1. Anonymity vs. Stated Authorship: The objection is that the Fourth Gospel is anonymous, whereas the Apocalypse states its author. Response: For the letters, it is obvious who the author is. In the Gospel, John does not want to put himself forward, though he discreetly indicates his witness („These are things that I saw,‟ „The disciple whom Jesus loved‟). In the Apocalypse, which contains visions, he needs to assert his authority more obviously, so he declares, „This is John, this is John, this is John.‟

2. Style: The style of the Gospel is flowing, while the style of the Apocalypse is jagged. Response: There are considerable similarities alongside any dissimilarities of style.

3. Grammar: The grammar is more correct in the Gospel, less correct in the Apocalypse. Response: Yes, but the writer of the Gospel is still Jewish. For the Apocalypse, the Old Testament influence explains the larger number of Jewish expressions. Furthermore, there are similar grammatical particularities in both.

4. Vocabulary: The vocabulary is very different. Response: Yes, but there are also remarkable similarities, while the contents explain the differences.

5. Doctrine: The doctrine is very different. Response: Not substantially. The doctrine covers different ground in each case, but it is not contradictory. Angels naturally play a larger part in the Apocalypse than in the Gospel because angels are the ministers carrying out God’s decrees. The last things appear in only one or two places in the Gospels but are the prime preoccupation of the Apocalypse.

False Contrasts:

• „Christ is a nice guy in the Gospels; He’s a nasty guy in the Apocalypse.‟ This is a false contrast; He is both nice and nasty in both.
• „The Jews are bad guys in the Gospel, whereas Jerusalem and Israel are good guys in the Apocalypse.‟ Response: In the Apocalypse, Jerusalem and Israel stand for the Catholic Church, not for the Annas and Caiaphas Jews.

1. It contains no reference to Saint Paul in Ephesus, so Paul is ancient history. Remember, he was very active there.
2. Churches in Asia Minor are growing slack or have grown slack (not all of them, as seen in Apocalypse Chapters two and three).
3. Heresies are developing with the passage of time. They are not as active as they used to be.
4. The „Pudii interrogative element‟ was dramatically overestimated. This period, which comes after the initial fervor of the church has died down, involves trying to find the source of the great material. There is some distance from the fervor of the initial churches; they are trying to figure out how to get back to the original church, often by copying the early Church Fathers, who knew what they were doing.

The early Church Fathers testified that John the Evangelist was the author and that John the Evangelist had his visions on Patmos.

Father Merriman, an interesting and very anti-liberal fellow, has written about the Gnosis of John Paul II, following the Argentinean Vicario Maggio. Gnosis is a word with many applications, but in this context, it is a general name for false versions of Christianity raised by Judaism down the centuries. Every time Jews try to turn Christianity into some special knowledge, or raise another heresy to help destroy the Church, there is a connection between these heresies, like Freemasonry and communism; they are all a kind of Gnosis. That is the argument.

I do not pretend to know much about Gnosis; it is so vague, foul, general, and multiple. But those who study it present an interesting argument that in every century, the main opposition to Catholic doctrine comes from this Gnosis. Behind many heresies raised against Catholic doctrine, you find Gnosis in one form or another. Neo-modernism is again a form of this age-old, repeated Gnosis. Heresies are as old as the hills; the devil keeps giving them new forms. But what he gives a new form to is this idea of some special knowledge, like „Keliadocum,‟ about the alpha and the omega, the omega point. It is the same old, tired, artificial, supposed knowledge. That is Gnosis.

The Jews are argued by many to be behind it all. Freemasonry is another form of Gnosis. The adoration of man, the replacement of God by man, is at the heart of this age-old Gnosis. The worship of Lucifer and the worship of man, that is it.

From inside, the heresies of Nicolaitans and Serenpism were beginning. The Gnostics, as they are called, began to get going towards the end of the first century. It is against the Gnostics that Saint John wrote his Fourth Gospel, particularly „In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,‟ nailing all false ideas that the Word was some demiurge or semi-divinity.

Look at the beginning of his First Epistle: „That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have touched, of the Word of life: For the life was manifested; and we have seen and do bear witness, and declare unto you the life eternal, which was with the Father, and hath appeared to us.‟ The Word of life, the Word was with God, He was amongst us, the God-man. Bang! The God-man. He was in Palestine. We ate with Him, we touched Him, we saw Him risen from the dead. He encouraged us, we spoke with Him, we knew Him for three years. Boom, boom, boom. No vagueness. Absolute clarity, historical facts. Saint John slams facts into the face of the Gnostics. It is not vague, not specialized knowledge. He was a carpenter, amongst us fishermen. The Word of God came right down to earth. We handled Him, touched Him, heard Him. This is the concreteness and practicality of Catholicism, not some vague intellectual theory.

The false intellectualization of Christianity was beginning, and therefore, the purpose of the Book of the Apocalypse is to fight Gnosticism.

The Catholic faith was also wilting in expectation of the second coming (see Second Thessalonians). The Apocalypse teaches that persecutions will pass; Christ and His Church will triumph. Catholics often need to remember this because it does not always look like it is healing. It teaches the meaning of history: evil is always attacking the Church; Christians suffer but win. Today, Catholics know all about suffering; it is tough, and they really need encouragement. Christians suffer but win.

Any questions on addressees and purpose?

There are 253 manuscripts dating from the 10th to the 17th centuries. Perhaps one or two are still being discovered. It seems there is not a really ancient manuscript, for some reason.

• He is Son of God: (Apoc. 2:18, 1:6, 14:1).
• He has divine attributes: (Apoc. 2:23, 1:18, 3:21).
• He receives divine worship: (Apoc. 20:6).
• He receives divine titles: (Apoc. 1:17, 2:8 [corrected from 2:18 in speech, as 2:8 fits „the first and the last‟], 22:13).
• Apoc. 22:13: „I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.‟
• Apoc. 1:18: „And alive, and was dead, and behold I am living for ever and ever, and have the keys of death and of hell.‟
• Apoc. 3:7: „These things saith the Holy One and the true one, he that hath the key of David; he that openeth, and no man shutteth; shutteth, and no man openeth.‟
• Apoc. 21:6: „And he said to me: It is done. I am Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end.‟
• Apoc. 17:14: „These shall fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because he is Lord of lords, and King of kings.‟
• Apoc. 19:13: „And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood; and his name is called, THE WORD OF GOD.‟

Christ is also man.

• Apoc. 1:13: „And in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, one like to the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.‟
• Apoc. 14:14: „Son of man.‟

So He is God with all kinds of divine attributes and titles, and He is also man.

Lastly, above all, He is Lamb (L-A-M-B). Saint Thomas Aquinas says the lamb is the most complete type of Christ in the Old Testament.

• Delivering us from sin: Apoc. 1:5: „…who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.‟
• Redeeming us: Apoc. 5:9: „And they sung a new canticle, saying: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; because thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God, in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.‟
• Sanctifying us: Apoc. 5:10: „And hast made us to our God a kingdom and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.‟
• Triumphant in heaven: Apoc. 5:6: „And I saw: and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the ancients, a Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.‟
• Saving us: Apoc. 12:11, 19:7-9.