Archive for the 'eschatology' Category

Are the earth’s birth pangs about to end?

Published
by
ElShaddai Edwards
on September 8, 2008
in eschatology and science
. 3 Comments

For the creation was subjected to futility - not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it - in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. (Romans 8:20-22, HCSB)

If, as some alarmists would have you believe, a planned physics experiment on Wednesday spawns the creation of one or more quantum black holes, then in approximately four years, we shall see the earth giving birth to glorious light, just before it is consumed into an eternal pit of fire. The glorious freedom of God’s children will have fulfilled the destiny of the earth’s elements to be destroyed with the heat of heaven’s fire (2 Peter 3). Wormwood, anyone?

On Wednesday, Dr Evans will fire up the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light.

Built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the collider lies beneath the French-Swiss border, near the institution’s headquarters in Geneva, at depths ranging from 170ft to 600ft.

The aim of the £4.4billion experiment is to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang - the birth of the universe - and provide vital clues to the building blocks of life.

It will track the spray of particles thrown out by collisions in a search for the elusive Higgs Boson, a theoretical entity that supposedly lends weight, or mass, to the elementary particles. So important is this mysterious substance that it has been called the ‘God Particle’.

Scientists also hope to shed some light on the invisible material that exists between particles - dubbed ‘dark matter’ as no one knows what it really is - which makes up most of the universe.

But a handful of scientists believe that the experiment could create a shower of unstable black holes that could ‘eat’ the planet from within, and they are launching last-ditch efforts to halt it in the courts.

One of them, Professor Otto Rossler, a retired German chemist, said he feared the experiment may create a devastating quasar - a mass of energy fuelled by black holes - inside the Earth.

‘Nothing will happen for at least four years,’ he said. ‘Then someone will spot a light ray coming out of the Indian Ocean during the night and no one will be able to explain it.

‘A few weeks later, we will see a similar beam of particles coming out of the soil on the other side of the planet. Then we will know there is a little quasar inside the planet.’

Prof Rossler said that as the spinning-top-like quasar devoured the world from within, the two jets emanating from it would grow and catastrophes such as earthquakes and tsunamis would occur at the points they emerged from the Earth.

‘The weather will change completely, wiping out life, and very soon the whole planet will be eaten in a magnificent scenario - if you could watch it from the moon. A Biblical Armageddon. Even cloud and fire will form, as it says in the Bible.’

Full article: Meet Evans the Atom, who will end the world on Wednesday

The literary Bible: Feeding the flames of hell

Published
by
ElShaddai Edwards
on September 3, 2008
in bible translation, church, creation, eschatology, literary bible and scripture study
. 15 Comments

This is a post in a continuing translation comparison series. Focused on “the literary Bible”, my intent is look at passages or phrases where translations that have been especially noted for their literary translation qualities seem to capture the meaning of the text with an extra dash of written flavor, at least in comparison with other standard English translations.

Previous posts: The winner’s wreath | A wilderness of words | Deeds of doom!

* * * * *

This summer I’ve been reading through some of the later letters of the New Testament, namely those of James and Peter. One of my recent book acquisitions was a Library Edition of the New English Bible NT, which proved to be an upgrade in binding only, as the footnotes and annotations are identical to those in my NEB Oxford Study Edition (unlike in the OT, where the Library Edition reportedly does contain additional reference material). Nonetheless, I’ve been reading the NT in the NEB and enjoying it quite a bit, as you might expect.

The passages on the depravity of the tongue in James 3 caught my attention with their florid language and imagery. What follows is a short look at several verses, comparing the NEB to multiple modern translations.

NEB: James 3:1-2
 REB
My brothers, not many of you should become teachers, for you may be certain that we who teach shall ourselves be judged with greater strictness. All of us often go wrong; the man who never says a wrong thing is a perfect character, able to bridle his whole being. My friends, not many of you should become teachers, for you may be certain that we who teach will ourselves face greater judgement. All of us go wrong again and again; a man who never says anything wrong is perfect and is capable of controlling every part of his body.
I want to focus on the change in the latter part of verse 2 where the NEB follows the traditional KJV rendering (cf. RSV/ESV, NASB, NRSV) in using “bridle” as a translation for the Greek chalinagōgeō, while the REB updates this to “controlling”.

