Forwards:-
These four forewords come from:
· Robert Stockman, a highly regarded member of the US Baha'i community, author of Baha'i Faith in America
· David Aune, a world-renowned authority on Revelation Greek and the author of the Word Biblical Commentary 52: Revelation (vols 52 A , 52 B , and 52 C )
· Robert Riggs, author of Apocalypse Unsealed, a previous Baha'i-based interpretation of the Book of Revelation
· Suzanne Carter, a charismatic South Florida rabbi (0:4)

Professor Robert Stockman:-

I have always been skeptical about efforts to interpret prophecies. Such interpretations are attempts to discern the intent of God and are ultimately unprovable. It is rather like looking at a cloud in the sky and seeing in its ever-shifting shapes a horse, a person, or an angel. Who is to say God did not choose to make the cloud look like an angel when someone was looking at it? Who is to say the resulting (approximate) correlation of shapes was due to mere chance? How can one determine which is the case? (0:5)

John Able is up against this challenge in his book Apocalypse Secrets. His study is the culmination of a remarkable decade-long quest. Able has carefully surveyed the Baha'i authoritative writings not only for interpretations of the Book of Revelation, but of the Bible in general and of relevant related subjects such as history, politics, and economics. He has collected every known interpretation of the Book of Revelation that 'Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi offered to pilgrims. He has also read just about everything Baha'is have ever written about the subject, a level of literature research rarely seen in scholarship by Baha'is. To understand the text itself, he has taught himself Koine Greek, the language in which the Book of Revelation was written, and has corresponded with prominent New Testament scholars to revise his translation. He has traveled to visit some of the actual places mentioned in the Book of Revelation, to acquire a geographical feel for them. Taking all these inputs, Able decided to produce a comprehensive word-by-word, verse-by-verse commentary on the Book of Revelation followed by a detailed explanatory apparatus. (0:7)

While the results are, by definition, unprovable, they are intriguing and, in some sense, testable: Is the interpretation of the Book of Revelation comprehensive? How deeply does it go? How wide ranging was the effort to collect the inputs needed to produce the result? How many threads of the prophetic text have been woven together, and how many are left over? Is the resulting interpretation internally and rationally consistent? (0:8)

On these criteria, John Able's Apocalypse Secrets is by far the most careful, thorough, and holistic work yet produced in the genre of Baha'i interpretation of biblical prophecy. It leaves no narrative threads unexplained and in assembling its detailed interpretation, no stones were left unturned. Remarkably, this interpretation of the Book of Revelation based on the Baha'i Writings has been produced by someone who is not a member of the Baha'i community. Future students of the meaning of biblical prophecies who wish to build on the insights in the Baha'i authoritative texts will find Apocalypse Secrets a tour de force and an essential foundational work for their investigations. - Dr. Robert H. Stockman, Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University, South Bend (0:9)

Professor David Aune:-

The Revelation of John is without doubt the most puzzling of all the books in the Bible. As a New Testament scholar, I have spent much of my professional life trying to understand this enigmatical Greek text. Dr John Able has produced an accurate, idiomatic, and insightful translation of this peculiar and difficult text that is often very, very good, and includes a huge amount of research on religious history.

Though our approaches to the Revelation of John are quite different, over the last ten years or so, Dr Able and I have frequently had occasion to discuss some of the many problems associated with translating this first century text written in Koine Greek into modern English. With regard to ancient Greek, his autodidactic approach has both advantages and limitations. Important advantages in approaching a difficult text like that of the Revelation of John are the fresh perspective and enthusiasm that he brings to this peculiar Greek text. His translation, which has gone through many drafts, is couched in idiomatic English and is intended to capture nuances in the Greek original that are often unintentionally masked by standard English translations of the Revelation of John. Mitigating the limitations of his approach has been my role in our many discussions over the years of some of the many semantic and syntactic problems presented by this text. Much of our discussion has been carried on through e-mail, though we've met in various venues on three continents too.

