The way of imagination

  “The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev. 6.14-17)      Is the God of the book of Revelation fundamentally angry and vengeful?   Is “the One seated on the throne” ruthless in his judgments and perhaps just as violent as his enemies, i.e. the “kings of the earth”?   How to reconcile the One seated on the throne with the God revealed by Jesus Christ, who taught that we should love our enemies and turn the other cheek (cf. Mt. 5.39, 44)?   Does the God who teaches that “those who kill with the sword must be killed with the sword” (cf.