Opus 2026-369: Options to Figurative

Maybe we are asking the wrong question.  Maybe we should not be asking whether something in scripture is literal or figurative.  Maybe the option should be interpretive rather than figurative or literal.

At the core of the issue is the fact that everyone wants to make these judgements on their own and those judgements are usually rooted in the traditions that we are rooted in.  It would really be nice if the Greek and Hebrew had some part of their grammar that registered a scale of one to ten from totaly literal to pure word picture.

I have been reading in Isaiah and I must say that it is almost impossible to make any sense out of all the word pictures.  I can’t imagine being a Hebrew scholar and trying to put it all together.  What I find even harder to accept is the different solutions that people want to declare as settled.  The more I read the less I am willing to accept the eschatology of anyone.

Leviticus 26 also comes to mind.  I had my eschatological friend read me the entire chapter twice in one discussion.  This kind of thing is not only useless but insulting.  I can summarize the first 13 verses in a sentence and the rest of the chapter in another.  In the process I would lose none of the intended meaning.  These kind of people would also read the entire census of the warriors of the twelve tribes and consider it a mark of spiritual maturity.

In some things I would prefer to be immature. 

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Opus 2026-356: The Purpose of Prophecy

Years ago I heard prophecy defined two ways: Foretelling and forth telling.  One had to do with declarations about the future and the other focused on repentance.  We tend to think of them as two different goals and in that we err.  Even the promises of restoration have the goal of bringing Israel to the place of obedience.

Too often the prophecy buffs focus solely on the fulfillment aspect because their theology requires the restoration of Israel to all fit together.  The purpose of prophecy was not to force feed us on the end times.  It was to motivate Israel to turn back to their God.

It is dangerous to take writings loaded with figurative language and make them literal.  It is dangerous to ignore the conditional promises, emphasize the unconditional promises and act like they are the same.  It is dangerous to substitute the future of someone else for the clear directions on how you as an individual are to live.

Read and enjoy but keep your priorities straight.  The promise of the resurrection does not hing on a red heifer or a rebuilt temple.  Paul does not say we are without hope if the temple is just a vison, but our faith is useless if Jesus was not resurrected. 

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Opus 2026-347: Boiler Plate Mansions

In the King James Bible Jesus tells his disciples He goes to prepare a mansion for them.  The actual word has to do with simply dwelling place, not glorious, gold plated mansions but most people tend to think what they want to see.

A mansion means a different things to different people.  I remember an old story about an American Indian talking to a Christian missionary, and the missionary was criticizing his idea of a happy hunting ground.  The Indian reportedly replied that his idea of eternity matched his joy in this world just like the missionary.  Whereas the missionary was consumed with gold and buildings thus, streets of gold, the Indian likeed the outdoors.

I’m wondering, if for some people the idea of a mansion or a place prepared for them might simply be a home with their own bedroom.  If you’re sharing a room with a couple of siblings, you might understand what I’m talking about.  For them their own room would be paradise.  Or someone else they might need a gym, a spa and a library.  Many different meanings to the word mansion.

I think the idea is a place that is in the same neighborhood with Jesus so we can spend time with Him.

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Opus 2026-341: Blue Collar Heaven

I tend to get off contemplating how glorious it’s going to be in eternity.  I’ve come to peace with the idea of singing Holy, Holy, Holy in a celestial choir.  The joy of mixing voices and praise in the presence of Almighty God is pretty overwhelming.

Other times I think I’m sitting down and being able to interview with the apostle Paul or the prophet Habakuk or who knows who else and having great in-depth discussions.

And then there’s the picture of the celestial library.  I guess I get to check out as many books as I want to keep them for as long as I like, and each book will have built-in search engines and so forth.  Glorious.

But what about the people who really don’t enjoy singing and who want to work with their hands rather than in books.  I think that there may be a plan that God has set up to where they will be enlisted to work on the next creation.  Or if there’s not going to be another creation, then they can work on building mansions now or expanding mansions or doing all kinds of hands-on projects which would bore me to tears but would get them giggling and jumping up and down with joy.

