We continue this introduction to Revelations noting that this was a time of rampant sin, oppression by a foreign government and these types of dreams and visions contained in apocalyptic literature would draw people of hope to them. It is said by scholars that because one of the themes of these writings was the destruction of the alien power that was making it difficult to achieve their own recognition and power, it brought about an extraordinary thing. If those who exerted oppressive power could understand these visions and dreams contained in these writings it is very possible that the oppression would only get worse. Some of the commentaries I am reading to better understand this book, suggest that it was very likely they were written in code. The code being the language that would not be understandable to an outsider, so these are the visions and dreams of a people that would be unintelligible to those outside the faith. They are difficult because the codes no longer exists. It is in part because of the historical background of such books we can to some degree interpret them. The Book of Revelations, the Christian apocalypse, is the only one in the new Testament. There were others but they did not get in. We then have to consider why with there being other Christian apocalypses does the Revelation of John stand out. It is believed that the reason for its inclusion was that it alines itself with Jewish thought, containing two basic thoughts, the new age and the old age. Instead of speaking to the Day of the Lord it points to the coming of Jesus Christ. Now we come to another key point. Both apocalyptic and prophecy deal p0int events to come. There is an important difference in these two-forms of communication. The prophets were different because they dealt with the present world. They always spoke of how important it was to serve God in this present world. There is more here but I will just add one other thing about these prophets. No matter how messed up the present state of the world was, they believed if the people accepted the will of God it could be put right. Now a view from the apocalyptic side. The thought here is that this world is already to messed up in the present. It will only change with the avenging wrath of God. They saw a need for destruction of the present world , they were pessimists, who believed that things as bad as they were could never be changed. The new age, that golden time of mankind could only come after this world has been destroyed.  The message of the prophets was always spoken, unlike the apocalyptic message which was always a written thing. Had it been delivered in the spoken word the complexity of such a view would have been overwhelming, as we have noted it was difficult, and involved, often unintelligible. We are not putting people down here we are simply noting that it required a great deal of study before it could be understood. Prophets always spoke under their own names while most of the apocalyptic writings were under no name or at best a false name. The exception to this of course is our New Testament one written by St John. Let’s add a little footnote to this last statement. Those who wrote apocalyptic literature had no confidence in their own standing in this terrible world and assigned names of great figures of the past, believing that this would add authority to the writings much more than their own names would. They were trading on the greatness of the past to condemn the state of the present.

This is a short introduction to this book of Revelation, as seen From The Pew. I encourage you to pursue reading and studying this book. There is no way I can tell you anything other than it is difficult to read and to understand without the commitment to a rigorous study routine. There are many commentaries and writings by theologians and scholars that will give you guidance. The good news is many are available on the internet for free. Revelations sets forth the unconquered faith of the Christian Church in a time when life was truly an agony and people had no hope of a better day. These Christians had an unshakable belief that the horrors of their day would be overcome by a powerful God……WE would do well to believe the same.

Life is Good

jk

I recommend the following study materials if you want to study this remarkable book.

New Interpreters’ Bible   William Barclay’s Daily Bible Study 

I do not know where I will go with this as I have put it aside many times as being rather ambitious for a layman and rather pretentious of me to think this book is within my understanding. Be that as it may this rather strange book, a book that is universally viewed as difficult to understand has been popping up on my “write about” list for some time now. Because Revelations has over the years been dismissed as being hard to read and understand, many writers have chosen it as a place to spin their own theories and fit their particular interpretations. This is a nice way of saying it allows their eccentricities a moment of consideration and standing. Martin Luther had a very low opinion of it and placed it with James, Jude, 2 Peter and Hebrews at the end of the list in his New Testament bible.Luther was not the only one, Reformation scholar, Huldreich Zwingli, also had a low opinion of the Revelation.  I will not go into their reasons but more than just a few questioned its right to be in the New Testament. I will say that one of the more common reasons for its problem of inclusion was most people were stressed by the number of people who found it confusing and, being unintelligible. But there has always been people who find the book to be a triumph of a literary masterpiece and find St John’s writing even though at times difficult and hard to understand as a piece of pure art in the New Testament.

