A modern day problem for Christianity is the naïve acceptance by evangelical Christians of the Revelation to John. First, they carelessly confuse this unknown author with the John of the Gospels and John the Disciple of the New Testament. Anthropological studies have shown that the stories of Revelation are taken directly from Middle-Eastern Magical Pagan rites (Isis, Dionysius, Diana, etc.) This Revelation expectation is condensed into the concept of the 1,000-year (millennial) Kingdom. For 1,000 years the dragon (Satan) is to be chained up and thrown into the abyss. In John's vision, Christians, the first resurrected, “came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4). Only later does the resurrection of all the dead take place, as well as the general judgment, creation of the new heaven and the new Earth, and the descent to the New Jerusalem. According to the view of the Revelation to John, this 1,000-year Kingdom is composed of the chosen comrades of the Kingdom, especially the martyrs and all who stood the test in times of persecution. It is a Kingdom of the privileged-elect.

It is surprising that modern day church fathers have not discredited Revelations because of its non-Christian origins. At the time of the third-century decisions concerning the limiting definition of what was to be the canonical New Testament Gospels, the book Revelation barely made the final cut. Because of the turmoil and paranoia it causes, one would think the evangelical scholars would re-appraise its authenticity.

Earth and its inhabitants need to find the path to Christ’s Kingdom here on Earth. The establishment of a 1,000-year Kingdom in which the elect, with Christ, will reign and receive the administrative and judgeship posts has fascinated religious expectations as well as political and social imagination far more than the second part of the eschatological expectation, the “Last Judgment.”

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