Dr Able has produced a strikingly lively translation that sticks to the intention of the Greek original and provides an authoritative base for his distinctive interpretive approach to the text. Impressive. - David E. Aune, PhD, Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, The University of Notre Dame (0:10)

Author Robert Riggs

In the mid-1970s, I was at West Point attending a conference of some of America's leading military leaders and engineers. Finding a Gideon Bible in my motel room, I thought it ironic to see this symbol of peace this close to elite West Point that was training the top soldiers of one of the world's two superpowers. So I took a look at the Apocalypse in case I could discern anything pertinent to the terror of history that I was helping to perpetuate. Surprisingly some of its meanings were immediately clear to me - because I understood them within the context of the sacred Writings of the Baha'i Faith, a worldwide movement of which I was already a member.

My "Apocalyptic" success set me on an adventure of the mind to discover other meanings in this exceedingly complex book that might lie hidden under the dross of twenty centuries. My journey lasted about five years and took me into ancient lands, ancient science, and ancient minds. I discovered that every word of the Apocalypse has multiple meanings, and it would be impossible for any one person to fully comprehend them all. Being a history buff, I was able to correlate the events of the Apocalypse with the unfolding of the spiritual history of the seven major religions of Asia from the early days of Christianity up to the present day, and even with a hint of what lies ahead for us. The result was my own Apocalypse Unsealed.

Now I am blinded by John Able's profound and astonishing work in biblical exegesis and the beauty of his rhetoric. It is a wonder. His amazing work is beautifully crafted and researched. One strength of his approach is that it greatly enhances the readability of the text; another is that it does not discourage the efforts of future scholars. I sincerely hope and pray that his book will reach a large readership.

This Aquarian Age is the one in which the Apocalypse and other prophetic works of antiquity are being unsealed. The treasure of priceless gems lying within this bottomless trove of wisdom and knowledge may never be exhausted. - Robert F. Riggs, Charlottesville. (0:11)

Rabbi Suzanne Carter

Apocalypse Secrets is a special parallel interpretation of the Book of Revelation that transcends religious dogma, bridges religious faiths, and explains nineteen hundred years of troubled events in Christianity and Islam with clarity and amazing prescience in providing a template for understanding and peace.

In the 1990s, Able discussed with me what are now main topics in his book, especially economic issues. Back then, few people in the prosperous United States or the West saw any economic reckoning coming. No one expected that such a collapse could happen. The economic system seemed just too well adjusted.

Even now, March 2009, people still do not understand - if Able is right - that the present recession is set to shrivel down into a universal paralysis "creeping over the minds and souls of men". Sadly, a global depression worse than the one that our forebears went through in the 1930s seems to be needed to open the door for spiritual economics to do its work and revive human nature. - Rabbi Suzanne Carter, Delray Beach (0:12)

Baha'i Writings:-

Note: In this Section of his book, Dr. Able asserts that the Baha'i Writings interpret at least 258 of the total verses (258 of 404), and 33 verses contain the writer of Revelation's own internal interpretations of symbols, totaling 72 percent of the verses (291 of 404). [-ed] (0:13)

Introduction:-

As a man who likes to keep formal religion at arm's length, I have written Apocalypse Secrets as a fresh interpretation of the Book of Revelation for readers of any religious background or none. But why- just now (2012)- yet another interpretation of the Book of Revelation? (0:14)

My reason is that Apocalypse Secrets offers new cogent insights into the mess the world is now in. Its interpretations expose root causes of the serious military and economic events that are exploding fast and furious across our TV screens and front pages of our newspapers every day on a global scale. One way and another, most of these explosions reverberate today's apocalyptic World War III waging between the Muslim Militarism resurging from the Middle East and the Malignant Materialism driving the Christian West and beyond. The forces of Muslim Militarism and Malignant Materialism are as set on finishing each other off as Russian Communism and American Capitalism were during the Cold War. In its wake, the economic world is spiraling the into a Greatest Depression depicted by the fall of Babylon.. (0:15)

What did the Apocalypse Unveil?:-

What prophetic news does the Apocalypse first veil and then unveil? Immediately and topically, the Apocalypse tells the news of the war that Muslim Militarism and Malignant Materialism are now waging and how it has helped trigger the pending Greatest Depression. More long-term and broad, it proclaims the news of the Baha'i Glory Faith. I have written this Baha'i-based interpretation of the Book of Revelation as a friend of the Baha'i Faith. However, I disclaim representing the Faith or its agencies in any official way. Apocalypse Secrets simply presents my own best good-faith interpretation of Revelation based on sources in the canonical Baha'i Writings (0:16)

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