The Revelation: Riddles and Enigmas (the 144,000)

lion-dove-lamb-yeshuaAmong the many visions that have captured the church’s imagination is the figure 144,000 found in —

(Rev. 7:2-10 ESV)  2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea,  3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”  4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:  5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad,  6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,  7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,  8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.  9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,  10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Continue reading

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The Revelation: Riddles and Enigmas (“Souls”)

lion-dove-lamb-yeshuaThe Revelation has 22 chapters, and each verse is packed with allusions not only to the OT but also the apocryphal literature and perhaps even Greek materials. And there are plenty of excellent commentaries that cover this ground.

Therefore, to avoid over-taxing the patience of the readers, I’m going to hit the high points of the remaining chapters, until we get to the very end of it all. We’ll linger a bit over the last two chapters.

But I figure there are a number of particular images that merit pondering in greater depth. There are certain passages, such as the Thousand-Year Reign, that have captured the church’s imagination over the years.

I don’t claim any special insight, but hopefully, like you, I’m curious. What do these things mean? Continue reading

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1 Corinthians 11:17-34: “Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?”

250px-Agape_feast_03I posted a series on 1 Corinthians several months ago in preparation for teaching a class covering the epistle. Today, I taught on the problems with the Lord’s Supper described in 1 Cor 11:17-34.

Until I was preparing for class this morning, I’d been struggling to resolve the tension among three facts:

Fact 1: The early church ate a common meal called the love feast or agapē. They ate in homes, and they took communion as part of the meal. The early church meal was not a symbolic sip and a cracker. It was a full meal, just as was the Passover. Continue reading

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Gravity Waves, Continued

gravitywaves

Gravity Waves

Some further thoughts regarding yesterday’s post

[This will not be on the final. Just to illustrate how very complex a single proton is. You don’t have to watch the whole thing.] Continue reading

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Gravity Waves

gravitational_waves

From XKCD.com

A reader asked me to comment on the profound theological significance of gravity waves. Seems like a good idea. So here goes …

Background

About 100 years ago, Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity (GTR), which has been confirmed by countless experiments. But not all of its predictions have been confirmed — most famously, until a few days ago, gravity waves. Continue reading

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The Revelation: More than Conquerors, Part 3 (College football and other commentaries)

lion-dove-lamb-yeshuaIt’s a little surprising that Hendriksen’s book is titled More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation. After all, the phrase “more than conquerors” is from Romans 8:37, not the Revelation. But the Revelation does speak of Christians conquering (or prevailing) repeatedly. So it fits.

But I’ve always been intrigued by this turn of phrase. I remember the first time I read it (I was in high school, I think). It was exciting! I enjoy winning, and to be more than a winner sounded pretty cool — much better than the damned-to-hell preaching that was common in that time and place. I loved Paul’s optimism.

But what does it mean? I mean, if I win, I win. How can I win more than win? How can I prevail more than prevailing? Continue reading

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The Revelation: More than Conquerors, Part 2 (What the parallel visions teach us)

lion-dove-lamb-yeshuaIn the last post, we considered the approach to interpreting the Revelation offered by William Hendriksen’s 1939 More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation.

I posted the last few verses of each of seven parallel visions, all concluding with God’s victory over Satan. But they are not the same. They offer radically different perspectives.
Continue reading

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The Revelation: More Than Conquerors, Part 1 (Hendriksen’s theory of interpretation)

lion-dove-lamb-yeshuaAs I mentioned in the last post, a very influential book regarding the interpretation of the Revelation is William Hendriksen’s 1939 More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation.

Unlike Foy Wallace and the Gospel Advocate commentary by John T. Hinds, Hendriksen rejects any connection of the visions in the Revelation with particular historic events — pre- or post-AD 70. Rather, he sees the Revelation as a series of seven parallel prophecies speaking generally of the challenges faced by Christians and the church, each promising a triumphal ending.

I borrow this summary from UK Apologetics: Continue reading

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The Revelation: History of Interpretation in the Churches of Christ

lion-dove-lamb-yeshuaI grew up in North Alabama. The northern realms of Alabama at one time had the highest number of Churches of Christ per capita in the world. This is not a good thing. The large number of congregations was the result of a large number of church splits.

The church of my preschool years split twice before I left for college. My home congregation cleaved off the original church over the orphan’s home issue — whether church funds might be used to support orphanages. Really.

All the other congregations in the area were “non-institutional,” although we said “Anti” — pronounced with a certain curl of the lip. So I grew in a world where supporting orphanages out of the treasury was considered “liberal.” Fellowship halls damned. Youth ministers were considered with great suspicion.

Foy E. Wallace, Jr.

Orthodoxy — soundness — was defined by Foy E. Wallace, Jr. Among his many pet issues, Wallace pushed hard against the Churches of Christ’s historic pacifism and premillennial and postmillennial teachings. (We had some in both camps.) Wallace considered premillennialism a step toward Universalism, and hence surely damning. Continue reading

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The Revelation: Of Dragons, Beasts, and Other Monsters, Part 3

lion-dove-lamb-yeshua

We continue our study of the many monstrous characters in the Revelation.

Babylon the Harlot

John refers to Rome as “Babylon” and then as a harlot (or whore or prostitute, depending on the translation). This is one of many parts of the Revelation that makes it difficult to teach in high school — although less so today than when I was in high school.

The “great whore” (17:1 NRSV) or harlot of chapter 17 is called Babylon (17:5), a Jezebel-like figure and a parody of the feminine images of Roma Aeterna and Dea Roma (Eternal Rome and Goddess Rome). She is “seated” on many waters (peoples; 17:15) and on the blasphemous beast with seven heads (17:2–3). These heads are identified (17:9–10) as both seven mountains (as in Rome’s seven hills) and seven kings (the fullness of emperors). Clad in luxury, the whore has fornicated with the inhabitants of the earth and become drunk with the blood of the saints (17:2–6), and as the all-powerful city who rules all others (17:18), she has ten client kings in her grip who will make war on the Lamb but also eventually turn on her (17:12–17).

Gorman, Michael J. (2011-01-01). Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation (Kindle Locations 3134-3140). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition. Continue reading

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