The book of Revelations is as much talked about as Jesus Christ.  Everyone has their own view and opinion on the last book in the bible.  I have of course my own view.  As a child the book was actually used as a scare method, if you don't behave then you will be cast aside when Jesus comes back.  At one point I was so scared I had bad dreams of the clouds forming up as angels and the world ending.  Forget Dracula or the Boogie man, Jesus Christ was much more terrifying.  Of course throughout my aging I have studied the bible and other religious books and religions themselves.  Currently the History channel, Discovery, and of course pbs and NOVA have done many shows on the subject.  Some claims stating it was written by a crazed man locked in a tower!

     I have personally stayed away from the topic and am much more concerned with current environmental and human issues to worry about something that I don't even believe.  At least once or maybe twice a year I'll go back to the book and do a brief runthrough of Revelations.  Just like the rest I have to look at the motives behind it and the time it was written.

     The Catholic church taught us that this was written by the Apostle John when he was banished to the Isle of Patmos by the emperor Domitian.  They believe that it was not written during Nero's time because of the 7 church's maturity and the fact that Nero did not banish people.  So here we go again on not a clue about author or time period.  One of the things that hinders my belief in the bible is lack of proof on anything.  Word of mouth being spread around by not the most intelligent of people can lead to many fish stories and the size enlarging drastically.  I regress.

     During the time of the writing of the book the world was in a horrible state of affairs.  To me this was written as a form of propaganda, a way to motivate the people and give them hope that the Roman empire would soon fall.  It is also a way to keep people in line, to continue following the message and you will be saved. 

     I don't believe in the bible or any of it's history.  I believe that history is written by the winners and especially the old testament as a way to justify destroying and killing many, many people.  To me Revelations is another way to control and scare the believers into not delving to deep.  To keep the faith or this will happen to you.  The likes of Nostradomos and the rest of the "visionaries" made their predictions because of the material they had to work with.  Wars, earthquakes, etc. are always going to happen, this is not hard to predict.  References to 911 are now beening said were "predicted".  Instead of 2000, it's now Dec. 12-21 2012 for the end of the world!  The apostles were also afraid of the end, and Jesus told them that only the father knows.  To try and figure out the end was considered a sin.

     I'm not that concerned with the calendar of the Incans because they couldn't predict their own demise, let alone the end of time.  Christians shouldn't worry about it either.  One, it's a sin.  Two, they would be following another god, also a sin.  Three, do the time line.  How long will it take to rebuild the Temple?  Even if someone destroyed the Rock and tamed the Muslims into letting them rebuild, which will take many years alone, how long even with current technology would that take?  We also need the 2 nearly indestructable men, the war, the beast chasing the woman for at least 3 years, etc, etc, etc.  We go way past 2012!

     To me Revelations was either a really bad dream, written by a crazy man, or written by a very cunning person with a very bad agenda.  Either way, I do not accept any of it, nor will I.