferior in some ways to the Book of John.
It is argued that if Revelation was written five years after the Book of John by the same person, Revelation should be linguistically equal or superior to the earlier work.
Another point is that Revelation contains expressions from the Hebrew language that were not used in John’s earlier writings.
On the other hand, important similarities between Revelation and other books of John have been noted, especially in the repetition of certain words and phrases.
Whatever the true authorship of Revelation may be, the impact of this work has been major.
Revelation is the first-person account of the author’s bizarre meeting with a strange person he believed to be Jesus.
The Final Battle would bring about the banishment of Satan from human society and the triumphant return (“Second Coming”) of Jesus to reign over Earth for a thousand years.
The prophecy is constructed so that the symbols can be interpreted to represent whatever historical events happen to be occurring at the time one is living.
This is precisely what has been done with Revelation ever since it appeared, and it is still being done today.
The question is, what caused the author’s “visions”?
The author seems sincere enough to rule out deceit.
His straightforward manner of narration tends to eliminate lunacy as the answer.
That leaves “something else.”
The question is: what?
Upon analyzing the text of Revelation, we discover something rather remarkable.
It appears that the author had actually been drugged and, while in that drugged state, was shown pictures in a book by individuals who were wearing costumes and putting on a ceremony for the author’s benefit.
Let us look at the passages of Revelation which suggest this.
John begins his story by telling us that he was at prayer.
From a further description, it seems that he was conducting his ritual outdoors during daylight hours.
Suddenly, a loud voice resounded behind him.
The voice commanded him to write down everything he was about to see and hear, and to send the message to the seven Christian churches in Asia [Turkey].
John turned around to see who was speaking to him and, lo and behold, there he saw what he believed to be seven golden candlesticks. Standing among the candlesticks was a person whom the author described as:
. . . one who looked like the Son of man [Jesus], clothed with a garment down to the foot, and wearing about the chest a golden girdle [support].
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as flame of fire; And his feet were like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice was as the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his appearance was like the sun shines in his strength.
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
And he laid his right hand upon me .............
REVELATION 1:13-17
There are striking similarities between this new “Jesus” and the space age “angels” of earlier Biblical stories.
The prophet Ezekiel, for example, had also met visitors with feet of brass.
The above passage from Revelation suggests that John’s “Jesus” may have been garbed in a one-piece body suit extending from the neck down to metal or metal-like boots.
The fact that the author mistook this creature for Jesus may be further evidence that the author was not the original disciple John.
For convenience, however, I will continue to refer to the author of Revelation as John.
The creature’s head was described as “white like wool, as white as snow,” indicating an artificial head covering or helmet.
John’s claim that this creature had a voice “as the sound of many waters,” that is, rumbling and thunderous, is also reminiscent of Ezekiel’s angels and could have been caused by the rumbling of nearby engines or by electronic amplification of the creature’s voice.
The “two-edged sword” protruding from the creature’s mouth easily suggests a microphone or breathing pipe.
After John regained his composure, “Jesus” commanded him to write down the missives that “Jesus” wanted sent to various Christian churches.
Those letters constitute the first three chapters of Revelation.
The most interesting phase of John’s experience then begins in chapter 4:
looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard, which sounded like a trumpet talking with me; said Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place hereafter.
And immediately I was in the spirit: and, look, a throne was set in heaven, and one [creature] sat on the throne.
And the one who sat looked to me like a jasper and sardine stone: and there was a rainbow around the throne looking like an emerald.
And all around the throne were twenty-four seats: and upon the seats I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments: and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
And out of the throne came lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
And before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal:
and in the midst of the throne, and round
about the throne were four beasts full of eyes in front and back.
REVELATION 4:1-6
The above passage can be viewed as the author being taken up through the door of some sort of aircraft and finding himself face to face with its occupants, as told by someone incapable of understanding the experience.
The quote contains two especially interesting elements:
first, John said that a voice from above sounded like a trumpet talking with him.
This strongly suggests a voice bellowing through a loudspeaker.