Presumably the equestrian reference has been deemed too arcane for modern, idiomatic readers, as virtually every other functional translation includes a similar rendering as the REB. The bridle, of course, is the contraption that goes over the horse’s head, holding the bit in the horse’s mouth and attaching to the reins. Is this really too difficult for the modern reader to understand without it being painted over?

By doing so, the functional translations sever a delightful connection between this verse and the following one (see next), where James uses the illustration of the controlling power of a horse’s bit. This transition seems too logical and natural to ignore through a semantic equivalent.
NEB: James 3:3-5a
 NLTse
If we put bits into horses’ mouths to make them obey our will, we can direct their whole body. Or think of ships: large they may be, yet even when driven by strong gales they can be directed by a tiny rudder on whatever course the helmsman chooses. So with the tongue. It is a small member but it can make huge claims. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.
The NLT’s convention of breaking down the source texts into bite-size morsels conveys much the same general meaning as the NEB, but I can’t help but feel that the logic of the passage has been weakened. The NLT drops the “obey/will” in favor of “go wherever we want”, which feels somewhat more whimiscal or capricious than directed. The NEB admittedly is awkward here, especially in verse 4 - somewhat cleaned up in the REB revision:

Or think of a ship: large though it may be and driven by gales, it can be steered by a very small rudder on whatever course the helmsman chooses.

My preference for accurate nautical terminology has already been documented; needless to say, the use of “gales” and “helmsman” earns points in my book. The latter is perhaps a little more precise than “pilot” in that the helmsman is the one who actually steers the ship, while a pilot is more of a local guide with the authority of a ship’s captain, telling the helmsman where to go in order to navigate a particular passage of water. That said, often the roles are combined from a functional sense, especially where a local pilot is not required. But I suspect this is more than translators need to take into account - I simply prefer the traditional language and welcome it in the NEB.

Finally, by translating the Greek melos as “thing” instead “member” or “part of the body”, the NLT loses the comparative aspect of the size of the tongue to the overall body.
NEB: James 3:5b-6
 HCSB
What an immense stack of timber can be set ablaze by the tiniest spark! And the tongue is in effect a fire. It represents among our members the world with all its wickedness; it pollutes our whole being; it keeps the wheel of our existence red-hot, and its flames are fed by hell. Consider how large a forest a small fire ignites. And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among the parts of our [bodies]; it pollutes the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by hell
Compare the use of adjectives between the NEB and HCSB: “immense/tiniest” and “large/small”. How drab is the latter, while the former immediately conjures a more active illustration of a fire, crackling into a blazing roar that echoes the “huge claims” and “grand speeches” of verse 5a. The NEB noted “What a huge forest…” as a textual variant to “stack of timber” - though that would have created an awkward repetition of the adjective “huge” in 5a/b. I might humbly suggest “swath” instead of “stack” as a mediating translation between the two approaches, with “timber” as a literary image of a forest.

The HCSB is one of the few translations to use “pollute” in verse 6 - most opt for a variant of “corrupt” or “defile”. The Greek is spiloō, which means “to make a stain or spot” in a moral sense.

The study notes to the NEB Oxford Study Edition state that the translation “wheel of our existence” in verse 6 is a reference to Greek mystery thought meaning the whole of our existence, from beginning to end. Some take this as support for the idea of reincarnation, but that clearly is beyond the pale of Christianity and presumably beyond what James had in mind.

Finally, the NEB’s literary quality shines through again with the alliterative “flames are fed”, drawing out the all-consuming quality of sin and wickedness, just as fire consumes every inch of a forest unless checked.
NEB: James 3:7-8
 TNIV
Beasts and birds of every kind, creatures that crawl on the ground or swim in the sea, can be subdued and have been subdued by mankind; but no man can subdue the tongue. It is an intractable evil, charged with deadly venom. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by human beings, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison
First, I want to briefly comment on the rolling alliteration in the NEB: beasts/birds, creatures/crawl, swim/seas. This type of poetic prose, continued from the previous verse (”flames are fed”), elevates the English language beyond the pedestrian list of beasts illustrated by the TNIV. The literary characteristics of the word choices make them seem deliberate and my memory naturally finds in them an allusion to the Creation accounts in Genesis 1:

Genesis 1:26-28 (NEB) — Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image and likeness to rule the fish in the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all wild animals on earth, and all reptiles that crawl upon the earth.’ So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea, the birds of heaven, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.’

