KA-BOOM ~ American Military Superiority

This is a picture of a 15,000 kilaton explosion. This is probably the summit of all fears. Below I will work through the data given in Brian McLaren's book Everything Must Change.

"We have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population.....Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity." ~ George Kennon, 1948, one of the American government's leading foreign policy planners of the 20th century.

"So in terms of the suicide machine's three mechanisms, we could say it rather baldly and boldly like this: the purpose of the US security system is to maintain the inequity of US prosperity. Or, put alternatively, to maintain and expand the American Empire." ~ Brian McLaren on the above quote from Everything Must Change, pg. 164.

Let's examine what McLaren is saying in the list below:

1. In the 2006 American military budget, our expeditures were 21 times larger than diplomacy and foreign aid combined.

2. The US is dead last among the most developed nations in terms of foreign aid as a percentage of gross domestic product.

3. 10% of the US military budget reinvested in foreign aid and development could care for the needs of the entire earth's poor.

4. 1/2 of 1% of the US military budget would cut hunger in Africa in half by 2015.

5. The US, Russia, UK, France and China provide 86.7% of the global arms exports (sometimes to their avowed enemies).

6. America produces 53.4 of all the world's weapons.

7. 80% of the top buyers of our weapons are countries we have labeled as undemocratic and rejecting human rights, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

8. In 1999 the US supplied arms to 92% of the conflicts in progress on the planet, often supplying both sides.

9. From 1998 to 2001, the US, Britain, and France earned more from selling arms to developing nations than they gave to those nations in aid.

10. "Every year small arms kill more people than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki put together. Many more people are injured, terrorized or driven from their homes by armed violence." ~ Desmond Tutu

11. In the 20th century, 43 million military personnel were killed in war, and 62 million civilians.

12. The US military budget in 2003 was larger than the next fifteen nations combined. By 2006 it had swelled by 49% over its 2000 levels, not including expenses for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

13. Hidden costs not included in the figuring above have to do with the "brain drain" of using the best engineers, scientists, and thinkers developing non-productive assets.

14. In 2004 global military expenses exceeded $1 trillion while serious international terrorist attacks rose from 175 to 655.

15. From 1948 to 1990 the US and USSR amassed about 75,000 nuclear warheads whose combined power was 1 million times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

16. Since 1940 the US spent $5.48 trillion on nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

17. In 1969 one US sub could destroy 160 Soviet cities simultaneously.

18. At the height of MAD, the US was capable of blowing up 10 planets like earth. Even with disarmament we can still blow up several earths.

19. The US presently spends $100 million per day to maintain these systems.

20. Before 2001 the US annual investment in defense was more than 20% of its fiscal budget, over 1/2 trillion dollars, and over half of the national debt ($2.9 out of $5.6 trillion). Since 2001 these figures have exploded.

21. We are now stronger militarily than the next 25 nations combined.

Is this a sobering picture? What the fission are we doing? And what about the church? Do we think this is all a really great idea? Is this indicative of a righteous trajectory for America?

Inner Megalomaniac

"Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good.'" ~ Will Smith ruminating

"Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet." ~ Will Smith backpedaling

Hello.

First of all, has anyone ever heard of a black Nazi? It's an oxymoron.

Hitler believed in the ridiculous concept of Aryan (read "white") superiority. Couple that concept with copious amounts of amphetamines and you have the Jewish purge. Hitler was really a religious man with a concept. And a crusade. And everybody wants to be in on a crusade at least once. Does anything else that a person can do produce such a giddy high of self-superiority?

I think this is what Will Smith was saying. Hitler was a man on a mission, bent on fixing the world. He was a do-gooder. So how does doing good turn into a holocaust? Will Smith is presenting a paradox that apparently went over the heads of his many fans.

"Whoa. Will Smith is a Nazi. Imagine that."

Apparently, the one luxury celebrities don't have is the luxury of deep thought. Shame on you, Will. You are an intelligent black man. Don't betray your fans by thinking.

So is it wrong to try to change the world? What is the difference between Hitler and Al Gore? Some people would say nothing. But does anyone believe Al Gore is a monster bent on dominating the world, with the ends justifying the means, in order to save the world? When does saving the world ~ mimicking your favorite superhero ~ become megalomania?

Even more interesting, is there a megalomaniac within each of us that is waiting to break out if only it can find a cause worth dominating the world for? Is there any irony in the idea that we can save the world through destruction? Awareness of that irony may be the only thing that keeps our inner megalomaniacs in check.

Bravo, Will Smith. You are a celebrity with a brain. And you seem to be keeping your inner megalomaniac in check.

Religious Justice

These boys didn’t get a fair trial. They got picked for wearing black clothes and having long hair. I am fundamentally opposed to the death penalty, and as Lenny Bruce said, "In the halls of justice, all the justice is in the halls." Perhaps, a jury is composed of twelve men and women of average ignorance; and a judge is a lawyer who once knew a politician. In our system of justice, the best client for a lawyer is a scared millionaire. The worst thing in our criminal justice system is to be broke or different.
-Tom Waits


Watching the Larry King Interview of Damien Echols, now on death row from a mob justice conviction for murdering 3 boys in Arkansas over 15 years ago, I was thinking I could see how this kind of thing could happen, that these three guys could be convicted for "Satanic crimes" they did not commit. They were outsiders in a Bible Belt microcosm that was looking for convenient scapegoats.

Tragedies invoke traumas. Senseless murders can so traumatize the victim's loved ones that people who oppose the death penalty can suddenly become avid seekers of someone's execution, as a kind of panacea and vengeance for grief. Also, pull in local bias into the mix ~ the conviction that all kids in black clothes and long hair are Satanists ~ and you have the Salem witch trials deja vu. We should remember that Jesus Christ was executed as a Satanist.

And who was it that plotted Jesus' death? The strictest of religious Jews, the most pious sect among them. The Pharisees wielded political power and influence. They could incite a mob. They could conspire to have their nemesis, Jesus, eradicated. They could even pervert Roman justice to achieve their devious, though outwardly "righteous", ends.

It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens. And today, this famous case of the West Memphis 3 Murders, should be reopened and retried, largely due to new DNA evidence that ties none of the three alleged murderers to the scene. It is entirely possible that the three are innocent, with two serving life sentences and one awaiting lethal injection.

