Readers of these columns know that there are sometimes references to the Book of Revelations from a Catholic Fundamentalist point of view. Over the past six months, I’ve read and re-read the Book many times. I’ve also read many of the commentaries on Revelations, as well as comments on the commentaries. What I thought were fairly easy interpretations that came to mind during the first six months of study seem to recede into realms of endless difficulty. In fact, last night, I stopped reading, and said to myself, “This is just too much for me to understand.” As I said so, some assurance that I was on the right track came into my mind, and I suddenly got two very minor insights.
When talking about the four animals (thought by many to be Seraphim) around The Throne, (Rev 4; 8) it is written: “Each of the four animals had eyes all the way around, as well as inside.”
Chapter 5, verse 1 describes the scroll with the Seven Seals that no one but Jesus could open: “I saw that in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne there was a scroll that had writing on back and front and was sealed with seven seals.”
My conclusion was that the Seraphim and the Scroll were transparent to John. The four animals’ insides were visible, and the only organs mentioned were eyes, indicating their both their spiritual nature and their operative qualities. The internal eyes could see both the light coming into them, from the eyes on the outside, but could further analyze what they were seeing with the internal eyes.
The fact that The Scroll with the Seven Seals was written on both the front and back could have only been seen by John if the scroll were transparent. That leads one to the possible conclusion that The Scroll was, as Catholic Fundamentalists suggest, a rolled-up sheet of pure light, and the writing was opaque.
The Seven Seals, to Catholic Fundamentalists, are seen as programs which were written by The Programmer and downloaded by The Program.
P.S. I frequently make references to “The way Catholic Fundamentalists see things.” Please understand, I do not know if there if there is even one other person in the world, aside from myself, who is a Catholic Fundamentalist. I do know that many Catholics are looking for a way to escape the modernists who have done so much damage to The Church.
Further, I do know that many Fundamentalists have a problem with throwing out fifteen hundred years of Church History in order to justify cash flows received by those who make a practice of ignoring Scripture or reducing it to a biased, bigoted, human account replete with error. I am assuming that some small numbers of those groups, if they are not Catholic Fundamentalists, are at least close to being so.
