INTRODUCTION
In my youth, I had written several books on Revelation. I wanted to put forth my conviction that Revelation was directed to the people who heard it preached, as well as a prophecy to later people about the end times. That would make my interpretation preterist in contrast to the futurist interpretations so popular in the United States. I think it makes more sense that the preaching of John would have warned the Judean people that their rejection of the Messiah would trigger God's rejection of them and their nation's demise as well as a warning to future generations what will happen to them if they also reject the Messiah when he returns.
There is sound scholarship behind this preterist position, as was described by J. Massyngberde Ford in her introduction of Revelation for the Anchor Bible series . Also, I realized that interpretations by Protestant authors differ from interpretations by Catholic Authors because the reformers, particularly John Calvin, claimed that the Catholic Church had betrayed Jesus Christ, and Christ had to start his church all over again. That's why most Protestants do not accept the mission of the Catholic Church or the promise of Jesus to send the Holy Spirit to guide his Church that he founded upon the apostles.
The reformers told the people that the Holy Spirit guides all Christians if they believe the Bible when they read it. I think it is obvious the Holy Spirit is not doing this because there are literally hundreds of Protestant sects that disagree with each other on almost every point in the Bible. It is the Catholic Church that has not wavered in its fidelity to the Gospel ever since Christ preached it.
Today the scientific community has thoroughly refuted the arguments of some Christians that the Bible is literally true in all that is written in the Bible. Therefore the Bible is no longer revered by those who control the American culture. They are sold on Darwinism that holds that humans merely evolved from animals. I have written a book about this.
The claims of Darwinists that God does not exist and humans merely evolved from brute animals are taught in every public school and in the media throughout the United States and probably in Europe also. It is obvious to me that the Christian message is being refuted worldwide as we all can recognize when we watch the media push science, evolution, and many other world views onto the American public.
I do not argue that the Bible is literally true in every statement in the Bible because statements are easily twisted by people arguing against the Bible. Instead, I am convinced that the Catholic Church is the one founded by Jesus Christ, and he sent the Holy Spirit to preserve his church from error. I listen to his church. Christ never told his apostles to write about his teaching: he told them to preach. Preaching by word of mouth would have reached the common person of that time because very few people in the first century knew how to read and write. The Catholic Church preaches Christ's Gospel, even today, to every nation and tongue in their own language, and you can have a dialogue with the Church, whereas you cannot with a book that was written two thousand years ago.
Also Christ intended to build his church, in which he is physically present, as a human organization of his followers. They are organized into a hierarchy of apostles (those anointed as bishops, priests, deacons, etc.) headed by St. Peter and his successors in future ages. Christ maintains his physical presence on earth dwelling within all baptized persons within his Church who are living according to his teaching. His church, his physical presence on earth, will remain within his followers until the end of time. This is what is meant in the Apostles' Creed by the words: his holy Catholic Church. This is a difficult point, but in today’s world where even God's existence is denied, it is wise to listen to and accept the authentic teaching of The Magisterium. You won't be lost in an argument you cannot win and jeopardize your own faith. I think, based on my confidence in The Magisterium, that evolution could very easily explain how God created man and the world. But it is only a scientific theory and could be revised as more is learned. But the crucial element is, no matter how he did it, God did, indeed, create man and the world.
I wrote an earlier interpretation of Revelation, which showed how I understood chapters 4 thru 16, which I think, are a detailed warning to the Judeans that, since their elders rejected Jesus, actually had him put to death, and their children tried to destroy the early church Jesus had founded, God will reject them. I think I did a good job of it.
Modern interpretations link the predictions within Revelation to today’s current events that all their readers are familiar with. Their readers are not familiar with the "current events" that occurred in first century Judea and Rome. So I included a lot of first century history to show how most of the predictions in Revelation meshed with the current events of first century history much better than they would to 20th century events. This is not my prediction of what will happen in the future as is done in futurist interpretations: this is actually what did happen in Judea many years ago. Finally, the seventh bowl is poured on Judea and Judea, many years ago, ceased to be a nation. The Judeans were then scattered all over the world. I think I presented a convincing argument for the preterist position.
