The False Prophet of Revelation

Luke 21
8 He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them.

Jesus gives us two signs of a false prophet right here, they are that he will claim to be Jesus and that he will claim that "the time is near". He tells us that if someone says these things that we should not follow them. After Jesus says these words, he goes on to describe the end times.

Why is Revelation important here? Because it claims to be a prophecy of the end times from Jesus himself. Let's take a look at what Revelation has to say to us.

Revelation 1
1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud 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.

Well, whaddya know. John of Patmos checks off both requirements within the very first passage of Revelation. He claims to speak for Jesus and that the time is near. What is Revelation supposed to be? A prophecy, so in that regard John is a prophet, at least according to himself and apparently Jesus.

Don't believe that John claims to be Jesus through the words he writes down? Let's look a little further down within the first chapter.

Revelation 1
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

John is claiming to be the "Alpha and Omega" through his writing. No one else but John wrote these words down, so he is claiming to be God speaking through the hand of John of Patmos.

Again, Jesus tells us not to follow those who claim to be him and who say the time is near. As we can clearly see within the first 8 verses of Revelation, this supposed "prophet" called John meets both requirements.

We have no idea who this "John" is, it could be anyone. Most of Christianity today attributes Revelation to John the Apostle, the author of the Gospel of John and his three epistles 1, 2, and 3 John. But if we read through those books we can see that the verbiage and literary style used does not match up with that of Revelation. It seems as though John had a case of multiple personality disorder between writing his gospel and epistles and writing Revelation.

Most scholars of today reject the idea that John the Apostle wrote Revelation noting the lack of cohesive literary style between it and John's other books. Yet, still Christians hold on to the notion that John the Apostle wrote it ignoring scholarly work and opinion. The author of Revelation could be ANYONE and we wouldn't be any the wiser about it. For all we know, the author of Revelation used the name John only to draw a line between himself and John the Apostle, giving himself false legitimacy.

Why would Jesus feel the need to make John write Revelation when he already spoke of the end times while here in the flesh? Not only does he describe the end times in the gospels, he describes it right after warning us of false prophets. Why would Jesus warn us about those who claimed to be him and claimed the time is near when he knew he would make "John" claim those exact same things through a vision, telling this "John" to describe something that he already described while here on Earth? It doesn't make any sense.

These things lead me to believe that John of Patmos, the author of Revelation, is none other than one of the false prophets Jesus warned us about.

Those who ignore these signs ignore Jesus' warning and are part of the "strong delusion" the bible speaks of. They believe a lie to be the truth, they believe Jesus will come back and fix things for them instead of getting up and doing the work themselves. Here's a tip: if you sit on your hands waiting for Jesus to come back to fix things for you because you believe Revelation to be inspired by God, you are playing right into the hands of those in power. They do not want you to try and fix things, they want you to wait. While you wait, they laugh all the way to the bank with their wars and the profit they make off of them. They have the perfect scapegoat: Jesus and his second coming, the thing that requires war in order for things to be fixed.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Lets not forget revelation was rejected by the church for the first 400 some odd years after Jesus' death...

It was even rejected by the first council that established the initial canon of the bible...

And NO It wasn't At The council of Nicea

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

So then where is the hope?

If John was, as you claim, a false prophet, why did Jesus talk about his return? How come revelation seems to be playing out, today, as it is written in the Bible? Do you think maybe some powerful influence is causing these events to confirm John's prophecy? Fish are dying, water has turned red, rumours of wars are here and Israel is once again looking to be in conflict. As is the rest of the world, on a whim (remember Russia like.... Last month)..... How was he right?

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

False Phrophet = television set

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Revelation supposed to take place in the beginning of the new Millenium . Maybe it already happened and the meaning is lost on some people. Maybe not in a literal way but in metaphors. A creature born of Chaos, the Beast. Wasn't he in fear of death hiding in a cave when he wrote Revelation, or what they believe through records. Maybe he knew "someone" who had a massive head injury. I saw "woodworm" in my King James Version of the Bible. That is a hallucinagin . The native Americans used to go on vision quests with peyote. Maybe a number of factors contributed to his vision. Revelation, great ephimamy or dawning of understanding. Maybe their are religious like you who wanted to research what this could've meant. Maybe it's already done and they have their answers. If it was a metaphor , and the rapture means ascending into heaven? What if we were here the whole time. A secret code to the teachings of the Bible, or meaning?

a reply to: Joneselius

Well, those in power are the ones who have preserved the bible and thus Revelation to this day. If those in power really wanted to exterminate the bible, they would have, but they didn't. In fact, they made it the state religion of the most powerful empire in the world at the time. Strange how that works isn't it?

Revelation's prophecies are vague and very non-specific. That's a perfect recipe for later generations of those in power to model world events around, all they'd have to do was look in the book and then stage events that vaguely resemble the vague prophecies. They WANT events to look like Revelation playing out, that's how they will get impunity with their coming wars for profit. People will see these events and HOPE for war, because that is supposedly when Jesus will return. How long have we been warring with one another? Thousands of years, people have also been claiming the end is near for the same amount of time.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

We have no idea who this "John" is, it could be anyone. Most of Christianity today attributes Revelation to John the Apostle, the author of the Gospel of John and his three epistles 1, 2, and 3 John.

