Hm. Another issue, I guess. True Jews are not necessarily ethnic Jews.
LOL! I'm not sure how you even came up with this... Jesus said what He said in Matthew 12:28-30, and it is what it is:
"But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."
He's talking about Himself, obviously, and that He is plundering the "strong man's" (Satan's) "house," and the reason He is able to do so is because He has figuratively bound Satan. This corresponds intensely with Revelation 20:1-3, which, in like manner, is what it is:
"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while."
John is talking about Jesus, who is the Angel of the Lord, the living one, Who died and is alive forevermore and has the keys of Death and Hades, as Christ Himself says in Revelation 1:8.
Okay, well, certainly, you're welcome to your opinion. Call it what you like, but it is what it is. We can certainly make an analogy out of it, as in "This is to this as that is to that." But still, disagree or not, it's symbolic of reality and therefore a metaphor.
According to Jesus in Matthew 12, there certainly was. But again, you're welcome to your opinion.
I would argue with that, as we can see clearly in Job that Satan always knew that He can do nothing apart from what God allows or without His permission.
He was shown a
vision of future things in the form of a dream.
Absolutely not. This is the error of the day, basically; you are not alone. :) Was Jacob an actual eyewitness of angels literally ascending and descending a ladder from earth to heaven in Genesis 28? No, it was a dream, a dream of
great significance, but a dream, and not a literal, historical event. Joseph had several dreams, and, because his brothers were depicted as sheaves bowing down to him in one of them and stars bowing down to him in another, were he and his brothers actually sheaves and then later stars? No, of course not, they were dreams, dreams of
great significance, but dreams, and not literal, historical events. So it is with John and his revelation.
Nope.
I agree. His dreams were symbolic of future events.
This is a strange statement. So yes, John wrote Revelation in the first century, probably about 60 years after Jesus's crucifixion; we agree on that. But the impact of your statement here, it's real implication, whether intended or not is that either a.) what he wrote was irrelevant to readers before today, or b.) or that what he wrote is irrelevant to us today, both of which are untrue. I would argue ~ and I think you would agree, but again, the implication of your statement here is contrary ~ that what he wrote was equally relevant to the people of his day and to people of today and at all times in between... and into the future. Until Jesus comes back, what he wrote in the opening verses is true regardless of past, present, or future:
"Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near." (Revelation 1:3).
Grace and peace to you.