Every time there's a Leap Year Day, I try to remember something about it each time it happens. I remember starting a new assignment on 2/29/88. In 1980 I was sick. I can't remember what I did on this date in 1984. I barely remember 1992, and in 1996 I was fresh in a new job. On 2000 I remember going to dance lessons at the Maverick and afterwards dancing with this one lady I knew named Lois.
I thought about asking Lois out, but never got around to it. Oh, she was nice, but I didn't see relationship potential in it.
I can't remember the Leap Year Days of 2004, 2008, 2012, or 2016. Will I remember this one?
Today I had a hearty breakfast around noon with a good ham radio friend of mine, Wendell. Before that I worked South Carolina on 20 meters, my last state that I needed for that band. I was on the air this evening, and there was a noteworthy QSO with an American down in Costa Rica. I also briefly talked to Mark over the air.
Tomorrow begins March, no Bible study on the first Sunday of the month since it's Fellowship Sunday. Next class on Revelation is a week from tomorrow.
Also we're going to need a new garage door. I've got that to get into motion. Sheila is preparing for enrolling in college classes.
Life goes on, and for the most part it's enjoyable.
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
The Book of Revelation, Part 2
Since my last post I've been to yet another Bible study on Revelation, where we are now on chapter 7 and we have finished with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I've also had some time to read it a little more, as well as some online research, and I tried to figure out what a "preterist" is.
The first thing I'm going to note is that the author, the Apostle John, had a circular style of writing. In one of his epistles, I noticed that he came back around to revisit a point, but from a different angle. Some years ago when reading Revelation, I noticed that he did that there too, which meant to me that it isn't a chronological order of what will happen. He comes back around again, and it turns out that our pastor stressed that too. So my observation about that isn't a case of where it's just me.
The second thing is, is that I looked up on Wickedpedia (oops, typo) what a preterist is. I probably can be categorized as one but I didn't agree with the types of preterist that they listed. As stated before, I believe that some of what Revelation has prophesied has already happened, but not all of it. Does that make me the partial preterist that they described?
No, because I believe that some of Revelation happened before Christ appeared to John to give the revelation. I'm talking about the white horse. I believe that Christ was present at the Creation, and the appearing of that horse is representative of that. And that is where I part company with the "partial preterists".
If that article can be relied upon, it says that some partial preterists have tied some of the symbolism to specific events. Some might say that "this" was the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D.. I won't go that far. I don't personally think it's wise to do that or to try to reach those kinds of specific conclusions.
Some of the other online research turned up websites that seemed to suggest that the prophecies of Daniel were about one set of events and those that Christ stated were about events yet to come (which they were) and that those in Revelation are about others. Nope. In my view, Daniel spoke of things which we have yet to see. The prophet Joel touched upon the end. So did Christ and so does Revelation. Am I a partial preterist? Call me that if you want to, but that's not what I call myself. I will tell you that we've already had war, earthquakes and famine, and you'll agree. But we are NOT done with war, NOT done with earthquakes, and NOT done with famine. Those prophecies have been partially fulfilled in my view, but have not been completely fulfilled.
Now let's get to the earthquakes. One of the sites I looked at today said there would be more earthquakes. Are there "more" earthquakes happening now than there were 2000 years ago?
I digress to that controversy called "climate change", the now preferred title of what they used to call "global warming". We've got a lot of scientists out there telling us that the Earth is getting hotter, and that the human race is responsible for that. Some forty years ago there was a new "Ice Age" coming. Regardless, these scientists will insist that this viewpoint is valid. They've done studies and these studies were all "peer reviewed". (Did you know that the decision to launch the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986 was also "peer reviewed"?)
Well are these scientists telling us that earthquakes are happening more often than they used to? Are they? If they are, I haven't been made aware of it. So are earthquakes happening more often than when Christ was here?
What has happened is that we know about more earthquakes happening because our technology at detecting them has improved. The disciples didn't know about earthquakes that were hitting Indonesia or the Cascades or Alaska. We record more earthquakes because we have seismographs and we now know just how big the world is. There aren't any continents waiting to be discovered.
But many of those who insist that there's going to be a rapture are insisting there are more earthquakes. No one, to my knowledge, has made the case that we're having more earthquakes than we used to.
Then there are nations rising against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms. Yes, that's true. It's happening right now. And it was happening back then. If we have more wars now than we did back then, it's because we have more people.
Christ said one other thing about something that had to happen before the end. The Gospel must be preached to all nations. Has it? We have several shortwave radio stations beaming the Gospel to every corner of the world. Has the Gospel been preached to "all nations"? If you look at it in those terms, you can say yes, right? But does everyone out there have a shortwave receiver? If you look at it that way, you can say no, right? So has the Gospel been "preached" to "all nations"? My own personal viewpoint on this is that it hasn't, that there is someone out there who has to hear it and believe it before the end comes. I can't tell you if that person is alive or has not been born yet. And even if that very last person has been reached, will the end come right after that? How do we know that God won't "grow" that person some before the end comes?
