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The Kingdom of God is not really within each of us, Didymos, but in each believer. (Assuming by 'us' you meant every human being. If not, I'm sorry )
Now whether Revelation is to be taken completely symbolically or not is not something I'd be comfortable talking about, as I haven't studied Revelation much.
I did mean every human being, and I maintain that claim.
The kingdom of God is within each of us, every human being - but only the believer will recognize it. The unbeliever will be ignorant of his true nature, and will, therefore, be unable to help others realize the presence of the kingdom of God.
Does this difference make any sense? We all have the potential for recognizing our good nature, so the kingdom of God is within us all.
If the work is not meant to be symbolic, then the work is pure junk. If it is meant to be symbolic, then the work is pure brilliance. A literal reading of Revelations reduces that classic literature to the drivel penned by a mad man. A mature reading of the text, one that takes into account literary style, will show the work to be of a well considered genius.
I always wondered(lets assume there is a heaven and I some how got into it) how can I enjoy heaven when I know the people I loved dearly are all in hell!
Does god performs some sort of brainwashing on us?
I'm fully aware that it's meant to be symbolic. However, there are some things in Revelation that are literal (while perhaps holding some level of symbolism), such as the day of judgment taking place. We know this because Jesus speaks much of it in the accounts of His earthly life.
Why would the Day of Judgment be literal, and the plethora of seven signs, for example, be figurative? By what criteria do we determine one passage to be literal and another figurative?
Revelations is an allegory, like Dante's Comedy.
By the way, to clarify, I use "believer" loosely. I am not suggesting that one must be a believer in Jesus himself (because that would exclude all good people who have never heard of that man), but instead, I mean anyone who believes in what Jesus taught, namely love for others.
Well, we know there is a day of Judgment, as Christ constantly talks about it as if it were literal.
Still, the plethora of signs are signs. They obviously just won't be literal horsemen/vials/etc. Just as the day of Judgment is a day of Judgment, though the events that take place during this Judgment in Revelation may be allegorical.
Out of curiosity, how would you define a believer? And by that I mean a Christian.
I'm not sure that is the case - in fact, I disagree. Jesus employed figurative language in most of his teachings; that was his primary tool for instruction, figurative tales and expressions.
But I asked how you make such a determination. If all of the events relating to the Day of Judgment are figurative, why would we make the leap into asserting that the Day of Judgment itself is, unlike everything describing it, literal.
I am not saying there is no "Day of Judgment", what I am saying is that the concept is figurative, not literal. Just as the concept of man as the salt of the earth is figurative rather than literal, though quite real.
A Christian is someone who honestly self identifies as a Christian. While most practicing Christians would object to this definition, it is the only one that works given the historic diversity of beliefs among groups who are recognized by historians and scholars as Christian.
15Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
My use of believe I clarified, in the context of my initial post in this thread. A specifically Christian believer is as described above.
so Didymos Thomas,
"A Christian is someone who honestly self identifies as a Christian"
what about those people who have split beliefs or are undecided about what they believe in, what do they self-identify themselves as.
Is that all it takes to be a christian, for me to self-identify myself as such? wow a lot easier than i thought.
Well, that's true. Jesus did often convey His messages through parables and figurative tales, but those are always well defined as parables. Jesus getting up there and saying "many will come to me on the day of Judgment and profess to me 'Lord Lord'...", with little indication of any symbolic language.
Because of the bible verses outside of revelation that are not completely symbolic that talk about a day of Judgment.
But let's imagine for a minute that we were listening to Jesus' sermon. When He says "you are the salt of the earth", we know that He is speaking figuratively. It's obvious, isn't it? But when He should talk about how at one point there will be a day of Judgment, and that something would happen on this day, the figurativeness of this is not at all obvious to me, as it would be for the men standing and listening to Him. And, Christ was teaching the people who were present, that they would understand. Why would He give speeches that are incredibly ambiguous to their meaning?
Here, we see Jesus calling those that bear evil fruit 'false prophet'. In the context, however, 'false prophet' also means 'false Christian' (As the topic Christ is addressing is basically who will get into heaven and who will not). So we see that Christians who do not bear good fruit are not truly Christians.
No. If you got into heaven (which, by extension, means you became a Christian), and your family went to hell, I wouldn't think you'd mind. We'll probably rejoice in God's righteous judgment towards the wicked, and not mourn them.