I am someone that people would categorize as "religious", because I have faith in Christ. But it makes me wonder why religion can turn people, even believers in Christ, into something other than what he so evidently was: a man committed to justice. Perhaps I too would become a rabid seeker of vengeance if I found a child close to me murdered: perhaps I would demand to be repaid. Perhaps my trauma would blind me to the fact that I had found innocent young men to pay for a crime they didn't commit in order to satisfy my emotional need for a closure that never comes. Perhaps my personal bias against some outsider would make me feel justified in having them put to death to sate my need for vengeance.

It is really the opposite of how faith should motivate us. Faith puts the painful reality in God's hands even if human justice fails miserably: and it frequently does. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord." It is criminally selfish of us to seek scapegoats to relieve us of our personal pain. All we do is compound the misery by pulling someone else into the black hole of a heinous crime.

As followers of Christ we should value justice, mercy, and kindness, even when seriously wronged. What good does it do to bring the legal hammer down on the innocent? It accomplishes nothing. Yet the Puritans did it. They brought a religious bias into the courtroom and became the new inquisitors, torturing and killing people Christ came to save.

Christ himself was an outsider. And he paid dearly for it.

He told us to clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, feed the hungry: that in so doing we were showing compassion to him. He is saying then that he identified with the outsider. The outsider is now in. He died as an outsider for the outsider. Yet it has been our lot in history to hate the outsider, round him up, put him in prison and even kill him. It makes me think we don't have a clue who Christ really was.

Doing Greater Works Than Jesus

John 14:12-14 -Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ya shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do [it].

Mat 17:20 - And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Mat 18:18 - Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

From a Tony Campolo piece on "Doing Greater Works":

I was in Haiti. I checked on our missionary work there. We run 75 small schools back in the hills of Haiti. I came to the little Holiday Inn where I always stay and shower and clean up before I board the plane to go home. I left the taxi and was walking to the entrance of the Holiday Inn when I was intercepted by three girls. I call them girls because the oldest could not have been more than 15. And the one in the middle said, "Mister, for $10 I’ll do anything you want me to do. I’ll do it all night long. Do you know what I mean?"
I did know what she meant. I turned to the next one and I said, "What about you, could I have you for $10?"
She said yes. I asked the same of the third girl. She tried to mask her contempt for me with a smile but it’s hard to look sexy when your 15 and hungry. I said, "I’m in room 210, you be up there in just 10 minutes. I have $30 and I’m going to pay for all 3 of you to be with me all night long."

I rushed up to the room, called down to the concierge desk and I said I want every Walt Disney video that you’ve got in stock. I called down to the restaurant and said, do you still make banana splits in this town, because if you do I want banana splits with extra ice cream, extra everything. I want them delicious, I want them huge, I want four of them!

The little girls came and the ice cream came and the videos came and we sat at the edge of the bed and we watched the videos and laughed until about one in the morning. That’s when the last of them fell asleep across the bed. And as I saw those little girls stretched out asleep on the bed, I thought to myself, nothing’s changed, nothing’s changed. Tomorrow they will be back on the streets selling their little bodies to dirty, filthy johns because there will always be dirty, filthy johns who for a few dollars will destroy little girls. Nothing’s changed. I didn’t know enough Creole to tell them about the salvation story, but the word of the spirit said this: but for one night, for one night you let them be little girls again.

I know what you’re going to say: "You’re not going to compare that with Jesus walking on water." No, I’m not, for very obvious reasons. If Jesus was to make a decision which is the greater work, walking on water or giving one night of childhood back to 3 little girls who had it robbed from them -- giving one night of joy to 3 little girls that armies had marched over -- which do you think Jesus would consider the greater work, walking on water or ministering to those 3 little girls.

The Rev. Dr. Tony Campolo is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the Urban Studies Program at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.

My comment:
Dr. Campolo represents just one way of looking at the issue of doing greater works. There is a tension in this idea. For instance, there is a teaching that in the final days of the Gentile Age the church will again produce the miracles of Jesus, exactly as he performed them, and even greater (based largely on the scriptures above quoted).

The word "greater" is a translation of the Greek word meizon, which basically means "higher quality." That is, Jesus is saying, "You will do better works than these."

In John 8: 39, Jesus says, "Do the works of Abraham." Abraham did no miracles. "Works" means "deeds." Do the deeds of Abraham. Abraham's deeds were deeds of faith, like leaving the safety of Ur to obey God.

Greater also means the "extended" work of the Spirit through the corporate Body of believers. We too participate in the work of the Father's business through the Spirit given to us. God works with us in our lives as we walk after the Spirit: sometimes miracles happen. They are interventions of all sorts.

We can safely say that God has extended the work of Jesus through the church, and it has been a miraculous journey. We have not yet seen very many believers replicating the actual miracles of Jesus, and certainly no one doing verifiably greater or more astonishing things.

What would happen if people did start doing those things again? Would it shake up the world? Perhaps.

But Dr. Campolo brings up a worthy thought. Would doing those things be greater than simple acts of love, which are themselves miraculous in a world so lacking in compassion and kindness? Those girls in Haiti needed an orphanage.

In James we read: "Pure religion...is caring for the widows and orphans...."

Jesus was just one man, but through his Spirit he became many, a greater company called the church, extending his influence into all the world. It is the destiny of the church to love the world, just as he does.

Tweaking the Eschaton

I'm just going to copy this straight out of Brian McLaren's new book Everything Must Change. This book may be the most challenging one this guy has written yet. Very thought provoking:

"The phrase 'the second coming of Christ' never actually appears in the Bible. Whether or not the doctrine to which the phrase refers deserves rethinking, a popular abuse of it certainly needs to be named and rejected. If we believe that Jesus came in peace the first time, but that wasn't his 'real' and decisive coming ~ it was just a kind of warm-up for the real thing ~ then we envision a second coming that will be characterized by violence, killing, domination and eternal torture. This vision reflects a deconversion, a retrun to trust in the power of Pilate, refusing to fight. This eschatological understanding of a violent second coming leads us to believe (as we've said before) that in the end, even God finds it impossible to fix the world apart from violence and coercion; no one should be surprised when those shaped by this theology behave accordingly.......

".......This is why I believe that many of our current eschatologies, intoxicated by dubious interpretations of John's Apocalypse, are not only ignorant and wrong, but dangerous and immoral. By way of ignorance, they are oblivious to the conventions of Jewish apocalyptic literature in particular, and literature of the oppressed in general. As a result they wrongly ~ one might even say ridiculously ~ interpret obviously metaphorical language as literal."
Everything Must Change, pgs. 144-145.