Second, the “lightnings and thunderings and voices” emitting from the “throne” suggest that the throne had a television or radio set of some kind.
The ritual was replete with costumes, theatrics, and sound effects— all designed to deeply impress the message upon the author.
This is what happened when John was shown the first scroll:
And I saw in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on the inside and on the back side sealed with seven seals.
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loosen the seals of it?
And no man in heaven, nor in earth, nor from under the earth, was able to open the book nor to look upon its contents.
And I wept a great deal, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, nor to look upon its contents.
And one of the elders said to me, Weep not: look, the Lion [one of the animals there] of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has succeeded to open the book, and to loosen its seven seals.
And I saw standing between the throne and the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb in the manner of having been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out to all the earth.
And he came and took the book out of the right hand of the one who sat upon the throne.
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each of them holding harps, and golden containers full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.
And they sung a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals of it: for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood from every family, language, people, and nation:
And have made us into kings and priests to God: and we shall reign on earth.
And I saw, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the beasts and the elders: and they numbered ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and those that are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be to him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.
And the four beasts said, Amen.
And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped him that lived for ever and ever.
REVELATION 5:1-14
The elders continued to fall at dramatic moments throughout the ceremony.
Each time they did so, they made quite an impression upon John.
Among their cries of “Amen!” and ”Alleluia!”, the author was given the somber task of writing down everything he was being shown and taught.
It has been pointed out that the experience John described is identical to mystical ritual, especially of initiation into the teachings of a secret society.
For this reason, some people believe that Revelation is actually an account of an initiation ceremony typical of many Brotherhood organizations—typical even today.
These observations are quite significant when they are coupled with the evidence that John’s experience had an element of space opera.
It reveals continued Custodial involvement in Brotherhood mysticism after the time of Christ and shows Custodians to be the ultimate source of apocalyptic doctrines.
The probable drugging of John is exposed in Chapter 10 of Revelation.
The author was apparently outdoors again preparing to memorialize the latest revelations when an “angel” flew down from the sky holding something in its hand:
And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again, and said, Go and take the little scroll which is open in the hand of the angel which stands upon the sea and upon the earth.
And I went to the angel, and said to him, Give me the little scroll.
And he said to me, Take it, and eat it up; and it will make your belly bitter, but it will be in your mouth as sweet as honey.
And I took the little scroll out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
And he said to me, You must preach again before many peoples and nations, and tongues, and kings.
REVELATION 10:8-11
Most Christians believe that the little scroll offered to John was an actual document, the contents of which the author magically came to know by eating the scroll.
Our clue that it was probably paper, or something else, saturated with a drug lies in John’s testimony that the scroll was sweet to the taste but caused a bitter reaction in the stomach.
Interestingly, an almost identical experience had been reported by Ezekiel:
And when I looked, a hand [of an angel] was put before me; and a scroll was in it;
And he spread it before me; and it had writing inside and out: and there were written lamentations, and mourning, and woe.
Additionally, he said to me, Son of man, eat what you are finding; eat this scroll, and go to speak to the house [people] of Israel.
This is especially evident in John’s “vision” of the Creature with seven heads and ten horns:
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads blasphemous names.
REVELATION 13:1
The fact that actual words (blasphemous names) were written upon the heads of this creature reveal that John was looking at an illustration with labels—much like an old-fashioned political cartoon.
Although the author does not specifically say so, it is likely that many other “visions” on the scrolls were labeled in a similar fashion.
There can be no doubt that, as literature, the Book of Revelation is a:
colorful
dramatic
hard-hitting
work.
As the basis for a religious philosophy, however, it has all the pitfalls of the apocalypses which came before it.
As we shall see, the prophecy made in Revelation has been fulfilled at least a half-dozen times in world history, complete with global catastrophe followed by “Second Comings.”
Not once has this brought about a thousand years of peace and spiritual salvation.
All it has done is set the stage for the next catastrophe.
Today, as we stand on a massive nuclear powder keg, perhaps it is time to reevaluate the usefulness of apocalyptic belief before the world is plunged into yet another “final battle.”