I realize that I have raised a lot more questions that I have answered, and maybe I shouldn't even be claiming that I answered a single one of those questions. The purpose of this post was really to raise them, and to get anyone who cares to read this post some things to think about.
But don't ask me what the answers to my questions are. I don't know any more about the answers than you do.
The first thing I'm going to note is that the author, the Apostle John, had a circular style of writing. In one of his epistles, I noticed that he came back around to revisit a point, but from a different angle. Some years ago when reading Revelation, I noticed that he did that there too, which meant to me that it isn't a chronological order of what will happen. He comes back around again, and it turns out that our pastor stressed that too. So my observation about that isn't a case of where it's just me.
The second thing is, is that I looked up on Wickedpedia (oops, typo) what a preterist is. I probably can be categorized as one but I didn't agree with the types of preterist that they listed. As stated before, I believe that some of what Revelation has prophesied has already happened, but not all of it. Does that make me the partial preterist that they described?
No, because I believe that some of Revelation happened before Christ appeared to John to give the revelation. I'm talking about the white horse. I believe that Christ was present at the Creation, and the appearing of that horse is representative of that. And that is where I part company with the "partial preterists".
If that article can be relied upon, it says that some partial preterists have tied some of the symbolism to specific events. Some might say that "this" was the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D.. I won't go that far. I don't personally think it's wise to do that or to try to reach those kinds of specific conclusions.
Some of the other online research turned up websites that seemed to suggest that the prophecies of Daniel were about one set of events and those that Christ stated were about events yet to come (which they were) and that those in Revelation are about others. Nope. In my view, Daniel spoke of things which we have yet to see. The prophet Joel touched upon the end. So did Christ and so does Revelation. Am I a partial preterist? Call me that if you want to, but that's not what I call myself. I will tell you that we've already had war, earthquakes and famine, and you'll agree. But we are NOT done with war, NOT done with earthquakes, and NOT done with famine. Those prophecies have been partially fulfilled in my view, but have not been completely fulfilled.
Now let's get to the earthquakes. One of the sites I looked at today said there would be more earthquakes. Are there "more" earthquakes happening now than there were 2000 years ago?
I digress to that controversy called "climate change", the now preferred title of what they used to call "global warming". We've got a lot of scientists out there telling us that the Earth is getting hotter, and that the human race is responsible for that. Some forty years ago there was a new "Ice Age" coming. Regardless, these scientists will insist that this viewpoint is valid. They've done studies and these studies were all "peer reviewed". (Did you know that the decision to launch the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986 was also "peer reviewed"?)
Well are these scientists telling us that earthquakes are happening more often than they used to? Are they? If they are, I haven't been made aware of it. So are earthquakes happening more often than when Christ was here?
What has happened is that we know about more earthquakes happening because our technology at detecting them has improved. The disciples didn't know about earthquakes that were hitting Indonesia or the Cascades or Alaska. We record more earthquakes because we have seismographs and we now know just how big the world is. There aren't any continents waiting to be discovered.
But many of those who insist that there's going to be a rapture are insisting there are more earthquakes. No one, to my knowledge, has made the case that we're having more earthquakes than we used to.
Then there are nations rising against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms. Yes, that's true. It's happening right now. And it was happening back then. If we have more wars now than we did back then, it's because we have more people.
Christ said one other thing about something that had to happen before the end. The Gospel must be preached to all nations. Has it? We have several shortwave radio stations beaming the Gospel to every corner of the world. Has the Gospel been preached to "all nations"? If you look at it in those terms, you can say yes, right? But does everyone out there have a shortwave receiver? If you look at it that way, you can say no, right? So has the Gospel been "preached" to "all nations"? My own personal viewpoint on this is that it hasn't, that there is someone out there who has to hear it and believe it before the end comes. I can't tell you if that person is alive or has not been born yet. And even if that very last person has been reached, will the end come right after that? How do we know that God won't "grow" that person some before the end comes?
I realize that I have raised a lot more questions that I have answered, and maybe I shouldn't even be claiming that I answered a single one of those questions. The purpose of this post was really to raise them, and to get anyone who cares to read this post some things to think about.
But don't ask me what the answers to my questions are. I don't know any more about the answers than you do.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
The Book of Revelation
Over the past few months we've been having a Bible study on the Book of Revelation after the service. The pastor is going thru this at a pace to where it can take two or three Sundays to get through one chapter. The book is I think, one of the most fascinating books in the Bible. What does it really mean? What is it trying to say? What's with all that weird symbolism?
Before I move forward from here, a little digression.
My first exposure to it was in junior high school, in the 8th grade. We were attending a Baptist church then. Although I can't recall a single sermon or Bible class about it, the Baptist way of thinking was somewhat strong in Florida in those days. I remember reading little comic books about the end of the world.