A new interpretation has recently been published by a Catholic author, Emmett O'Regan Unveiling the Apocalypse. I recommend you read that book. My earlier interpretation did not adequately discuss what the end times are going to be like. O'Regan did a scholarly job on that topic. He cites many apparitions of the Virgin Mary, that I was familiar with, but he tied them together so well that I'm now convinced that I, at eighty-seven years of age, could very likely witness the end times and final judgement myself.
So I decided to write my present book. It presents a much better view of the end times than I was able to portray in my earlier book. In this book, I'm going to re-argue my preterist view and add a detailed futurist view. I will also take an altogether different perspective on what is going on behind the scenes in Revelation because I think too many Americans no longer believe Revelation anyway.
Actually, they no longer believe that God created angels and that some of the angels defied God and were transformed into devils or even that God allows devils to tempt humans to draw us into alliance with the devils in their revolt against the God who created all of us. Because so many Americans no longer believe that God permits devils to tempt us humans, I decided not to use the words "Satan," "The Devil," or "Lucifer" interchangeably as though these words are synonyms. All three words refer to the same person but, when writing to an audience that is not sure they can believe any of Revelation, I thought it prudent to use only the name the Bible gave to Lucifer. Lucifer is his proper name. It means bearer of light. It was given to him in Isaiah. I think it describes the role God wanted Lucifer to play in God's creation.
In addition to not believing Genesis, many people fall into a relative view that nothing is absolutely true, it's only what people think is true. Whatever you think is true really is true for you, but your truth might differ from what someone else might think is true. It's easy from there to suppose that what Christians think God has revealed to them is not necessarily what God would reveal to adherents of other religions. This is not true. God is the God who created everybody. What he thinks is true for everybody. We should all pay attention to what God has revealed.
I think God wanted Lucifer to be like a bright morning star. He would illumine the minds of lesser created angels and, in due time, the minds of human beings. I think this was an extraordinary privilege granted to Lucifer but, for some reason, Lucifer wanted more. That was as far as Lucifer's probation went. As soon as he thought "No!" he was no longer the bright morning star: he was "Satan." Satan means adversary, in Lucifer's case someone who is opposed to God, the chief critic of God, the one who thinks he must be equal to God. That's what Lucifer does.
Lucifer did not want to love and serve God as God commands, so God punished him and transformed him into a devil. Devils have a similar spiritual nature as angels, but their attitude is hostile to what God wants. They refuse to love and serve God as God commands. Lucifer was the instigator of the heavenly rebellion and he enticed one-third of the angels to join in with him in his refusal to pay homage and respect and love to the God who created him. Lucifer is the chief devil because of his more highly gifted angelic nature and because he is the source of rebellion against God. He is like the Godfather of all who rebel against God. His title reflects his influence on all devils. His title is "The Devil," the ringleader of all the devils.
I think the main reason Lucifer offended God is that he did not want to accept what God was showing him. He understood how splendid was the nature God had given him, and probably thought what God was expecting from him was demeaning. He offended God by being too proud to comply with what God expected from him. That was the end of his test. He forever lost the sublime mission God created for him, and he will never be offered it again.
Lucifer influenced the other angels and one-third of them agreed with Lucifer and joined into his rejection of God. God then punished Lucifer and the angels who followed him by casting them out of heaven and onto earth. I think God did not want the good angels to experience the struggle against the influence of Lucifer’s rebellion. It would compromise the bliss and happiness God wanted the angels to experience in heaven.
Later when God created human beings, Lucifer influenced the matriarch of the human race and she too disobeyed God, she and her husband along with her. In punishment, God saddled the entire human race to be influenced by Lucifer and his brood of devils. I will get ahead of myself a little bit now and point out something about when God created humans, and when the promised Messiah finally came. I think it is God’s will that humans struggle with good and evil and all humans suffer because of it. I think God can end this rebellion any way he wants, but I think what he did do shows the way he wants to correct all the evil in the world.
Humans suffer because evil is operating in their lives. They could defeat evil if they could counteract all influence of Lucifer, but they cannot. I think God originally created Lucifer to be the morning light, to illumine the minds of lesser created angles and humans. Continuing my speculation, I’m convinced that this is the mission God created Lucifer for. If Lucifer complies with it, his actions are good and his life will be a successful portrayal of his allegiance to the God who created him. If Lucifer refuses to comply with this mission, his actions are evil and the wreckage he induces humans into doing will demonstrate what his rebellion leads to. God told Adam and Eve that, since they disobeyed God, their lives will be a struggle. We all know this.