We can consider this book to be unique in the New Testament as to its content and the way it is constructed but there is a basic fact here that must be considered. It was last yet it was first. Unique it may be in the New Testament but it represents the growth of a type of literature that was common between the Old and New testaments. We know one name applied to the book of Revelation and commonly used is Apocalypse. The real point of interest here is that this apocalyptic literature grew out of Jewish Hope, the indestructible knowledge that they were God’s chosen people’. They believed that the day would come when they were supreme, they longed for their King, who would lead them to greatness.

As I continued to read and research Revelations I will continue to share with you some points of interest that a surface read won’t reveal. The Jews continued to hold close to their hearts that they were the chosen people of God but their history up to this point was one of defeat, bad leadership and a history of disasters which no human person could ever deliver them from. Sometimes when we can’t adjust to the way the world is,  we readjust the world to fit our sense of being. This is what the Jews did. They divided time into two ages, the present age and the age to come. They felt the present age was bad, going nowhere good. They longed for and awaited with great certainty the the age to come. They awaited the Day of The Lord, sinners being held accountable, this then would signal the coming of the new age. The sin of the present age, the period of uncertainty that exists between now and the coming of this new age with its blessings, this is the meat of apocalyptic literature. It can contain dreams and visions of the end, the meanings being mysterious or obscure or confusing and most always mystifying. So for now we will read a bit more and try to understand what we have read so far. This is a challenging read and it is acknowledged by many theologians and scholars of apocalyptic literature to be a masterpiece of writing in this medium. We Christians are always on a journey to perfection, to prepare for the Lord’s Day. Can we find that time to come laid out before us in Revelations? When the first become last and the last first. Next week we will turn a few more pages of this Book.

jk

Life is Good

Study Sources:   NIB, Webster’s Dictionary, The Writings of William Barclay

Last week I shared with you my concern with the trend toward a more informal type of worship, which I felt allowed an attitude of casual faith and fostered  a lower level of respect and reverence in God’s House. The week before that we were reading through 1Timothy 4: 11-16, which dealt with the duties and responsibilities of church leadership. I pointed out that Christian leadership extended into the lay community also. This week we will look at what brings it all together ……  Koinonia 

(/ˌkɔɪnoʊˈniːə/)  is a transliterated form of the Greek word κοινωνία, which refers to concepts such as communion or fellowship, joint participation, the share which one has in anything, a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution. It identifies the idealized state of fellowship and unity that should exist within the Christian church, the Body of Christ.’ (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

I found many references to the word Koinonia and to keep it simple the best way to define it in a Christian context would be to look toward the community of faith. There we find communion, coming together as one and sharing the intimacy of faith in Jesus Christ. In the Greek New Testament the word appears nineteen times. In the New American Standard Bible it is broken down a bit more. The word is translated to fellowship twelve times, sharing three times and also refers to participation and contribution two times each. It is necessary to understand that in the New Testament the word is translated according to the  context it is used in. Most of the time this will be found in communion, sharing or fellowship. There are many scriptures that attest to this. In the interest of simplicity I wrap it all up to one simple phrase… Fellowship of  the believers.

Acts 2:42

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Two other areas of interest to me would be the following, taken from Wikipedia.

Sacramental

The Eucharist is the sacrament of communion with one another in the one body of Christ. This was the full meaning of eucharistic koinonia in the early Catholic Church. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “the Eucharist is the sacrament of the unity of the Church, which results from the fact that many are one in Christ.”

The communion of saints (Latin, communio sanctorum), when referred to persons, is the spiritual union of the members of the Christian Church, living and the dead, excluding therefore the damned. They are all part of a single “mystical body“, with Christ as the head, in which each member contributes to the good of all and shares in the welfare of all.

(Note: I would change “mystical body”, here to read the “body of Christ as the head.)

Fellowship can mean many things applied in many different areas. Sometimes it can take a rather cynical meaning, being nothing more than acquiescing with something not exactly what you believe but in some ways advances your agenda. The importance of Christian fellowship cannot be understated. The Church today, the Universal Church, the Body of Christ, is under much pressure from societal and cultural pressures that our very Christian values are being challenged  or marginalized with little or no opposition from the community of faith.