McLaren is probably the most influential writer in what is called the "emergent" church, a term he says he hates. It is as if he has been given the task to define the direction of the post-modern church, or really the church in the now post-modern era.

Anyone entering into the emergent conversation is in for a wild ride. This whole thing is a real shaking for the universal church which is used to certain conventions of thinking or what McLaren would call "framing narratives." A framing narrative is just a story we go by: a particular way of viewing the scriptures that defines our lives.

I've been talking, in some of my blogs, about one of my favorite (no, obsessive) subjects,eschatology (the study of "last things" or the eschaton). I was spiritually raised in this version of Jesus he calls "ignorant and wrong." The view he is undboubtedly coming from is over in the zone we might call universalist / preterist. To Evangelical ears, this sounds radical, and to some devilish. For many it is tantamount to heresy.

Still, I don't just like this guy, I love him. I don't know of another writer out there that upends my safe little world so much. So we'll be looking at this new book in later blogs, I'm sure.

When I read words like those above from McLaren, I feel schizophrenic, like I have two personalities. One side of me resonates with what he's saying and the other is crying, "No, you can't take the second coming away from me." I have not a sufficient interpretational grid to process that with.

The apocalyptic framing story McLaren is referring to is the picture inspired by Revelation of Jesus returning to earth with ten thousands of his saints to finish up the Middle East battle of Armageddon and reclaim the earth for the future kingdom of God. McLaren's framing story is the very different preterist version that says Jesus' return symbology refers to a past event and was tied in with the first Advent and the end of the age of Judaism.

What intrigues me here is that he is saying, basically, our eschatology could use some tweaking and that we may be using these things irresponsibly. How do we then process all the biblical references to parousia, resurrection, harpazo, and the larger paradigm shift that Jesus inaugurated? Maybe we need another Nicene council: a meeting of diverse Christian minds to rethink the eschaton.

In The Courtroom of Life

1 Corinthians 6
Lawsuits Among Believers
1If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? 2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! 5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers!

7The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.

9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

~

I want to go beneath the surface of this a little bit. Is there more here than just advice for handling legal matters and one of the most seemingly damning verses in the New Testament? I mean, you could take verse nine and virtually exclude anybody and everybody from the kingdom of God. Are there any immoral people, idolaters, gays, greedy folks, drunks, slanderers, or swindlers in the church? No? Are you in a coma?

First of all, why are the court dockets full? Why is Judge Judy one of the highest-paid performers on TV? Why are there so many lawyers and so many laws? The answer is that offenses abound; and, even more than that, people who want to get even because of offenses abound.

What does it mean to "get even?" It means, "I want justice." I want a fair shake. Nobody takes advantage of me: nobody.

We often join up with a religion because we become concerned about spiritual issues. Then, when we join, we strive to be the best we can at that religion's tenets. When we do, we invest a lot in that effort; and, when we have a lot invested in something, we begin to enforce it. And woe be unto anyone who challenges our position. It can get really savage. Also, that savagery undermines the very reason we sought religion in the first place.

In Christ's teachings, though, we encounter something very opposite to this tendency. He teaches love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and hospitality. In short, He asks us to be very contrary to the tendencies of our own natures.

In the above passage, Paul is talking first about legalities and disputes, then he tells us that the wicked won't inherit the kingdom of God. It almost seems there is no real context here, no connection between the two ideas.

But a closer look would reveal there is a connection. The previous chapter is part of the context here, where Paul deals with immorality in the church and sets up what seems to be a practice that endures to the present day: excommunication. But in the big picture of how Paul deals with these problems, we begin to realize that he was also quick to forgive and accept people back who changed their ways.

A closer examination of Paul's teachings reveals that he was anti-legalistic and into promoting harmony in the church. He was, as a major leader, trying to head off legalistic bickering that we know from history became the denominational and schism-happy situation we see today.

The point, really, of verse nine, is that we are all by the law condemned. Thus, do we take that same law and bully one another and those without, the outsiders? This is an anti-legalistic passage. It isn't saying we don't need to obey the law. It is saying we don't need to take legal judgments and bludgeon everybody.

Actually, this practice of going to law with fellow believers is exactly what we do and have done for centuries. When are we going to quit?

Paul says, "Some of you used to be very wicked yourselves. When did you start becoming so judgmental? When did you start using the law you once broke so frivolously to now bring everyone into line?"

In other words, we are all condemned. But now we are out from under the law because he who fulfilled the law (Jesus) is with us. Our understanding is that he has saved us from our condemnation, and further, he is saving everything he has made. Through Christ he is bringing what he has created back to himself. Who are we to judge?

Paul also says we will sit in judgment, even of angels, so we should be able to judge disputes. The primary thing that ends disputes is mercy, and mercy opens us to understand what brought the offending party to their present situation. How great is the mercy of God through Christ toward us? It knows no bounds.

Mercy rejoices against judgment, and lawsuits are about judgment. However, it is more than legal disputes we are looking at here: it is all contention within the church and even extended to those without. This does not mean we don't seek to understand the truth through dialog. It does mean we are all on the same trajectory and therefore are not enemies over trifles or disputes over words, semantic wrangling.

The church has a long and complicated history of disputes, legal questions, and doctrinal oppositions. Sometimes these things have been so prominent that they actually sidetrack from the work of proclaiming Christ's salvation to the world. This historical dynamic means there is something fundamentally wrong with what we believe Christ has accomplished. We have limited the mercy of God and made it only available to a select few. But His mercy endures forever: it knows no bounds and is certainly not boxed in by our preferences and prejudices. It's time for the church to open her bowels of compassion both to those without and those within.

Iceland USA: Meditation

Psalm 147: 12

Jerusalem, praise the Lord.

Zion, praise your God.

13 He makes the bars

of your gates stronger.

He blesses the people

who live inside you.

14 He keeps your borders

safe and secure.

He satisfies you

with the finest wheat.

15 He sends his command

to the earth.

His word arrives there quickly.

16 He spreads the snow like wool.

He scatters the frost like ashes.

17 He throws down his hail

like small stones.

No one can stand his icy blast.

18 He gives his command,

and the ice melts.