The question then begs: did the TNIV translations fail to underscore an allusion to Genesis 1 in James 3:7 or did the NEB translators take liberties with the Greek text to draw out this connection?

The two phrases that stick out in the NEB are “creatures that crawl on the ground” and “swim in the sea”, translated as “reptiles” and “sea creatures”, respectively, by the TNIV. The former is translated from the Greek herpeton, which generally describes “a creeping animal, reptile”; the equivalent Hebrew seems to be remes, which permeates the Genesis creation account as “creeping thing” in traditional translations. The latter is from the Greek adjective enalios, which means “that which is in the sea, marine”. In these cases, the NEB’s choice of verbose nouns and verbs to translate what can be more simply described does seem to be deliberately creating an echo of Genesis 1.

With that conclusion in mind, we look at the Greek damazō (NEB: “subdue”, TNIV: “tame”). The NEB’s rendering more definitely recalls the Creation language of Genesis 1 quoted above, while the TNIV (and many other translations) anticipate perhaps Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”. Strong’s defines damazō as “to tame” or “curb, restrain”, which certainly would seem to lean toward the TNIV as a more literal translation, though “subdue” as a synonym for “restrain” is well within the scope of possibility, and fits with a Creation motif.

Finally, the NEB’s translation of thanatephoros ios as “deadly venom” is a striking allusion to the serpent of Genesis 3, unifying a theme across these two verses that seemingly ties the evil of the tongue to the fall of Creation. And indeed, unifying this entire passage in James with the contrast of the serpent’s deadly venom with the perfect character of a man who never says a wrong thing (3:2).

Concluding thoughts

James’ descent from simply cautioning teachers regarding judgment to perhaps finding an image of the Fall in the deadly venom of the tongue is sudden and vicious. The images, metaphors and hyperbole are mixed together in a literary brew that demands language as artful and colorful as the jumble of images conjured up in our imaginations. The NEB navigates this passage with aplomb, weaving words together with suggestive allusions that revel in semantic meaning. The arc from the perfect teacher to the relentless evil of the tongue is captured in the images of the bridle, bit, rudder, blazing hellfire and fiery course of our lives, all set in relief against the glory of our God-given mandate to subdue creation as its sovereign masters.

A glory, of course, that we have all fallen short of. All, but Christ that is; He who now reigns over Creation as Lord and Master is the only one who has mastered the tongue and doused the flames of the curse with living water. Praise God!

The thrill of the Rapture

Published
by
ElShaddai Edwards
on August 19, 2008
in eschatology and humor
. 4 Comments

Well… as long as we’re on this topic, here’s more eschatological fun:

HT: Greg Willson (click for more photos and video)

Blood moons and Jewish feasts

Published
by
ElShaddai Edwards
on August 18, 2008
in eschatology and worship
. 9 Comments

If you’re into premillennial headline eschatology, this one might be for you. Former blogger Mitch Guthrie recently passed along a recent GodTube.com video (~30 minutes) of a rather enthusiastic presentation by Steve Hadley of Harvest Family Fellowship Reno Nevada regarding the extremely rare alignment of solar and lunar eclipses (”blood moons”) with the major Jewish feasts in 2014-15.

For those who don’t want to watch, I’ll summarize: taking his cue from Joel 2:31, Hadley describes the upcoming alignment of the lunar calendar with the Jewish feast calendar in 2014 and 2015. Essentially there will be lunar eclipses or “blood moons” on Passover (Pesach) and Tabernacles (Sukkot) in both 2014 and 2015. This coincidence of four lunar events and Jewish feasts has reportedly only happened three times before in the last 600 years or so… in 1948, 1967 and in 1492. The importance of the former dates to Jewish state history should be well known; the latter coincides with the explusion of the Jews from Spain as part of the Spanish Inquisition. Hadley also identifies two solar eclipses that will land on important Jewish dates in 2015.

To make a long presentation short, the start of the Jewish New Year on September 29, 2008 is the start of a new Levitical “week”, the repeating seven-year cycle that ends with a Shmita year of rest; this new seven-year cycle will end in 2015. Hadley conflates all of the above (and much more, especially related to the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur) with the eschatological 70th “week” of Daniel, such that he sees the blood moons and solar eclipses of 2014/15 as fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy and announcing the Day of the Lord at the end of Daniel’s 70th week.

