Personally my problem with Revelation is in the translation in key points, which leads to obscurity and confusion for this time:
The New Testament mentions DRUG TRAFFICKING five times. But you would never know it studying English translations, because a convention has been adopted to minimize and obscure the plain meaning of the Greek in these passages. In all five cases, DRUG TRAFFICKING is severely condemned, and even blamed for the enslavement of the whole Earth and its leaders.
Twice in Paul, in lists of henious and abominable sins DRUG TRAFFICKING is mentioned as a fruit of the ANTICHRIST. (Galatians 5:20 etc orig. Greek)
Four times in Revelation, DRUG TRAFFICKING is mentioned as one of the key abominations of those unrepentant monsters who have enslaved the Earth and are doomed to be cast into the Lake of Fire. (Rev 9:21, 18:23, 21:8, 22:15 original Greek)
At the time Revelation was written, it probably seemed like science fiction: Remarkably, the main vision has become frighteningly accurate:
The three main businesses of the World are GUNS, DRUGS, and PROSTITUTION, all multi-BILLION dollar businesses that seem incomprehensible, dwarfing the largest governments and GNPs, and making the richest 'merchants' (like Bill Gates) seem like small boats drifting on a great sea.
The Greek word here, "PHARMACIA/PHARMAKON" has always meant trading or trafficking in drugs and potions, as evidenced by the use of the word in ACTS, Herodotus, and hundreds of contemporaneous documents from New Testament times. It is of course where we get our English word 'Pharmacy' from! It began to be 'interpreted' more softly and vaguely for us during the rise of the Roman Church, because simultaneously, the Roman church was infiltrated and began to become the biggest drug dealer of all time, selling the most popular drug, ALCOHOL.
By the middle Ages, the Church and Holy Roman Empire owned or controlled and organized virtually all the grape growing and wine production in Europe. Even the monasteries and Monk's Orders were so heavily involved and dependant upon manufacturing the drug ALCOHOL that they passed by silently on this crucial topic when all the Protestant bibles were being translated and published in the common tongues of Europe.
So instead of its plain meaning, various substitutionary words were used, like 'sorcery' or 'witchcraft', 'magic', even though the real meaning was plainly known. This is not to deny that some words in the O.T. for instance also refer to 'magical' practises or superstitions known to be foolish and wicked.
But in fact throughout history 'witchcraft', 'divining', and pagan practises like orgies were intimately associated with the crucial DRUGS that made the behavior and the experiences possible, and intoxicating.
This is precisely how it is today! The modern New Age religion and paganism is just really pretty much a cover and an excuse to indulge in drugs and sex practises that would not be tolerated or comprehensible otherwise.
Now more than ever we need clear translation and exposition of plain Biblical teachings on these crucial subjects, and they are right there before us if we are willing to take them and embrace them to protect us and our children from the poison this culture is pushing upon us.
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