He stirs up his winds,

and the waters flow.

19 He has made his word known to the people of Jacob.

He has made his laws and rules known to Israel.

20 He hasn't done that for any other nation.

They don't know his laws. Praise the Lord.

Photos courtesy of Leigh Ann Wilbur

A Sound In The Trees

2 Samuel 5:
23 So David asked the Lord for advice. The Lord answered, "Do not go straight up. Instead, circle around behind them. Attack them in front of the balsam trees. 24 Listen for the sound of marching in the tops of the trees. Then move quickly. The sound will mean that I have gone out in front of you. I will strike down the Philistine army."


I've been remiss about blogging. Actually, suffering from blogger-block and too much going on right now (not to mention ice storms).

I've been discussing the arts and Christianity with some e-mail buddies. Seems the church universal dropped the ball on media. And maybe that was just as well. If we were propagating the wrong message maybe it is best we didn't master the medium. Besides, we weren't interested in the medium as much as the message: and the message has been divisive. How can you divide your audience and expect to win them?

I'm seeing, I think, a glimmer of hope. What would happen if we got the message right? What if the world out there perked up when they heard about Jesus? What if He was no longer the enemy of all reason, the state, and the people? What if He wasn't so monstrous and scary any more? What if it suddenly dawned on people that He is the actual, unadulterated, unmitigated savior of the world? What if what we projected and broadcast to them actually was good news?

I've been blogging much of 2007 and just kind of hashing out my favorite subjects. In the interim I have changed. There has been a spiritual paradigm shift in my whole consciousness. It hasn't changed me on the outside. In fact, I got a little fatter this year staying home a lot and caring for my Dad who, at 93, is in the throes of dimentia.

In fact, dimentia taught me something. It taught me about the value of life. What we accomplish is almost meaningless in relation to this temporal sphere. Whatever my Dad was trying to do in life, whatever gains he tried to make, whatever successes he had, he can't remember them now. His brain is practically dead, even while he lives. And it tells me, when death comes, it all passes away. For him, it has all passed, and he is still alive. He is living testimony that not much of what we do matters.

But Jesus said it does matter. He said, "Lay treasures up in heaven." Well, how do we do that? By giving to Benny Hinn? Benny thinks that's a good idea. The fact is, our lives are on a trajectory and laying up treasures is part of that.

With the Advent of Christ, mankind is headed for the Kingdom. We who come into this blessed hope in this life are now helping to further that goal of God. But we haven't really realized it or been taught it. Instead, we've been trying to coerce people into Christ. That's different than what Paul meant when he said, "I caught you with guile" or "Knowing the seriousness of God we persuade men." That was King James. The NIV Reader's Version puts it this way:

1 Cor. 5: 11 We know what it means to have respect for the Lord. So we try to help other people to understand it.

How can we help people understand it if we don't really know what it is?

What if we did begin to understand it? What if it suddenly dawned on millions of Christians that we have been preaching a crippled gospel? That would have to come from God for such a time as this, when church credibility and relevance are at an ebb. Then our whole approach to our common faith would take on a radical new look. Suddenly, Jesus would not just be some imaginary monarch to the masses, He would be the hero of history, the fixer of everything.

Do I hear a sound in the balsam trees?

Forgiveness Song

This is a song I think I wrote in about 1976. The lyrics can be sung over the Bob Marley tune I Shot The Sheriff.


Forgive


//Forgive one another
And don't hold a grudge
Judge not your brother
That you be not judged.


With what measure that you mete
It will be measured to you again
Agree with your adversary quickly
While you are in the way with him.


//Forgive one another....


Why behold the mote that's in your brother's eye
And not the beam that's in your own
Try cleaning up your own back yard
Before you pick at someone else's home.


//Forgive one another....


People who live in glass houses
Should not be throwing stones
Let the man without sin among you
Be the first to cast a stone.


//Forgive one another
And don't hold a grudge
Judge not your brother
That you be not judged.

Global Religion

The map above depicts the way Christianity is presently dispersed across the globe.

The highest density is seen in South America. In part, that was begun by Catholic missions in past centuries and, more recently, the explosive growth of Pentecostalism among Hispanic peoples.

North America is less densely Christian but still has a healthy believing population as does Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. It is interesting that in Europe, though, in many places, only about 2% still attend church. Also, note the Phillipines, with a high Christian saturation.

Smack dab in the middle of Asia (Russia) is a big dab of green that is probably mostly Eastern Orthodox Christians. The believers, globally, make up about a third of the earth's population at present, with about half of those professing Catholicism.

The vast desert stretches of orange denote a dearth of Christians in these areas dominated by Muslims. Monotheists, then, make up half of the world's population, combining Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

Israel is notably centered right in the Middle of this belt of non-Christianity. For Evangelicals, then, this is the final goal of the "Great Commission", the "go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to all nations, then shall the end come" command. How shall this orange belt of unbelief be breached?

We live in a globalist, shrinking world, and an "electronic village." Some have said that the real thing that brought down the former Soviet Union was the Internet. The Internet is presently a vast networking of free information blanketing the globe, and, yes, even the Middle East.

Much of Islam is under theocratic government, not democracy. Theocracies try to screen out all information coming to their peoples that criticize or question these regimes. That is because people tend to follow what they know, and it is a means of control. Once you open up democracy, people then have to sift through information that contradicts what they believe or have been taught to believe. Of course, Muslim leaders don't want to encourage the Western poisons of gambling, pornography, and materialism that would come through the Internet either. But surely one of the biggest problems would be Christian propaganda.

Christianity is Islam's biggest competitor. No matter what denominational form the message comes in, the message of Christ is world-shattering. One of Islam's central tenets is that Islam will win in the end. Allah will triumph. And Christ will return as an Islamist.

Christianity, though, holds that "the meek shall inherit the earth," and interprets the "meek" as those who follow Christ, not Mohammed. We must assume that truth and justice will overtake the earth some day. Will it come from one or the other of the two predominant religious framing narratives of mankind?

The message of Christ actually penetrated the whole earth in the days of the apostles. It began in "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." But the "uttermost parts" in those days was not what it is now. We are literally standing at the threshold of the moment that the whole earth might hear the good news.