I must say that I have no biblical evidence for this.  At the same time most of the ideas that we have about heaven are rather incorrect.  Even the term heaven doesn’t really work well because it’s going to be an eternity spent on the new earth, not floating around in the cosmos.  So don’t criticize me.  I can have weird ideas if I want to.  And when I think of members of my family that are hands-on people, who love to build who always have a long list of projects and they look forward to them with delight, I think there’s gonna be a place for them.  I don’t say I understand them, but I understand what brings joy.

If I can see that I’m sure that God hasn’t even better insight.

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Opus 2026-335: More Salt, Please

What do you do with a piece of meat that has gone bad?  I am sure you have had the experience of finding something in the back of the fridge that is slimy, green and disgusting.  We tend to throw it out, or at least I do.  You may make it into a haute couture delicacy and convince people it will change their lives.

I was shocked to learn that before refrigeration people did not throw out a side of beef that was turning green.  I was told that they would find a sharp knife, remove all the green and cook up what was underneath.  In other words, you did not need to throw out the entire side.  What was underneath could be salvaged.  That is what God did repeatedly with Israel.  They had gone bad.  They were slimy and disgusting.  Picture a group of people who had bought into the idea of throwing their babies into a raging furnace.  Not a pretty picture.

God cut them off.  He would repeatedly find that He needed to cut again and cut deeper.  That is the bad news which we should take seriously today.  The church thinks of themselves as the body of Christ.  That body does not include the slimy decomposed gunk on the outside.  God will find it necessary to cut that off.

There is a point in preserving meat where adding salt will allow it to last longer.  America has been in that status for a long time.  True believers have provided enough salt for God to withhold His hand of judgement.  I am not sure how much longer we will be salty enough.

The good news is that not only will God bring us into eternity with Him but His promises still apply to the faithful remnant that remain.

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Opus 2026-325: The Mysterious Second

Does the first resurrection in Revelation have any match with the rapture in Matthew 24:30-31 and I Thessalonians 4:13ff?  That was my starting question but I soon ran into something I wasn’t expecting.  The term “second resurrection,” which I have always heard about and accepted, is not in the Bible.  I could have sworn I have had that read to me “somewhere”, as they say.

The word “resurrection” (386), both in Greek and English, only appears twice in Revelation, both in Chapter 20.  Both cases precede the word with “first”.

(Rev 20:5-6 KJV)  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

As I look at Matthew 24 I do not see any reference to the resurrection as such.  The passage that describes the gathering of the elect is,

(Mat 24:30-1 KJV)  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

It would seem that this would involve a resurrection but it does not say so.  In Thessalonians, Paul is clear in declaring the dead being raised.

(1Th 4:15 KJV)  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
(1Th 4:16 KJV)  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
(1Th 4:17 KJV)  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

That seems clear, but again this is not about a second resurrection.

We know we will be raised again.  “When” is the subject of debate.  The number is vague at best.  Rejoice in what we know and save the unknown for when you get bored.

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Opus 2026-299: End Times Wish List

We were reading through Jeremiah 32.  As is too typical of prophecy we had read a long recital of doom and gloom for Israel because of their rebellion and hard hearts.  Then there was a sudden change of topic.  We started reading in verse 23,

(Jer 32:23 KJV)  And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them:

This continues to verse 36,

(Jer 32:36 KJV)  And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence;

and then, cold turkey, the narrative reverses itself.

(Jer 32:37 KJV)  Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:

Then the rest of the chapter talks about all the wonderful things God is going to do with them.  Okay, that is what it says.  My problem comes when everyone talks about the Jews having a change of heart and God gathers and restores them.  I will concede that point is made other places, but not here.  There is not drop of repentance, no turning back to God, no ounce of desire to reform.  Instead you have God imposing this change upon them.  This is expressed several ways.  Here is one,

(Jer 32:40 KJV)  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

I shared with the group that if this was the only passage I had to go on I would become a Five Point Calvinist.  God is taking a bunch of rebellious sinners, sprinkling some pixie dust, and turning them into God fearing robots.  Pardon the language.  That is a paraphrase.  Fortunately for me I have read other places in prophecy where it declares He will gather them when they repent.  I don’t really believe in pixie dust.

I do believe in reading what the Bible says and making my declarations accurate.  If you want to say this documents a forced conversion but other places bring in the free decisions of the converted, fine.  Just don’t act like this says something it doesn’t say or act like there are no qualifiers other places.

