Re: Absolutely do not believe it.

You said, "I have always understood that the body of Christ/the Church has been battled this whole time, so I don't know when you think it hasn't."

It has been battled this whole time but not in the sense that Revelation is talking about, where the whole world comes together and gangs up on us all at once. Satan would have gathered the nations together many moons ago to kill us all, if he would have been allowed to do that. But he was bound in that sense, so he couldn't.


You said, "It goes on to talk about a city that He loves. I don't know any other city than that very special one....Jerusalem. Are you going to say that Jerusalem represents the church?"

Yes, actually for you or anyone to ever be able to understand all this, you're going to have to come to terms with the heavenly Jerusalem that it's all about now. It's not about physical Jerusalem anymore.

Galatians 4:
24Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

We are in the New Covenant. The Old is obsolete. The New Covenant is about the heavenly, or spiritual Jerusalem, not physical Jerusalem.

Hebrews 12:18
A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken

18For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

25See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29for our God is a consuming fire.

Gal. 3:27
27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.