Seven-fold Patterns In Scripture

"Let us begin our textual comparison with the seven-fold pattern of the creation days. This pattern is repeated seemingly endlessly throughout the book of Revelation. All the apocalyptic events in Revelation are categorized in this same seven-fold structure and what’s more, they mirror the creation order. It is necessary to quote Milton Terry at length here:

"The seven days of the cosmogony are no more to be interpreted literally than are the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse. Indeed, the repetitions of "God said" in Genesis suggest some analogies to be found in the sounding of the seven trumpets. At the sounding of the first trumpet the earth was smitten; at the second, the sea; at the third, the rivers and fountains; at the fourth, the sun; at the fifth, the abyss; at the sixth, the armies of Euphrates were set loose, and, at the seventh, "great voices in heaven" announced the advent and reign of the Lord and his Anointed. The days of Genesis are as symbolical as the trumpets of the Apocalypse, and can no more successfully be identified (or shown to correspond) with ascertained aeons of geology and cosmical evolution than can the trumpets with successive historical events.

"Augustine viewed the days of Genesis in much the same way, and modern advocates of the Framework View draw the same parallel Terry does. Lee Irons writes in response to the idea that numbered days must mean literal, chronological 24-hour days:

" 'The fact that the days are numbered need not be taken as evidence of chronological sequence any more than the numbering of the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls in Revelation. The days are numbered to call the reader’s attention to the theological significance of the sabbatical structure of the creation account.' "

from: http://www.truthinliving.org/

The above comes from a Preterist viewpoint. Preterist means that eschatology is defined as the "last days" already took place: they culminated in the 70AD destruction of the temple.

What strikes me here is how this dovetails with my analysis of these things in my book 7K: The Millennial Week. And I am not exactly a Preterist or a Futurist. In my thinking, the two can be blended. There doesn't have to be an endless "we-they" argument going on here.

What all of us are searching for is an understanding of how biblical prophecy applies to us. How do we process these enigmatic, ancient sayings? We know a great many prophecies were fulfilled with Jesus; it seems much harder to conclusively demonstrate that all of them were fulfilled in 70AD. There are some glaring loose ends that seem to escape the sight of devoted Preterists. Likewise, Futurists pooh-pooh everything Preteristic, which is sad. The Preterist view is revealing great truths.

One thing that emerges is mentioned in the writings of Milton Terry above, and it comes from a sensitivity to a kind of mystical Bible code that is right there in scripture itself (but not confined to Genesis and Revelation alone). There are patterns of 7 all over the Bible, some concealed in the text itself.

When we pull these patterns out and lay them over one another, we can begin to see connections revealing the greater plan of God. A literal reading of these things suggest that Jesus' future finishing of the Gentile Age is possibly just ahead of us. Preterists don't seem to give a nod to such an age even existing.

It is interesting that ancient sages ~ both Jewish and Christian ~ subscribed to an idea that has been called the septimillennial theory. This simply meant that the Bible suggested there would be seven millennial (thousand-year) periods before the complete fulfillment of all prophecy. Some of the Jewish scholars divided six of these millennia into three ages of 2,000-years apiece.

The first biblical age, from Adam to Abraham, was called the "age of chaos." The second age was "the age of Law" or of the Jew. The third age was to be "the age of Messiah." Indeed, in 30AD that "age" began, according to both Preterists and Futurists.

I tend to think that what is called the "times of the Gentiles" in the Book of Acts is referring to this third age. And I tend to think that age is near its close, but hesitate to say how soon, though dating would suggest it occurs within the next 23 or so years. However, Preterists help us to take caution with such information lest we encourage people to abandon their responsibilities thinking the Messiah is coming soon.

There is another way to consider the 7,000-year theory so that we don't have to take it literally. It can be thought of as a symbolic picture of the entire plan of God. In scripture, 7 is the perfect number. It is a connective and prophetic number as well. Both Genesis and Revelation reveal the whole plan of God, which is too much to discuss here. But in days to come I hope to go further, and to occasionally pull out some of these amazing connections.

Weak Faith

1 Corinthians 8:
7 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.

8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

10 For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols?

11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

We don't have the problem today of eating food sacrificed to idols; but we do have the problem of "weak faith" and "weak conscience." I want to explore this briefly.

What is "faith?" Is it a means to an end? Some Christian teachers teach that it is. They see faith as something you accumulate and, when you have sufficient faith, then it becomes usable. There is a reason for this idea, since there are numerous verses in the Bible that might suggest this. Some even take this so far as to believe that our words have a creative ability to change things. You speak faith to something and, if your faith is big enough, that thing will obey you. The problem is, it usually doesn't work. The truth is, faith is a small thing, like a mustard seed, that can accomplish big things. Faith is just faith. It is static by itself. But God is dynamic and will respond to faith ~ but not always. Why? Because our motives can be misdirected: greedy, envious, vengeful, proud, to name a few. Or, God does not respond for other reasons: it is not necessary, it is not in his plan, it is not his will.

The real meaning of faith is confidence. Faith does not have any goal, of itself, other than trust. Mature faith is like that of Job who said, "Though God slay me, yet I will trust him." That helps us to understand the testing of faith or "trials of faith." All of us experience this. Our faith really matures more when God isn't answering prayer than when he is.

Results are only one dimension of prayer, and not the most significant. The main goal of prayer is communion and relationship. And it is in this area that faith grows and becomes strong, not weak. Our journey should develop our faith.

So, as we see in Paul's statements above, in our relationships with other believers we have those who have "strong" faith and those who have "weak" faith. There are certain earmarks of weak faith: a legalistic attitude, a lack of understanding and knowledge, and a predisposition to being offended by someone else's actions. Thus, we can see that, in the church today, there is a lot of weak faith, and often in people who have been following Christ a long time. But experiences, even negative ones, should make us stronger.

Strong faith has developed like the muscles of a weight lifter, through exercise. Our faith experiences the pain of development and ultimately gets stronger. Thus, we gain in "knowledge"; that is, we understand God more clearly than our weaker fellow believers. We understand, in the instance above, that food sacrificed to idols is nothing. We don't have a superstition about it. We can eat anything, really, without polluting our spirit.

But, as I said, those with weak faith are easily offended. They compare themselves with those with stronger faith than they and conclude that the stronger person is weaker. Thus they are more easily offended by the stronger person's understanding of his liberty in Christ. So Paul remarks that the stronger person should be careful not to offend the weaker person, possibly derailing their undeveloped conscience and diverting them off the path of faith. This, Paul says, is not the path of love.

