This series of posts is my attempt to demonstrate that the language of the Revelation was actually symbolic code that was very intelligible to a first-century Jewish Christian living in the Roman Empire.  I’m re-writing the Revelation to communicate the same message, but to a twenty-first century American Christian audience, using symbols we understand.  This particular section parallels Revelation chapter 18.  If you want to catch up, here’s a PDF of the entire series so far: The Revelation to JR. – Chapters 1-18.

Then I saw another angel descending from Heaven, wielding incredible authority.  His beauty lit up the whole world.  He cried out,

Fallen, fallen is the Third Reich
It has become a home for demons, haunted by every kind of evil spirit, every disgusting bird and awful creature.
All the world’s nations have drunk the juice of her adultery,
The politicians have committed adultery with her,
And the corporations of the world have gotten wealthy from the power of her luxury.


Then I heard another voice from Heaven calling out,

Come out of her, my people, so that you don’t participate in her sins and don’t share in her plagues.  Because her sins are piled high – up into the stratosphere, and God hasn’t forgotten.  He’s remembering her sins very well.  Give her what she herself has given and pay her back double for everything she’s done.  Give her a double shot of the juice she’s been serving.

She thinks so highly of herself?  She lives the good life?  Fine – give her the same amount of torture and grief.  She thinks she’s a queen – that she’ll never be abandoned and left alone.  She’ll be surprised when her plagues hit her all in the same day.  She’ll see disease, famine and death, and she’ll burn alive because the Lord God who judges her is powerful.

The politicians, who committed adultery with her and lived in the lap of her luxury, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke from her burning.  They’ll stand off in the distance out of fear of her suffering, crying out with grief,

Alas, alas, the great Third Reich!  The powerful empire!  Your judgment came in less than an hour!

And the world’s corporations weep and grieve for her because no one buys their products anymore – their designer clothes, fast food, trinkets and toys, fruits, steel, diamonds and human lives.

The fruits you hoped your work would produce, that you’ve been longing for is gone now, and everything you hoped to gain, all the luxuries are gone forever.

Those corporations, who all got rich from her, will stand off in the distance out of fear of her suffering, crying out with grief,

Alas, alas, the great reich, clothed in a beautiful green robe and crown like a sunburst!  Such a shame that in less than an hour, all this fantastic wealth has been destroyed!

And all the ambassadors and trade commissioners, all the stock traders who make the corporations wealthy, stood off in the distance and wept as they saw the smoke from her burning,

There’s no one else like the Third Reich!

They dressed in funeral black, weeping and grieving,

Alas, alas, the great empire, where anyone who knew how could get filthy rich with the stocks!  But it look less than an hour to destroy.

Heaven – rejoice over her destruction, every saint, apostle and prophet!  God has decided that the path you followed was righteous, not hers.

Then a powerful angel took a stone – a large boulder – and threw it into the ocean, saying as he did,

This is the violence with which the Third Reich, the great empire, will be thrown down, and will vanish from the earth.  There won’t be any more music, parades, no birthday parties or Secret Santas.  No more business men, taxi drivers or factories, no production of any kind.  There won’t be a light in a single one of your windows, and you’ll never hear wedding bells again.

Because your corporations were the kings of the earth, and all the nations of the world were deceived by your witchcraft.  And your hands are covered in the blood of the prophets and saints – of everyone who’s been slaughtered on Earth.

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