I wasnt aware that anyone thought that? Certainly no Biblcal scholar!

originally posted by: SilentHill666
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Revelation supposed to take place in the beginning of the new Millenium .

Some thought so. But 1,000AD is long gone! And here we still are ....

But anyway, most think Revelations refers to Rome at the time it was written. But I am sure some will continue to confound people and use it to con money out of them for many more centuries to come. None so gullible as the religious ....

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Lets not forget revelation was rejected by the church for the first 400 some odd years after Jesus' death...

It was even rejected by the first council that established the initial canon of the bible...

And NO It wasn't At The council of Nicea

When Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed in 70 AD, very few Christian Jews were killed. That is because they saw the roman eagle standards being carried by soldiers in the temple courts as the "abomination that leads to desolation". They got out of town as suggested and it saved them.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ was accepted by early Christians as the final work of St John the Apostle. There is also evidence that they held the Roman Emperor Nero to be the Antichrist (from 54 AD, only 21 years after the crucifixion).

There was no 400 year wait.

a reply to: Joneselius

So then where is the hope?

I know this wasn't a reply to me but...

I would say "the hope" lies within trusting the words of the man Christians call God, and following through with the method of living he explained so clearly in the gospels.

Christians tend to whitewash his teaching and keep hope in the idea that just believing in him will be enough...

But as the OP stated, one can't just sit on their hands and do nothing in this life without consequences

To those he will say "I never knew you" for what you did to the least of them... YOU have done to me

a reply to: chr0naut

There was no 400 year wait.

Incorrect...

a reply to: AndyMayhew

I'm sure you have Google, look it up. The majority of modern scholars reject that John the Apostle was the author of Revelation.

The title is taken from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apokalypsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The author names himself as "John", but it is extremely unlikely that the author of Revelation was also the author of the Gospel of John. Some of the evidence for this was set out as early as the second half of the 3rd century by Dionysius, archbishop of Alexandria, who noted that the gospel and the epistles attributed to John, unlike Revelation, do not name their author, and that the Greek of the gospel is correct and elegant while that of Revelation is neither; some later scholars believe that the two books also have radical differences in theological perspective. Tradition links him to John the Apostle, but it is unlikely that the apostle could have lived into the most likely time for the book's composition, the reign of Domitian, and the author never states that he knew Jesus. All that is known is that this John was a Jewish Christian prophet, probably belonging to a group of such prophets, and was accepted as such by the congregations to whom he addresses his letter. His precise identity remains unknown, and modern scholarship commonly refers to him as John of Patmos.

LINK

a reply to: DeathSlayer

Address the information presented and not the one presenting it, otherwise I will assume you have nothing to refute what I brought to the table.

I never said John was God, only John did. He claims God spoke through him meaning he was not the one speaking but God himself.

Thanks for playing though.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: AndyMayhew

I'm sure you have Google, look it up. The majority of modern scholars reject that John the Apostle was the author of Revelation.

Er, that is what I said

You suggested they were one and the same. Maybe a typo in your OP?

a reply to: AndyMayhew

What I said was that Christians tend to think they're one and the same, I do not believe they are.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

I dont think many Christians think there are the same! Not any who know anything about the Bible, anyway.

But we are agreed, scholars certainly dont

I think I bought woodworm of the internet back when I used to read High Times and glorify drugs. I have been clean six months and trying to get a job on the books and live a healthy life. I think you put woodworm in liquor and leave it there and it makes absinthe. I don't know I threw that crap out looked like poison after a few days and probably would have killed me. I was under the understanding Apostle John wrote Revelation when he was older. Maybe someone who knew Jesus Christ and knew how debilitating a massive head injury can be and maybe he was saying a creature born of Chaos , the teachings of Jesus Christ would come back to provide structure and proper upbringing.

Correct - the phantasms of a wronged individual, imprisoned, showing clear signs of the onset (or full blown) of dementia...if in fact it was one person who penned revelation...

Å99

a reply to: Akragon

I agree, the concept of Jesus returning to fix things for us goes against what Jesus taught.

Jesus taught us to love one another and to DO what he commanded. To DO what he commanded is to actively seek to make peace manifest into the world. What harm does love do to a neighbor? None. If no harm is done, peace is made. Peace requires good works.

The second coming teaches us not to worry about making peace because war is inevitable and part of God's great plan. In other words, don't love (make peace) your neighbor because conflict is unavoidable.

I am sorry if I am considered blasphemous. They already went through with the conditions of Revelation. It is a well guarded secret. Early in the new Millenium . There was an earthquake and tsunami on Dec. 24th 2004 Christmas Eve and he didn't come back. So that opens pandora s box as to what he could've meant. Maybe metaphorical or visions of a madman. The whole world has been religious from the birth of time, don't you think people would've wanted to see what he meant?