A Reason to Live –
A meaning for life. A test of wills. Don’t bury your talent. Learn what you can. Teach what you can. You will need help. Ask for it. Seek the truth. You will find it. Knock and it will be open unto you. The Truth will not only set you free, It will make you happy. It will help you pass the final test. We are being tested. You may not find that word in your bible.
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A Servant of God –
A “lamb” and the “bare record” ties John the Baptist to the Apocalypse. Vischer holds the Apocalypse to have been originally a purely Jewish composition. It would not have included the seven churches that Eusebius and Victorinus failed to recognize. There is a reasonable explanation why they didn’t.
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A Search for Truth –
A “love of truth seeks a holy leisure“, a Thomas quote of Augustine. Few have the time to devote to pure research and those who do need to share what they have learned. The internet makes this possible. Knowledge shall be increased. Search engines allow others to find what has been discovered. Seek, and ye shall find.
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A Lamb of God –
A voice crying is the wilderness. The word “lamb” is mentioned 27 times in the Apocalypse. John the Baptist knew the “Lamb of God”. He was preparing the way for “the time is at hand”. John the Baptist did not know Jesus was the Lamb of God. John the Apostle knew that and was also aware of his following.
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A Problem With The Churches –
A strange commentary by Victorinus. He mentions the churches Paul wrote to but not the ones John wrote to. This is hard to believe but it would be consistent with both Eusebius and Victorinus looking at the Apocalypse John the Baptist wrote and that would not include the seven churches.
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A Witness –
A Church History that includes six of the seven churches that John wrote to but Eusebius never associates them with the Apocalypse. Victorinus doesn’t even mention them. Is it possible there is a version of the Apocalypse that doesn’t include the seven churches? It could be a reasonable explanation for what we are looking at.
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A Church History –
A problem with the churches. Eusebius mentions six of the seven churches of the Apocalypse but never associates them with the Apocalypse. He doesn’t mention Antipas. All this would be consistent with an earlier version of the Apocalypse written by John the Baptist. Victorinus has a similar problem.
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A Witness –
A view of what was. We don’t know what the Apocalypse looked like in the third century. Victorinus knew and we know what his commentary looked like. It didn’t include the seven churches John wrote to. It did include the seven churches Paul wrote to. There is a reasonable explanation for this. He is not the only witness.
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A Recapitulation –
A necessary tool of teaching. Practice, practice, practice. Everything must be repeated. Even the liars have learned that. Victorinus was the first to suggest that visions in the Apocalypse were repeated and could not be considered in chronological order. A clear example of this is the “bottomless pit” where the beast is released before it is chained. The beast is not a ‘him’. A careful analysis of Daniel and the Apocalypse in all the translations clearly shows that the beast is an ‘it’.
A First Coming –
A kingdom at hand. The time was near. John the Baptist knew the Lamb, a word used 27 times in the Apocalypse. He wrote the first one. Later John the apostle added Jesus and the seven churches. He knew about the followers of John the Baptist in Ephesus. There must be a third John.
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apocalypse 