Finishing Kirsch

As a skeptic of all apocalyptic theories, I enjoyed finishing Kirsch’s book because he is a skeptic himself. Reading about this subject through another skeptic’s eyes make it more comfortable for me because he explores the book of Revelation- a deeply religious subject- in a very secular manner. Kirsch focuses on the effects John’s book had over the past millennia, which I think is a very interesting way of thinking about this book. Mentioning all of the interpretations that came as a result of the different events surrounding them.
It is hard for me to imagine what it was like to live in a world where the Church dictated almost everything about everyday life. Reading the book of Revelation spiritually is the same thing I would encourage, and I agree greatly with Augustine’s teachings. The Church saw from the beginning the danger that lurked in the pages of John’s book, as the coming centuries proved. I keep thinking of why the Church would still decide to include the book of Revelation in the Bible, but it is actually very simple: It instills fear in people, and the people turn to God through the Church for comfort. Many people did fin the idea of the End of the World comforting rather than scary. I am a skeptic, and if the End of the World were to really happen in 2012, it would be really scary, I am not ready to die and have that be the end. But for others, the End signified a new beginning. The world wouldn’t really end, it would restart. If they behave the have a chance at that new start, and if they listen to John then salvation is imminent.
The movie that I saw last week has me thinking a lot about numbers, and there is a section in which Kirsch focuses on the numbers again. The numbers in the book of Daniel talk about the end times arriving in roughly three and a half years, and Kirsch points out that three and a half is half of seven and seven is John’s favorite number. This is too far fetched. This is looking too much into John’s thoughts and his book. It is a possibility that there is a connection between the two numbers and that John was inspired by Daniel by simple doubling the number, but there is always a relation that can be found two numbers.
Before this class, I had heard of the book of Revelation, but I had never read it, and Kirsch brings a lot of light as to the effects this book has brought. New branches of Christianity were created partly because of this book. Martin Luther was not a fan of this book until he saw that he would use it as a tool to advance his own agenda against the Roman Catholic Church. The book of Revelation is a very dangerous book because it is filled with symbols that are timelessly open to interpretation. Every new generation has a antichrist and a new time frame for the end time based on these symbols. Everyone who has the time to sit down and read this book and has enough imagination and worldly knowledge to make connections that hold some sort of credibility.