Working backwards from 2015 through a seven-year tribulation, Hadley effectively equates the start of the Great Tribulation with the start of Rosh Hashanah next month, when he believes the Church will be raptured and the chains binding Satan are removed, allowing the supposed Gog-Magog conflict between Russia, Iran and Israel to begin.

This is clearly a premillennial, pre-tribulation interpretation of end times, so holders of other viewpoints will find plenty of holes to poke, not least that it depends on the insertion of a non-literal “gap” between weeks 69 and 70 in Daniel’s prophecy.

If nothing else, I guess this would be one way for Dr. James Dobson to avoid voting for Senators Obama or McCain… asssuming any or all of them are raptured next month.

An open response regarding Christian environmentalism

Published
by
ElShaddai Edwards
on July 22, 2008
in creation, eschatology and kingdom living
. 9 Comments

In the comments to a recent post on Al Gore, Christianity and environmentalism, TC made the following statements (quoted, but edited together - emphasis mine):

I’m all for a cleaner environment for our enjoyment and our children’s children, but where is the biblical mandate? [...] We’re told in Scripture to love ourselves and not to destroy our bodies, which are God’s sanctuary, but I do not find the same for our physical planet. [...] I believe we need to care for the environment, but the Bible says that it has been subjected to futility by God himself. [...] [You] are doing your part [to use less energy], but I’m wondering in light of Scripture, if it’s worth it.

The comment thread in question was getting rather lengthy and rather than muck up the discussions already in place, I’ve decided to post my response here. Bryan has already said much of this, so I can only hope to echo some of his thoughts and add something worthwhile.

As for our Biblical mandate, I take the stewardship outlined in Genesis 1:28 to be our overriding commandment as human beings, regardless of sin or the corruption of the physical planet.

Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” (Genesis 1:28, NLT)

We were created to reign over creation in God’s image, to be his ruling viceroys on Earth. By fulfilling this commandment, we give glory to God by fulfilling our purpose. However, to reign over the whole earth and everything that lives on it does not mean to ignorantly or willfully destroy our subjects, but to intelligently understand and promote the welfare and growth of everything within our sphere of responsibility. How else can we explain the course of human history, but the progressing effectiveness of our understanding of creation and how to rule it? It is our role and responsibility to try and leave the earth better than we found it, regardless of whether the entire system is breaking down or not.

Doug’s comment about your argument being “a misuse of eschatology” seems in response to the typical pre-mil position that life is progressively getting worse and therefore there’s no reason to focus on our stewardship of creation because, in the end, Christ will come back and fix everything for us. This is, essentially, what you appear to be saying. That is not to say that any other eschatological system is more correct. I know the common criticism of post-millennialism is that post-mils are viewed as trying to usher in the kingdom by manufacuring heaven on earth. But honestly, the hands-off mindset of many pre-mils suggests that you’re trying to equally hurry His return by hastening the destruction of Creation.

Frankly, that’s an abdication of our creation mandate, of the original role and purpose of humanity, and to ignore our present earth for the future one is misguided. I don’t believe that the corruption and futility of sin has invalidated the Genesis 1:28 commandment. If you don’t try to steward Creation to your greatest ability, then you are no different than the third servant who hid the coins in the ground because he was afraid to take risks and was scared to lose. If God didn’t want us to take risks and invest ourselves in Creation and try to make a return for Him, He would never have left us alone and we would be no different than pigs in the wallow.

I’ve stopped writing about eschatology on this blog because honestly I don’t care anymore about when Christ comes back. It doesn’t matter when; it is enough to know and believe that scripture promises that he will. In the interim, until He does, my purpose as a human being is to worship God as a steward of His creation, living a holy and godly life. Live in the Kingdom now and it won’t matter if Christ comes back during my Old Earth life or not.

The beginning of 2 Peter states that in order to live a godly life and receive God’s promises, we are to make every effort to add goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance,godliness, mutual affection and love to our faith. Isn’t progressive environmentalism nothing less than trying to apply these virtues to our stewardship of Creation?

As for the end, 2 Peter 3:11-12 says that living as such will hasten the coming of the day of God:

You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. (2 Peter 3:11b-12a, TNIV)

You asked, “is [trying] worth it?” I think that Peter would say, most emphatically, “Yes!” As do I.

