You can read this portion of John's Revelation here.
Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! This is a tough one today and I confess that I am far from being an expert on it. But I found an interesting, and I think helpful link, that comes from a group (the Blue Letter Bible Ministry) that acknowledges their "historical, conservative Christian views" and leanings toward Biblical inerrancy. While I don't read Revelation literally and am not going to start doing so here, I do think it's helpful to know how much "ink" has been spilled on these verses in some interpretive circles. While these are not my views, I think it's helpful to know the language and distinctions about how some Christians have interpreted these verses, because it does come up from time to time. You can check it out here.
I'm not going near the "lake of fire!"
For my own part, however I'd simply say that 1000 years is a very long time by any human measure. If you took the date, 1776 and projected it out to 2776, then you'd realize we're only a third of the way through a millennium as a nation. The work that we are called to, as the Church, is clearly not a sprint; it's a marathon. So I'm going to offer a millennial poem here from Wendell Berry which I've found encouraging. It offers perspective.
I hope you will click on this link right here for an alternative way to think about today's reading. And I invite you to "invest in the millennium" by planting sequoias, and "by putting your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years." No one can sit around for a millennia waiting to die. So whatever these verses may mean, we do best to "get busy living" - and I think in part this means not getting overly worked up about one four-year administration in our nation's history. That doesn't mean it doesn't matter. But it does mean we can choose to take the long view.
No comments:
Post a Comment