"...no matter how you slice it, they're a cult." --Don Firth

Don,
I couldn't hope to be your intellectual equal---I love what you write here (as you know I've even quoted you elsewhere) and you are nothing if not a gentleman. Still, even though I am from a minority school of thought that believes that "fundamental Christianity" has been highjacked, there are many believers in many of the mainline denominations who take Revelation literally and do not fit with the orthodox definition of "cult".

Even to these people the book is at the very least divided into the present (the churches of Greece and Asia Miinor) and what has to either be deciphered as mystery, or future events.

One of the strengths to the acceptance of the book of Revelation is that it is the writings of the Apostle John-----Apostles always given more weight when considering the canon.

I guess that what I'm trying to say is that, though I will conceed that a preoccupation with Revelation seems to be the repository for the church's biggest kook-burgers, it is still overstatement to say that "no matter how you slice it...". I've seen it sliced a different way all my life....within an orthodox context.