Jealousy and fullness: revisiting Acts 13:48

Published
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ElShaddai Edwards
on June 20, 2008
in eschatology and theology
. 14 Comments

Revisiting Acts 13:48, Steve (Undeception) has written on the topic of the elect and predestination from his full preterist perspective. Working primarily from Romans 9-11, he writes that:

God’s purpose in election was not to arbitrarily divide all of humanity into two groups, the saved and the damned, but to further His redemptive purpose in a particular, sharply defined context.

Note the verb tense, “was”. The key to his perspective is understanding that this context is in the past. For Steve and other full preterists, Paul’s reference to “until the full number of Gentiles has come in” in Romans 11:25 points to fulfillment in 70AD, not a future consummation.

The “full number” of Gentiles was already starting to be filled up. The generation Jesus spoke to that was not to pass away until He returned was nearing its end. The foreknown Jew and Gentile “first fruits” were about to be offered to God and redemption would soon be available to anyone who would believe. The coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of judgment at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 definitively eliminated the Jew/Gentile distinction by fulfilling once and for all the promises of God to Israel and vindicating those awaiting the fullness of a new, better covenant (Jer 31; Heb 8).

Steve closes with an appeal to Revelation 22, where the Spirit and the bride invite everyone to receive the water of life:

God’s purpose in election has been fulfilled. All are free to believe and receive the water of life. Praise God for fully accomplishing His redemptive plan for humanity!

[Read the entire article]

Surprised by Heaven?

Published
by
ElShaddai Edwards
on June 5, 2008
in books, church, eschatology and kingdom living
. 4 Comments

I’ve gone and done something rather uncharacteristic for me: walked into a bookstore and purchased something from the Christian section. In this case, it is N.T. Wright’s “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church“.

I’ve seen mention of the author many times in various blogs, but have never investigated further. However, I’m always interested in perspectives on end times and the afterlife, so a book promising a “rethinking” will get my attention.

It will be interesting to contrast what this book has to say with Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven, which positions what is traditionally known as “heaven” as a temporary stop on the way to our ultimate destination of living out task-oriented lives on the redeemed New Earth.

What Wright evidently offers that Alcorn does not are thoughts on what his view of heaven means to life in the here and now, especially for the Church. I still have my copy of Jürgen Moltmann’s “In the End–The Beginning: The Life of Hope” to read as well - perhaps this trio of books would make an interesting combination of views to blog about.

Is eschatology milk?

Published
by
ElShaddai Edwards
on May 25, 2008
in eschatology and scripture study
. 4 Comments

The author of Hebrews has some biting words about the Christian maturity of his or her audience. In 5:12, the author writes, “By this time you ought to be teachers, but instead you need someone to teach you the ABCs of God’s oracles over again. It comes to this: you need milk instead of solid food.”¹ The author echoes Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (cf. 1 Cor 3:2), adding that “anyone who lives on milk is still an infant, with no experience of what is right.” (5:13)

He or she then identifies what they consider to be the “rudiments of Christianity” (6:1), the basic building blocks that make up the foundation of faith:

  • repentance from former ways
  • faith in God
  • cleansing rites (baptism?)
  • the laying on of hands (commissioning?)
  • the resurrection of the dead
  • eternal judgment

The author apparently considered these topics to be so self-evident that those adults able “to discriminate between good and evil” (5:14b) did not need to fruitlessly discuss them.

So, in view of the latter two items in the list above, is eschatology, the study of the last things - the end times, considered milk by the author of Hebrews?

Or do we separate the common “what” (the resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment) from the different ways of explaining “how” (pre/a/post-milliennialism, futurism, historicism, preterism, idealism, etc.)?

* * * * *

¹All scripture quoted from the Revised English Bible (REB), unless otherwise indicated.

A battle hymn for truth, justice and the Pope’s way

Published
by
ElShaddai Edwards
on April 30, 2008
in eschatology, prophecy and religion
. 6 Comments

Whether by omission or commission, not a word was written here about the Pope’s recent visit to the United States. Frankly I don’t have the context to fairly speak about Roman Catholicism and the role of the Pope. My exposure to the Roman Catholic Church is limited to a few months of attending different services with an ex-fiancée, in which I mainly was trying to keep straight which churches allowed communion by intinction and which ones didn’t (never mind that as a non-Catholic I wasn’t supposed to be partaking anyway), as well as a visit to the University of Notre Dame for a ND vs. USC football game in the cold rain (yes, they allow intinction at Notre Dame, just in case you were curious).

