Apocalypse Today: The Actuality of the Revelation of John

Jesus, the Christ, had opened the blockades ─ the "seven seals" ─ between the divine and the earthly world through his mystery path. Since then, a stream of divine forces has been breaking into the earthly world spiritually (the apocalyptic horsemen), psychically (the trumpet angels), energetically (the harvest angels), and physically (the angels with the bowls of wrath), revealing (apokalyptiko) all that was previously hidden, and calling for a turnaround. Those who resist will experience this stream as correction and catastrophe. Those who cooperate will experience it as a new possibility of life: as the replacement of the old ego-human with a new true self. The images in the text are timeless and apply to every end time including the present time of crisis. The "beast from the sea" is an image of striving for power. The "beast from the earth" is an image of imitated love of Christ. The "woman on the scarlet beast" is an image of striving for possession, and the "dragon" that inspires them all is an image of nihilistic atheism. Today they manifest themselves as fascism, authoritarian socialism, neoliberal capitalism, and scientific materialism. The Apocalypse thus proves to be the paradigm of original Christianity for the history of humanity, its present state, and the salvation or disaster of its future.