Clarity on the Lake of Fire and the Book of Revelation

Hi -

Note: (Please excuse the paragraph spacing gaps in this piece.  For some reason, it wouldn't cooperate when I attempted to fix the subject gaps.)

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So many folks don’t understand the book of Revelation.  I’ve learned more about it and will dig deeper to learn further about that mysterious book.

What I’ve learned is that much of Revelation is SYMBOLIC -- perhaps even all of it . . . but of that I’m NOT sure.

My research has led me to the conclusion that the lake of fire is NOT reality.  I STRONGLY urge folks to research for themselves to discover the truths about that matter.

I remember reading in the gospel where, in the bible, Jesus says he’s the bread of life.   Of course, folks understand that that doesn’t mean ACTUAL bread.  It’s SYMBOLIC.

Link to YouTube video (less than five minutes long) titled, “Hell’s Lake of Fire, It’s Pre-biblical Origins.”

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AprQSXIlV4

Here’s the link to an article about the book of Revelation:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/brevelation.html

Below is an excerpt from that article from the Section titled, “Who Was Augustine?”

CAPS MINE

“What Augustine does by helping put the Book of Revelation in the Bible really accomplishes two things. One, he provides what will become, at least eventually, the normative reinterpretation of the book by reading ALL OF THE SYMBOLISM IN IT AS JUST THAT, SYMBOLISM AND NOT LITERAL HISTORY. Now, that doesn't happen overnight, but his view is the one that will eventually carry the day throughout most of later Christian tradition.”

This links to the article, “Hell’s Pre-Christian Origins:  Hell-fire, Dragons, Serpents, and Resurrections:

http://www.bibleorigins.net/hellsorigins.html

 Here’s an excerpt from an article relative to the book of Revelation:

“. . . Revelation -- whose inclusion in the official canon of the Bible was actively disputed.  In the fourth century CE, when the canon of the Bible was assembled from among the approximately 50 gospels and hundreds of epistles then in use by the Christian movement, Revelation was only reluctantly included. "To this day, Orthodox churches do not use Revelation for scripture readings during worship."

Here’s the link to the entire article, “THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES:The acceptance of the book of Revelation”

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_ntb5d.htm