Carlos Caso-Rosendi
“Also, [the Beast] was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them […] Let anyone who has an ear listen: If you are to be taken captive, into captivity you go; if you kill with the sword, with the sword you must be killed. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.” (Revelation 13:7-10)
Jesus taught his followers using allegories, parables meant to represent spiritual realities in a manner that anyone could understand and remember. In debating agnostics, I found they often reject the use of the allegorical argument. I do not blame them for trying to ban the most powerful rhetorical weapon there is but if we were to execute their prohibition strictly, we would all remain silent. Everything we learn comes from some kind of representation, the words we use represent realities. Even our idea of God has to be represented somehow by words that are allegorical in nature: Sabaoth, Yahweh, Eloi, are some of the ways to imperfectly represent The One that Truly Is. And yet, God cannot be represented for if one could define Him perfectly, one would understand Him completely and therefore, one would be equal to Him. That would be an impossibility. That is why the Son came to us in the mystery of the Incarnation, the Logos came to us as a parable of flesh and blood to represent the unfathomable reality that is God and lead us to Him.
Carlos Caso-Rosendi 