In deliberating on this issue a thought came to me.  Maybe we should interpret prophecy the same way we are told to understand the parables of Jesus: There is one main point and anything beyond that begins to stretch the truth.  Applied here that would point out that Jeremiah was warning Israel what would be happening to them because of their refusal to obey.  The emphasis was not on an establishment of an eternal kingdom at the end of time.

It is a good thing that our salvation is based on our faith in the shed blood of Jesus rather than our interpretation of prophecy.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-257: God’s Coffee Shop

As I get older I find myself speculating on what eternity will be like.  One of the things that I keep reminding myself it is going to be much better than what is going on now, as good as that is.  My life is incredibly blessed.  This week I have had grandchildren sneaking into the room to wake me up from my nap and then jump on my lap.  I have been inflated a pool for them and watched them cavorting in the water.  I’ve had breakfast with my son.  I’ve gone to dinner with friends at church.  I found things to argue about at the church Bible study.  I watched the sunrise.  I’ve swatted mosquitoes.  It has been a rich and varied week.

But as I get older, I think of what’s going to happen when I finally cross that great divide.  It occurred to me that the world will go on without me.  I thought about how the United States continued when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.  People still went to work, had babies, built houses, and all the other things that go with life.  When I’m gone, the sun will still come up, and the breeze will still blow.  The sad part of it is that I think about how I can’t have my grandchildren wake me up anymore.  My assurance is that God has something so much better that I can’t even comprehend it.

As my mind rambled, I thought about sitting in a coffee shop in heaven and having an old friend come in and sit down across from me.  What would we talk about?  Politics certainly wouldn’t be of interest.  By that time, our theological differences would be nothing but laughing matters.  What in the world would we talk about?

The thought came that perhaps when you ordered your coffee and pastry that you couldn’t have when you were a diabetic on earth that you could look up at the board and see the question for the day.  Maybe it will be like fortune cookies with a topic inside.  What would that question be?  I would tell you, but you wouldn’t be able to understand it.  One reason you couldn’t understand it is because at this point in life, I wouldn’t be able to understand it.  Rest assured, though that it would be a scintillating and provocative topic.

You don’t like coffee?  Perhaps an eternity that fault will be removed.  If it is too stubborn, then there will be cranberry juice available and possibly even chai.  I shutter at the thought now.  Then it won’t bother me at all.

We were created in the image of God and that gives us the ability to use our imaginations and create things that don’t exist, but we would like to.  Consider that in eternity God may get real joy out of providing us deep in meaningful insights and experiences that we could not even begin to put our arms around in this life.

The anticipation is great.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-256: Celestial Public Library

As I am sitting worshiping and having a great time, I think about how little we know about the conversations that went on between Moses and God.  Think about it.  Everything that we know is fit within just a few pages and it is all carefully edited to give us the information we need in order to get our reservation in eternity.  That’s the whole purpose of what is in the Bible.  It’s not a science textbook.  It’s not a DIY manual.  It is the path to salvation.

I wonder if there will be a library in heaven where we can go and check out books that will share with us the conversations that God had with Moses when no one else was around.  All those things that Moses never wrote down might be preserved on books on tape.  We might have his original journals that we could read.

And he’s just one person that God has talked to over the centuries.

Of course, in reality, we can probably sit down with Moses and ask him ourselves, but for those of us who enjoy a good book, I look forward to getting my library card issued.  Of course, in eternity we may not need library cards, we may even have individual iPads that can call everything up.

It boggles the imagination.  I enjoy being boggled.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-230: Fullfillment

One of the key concepts we find in scripture about the mission of Jesus is,

Matthew 5:17 (KJV) Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Most of the comments I hear on this have to do with contrasting law to faith but I don’t think that is the point at all.  It certainly isn’t the point Jesus was making.

We see a similar statement in Luke.  Was Jesus saying He had fulfilled this already?  Notice that Matthew is speaking about the early ministry of Jesus and Luke is dealing with the last moment.

Luke 24:44 (KJV) And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

I find it interesting that He spoke of fulfilling things that we don’t think of fulfilling.  Prophecy, sure, but how do you fulfill a law?  You can keep a law or obey a law but fulfill?  We see some possible misunderstanding.