Being a layman it is difficult to reconcile a simple faith with theological teachings because there is so much valuable insight and understanding in the theological approach that it can and often does overwhelm many of us. One of the strengths of scripture is the simple awareness of intent, what is the purpose of God’s commands and how do they relate to the world today? Who knows the mind of God well enough to imply a different intent, simply to accommodate a societal or cultural agenda that attempts changes to the intent and responsibility of the fellowship of Believers?  The responsibility of leadership belongs to all Christians, it is not something that only a few are capable of. We know from scripture that many have been given the various gifts of the Spirit to lead others to the gospel and meet the daily needs of the church.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-129 

Two are better than one,

    because they have a good return for their labor:

10 

If either of them falls down,

    one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls

    and has no one to help them up.

11 

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

    But how can one keep warm alone?

12 

Though one may be overpowered,

    two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

There is of course the scripture from 1 Corinthians 12: 20-27

20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Koinonia, the fellowship of the believers is a necessary thing for those of the faith. There are many reasons for the importance of this fellowship in Christ but to put it in the simplest of words we are strengthen by each others commitment and presence. The goal of being respectable and reverent in God’s house and having a servant based ministry is the responsibility of all Christians. This Koinonia or fellowship is a powerful tool only because it is comprised of the Body of Christ.

Hope to see you back here next week in the Pew.

Life is Good

jk

 

In our desire to update the way we do church and to be more inclusive we have made changes that bring with them an attitude of what I call a casual  faith… The subject this week is the lack of the above. There is a sense of greatness and splendor in Psalm 8 that addresses this attitude of a casual faith. How we do church has changed a great deal over the years, some changes were good and needed and others have marginalized our worship of God. We must remember that there are different ways to worship among the many Christian denominations that are out there. I consider those listed in the title above as extremely important values in developing our relationship with God. We should also be aware that God does not dwell in buildings made with hands, but in the hearts of people who call Him Lord and Savior. Jesus said to those who follow Him, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have it a den of thieves'” (Matt. 20:13).

There is a lack of reverence due to the increasing casual attitude that seems to be prevalent in our worship today. This I believe is the result of our loss of respect given to elders, strangers and people we come in contact with in our daily travels. This lack of respect is motivated by external pressures of a changing society and the cultural change that is driven by agendas that do not have Christian values as a motivating factor. This change in our respect “for” has extended itself into our worship of God, our creator. It would help to understand the biblical meaning of reverence in any evaluation of our situation. We best consider these words as we move through this. Reverence is showing honor and respect, deference and a sense of profound and adoring awe. In some instances it can be a nod of the head, in some churches it is a simple bowing of the head. I add this because it is so rare these days, this silence of revered respect when we are in God’s house. Reverence is a deep spiritually motivated state of being, it comes from within but manifests itself in our actions and demeanor.

Now a closer look at respect from a biblical perspective. Respect for God comes from experience, that’s right, having a relationship with God who’s actions in your life have led you to value his presence and an awareness that causes you to want to give respect and honor to Him, for He has existed before you were born. The next value we encounter would be that of Holy Ground. We find the phrase Holy Ground used only twice in the Bible, once in the Old Testament Exodus 3: 5 … Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Then we have the time that Stephen was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ before the Sanhedrin and reminded them of that time Moses encountered God. We find this in Acts 7:33 …Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. These two biblical verses can be read as an example of what Holy Ground should mean to a Christian. This holy ground as with any other place or structure is made holy and considered sacred by the presence of God. Reverence, awe and a deep spiritual awareness are appropriate for coming into the place set apart for the worship of God, for wherever the Lord is constitutes holy ground. The only other thing we might add to all of this is the majesty, strength and glory, of his presence.

Micha 5:4. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

No matter how you do church there must always be  Reverence and Respect for His  Majesty and awareness of Holy Ground, made so by his presence. Paul and Timothy had much to say about the attitude and order of worship. May we always enter His house with prayers of thanksgiving and respect for where we are…. We are standing on Holy Ground….

jk

Life is Good