>Like Martin Luther, I am not fond of the book of Revelations and see it as nothing more than apocalyptic playbook to be used by the elite to control the future of humanity. In my opinion, it is religious malware that needs to be disinfected from our culture once and for all.
I entirely agree with you about how "Revelation" is used. I would place however, more of the blame with the doom-sayer / fear-monger element of traditional preaching that has always thrived on oversimplified interpretation of sacred texts in order to remain close to what the layman will "buy" from him. This keeps both of them entirely apart from the ultimate "spiritual" (symbolic and typological) context of Scripture that teaches much different things. They refuse to let the Word live (in present meaning and value), and we all suffer from that.
In the first typograph you posted, Luther is quoted, "…Christ is neither taught in it nor recognized." This tells me even he did not understand the book, probably for the same reason.
Few people even know the title of this book anymore, because of commercial theologians. It is not "Revelations." It is called "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." And they hate that because they can't sell it.
It is about the events and processes of spiritual (not carnal) warfare that take place in ideology and in politics and in the vital interactive relationships of the time to which it pertains - in the perception of only the most genuinely watchman-like pursuer of truth and justice - those that know why, what and where the most important battles of our time are taking place, and engage them there. In him and with him is the true nature and mind of Christ (ancient wisdom in spiritual men) "revealed," which is the Second Advent.
Revelation is also the only book of the Bible that curses anyone who adds to or takes from it (such as by twisting its meaning or causing others to miss progress in the things that are important).
In the same spirit, all the traditional "disillusions" of commercial theology - indeed…
>need to be disinfected from our culture once and for all.