I also look to the words of Jesus on the cross when He called out,

(Joh 19:30 KJV)  When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Was Jesus saying He had fulfilled this already?

Paul talks about the Law being fulfilled,

Romans 8:4 (KJV) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

And,

Romans 13:8 (KJV) Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Perhaps one of the keys is when it talks about “the law” as opposed to laws.  Are the two expressions the same?  On the surface we see the same word but that does not mean that Jesus and Paul have the same concept in mind.

My current understanding is that Jesus fulfilled all of the purposes of the law and prophets when He shed His blood on the cross.  That moment was the focal point of all human history.  It was the purpose that God implied to Abraham when He spoke of blessing all nations.  My view makes it difficult for those who have glorious eschatological charts that need to be endorsed.

Israel was chosen by God.  It’s whole purpose was to supply an earthly setting for the redemption that came through Jesus.  God still loves them.  They are invited to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.  They are not the cutting edge any more.

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Opus 2026-194: The Third Option

I have on occasion proposed that the choice is not between either/or but both/and. I find that useful in trying to understand different manuscripts behind the English Bible. Sometimes a word can have a variety of meanings. Maybe the right one was clear to the original audience or maybe they embraced the flexibility.

As I was thinking about trying to delve into the glories of eternity a third option, which I have given passing mention of, reared its outside-the-world-of-beauty head. That is the option of “neither.” My son and I were debating on how we would spend an infinite amount of time and our opinions were all over the place. My mind went back to a discussion we had years ago in California. I pointed out how much he enjoyed playing with blocks when he was a baby and would have had no concept of computer design.

Eternity will be like that.

We can stretch our imagination to the breaking point. We can be insanely clever. We can turn over rocks and dig in the ant hills of life. When it comes down to it we will most likely find out that we didn’t have a clue.

I cannot make decisions based on the third option because I don’t know what it is. I cannot live with that. I can also live in anticipation of crossing the veil and getting my first glimpse of the “neither” that never occurred to me. For now, in this life, I have all the truth I need to live a righteous life and follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

I rub my hands in anticipation and giggle with glee at what I will find.

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Opus 2026-162: Uncharted Revelations: Lessons in Geometry

I am still trying to visualize what is being described in Revelation 4.  After we get past the colors of God I start thinking like an interior decorator or a geometry major trying to look at how things relate to each other.  Maybe you need calculus to understand this.  

We  start with a throne located in heaven in verse 2.  That gets me looking up but that won’t work for long.  Then in verse 4 we have 24 thrones arranged “around” the throne.  I see them in a circle.  Around does not mean lined up in front.  Verse 5 has seven lamps in front of the throne.

Are you getting the picture?

Verse 6 adds the sea of glass,

(Rev 4:6 KJV)  And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

Different translations make different pictures but we will stick with the KJV.  Ignore the descriptions of the four beasts for the moment but ask yourself how they can be in the midst of the throne and around it at the same time.  Give up?  Me too.

Now drop down to verse 10.

(Rev 4:10 KJV)  The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

The elders are going to need to scramble.  They were all around the throne, now they are falling down in front.

Quite a picture we have.  I am not sure what theological significance it has but it would certainly make a good painting for your church foyer.

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Opus 2026-142: Every Coin Comes with Two Sides

I don’t know what labels to use or categories to indicate, but we have a group of people who believe the modern nation of Israel can do no wrong because of what they call Bible prophecy.  This comes to mind, not because I dwell on it but because we covered one of those prophecies in our journey through the book of Jeremiah.

Notice this verse,

Jeremiah 25:5 (KJV) They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever:

This is just one place we see this “promise of the land” as it is called.  This is just one example to indicate what I am referring to.

The interpretation of this is that God gave them a specific land and it would be theirs forever, thus when the nation of Israel was established in 1948 it was considered a continuation of this promise.  They like a literal interpretation which ignores the first part of the verse and only sees “the land”.  Other places you can find a description which fits nicely with the greatest extent of Solomon’s kingdom from a branch of the Euphrates River in northern Syria to just below the Gaza Strip.

