{"id":12876,"date":"2013-02-09T18:27:56","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T23:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=12876"},"modified":"2013-02-09T18:27:56","modified_gmt":"2013-02-09T23:27:56","slug":"thats-not-taking-revelation-literally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/02\/thats-not-taking-revelation-literally.html","title":{"rendered":"That’s Not Taking Revelation Literally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

One media outlet described the man who quit his job over a form with the number 666 on it as taking Revelation literally. Fred Clark had this to sa<\/a>y, with his characteristic combination of sarcastic wit and religious insight:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>No. No, no, no, 666 times no<\/em>. Believers like Slonopas do not<\/em> \u201ctake the book of Revelation literally\u201d \u2014 they take the book of Revelation and cut it up into a thousand tiny pieces, placing those pieces into a hat along with a thousand more tiny pieces taken from Daniel, Ezekiel, parts of Matthew, the screenplay for The Omen<\/em>, folklore, blood-libels, and urban legends. And then they take those pieces out of the hat one by one, stringing them into sentences to which they accord all the authority of holy scripture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They take those fabricated sentences \u201cliterally,\u201d but not the book of Revelation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One media outlet described the man who quit his job over a form with the number 666 on it as taking Revelation literally. Fred Clark had this to say, with his characteristic combination of sarcastic wit and religious insight: \u00a0 No. No, no, no, 666 times no. Believers like Slonopas do not \u201ctake the book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[255,702,1311,3060,3143,3592,6618,6621,6624,6626,10293],"class_list":["post-12876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-revelation-bible","tag-255","tag-apocalypse","tag-book-of-revelation","tag-end-times","tag-eschatology-theology","tag-fred-clark","tag-literal","tag-literalism","tag-literalists","tag-literally","tag-revelation"],"yoast_head":"\nThat's Not Taking Revelation Literally<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One media outlet described the man who quit his job over a form with the number 666 on it as taking Revelation literally. 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