I’ve read about the Pope (meaning the position, not the current holder of that title) inspiring countless millions, as well as millions who look at him as the incarnate Antichrist. And some, like Kim Riddlebarger, who see him (the person) as:

a brilliant and formidable theologian (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger), who now presides over a church which officially denies the gospel of justification sola fide.

Which I suppose could be the same as the incarnate Antichrist, but at least Riddlebarger didn’t go so far as to name him “Satan’s Pastor”, as Iyov recently labeled fellow blogger John Hobbins.

However, a recent post by Michael Barber on “Singing in the Reign” about the Pope’s visit caught my eye as it promised to undercover some of things that may have otherwise slipped past the media’s eye.

There’s been much written about Pope Benedict’s visit to the US. You’ll find commentary in the media, in the Catholic blogosphere, in Catholic-friendly arenas, in anti-Catholic forums—like I said, a lot has been said. But there’s a lot about this visit that you’re not hearing. A lot of that has to do with the fact that most of the commentators don’t know how to contextualize what just happened. Here I want to do that. Just what happened with this visit. Well, the short answer is: way more than most people realize. Let me explain… and, as I said before, let me do so by helping to provide the framework for understanding why this visit was so big.

Barber goes to on to discuss the current state of Catholicism in Europe, the unprecedented greeting by President Bush, the opening remarks by President Bush and the Pope, and the Pope’s “long-fought war for truth in the face of relativism.”

He ends by discussing the final ceremonial song of the welcome ceremony, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, tying in the President’s now famous (infamous?) remark that he sees God when he looks in the eyes of the Pope to the opening phrase in the hymn: “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…” He concludes by noting with astonishment that the hymn sung by the army choir was based on the exact passage (Revelation 14) that was used for that day’s prayer from “the Liturgy of the Hours―the prayer book prayed by virtually all priests, religious and many lay people.”

14 Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and One like the Son of Man was seated on the cloud, with a gold crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. 15 Another angel came out of the sanctuary, crying out in a loud voice to the One who was seated on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap, for the time to reap has come, since the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So the One seated on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

17 Then another angel who also had a sharp sickle came out of the sanctuary in heaven. 18 Yet another angel, who had authority over fire, came from the altar, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from earth’s vineyard, because its grapes have ripened.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle toward earth and gathered the grapes from earth’s vineyard, and he threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20 Then the press was trampled outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press up to the horses’ bridles for about 180 miles.

- Revelation 14:14-20 (HCSB)

Barber highlights the phrase “the press was trampled outside the city”, but doesn’t explain why. I can only suppose that he is meaning that God’s winepress is located outside of Rome. Is the suggestion that the events of Revelation are being divinely fulfilled by the Pope’s visit to the United States? Or does some event planning bureaucrat in Washington have an apocalyptic sense of humor?

Barber promises two more posts on the Pope’s visit. I’ll look forward to them to better know whether kissing the Pope’s ring (as Ms. Pelosi recently did) is bending my knee to acknowledge Christ as Lord or taking the mark of the Beast.

Looking at life after Revelation 20

Published
by
ElShaddai Edwards
on March 19, 2008
in eschatology and kingdom living
. 0 Comments

On the heels of Bryan’s recent post that Revelation 20 was John’s message of “hope, understanding, and calls for endurance” for the persecuted first-century Christians, rather than a thesis of millennialism, comes a new post from Steve at Undeception focused on the consummation of Christ’s reign and the reward of living in the Kingdom, not “already/not yet”, but fully realized as our present history:

The postmillennialist strains at the idea of a non-literal millennium of 40 earth years, but swallows a non-literal millennium that extends an unconsummated Kingdom two [sic] at least two thousand years, and probably centuries more. Has He put an end to His people’s separation from Himself? If not, where does that put us? The full preterist looks at what God has done and sees “that it was good”, and does not insist upon anything else from God. Even Paul said that they, the firstfruits, had already received everything needed for life and godliness; what was lacking at the time was life after death for the departed, which was itself supplied accomplished at the Resurrection.

What are we waiting for? Our redemption has been accomplished and applied. We have been raised with the risen Christ and brought into the glorious, unshakable kingdom of His Father. Critics claim that preterists are preoccupied with AD 70, but we are so only as a child remembers the thrill of unwrapping the presents on Christmas morning; the real joy comes only after the beginning, and that’s where the full preterist lives.