The problem this group encounters is found only a few verses later,

Jeremiah 25:8-9 (KJV) 8 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, 9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

otice that this verse declares that as a result of ignoring the first part of verse 5 He will “utterly destroy them”.  When I pressed the pastor on this he declared it to not apply to everyone, in other words it was figurative.

I don’t ask for much.  All I want is for people to take the entire Bible and be consistent with what it says and not switch horses in order to fit it into your narrative.  If a phrase in verse 5, ignoring its context, it taken as a literal promise how can a similar phrase in verse 9, declaring utter destruction, is just a figure of speech?

The consistent way to look at this is to declare them both as conditional statements in context.  You find this all through prophecy.

Is modern Israel the nation of prophecy?  Like so much of prophecy it could go either way depending on them and the context of unfolding history.  So far I see a very small percentage of the population that would be considered faithful but that could have been said about any time in Israel’s history.

Stay tuned.  The final chapter has not been written yet.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-035: Time Flies

At least when you’re having fun.  I am reminded of something we used to always repeat in the army, “hurry up and wait”.  That expression is so apropos to so much of our life.  You make an appointment three months in advance to see a certain specialist.  You are told to arrive 30 minutes early and when you get into the waiting room, you sit there for an hour past your appointment time.  It would seem to me that if they’re going to see everybody before they go home that they would schedule things with a little more consideration for the people who are paying their salary.

I guess we’re never happy.  What got me off on this was thinking about the second coming of Christ because of something I had written in another post.  It’s amazing how everybody wants to fit God into their pocket calendar.  They want to schedule Him in when they have a moment.  People tend to be very expectant of the end times and the rapture when they are going through hard times.  We’ve all heard how there are no atheist in a foxhole.  Maybe not but they’re certainly not people that God recognizes as belonging to Him.

God’s view of time and our time are totally different.  We only have a few years to accomplish whatever it is that we think we’re going to do.  God has eternity.  I have a sneaking suspicion that while we feel that time speeds up and slows down based on our mood and activities, God can actually speed things up, slow things down and even stop them.  We need to remember that when we look at things like prophecy or even history.

So often we hear about the angry God of the Old Testament and the loving God of the New Testament.  What rubbish.  Jesus only had to put up with His disciples for three years; He could afford to be patient.  His patience was not exhausted.  Maybe it was.  They were a pretty dense crowd at some points.  But God in dealing with Israel was looking at centuries and possibly millennium.  Did you ever ask yourself why did God leave Israel in slavery for 400 years at the beck and call of Pharaoh?  Couldn’t He have sent Moses a bit earlier?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  It could be that He had to wait 400 years to get enough Israelites to have armies to conquer the promised land.  I don’t think Joseph and his brothers could’ve gotten it done.  Actually, I guess they could if God wanted to work miracles, but that doesn’t seem to be the way He works.

Then you wonder why did they have to wander in the wilderness for 40 years?  It could’ve been punishment.  The one thing I’ve often heard is how the older generation had to die off.  I think that’s in the scripture.  In addition to that, it’s very possible that during that 40 years, He was training an army to actually use swords and spears and to know how to work together.

Then you look at the wrath of God descending upon Israel.  You wonder how come He was so angry.  What happened to the God of love?  The problem is that we do not have a biblical concept of love.  We have a Hollywood concept of love.  If it can’t appear in a Hallmark movie or be written on a Hallmark card, we don’t understand what it’s all about.  That’s one reason why our children are so spoiled and often useless.  God endured generations of Israelites spitting in his face and ignoring him.  He sent prophet after prophet, calling for repentance.  Crickets.  Eventually, even God had enough and His wrath was released.  It was simply Him, expressing His love and trying to save His remnant by eliminating those who polluted the gene pool.

When you question God’s timing, you need to start thinking in terms of centuries, not minutes.  He’s not impressed with your calendar.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-578: Uncharted Revelation: Experts Need Not Apply

One of the reasons that I don’t like spending a lot of time in Revelation specifically or prophecy in general is that the experts, the scholars, like to tell me what everything means.  Generally speaking they start with their preconceived poppy cock, and bend the scripture to fit their system.