Those who lead in the church have to, by virtue of their responsibility, walk more circumspectly than those who don't lead. They may have to not take advantage of certain freedoms they have in order to be patient with those in their care that are developing slowly. But this is also simply a principle. Overly cautious leaders then can fall into the trap of weak faith themselves.

The best mode for all of us, weak or strong, is to develop a transparency and humility that says "we do not yet know what we ought to know." Strong faith is characterized by these things, actually. The person develops to the point they no longer take themselves too seriously. That doesn't mean they don't take God seriously. But they identify with the struggle of life more closely: they understand that no matter how well we develop, we are all in the same boat together. We are all desparately in need of the grace that comes through Christ only.

I think the Body of Christ, the "church", is going through a hard maturing process in these days. There are forces in the world we may not be aware of that are growing us. We have what the world needs and yet the world is rejecting what we exhibit that it doesn't need. The greatest gift we can give anybody is faith in Christ: nothing else can do what that one thing does. Nothing else is so precious. That alone separates us from all other religion, and that alone makes us "holy" or separate. We belong to Christ and he is our new identity.

But we should be aware that faith grows or matures. We should not remain in a static babyhood of legalism and negativity. And we who attain maturity should realize that we have a responsibility to model a mature Christian faith for those who are mired in weak faith yet think of themselves as strong, like a teenager that knows more than his or her parents. Good stuff to think about. But what is Paul's message? "Grow up, Corinthians."

Deep To Deep

Romans 8: 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

Prayer is talking to God. We cultivate prayer by doing it.

When you have faith in Christ, Christ is in you by His Spirit, and you can access God the Father through the Son. You enjoy a unique audience with God.

Our will and God's will go in two opposing directions. So how do we know God's will in any given situation? By the Spirit.

Psalm 42: 7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

The context of Psalm 42 is prayer. The "deep" is spirit-to-spirit communication. God's Spirit in us connects with God in this interface. In a sense, the Spirit prays through us to the Spirit. It is a mystical communion.

As we delve deeper in this, the informational exchange in prayer divulges information about God's will. The journey of prayer teaches us the way of the Spirit. We learn to "hear" God as well as speak to Him. We graduate from the one-way conversation. We learn to listen to what the Spirit is saying.

There is no more satisfying relationship. And it isn't about how skilled we get at praying. When we talk to each other we give and take information. So those exercised in prayer can learn God's voice through familiarity and listening.

Many, when they first discover God's voice, can easily abuse it. They think everything they hear in their head is God and they say, "God told me." But with continual use, we learn that God is more subtle. We begin to hear Him in others, and even in those who don't know Him. His voice pervades our consciousness and we are more "in touch." We begin to walk in that consciousness and it informs all that we do and say.

Some call this phenomenon "the prophetic" because it is the "Spirit of prophecy" that leads us. That is, the all-knowing God is laying out His will through our lives. One does not have to be sensitive to the prophetic, though, for this to happen. One does not have to have all the right doctrine and go to the right church and have the right politics. But it is divulged when we pray. Prayer is how we walk with God. And it goes on, after awhile, even when we are not speaking words. It becomes fellowship.

This is not about "accuracy." Some in the prophetic circles seek accuracy. But even accuracy exalts self, and causes us to depart from the real function of the Spirit. God isn't trying to impress anybody ~ He can do that easily. He is indwelling us and leading us, step by step. Then the "prophetic" consumes us.

Prayer then advances in stages. We walk into the room. We do our howdies. We ask for some things that concern us and our situation. But, if we persist, the conversation expands and the communion increases. Then we move into relationship and discovery. We become intimate with our Creator.

The Holy Spirit is the mind of Christ in us. He knows the mind of God and the will of God and taps into that through us. We enter into the vast spiritual ocean that is God. As we do, we are being consumed by His fire and subsumed into Him. "Learn of me, " He says. It isn't a competition among believers. It is God with you, in your world, where you are right now.

Losing My Religion

Life is bigger

It's bigger than you

And you are not me

The lengths that I will go to

The distance in your eyes

Oh no I've said too much

I set it up

That's me in the corner

That's me in the spotlight

Losing my religion

Trying to keep up with you

And I don't know if I can do it

Oh no I've said too much

I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I heard you sing

I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisperOf every waking hour

I'mChoosing my confessions

Trying to keep an eye on you

Like a hurt lost and blinded fool

Oh no I've said too much

I set it up

Consider this

The hint of the century

Consider this

The slip that brought me

To my knees failed

What if all these fantasies

Come flailing around

Now I've said too much

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I heard you sing

I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream

That was just a dream


Lyrics for: Losing My Religion
From the album: Out Of Time
Songwriters: Buck, Peter, Stipe, Michael, Mills, Mike, Berry, William
Label: Warner Bros.
Genres: 1990s Alternative, 1990s Soft Rock, Adult Alternative, Soft Rock, The Coffeehouse

"Losing my religion" was something people said when they slipped up and cussed publicly. But, think about it. There was an old song that said, "Gimme that ol' time religion." A catchy song, but what did it really mean? Do we want a solid case of religion or not?

Did Jesus come to establish a religion? Obviously he did establish one: we call it "Christianity." And Christendom is known for good, but it is also remembered for many evils perpetrated by religionists in the name of Christ. Could we learn to avoid the bad stuff? Maybe we need to lose our religion, but keep our faith. Maybe if we lost our religion we would love one another.

Attitude Dancing

In his book Intuitive Leadership, Tim Keel, pastor of a growing Emergent community in Kansas City, presents nine possibilities for transitions to emergence in the church. He speaks of them as changes in posture, meaning "bearing or attitude." That is, these are attitude adjustments. Below, I will touch on these in brief, from page 228-252:

The transitions mentioned are ~

Learning: From Answers to Questions ~ In the Modern Era, the focus was on finding the answers; but the new frontier is asking questions. This shift of focus is from leadership to community. The attitude change is from trying to mold and control the environment we are in to responding to it.

Vulnerability: From the Head to the Heart ~ This is a shift away from an emphasis on being "right." Being right puts us in danger of our knowledge not only filling us with pride, but blinding us to opportunities or placing us in jails of our own making. We learn to listen with the heart as well as the head, and move into the scary seas of a more intuitive approach to God and those around us.

