The Book of Revelation in the Mirror of our Age [antikvár]

Preface The author did not intend to write a scientific work for scholars, but rather wanted to help common people who search for truth. This work does not fit in the criteria of the so-called practical theological style of argumentative method that is in use generally. The author wanted to lead the reader to the resources. The best condition of a painstaking study of the Bible is the willingness of searching the Bible for spiritual nourishment. The author would seek to teach Biblical thinking for lay people who desire to learn. He did not follow the so-called scientific disputing style in order that he would "strictly dwell on the text that is under objective discussion", following a kind of scientific absurdity in explaining the Bible from a historical perspective, even more, from the perspective of today. Here, however, he purposely broke with tradition, because it has been his unshakable conviction that the prophecies of the Bible originated from God. Therefore, their fulfillments do not only prove their authenticity, but also are their best explanations. Rationalism tries to evaluate literary works of old times from a contemporary viewpoint alone, and the claim that this guarantees an unbiased treatment is purely nonsense. The author tried to do the opposite: he intended to learn the thinking of the ancient times and apply that to the present age as prophecy. We may ask which method provides more impartiality in treating the matter. It belongs to the preciseness and depth of the book to express Biblical concepts by unusual words, when the usual Hungarian expression does not provide the proper equivalent. I am speaking of psychological terms mainly, such as soul, spirit, mood, flesh, etc. Any serious expert will admit, that translating both Greek words psyche and pneuma as "soul" is confusing and unknown in the European languages, and is unnecessary in the Hungarian language as well. The words that have been used by the author for decades received criticism of all kinds, but the critics have not take any steps so far to find words more apt, and instead, kept the old and wrong ones. By doing this they acknowledged, that they - although for different reasons - try to leave the Bible obscure on purpose. There is no Bible study without being conscientious. Without Bible study, the guidance of the soul would turn to the heretic sectarian teachers, as is shown by the proliferation and strengthening of these sects and the stagnation of the evangelical movements. Life does not stop. And where people stop, life itself runs out. There is no room in this book to explain the afore-mentioned psychological terms. The reader should acquire the author's book entitled Biblical Psychology. However, we may give an overview of the most general lines of the issue here. Man originated of two worlds, the world of spirit and the world of matter. Yet in this dichotomy, the most wholesome union is manifest, and the unity that forms the individual or self I-.;. I , \ rl • ! i ¦ I, ! " ' ' , I ¦