Reading Revelation
"After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’" (Revelation 4:1)
August 22, 2024
Dear friends,
Here in Blacksburg, we are currently enjoying cooler weather, 70s in the day and upper 40s at night! Maybe it’s a “fake fall”, but we’ll take it. Also, students are returning in droves to Virginia Tech.
I mentioned this already, but recently I read the book of Revelation over the course of two days. Now -- spoiler alert -- I am a futurist with regards to interpreting this book. So, as I read it, I was struck with the number of things presented there that seem to characterize the age we are living in now. What once seemed to me to be fantastic or strange about the book of Revelation now looks more like what's coming across my news feed today!
For example…
LARGE OBJECTS falling from the skies (Rev 8:8-10). Today, more than ever, we realize the number of close encounters Earth has with large chunks of rocks (NEOs). The global effect an asteroid or large meteor would have on our planet would be massive. We know more about this now and scientists are carefully watching the sky. Revelation says this in fact will happen and will affect a third of the planet.
POPULATION GROWTH. (Rev 9:16) This army of 200 million is larger than the world population at the time John wrote it down. Today, there are two eastern nations (east of the holy land) each of which has a population of a billion or more. Such large militaries are not beyond imagination anymore.
ABORTION CULTURE. (Rev 9:21) "...nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality..." The pharmakeia word group, usually translated sorcery, occurs only five times in NT, and four of those are in Revelation. In the first century Roman world sorcery designated the use of potions (herbs, chemicals), often for the prevention and termination of pregnancies — it seems wealthy Romans wanted smaller families. Two-thirds of all abortions today in America (nearly a million total) are produced by a chemical, mifepristone (RU 486).
GLOBAL COMMUNICATION. (Rev 11:10) For three days God’s two faithful witnesses would lie in the streets of Jerusalem while "those who dwell on the earth" would celebrate and exchange presents. In John's day news could never travel that fast! This event will occur at a time when rapid worldwide communication is possible.
A SENTIENT MACHINE? (Rev 13:15) With the rapid progress made in artificial intelligence is it beyond imagination that somewhere along the way an inanimate object (say, a robot) might be crafted that is intelligent and seems sentient (possessed?), which could then give surveillance to global business matters?
JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL in the crosshairs (Rev 16:16). It's amazing how this ancient land, and its people, are once again surrounded by so many enemies. Israel is prominent in international news. For 2000+ years antisemitism has not disappeared, and many nations still seek to eradicate Jews from their land.
No matter how you interpret the book of Revelation, it's time to lift up our heads for our redemption is drawing ever closer!
READING.
-- Recommended: C. S. Lewis described much of what we see in today’s globalist culture in The Abolition of Man (collection of essays) and That Hideous Strength (science fiction). In the 1930s/40s many Christian thinkers could see where western civilization was heading, writers like Lewis, T. S. Eliot, Francis Schaeffer, and Carl Henry.
-- I'm currently reading: The Origin of Paul's Religion, by J. Gresham Machen (1921), and He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, by Graham A. Cole (Crossway, 2007).
-- Finished Pascal's Pensées. (See, I do finish books...)
FINAL QUOTE.
"The Christian movement began in the midst of a very peculiar people; in 35 A.D. it would have appeared to a superficial observer to be a Jewish sect. Thirty years later it was plainly a world religion. ... This establishment of Christianity as a world religion, to almost as great an extent as any great historical movement can be ascribed to one man, was the work of Paul." (J. Gresham Machen)
That's it for this week!
Sandy
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.