I just spent five days in bed with the flu. It felt like being tumbled in a dryer. Things have stopped spinning and I’m getting my bearings again. What a week, but perhaps I needed it. All that sleep puts a lot to rest. I have lot of catching up to do with work and cleaning my house, but for a few days I didn’t do squat. I think some level of stress got purged in the midst of it. Now, I’m rising back up, retooling, and thinking about what comes next.
In 2011 much was made of the Harold Camping rapture meme nonsense. In 2012 we have the ongoing Mayan apocalypse noise. I’ve been thinking it would be good to take a hard look at the book of Revelation. It’s a book of both history and prophecy, the last chapter, so to speak, of God’s revealed message to us. It’s imagery is wondrous and mysterious. Those qualities lead to lots of speculation. I think it would be nice to hammer out the differences between what it says, its interpretation, and the speculation. Paul wrote that all scripture is useful. I think truth has benefit because it provides reliability, something we can bank on that helps steer us clear of error. What I would like to do in the near future is survey the book with an eye on gleaning what is edifying out of it.
A whole mess of famous end times books have come and gone over the years. In my mind, they’ve mostly done harm. I feel for the yearning of my fellow believers, wanting to see God’s kingdom finally overtake the world, but there’s a heavy cost to that. I think it is far better that as believers we hope for those days to be held off as long as possible for the sake of those who still need Christ. Without that attitude, I think a writer is in poor position to examine the book of Revelation. So whether the tribulation that is to come is near or far, I will daily approach it with the hope that it is far, because whether or not it is makes no immediate difference in my ability to serve Christ. That is to say, my focus should be on Christ and the commission he gave to seek others to come into his kingdom. The larger events are God’s deal to worry about.
Anyway, it’s a curious topic for believers and non-believers alike, so it should make for some interesting blog posts. I hope to get started soon.
February 8th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
I’ve been behind on my personal email so I just saw this.
Personally, I have the same view as St. Augustine, who lived from 354AD-430AD, and had to deal with this kind of stuff even during his time. He wrote a lot against the idea that we should be so worried about Jesus coming at any time, because if, after some time, He doesn’t yet return, we could get discouraged. In his Epistle #199, he mentions that there are so many barbarian nations in his own continent of Africa who have not yet heard the Gospel.
For more of my thoughts on this, see my life journal entry on this topic.