Availability: From Spoken Words to Living Words ~ Our emphasis has been on what we say, how we say it, meanings, and the propaganda power of words. This transition is moving us toward becoming "living epistles, known and read of all men." Our emphasis is on living out God's words more than explaining them, where a picture becomes worth a thousand words.

Stillness: From Preparation to Meditation ~ We have learned to research and present our message. In doing so, we seek to comprehend God. The shift will be to apprehending God, since he is always beyond our comprehension. This creates a needed humility and a heightened awe of God. But it also increases the connectivity between people, and our desperate need of stillness and listening instead of just speaking and activity.

Surrender: From Control to Chaos ~ Ours has been a controlling age in the church, seeking formulas that work and trying to rein in the beast of unpredictability around us. But in Genesis, the Spirit hovers over the chaos of the waters, and out of it comes life. What seems like chaos to us is the creation of new patterns in the bigger picture. The question becomes "how do I respond to what God is doing?" more than "how do I bring the world to order?"

Cultivation: From Programmer to Environmentalist ~ Programming is an emphasis on efficiency, an industrial approach to Christian-making that is an assembly line. The "environmentalist", on the other hand, is sensitive to the ecology around him. The emphasis shifts from producing a product to being open and hospitable.

Trust: From Defensiveness to Creativity ~ This is a shift from independence to dependence on God. The defensive Christian stance has trained us to always be attacking, not just those outside who are different, but each other as well. It is faith as war. And it breeds suspicion. We are constantly worried about what will happen instead of trusting and resting confidently in the midst of the turmoil of change. Our military precision undermines the possibilities of creative change.

Joy: From Work to Play ~ We take ourselves too seriously. We are grim and utilitarian about the Father's business. Like the bumper sticker: "Jesus is coming back: look busy!" But Jesus is the Sabbath. We aren't resting in him. And it shows.

Dependence: From Resolution to Tension ~ We are constantly seeking to resolve controversies and tensions. And we never do. In fact, they seem to breed like rats around us. Depending on God is like being adrift in the sea. There is tension, uncertainty, even overwhelming circumstances everywhere, all the time. Like we hear people say: "Get over it!" Surrender is not just obeying precepts: it is letting go of the need to control everything. Again, in that brooding sea of turmoil, God is orchestrating something. Get used to the rubber-band resolution and tension of life. Be a friend of flux.

I think Pastor Keel is nailing it here, in practical ways. "Behold, I do a new thing," says God. Will we let him? Even more, will we be along for the ride when he does?

Swarm Logic

swarm logic (SWOHRM law.jik) n. The process by which a large number of unintelligent entities can, by working together without central direction, produce intelligent action.

There is a phenomenon we know as "emergence." It has a potential for amazing creativity. If we look at the world of insects, we see it in a swarm. Tens of thousands of initially dislocated little intelligences suddenly come together in a cloud and begin to move in concert. The otherwise chaotic individuals combine into a force that determines a single outcome.

Presently, the Internet is proving to be a swarming mechanism. Potentially billions of people are becoming interconnected in an unprecedented way. And it has no discernible ultimate direction. It is not known to the participants what will emerge from this massive interactivity, but out of the chaos we have already seen the emergence of creative new possibilities.

In fact, it is the biggest revolution in global thinking since the printing press was unleashed. It will utterly change the way everything is done. But is there a logic to it? Can any of the emergent behavior be predictable? Scientists are looking at these possibilities. Because what if we could control outcomes? What if we could steer toward beneficial new realities?

There is, in the Bible, the always interesting story of the Tower of Babel. It was an early example of human swarming. For some reason, the minds of the people became fused in one unified creative effort. It is also interesting that God decided to crash the party.

Genesis 11:
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

We see here that the swarming had a potential that made nothing impossible. We can only speculate as to why God busted this swarm: perhaps it was a timing issue. Yet it is interesting we have this same emergent potential in the world today. A kind of global mind-meld that makes us wonder: "What will be the outcome?"

But how will this phenomenon of swarming emergence affect the church? Or better, where will it propel the church? It is certain that the times they are a-changing....fast.

In the past, swarms tended to grow around leaders, and I'm not saying that tendency will go away. Consider Pentecostalism that did not arise around strong leadership but around a communal discovery of a long-ignored feature of the original Christian faith: charisma. It developed into a swarm that literally blanketed the earth.

In a way, a swarm is a bit like a baby developing in the womb. Its structure emerges. The church is in pain. Something is in the womb, developing. But we don't see its full shape yet. It is only an embryo.

When this swarm comes together it will be unprecedented in its creativity and impact. But it isn't going to look anything like the structure we are used to. That structure is ready to be demolished, and it will happen before the inexorable path of the coming swarm.

The Golden Compass Is A Person

I would guess the upcoming movie, to be released around Christmas and called The Golden Compass, will be a blockbuster.

Already, the Catholic League is poised to give the release a hard time. Why? Well, the organization in the story that trumps all evil is called "The Magisterium." This is an obvious reference to Medieval Roman Catholicism.

Add to that the fact that this story is written by an ardent atheist to be in competition with The Chronicles of Narnia. The author simply seems to despise religion and particularly God. Thus, he has produced some anti-God propaganda to help children to not get sucked into the great black hole of religious faith.

That said, I'll probably watch the movie, even though I might have, at my tender age of 58, become overwhelmed by labyrinthine fantasy epics. Still, it is a great opportunity for the wonderful special effects we have become accustomed to. The price tag on this whopper is higher than Waterworld was, over 200 million.

Narnia was a delight, but I haven't watched it again. For one thing, I have not the patience any more to sit through a long, droll build-up in movies, as was the style in C.S. Lewis' day, back when people valued plots and suspense. Today we know better. If you want to make a good movie, cut to the chase, I only have a 7-minute attention span. If you want my dollar, that is.

I have surely been through numerous movies written by atheists: and what about the popularity of Christian-bashing in the movies of the last three decades? You get used to it after awhile. It starts to feel good. Christians make good bad guys (no oxymoron intended).

And, just because this movie is the world's-eye-view of an atheist doesn't mean it isn't spiritual, or that it doesn't have worthwhile things to tell us. I've reached the place I think the church should lash out against its critics less and listen more. They may be trying to tell us something valuable.

It's hard to tell whether protests hinder or propel movies. I call it "negative hype". It can do wonders for one's career. So a bit of Christianized overkill may do the movie good.