One of the places that jumps out at me is when I stop to look at the comments at the bottom of my study Bible about the churches in Revelation.  What I saw there I’ve heard before.  When I heard it before it produced one of my gigantic eye rolls and demonstrated the fact that I can control my sarcasm.  It has to do with identifying the churches in Revelations, first three chapters, with periods of history in the Christian Church.

If I hadn’t heard it someplace else, I would’ve thought that the editor of my study Bible had made it up himself one night when he couldn’t sleep very well . But evidently it’s a common thing.  Each church is identified with a period of history. For example,

“The church in Sardis pictures the Reformation church, beginning with the sixteenth century.”.

I have searched in vain to find any indication in the book itself that this is the way to understand this.  Each of these churches existed in the time of John.  Each of these churches has specific personalities issues that are probably present today and we need to have teaching about.  Another reason I don’t go along with this interpretation is that when God wants to be mysterious, he usually finds a way to explain things if it’s important.  Think of the colossal statue in Daniel 2 that was made up of different materials.  God explains that those different materials represent different historical kingdoms.  Or take the parable of the seeds.  Jesus explains to his disciples what He meant by that story.

The purpose of the Bible is not to confuse or to be mysterious.  His purpose is to teach us the things that we need to know for salvation and hiding it behind mysterious secret meanings is the way of Gnosticism not the way of Jesus.  I would venture to guess that you could find a teacher somewhere that will tell you that eternal significance of each type of precious stone mentioned in the foundation and walls of the New Jerusalem.  If that floats your boat and makes you capable of living a more righteous life than go for it.  Embrace it.  Just don’t bother sharing it with me.

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Opus 2025-505: And Then There Were None

I was watching a video where a Bible teacher was going to explain the tribulation.  It was fairly interesting until at the end when he got to looking at chapter 9 of Daniel.

If you are not familiar with the ninth chapter of Daniel, it is a vision referring to 70 weeks of prophecy.  The 70 weeks is broken down into segments of seven weeks and 62 weeks. If you remember your high school math that adds up to 69 weeks.  Initially, there is no mention of the last week, but it is finally dealt with.  When he got down to trying to explain the last day, it got really amusing, confusing, ridiculous.

This is where my skepticism of prophecy rears it’s ugly head.  His explanation was inadequate.  I went, and I looked at the commentaries of a couple of people and they were totally different.  I assume that if I had looked at a couple more, they would’ve also been different .  When you have four different theories, shall we say, you might think that only one of them could be right, and the other three are wrong.

That overlooks an obvious possibility: it’s possible that none of them are right, and all of them are wrong.  I don’t often hear this suggested but it’s where I come down.  When you have multiple highly trained people who in theory know their Bible and hopefully are people of good will coming up with totally different explanations of a confusing passage, it’s time to stop listening.  It is very possible that we don’t know the answer and we won’t ever know the answer.

When you have something in the Bible that we can’t figure out you’re welcome to keep digging, thinking, theorizing.  You can speculate until the cows come home, get milked and put up for the night.  There’s a good chance you still will not have figured it out.  At that point you need to go to bed, get some rest, stop worrying about it, and perhaps the next day read a different portion scripture.  It is very possible that God does not want you to know what it means, at least for the present.

It should give you some encouragement to know that even the people with their doctorates and real teaching positions don’t really know that much more than you do.  I think God has a real sense of humor.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-447: Judge Not

I got to thinking about one of the promises that Jesus gave to the disciples,

Matthew 19:28 (KJV) And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

This sounds really glorious at first.  Who wouldn’t want to be the one sitting on the bench and making the judgments?  Then I got to thinking about what it meant to be a judge of Israel.  Go back and read over the book of Judges.  Look at I Samuel and see what he had to go through.  Now ask yourself, “Is this really something I would want to do?”

It’s a part of our carnal nature to think of the glory of being in charge, but the real issue would be having to deal with a bunch of pesky, belligerent, selfish tribesmen.  I’m not sure that would be such a wonderful way to spend eternity, or the thousand years if you’re into the millennium.  I find myself wondering also if this is the end times and people are supposed to be redeemed at that point, what is there to judge?  Won’t we just get along?