What I remember about that was that there was going to be this thing called the Rapture. After the Rapture, the world would only have seven years left. There was this guy called the Beast who was going to rise up out of nowhere, become a world leader, and everyone would have to have 666 tattooed on their forehead or right hand. The USSR was Gog. The USA was Magog. There was going to be this big war with this big battle called Armageddon. All sorts of chaos and death, and a bunch of locusts flying around and stinging people.
One of the tracts said that John was describing helicopters. Also, that creature rising out of the sea with the ten horns (or something with ten horns) was the Common Market, now known as the European Union. The EU now has more than ten member states, so I don't know what the person who wrote that would now say what it meant. Anyway, the message was this is it, we who are alive will witness the end, and you'd better get ready for the Rapture.
Before I move forward from here, a little digression.
My first exposure to it was in junior high school, in the 8th grade. We were attending a Baptist church then. Although I can't recall a single sermon or Bible class about it, the Baptist way of thinking was somewhat strong in Florida in those days. I remember reading little comic books about the end of the world.
What I remember about that was that there was going to be this thing called the Rapture. After the Rapture, the world would only have seven years left. There was this guy called the Beast who was going to rise up out of nowhere, become a world leader, and everyone would have to have 666 tattooed on their forehead or right hand. The USSR was Gog. The USA was Magog. There was going to be this big war with this big battle called Armageddon. All sorts of chaos and death, and a bunch of locusts flying around and stinging people.
One of the tracts said that John was describing helicopters. Also, that creature rising out of the sea with the ten horns (or something with ten horns) was the Common Market, now known as the European Union. The EU now has more than ten member states, so I don't know what the person who wrote that would now say what it meant. Anyway, the message was this is it, we who are alive will witness the end, and you'd better get ready for the Rapture.
I will admit that I suffered from that way of thinking for several years. When I came back to repentance, this way of thinking was still with me. But I was determined to read the Bible from end to end, and skipping ahead. I got to the book of Daniel, and a chill went up and down my spine. It was coming. So I went out and bought Hal Lindsey's book that isn't in print anymore.....the one titled "The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon".
Trouble is, when you start reading the Bible to look for answers to back up the conclusions that you've drawn from others who read it before you and told you what it meant, when you're trying to figure out just exactly what will happen before the world ends, you might end up with a different set of conclusions......like I did.
I came to discard my original belief in the Rapture. The church I was attending didn't really believe in it anyway. I kept reading passages. Yes, it will get worse before it gets better. Yes, this will all come to an end. But I also noted a "business as usual" aspect as to what would be happening on the day before the last day. People marrying. People being given in marriage. Earthquakes. Famines. Wars and rumors of wars. And I'm thinking. It's this way now, but it's been this way now for a very long time.
What did people think when a world war broke out in Europe in 1914? That the end is near? That this is it, that Armageddon's on the doorstep?
What did people think in the 1930s, when there was a worldwide depression, this thing called The Dust Bowl, and FDR confiscating all the gold?
What did people think in 1939, when Europe's going at it again, and this time we've got this monster called Hitler who's the cause of all of this? Did people think Hitler was the Beast?
And what did people think in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan? Folks, I remember that one, because I was in college back then. I wasn't convinced that Armageddon was around the corner but I remember thinking that here we are in 1979, and are we now thinking some of the same things that people thought in 1939?
The Soviet Union has collapsed. China has emerged as a power to be reckoned with. We've had wars, earthquakes, and famines. Rome got hit with a big one sometime around 400 AD. San Francisco got a big one in 1906. And the earthquakes aren't done yet.
Here's something I just thought of. When Christ said there would be earthquakes and famines, he didn't have to tell his disciples what they were. They already knew what they where. Did he say "an earthquake is where the ground starts shaking, buildings fall over, and people get killed."? Did he have to say that "a famine is where there isn't enough food to go around, and a bunch of people starve to death"? They already knew what a famine was. Egypt had to prepare for a big one some two or three thousand years earlier, and it was written about!
But let's get back to where I was.
We've already had wars. We've had famines. We've had economic calamities.
Has some of Revelation already happened?
I suffer from the belief that some of it already has. I told someone that once some years back and he told me I was a "preterist". OK, I remember looking up what one was but I wasn't sure I was one or not. I might look that up later.
But let's get to something that I think most of us can agree on.
The first few chapters are Christ giving feedback to seven churches in Asia Minor. Here's what you're doing right. Here's what you're doing wrong. Here is what I have noticed. Here is what you need to do. I think that feedback that those seven churches got should be examined by a regular basis by any church in existence today. Folks, that's still relevant!
As for what's after that, we're getting into that now. We've been told to be careful about drawing specific conclusions. We've also been told to look at other Bible verses that might shed some light on what is being said in Revelation. And, something else: Revelation contains inside knowledge written by insiders for other insiders. Meaning........we're not going to figure it all out.
But we will have a lot to think about.
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