God will intervene in this struggle. Humans suffer because all of them have been born into this rebellion, and none of them can make remedy for the suffering caused even by their own defiance against God. When anyone defies God, someone else winds up suffering because the good things God wanted to bestow on the one who suffers was taken by someone else who, by defying God, took was not given to him but to his victim.
Speculating more about what seems to be the motivation behind what God intended by sending his divine Son in human flesh to make remedy for sin is, I surmise, that God wants someone entirely righteous, who becomes victimized by someone else's sin, to ask God for forgiveness. Because the victim is entirely righteous, God will accept his prayer and grant forgiveness; whereas none of us wicked sinners have that much influence on God.
Actually the whole human race suffers because Lucifer and the devils who serve him have ruined life for all humans. There is no human being righteous enough to succeed in obtaining forgiveness for others from God because all humans themselves offend God through their own personal sins. So, I think, God had his divine son, the Divine Word, take on human flesh and make satisfaction for the sins of the world. You have to think about this hard. God could forgive sins any way he wants; but I think he chose a way that makes it clear that humans, not God, suffer because God allowed angels (and later humans) to defy him. Christ assumes all human suffering onto his own body and also all guilt for sin.
When the final resurrection comes, all humans will see the role every bit of human suffering played in obtaining forgiveness of those whose sins caused the suffering, and all humans, who had offended God by their sins, will see how human suffering obtained forgiveness for the sins they committed. All of it focuses through Jesus.
Jesus, being a divine person, is the only human being capable of taking all sin on his shoulders without himself committing the slightest offense against his Father. Jesus is the new Morning Star replacing Lucifer because Jesus accepted the Father's will for him in circumstances incredibly more difficult and repugnant that those facing Lucifer when Lucifer was first created. Also the Virgin Mary showed better trust in God when she believed, on faith in the angel's message, that she would bear a child when she knew, from her human experience, that what God was asking was plainly impossible. It is faith, acceptance in the absolute trust of God's word that pleases God most. And it is skepticism in the veracity of God's word that offends him, as was evident in the punishment given to Zacharias when he doubted the message of Gabriel. I think this is where the world is today. There is an extreme polarized difference between the world view of science and that of believers, and I don’t see how the two can be reconciled.
In my book I try to illumine this struggle between Lucifer and the human being who will replace Lucifer as the Morning Star to the human race. Jesus is not only the "Morning Star," he is also savior and redeemer of the whole human race. All those who believe his word, his Gospel, without seeing incontrovertible evidence for its veracity will share in his kingdom. Those who refuse to believe in his word will have offended him and his Father just like Lucifer offended God, through pride and disbelief at the beginning of creation.
Even though Revelation focuses primarily about the plight of human beings who reject the salvation God offers, I think there is also another point of view. I think Revelation is also warning the rebellious angels. They have made war against God and are trying to destroy the mission of God's appointed Savior and his Church. It is this war that has brought so much suffering and anxiety to humans.
Everything I write about in this book is either in Scripture, and the Church affirms it, or has been received by private revelation, and the Church affirms that also. Even though private revelation is not as binding as the faith handed down through the preaching of the Apostles, it is foolish not to believe the private revelation that has been judged worthy of belief by the Catholic Church. The Old Testament prophets preached private revelation given to them by God, that God meant all Israelites to accept, and there were many false prophets that preached opinions that did not come from God. Private revelation has been going on for a long time. My new perspective in this book is to point out how I think the rebellious angels should view the events occurring on earth and how those events apply to them. This is not obvious in reading Revelation, but I hope I can shed some insight in what I am doing.
Also, I do not want to burden my present book with long quotations or a long bibliography because, by using The Internet, one can verify everything I present in my book. That was not the case when I wrote my earlier books. If you are interested in my sources, you can find many lengthy quotations from the Douay-Rheims Bible, Josephus, Suetonius Caesars, Tacitus Annals, and Tacitus Histories plus a long bibliography in my earlier book.If you are still interested, let’s see how this plays out by reading my book. We start at the beginning of creation.