This might give us some insight into eternity.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-415: Dimensions

The Bible talks about heaven and hell.  I find myself wondering how much of those concepts we can understand.  That sense of wonder expands to us understanding or grasping God in His expanse and Jesus as deity.  What will it be like in their presence.  Honestly, I don’t think we can comprehend it now.

We as human beings are locked into the four dimensions.  I have no trouble comprehending four dimensions that we can understand:  Length, width, height, and time.  I was thinking about how we as human beings are locked into our sense of spatial reality which involves those dimensions.  Scientist and mathematicians talk about additional dimensions.  I really can’t remember the last number I heard, but it was far beyond me.  Those dimensions can only be grasped in the human mind in terms of mathematical formulas or laws of physics.  They have no relationship to our senses or our awareness.

Will we be locked into this box in eternity?  Will God forever limit our abilities to comprehend, or at least know that we don’t comprehend?  I think of Genesis 1:1 where God created the heavens and the Earth.  We are having a hard time, understanding the Earth and all of the complexity involved in it, how can we understand heaven?

If God adapts us in the resurrection in such a way that we can comprehend some of these additional dimensions, will we still be human beings?  We still think of ourselves as individuals?  We don’t believe that we’re going to be absorbed into Nirvana or the Force.  We believe we will retain our individuality.  What does that look like when we are removed from the limitations of our corporal bodies?

So many questions. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-412: So That’s What It’s Like

In thinking and researching on the topic of heaven and hell and wondering what is involved in the afterlife my mind came to what it will be like when this old body gets resurrected.  Paul uses terms like corruptible and incorruptible to describe the difference.  He compares the mortal with the immortal.  He doesn’t go into a lot of detail.  About all we have specifically would be to look at Jesus when He was resurrected and the things that he did at that point.  I think Jesus could’ve done most of those things before He was resurrected, but He didn’t.  He confined himself to a normal human body for the most part.

It occurred to me that the greatest benefit of eternity and its body for me is not the body itself, but the mind.  I confess that I am not racked by pain like so many people are.  I don’t have the disabilities that I see around me so often.  I’m getting old and stiff, but I am not crippled.  I rejoice in that and I am thankful every morning as well as often during the day.  Having said that I’ve never been athletic, and although I’ve had my fantasies of being a famous basketball star and such never really believed that would be part of my life.  So I don’t see eternity in terms of being able to leap tall buildings with a single bound or stop a speeding locomotive.  I see eternity is being able to think clearly, remember facts and research deeply into reality.

Have you had those times when you know there’s a verse that you want but you can’t think of how it goes.  Sometimes it’s so bad you can’t even remember one specific word.  You try them in your software and nothing comes up.  You try variations you find nothing.  Eventually, you might stumble across it and realize that you forgot to put the words in the plural or you had it spelled wrong, or all kinds of things.  For me eternity will be having a memory that doesn’t play games.  I won’t need to access software.  I might have the entire scripture memorized.  I can’t comprehend.  I look forward to the day when I can wake up, look around me, be totally aware, and say, “So this is what it’s like to be alive.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-410: Pepperoni Thoughts

It’s amazing where thinking about the attributes of God can take you.  As I was trying to decide whether grace was an attribute of God or the action that comes out of another attribute of God, I stumbled across mercy.  Is mercy an attribute of God?  Maybe we would express it as merciful?  I don’t know, but someday I will.

That made me think about having a resurrected mind and the abilities that that would offer me to understand the things of God.  Then add to that being in the presence of God and having His glory and His holiness shining upon me with a free mind.  I wondered what it would be like with a resurrection mind to come across a great truth that I’ve never thought of before.  And my thought was that perhaps it would be like that first time that I tasted pepperoni pizza.

Can our minds have taste buds?  It seems kind of strange, but we’ve all had times, I hope, where the glory of God has touched us briefly.  I can remember times when the glory of the world around me and God’s nature have seemed to penetrate the dense barrier of my ability to think.  I can remember a few times when I, a non-Pentecostal, have had shouting spells.  It makes me wonder if I will have constant shouting spells as I sit around the throne shouting, “Hallelujah”.

It’s all beyond my comprehension, but then so is eternity.  If it were comprehensible to me a mere human, it wouldn’t be graced with God’s eternal nature.

So much to enjoy now.  So much to look forward to.

homo unius libri