The book of Revelation should be discarded
 

Revelation, which very nearly didn't make it into the Bible, is open to a myriad of interpretations, many of which are completely off the wall. They would be amusing if it wasn't for extreme Biblical literalists who use that book to bolster their crazy end time and hell fire threats.

The moderate Christians of my acquaintance don't buy Revelation at all, and share my thoughts on the topic.

What do posters on this forum think about ditching that crazy book?

Jesus talked about the end time way before the book of Revelation was written, if you take a look you will see that there are some common things found in the Gospel of John and the book of Revelations, but from my knowledge, it's not sure if both books are written by the same man.Even more and this is the most amazing thing, the book of Daniel prophesied the end time even before Jesus.The Bible is full of prophecies, many of them came to pass but there are still some, concerning the end of the days, that are going to happen.There are many connections between the book of Daniel and the book of Revelations, nothing is by coincidence when it comes to the Word of God.

How could Jesus have known that His Word is going to be preached to the whole world? He lived more than 2000 years ago, so, how? If this is not a proof, then...

Jesus gave the impression the so called 'end times' would happen whilst his disciples were alive, if he couldn't predict them correctly no one can.

You still have not answered my question.

The literal interpretation of the book of revelation is indeed deeply concerning. I work in a monastery and asked several monks about their beliefs and even they say the book of revelation should be taken symbolically rather than literally. I know them for quite a while and they know me, but never have they ever threatened me with hell and eternal damnation if I don't live up to God's expectations. IMHO they seem much more spiritually advanced than their fundamentalistic brothers and sisters.

If you see a man crossing the street and from the right side a bus is coming, would you not tell that man, who, by the way, does not see the bus, to be careful of what he wants to do because he may die? It's the same thing when it comes to telling people about hell.It's an act of love but at the end of the day it's that man's choice, there's no forcing.I do believe with all my heart that the book of Revelations represents exactly the end of the days... there are too many signs.. ( like in the days of Noah.. - Matthew 24:37-39 )

Can you answer me how the prophecy concerning the preaching of the Word to the whole world is so accurate? How could He have known that it will be this way, unless He really was the Son of God.

It isn't accurate at all. The gospel writers used that so called 'prophesy' when they created a persona for Jesus, imo. Most people of the Jewish faith are still awaiting their promised 'Messiah', so they obviously didn't see him as particularly special when he was strutting his stuff on Earth. Nor did his family by the looks of it.

I remind you that the gospels were written now around 2000 years ago, how could He have known and why His apostles believed Him? If I say: "My words are going to be preached to the whole world"; would you believe me? Of course, no! Even the most brilliant men of this world are forgotten, but when it comes to Jesus, most of the world population knows a little bit about Him.Have you seen the persecution of christians in China? Imagine, the same thing happened when christianity came into the world, they were all persecuted.

Christianity has been responsible for persecution too over the centuries. The Crusades were a disreputable chapter in British history. The Spanish inquisition was another blot on the landscape of the Catholic Church.

Trying to convert people by threatening them with hell and eternal damnation if they don't become a Christian isn't love but rather fearmongering. And it certainly isn't helping anyone. The bible even says that people who are afraid and fearful will not inherit the kingdom of god. FEAR is a tool for many fundamentalists to harvest souls, especially with the help of fake testemonies and visions about hell that differ so much from another. I know, because I fell for it years ago and in my current days I'm still trying very hard to recover from my fear of death.

As for your question, I DO think Jesus may have existed and made predictions about the future that are accurate, but I also do believe the bible is possibly edited and rewritten so many times with a lot of original context removed or changed, so therefore we may never truly know what those prophecies indicate. A lot of prophecies in the bible lack accuracy as well, as many of those 'endtime signs' have already been here for thousands of years.