I have a motto in my mind, these days, that no matter where you look, you can find substance. It may be that this is going to manifest in this movie. After all, most movies are about good guys and bad guys, heroes and villains. These images are always profoundly biblical, no matter who is producing them. God's story is based in these very things.

2007 should possibly be dubbed "the year of the atheist." Numerous atheist-themed books have rocked the bestseller lists, and now we wind up the year with anti-God propaganda for children. So is the country going atheist? Or is it just a fashionable moment for atheism? I would guess the latter.

As a former atheist, I don't worry much about atheism. It has been known to do as much harm as any other religion if its adherents become too zealous and dictatorial. In fact, recently I have had Internet conversations with very dedicated atheist scientists, and they are more than amiable. In fact, some of them have jumped from the Christian train, often as a result of offenses or traumas that made them doubt God.

Jesus said to us to love our "enemies". Anybody who hates us qualifies as an enemy. I regard this as an opportunity of discovery. This is a fantastic concept! It causes us to stretch and empathize with those we are most opposite to.

I am of the opinion that the church is often, if not almost universally, adept at drowning out the voices of those it seeks to reach. We are afraid of critics. Perhaps we are so insecure about our own beliefs that we must insulate ourselves from conflicting information. What we do, then, is avoid constructive criticism. What those who are outside the church are saying is, "This is what turns me off about you." My retort: "Wow! What is it? You may be right. Maybe I can fix that."

So I will be a lonely Christian that welcomes this movie. It reminds me of the Harry Potter mania of some years back, when Christians were so livid in opposition to these cool stories.

Is our message anti-world? There is a bit of Gnosticism in that: a kind of dualistic view of the universe. Or should we really be pro-people, trying to love everybody, mingling with the sinners and scorners like Jesus did, and confessing our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities, and our faults, identifying with them.

Instead, we are often obviously full of pretense and pride, only driving them away from our ultimate product, salvation. For one thing, after almost 2,000 years, we have not yet sorted out what we believe about what Christ did. Are people going to be drawn to confusion?

We have good news. It trumps anything I've heard from my atheist friends. And that good news is theirs too, whether they like it or not. It's the only good news this world really has.

Oh, by the way, here is a clue: Jesus is the golden compass.

Last Things

Eschatology is just anytime we are talking about "eschaton" or the "last things." It's actually an easy heading to use for all these ideas.

We study it because it's there. We have two means of figuring out its meaning: is it literal or is it figurative? It has to be one or the other and it can be both.

We view the eschaton through various optional interpretational grids; and if we buy into a certain grid, that is how we see it. That is how we put together our personal scriptural apologetic.

In other words, we construct the meaning of scripture (our arguments) based on our interpretation preference.

Over time ~ over the centuries ~ there have developed four basic ways of seeing the "last things": historicist, preterist, futurist, and idealist.

Here's how they break down in simple terms:

HISTORICIST ~ The "last days" are from the resurrection of Christ to the return, general resurrection, and judgment. The "millennium" is a metaphor for however long this timespan lasts.

PRETERIST ~ The "last days" refers to the end of the Jewish dispensation or period. The Preterist understands "millennium" much the same as the historicist. There are also two options for this aeonic millennium: amillennial and postmillennial (see below).

FUTURIST ~ The "last days" may refer to the Church dispensation but focuses on the last of the last days, that is, the time period just before Christ returns. This view tries to take Bible prophecy literally and tends to construct scenarios about future events based on what the prophetic passages sound like they are saying.

IDEALIST ~ This idealizes the eschaton. The Apocalypse is not a roadmap for theological understanding. It is all a metaphor for the conflict of God and Satan through all history. This interpretation stays outside of the other three: it doesn't suggest punctuations of time. This is a very general and kind of non-prophetic approach.

AMILLENNIAL ~ There is no literal millennium. Any interpretation that basically says all the time from Advent to Advent is the millennium.

POSTMILLENNIAL ~ Same as amillennial, but optimistic. The tendency is to view the Church as somehow swallowing up everything else, marching toward ultimate, complete victory.

PREMILLENNIAL ~ The millennium is literal and therefore future, since it hasn't occurred yet. The tendency here is to see Christ reigning on earth for an actual 1,000 years. That is the most literal possibility. However, "millennium" can also be a metaphor for all the ages to follow Christ's return.

That's it in a nutshell. I see a possibility here that all of this can be homogenized or combined. There are many areas where all these views intersect.

Preterist ~ the Kingdom was set up in men's hearts in the initial years of transition from Jewish paradigm to Christian. Historicist ~ the Kingdom has proceeded throughout the millennia since the paradigm shift. Futurist ~ the Kingdom is going to culminate in future closure. Idealist ~ the Kingdom is the story of it all, from beginning to end.

So eschatology does not have to be a battleground of opposing ideas and one-upmanship. Get that Modernist impulse out of your head. This is not just end-times science and may the best man win. This is a composite picture of the work of God through Christ. We're all tracking on this.

The 10 Cs and Love

The ten commandments (10Cs) are the foundational law of Judaism and thus all monotheism. There are 5 vertical commands and 5 horizontal, suggesting the cross (+). Below we examine the Big Ten.

I. God is exclusive, the only God.
II. Do not worship idols or other gods.
III. Do not abuse God's name.
IV. Remember the Sabbath day rest.
V. Honor your parents (authority).

I think of these as the "vertical" commands because they are upward, toward God. Most people probably say the fifth commandment is horizontal. I won't quibble. But even honoring parents and authorities is toward God: it is like worship. The promise with Five is that you will live long. This makes sense in the real world. If we are rebellious toward authority and parents, we tend to limit our lives. Also, God is the Divine Parent, and it works down like a heirarchy, restraining evil.

The next five commands are "horizontal": they concern how we relate to others.

VI. Do not murder.
VII. Do not commit adultery.
VIII. Do not steal.
IX. Do not lie about your neighbor.
X. Do not covet what your neighbor has.

All of these are inspired by human greed. So the intent of the commands is to restrain the human instinct of greed. Greed is the opposite of love. If you love your neighbor, you won't kill him, have sex with his wife, steal his car, tell falsehoods about him, or desire his goods. The point of the commands is to generate loving behavior by restraining evil impulses.

Matthew 22: 34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

When we practice love, we keep all the commandments and fulfill the law. Love honors and pursues God and helps its neighbor.

1Cor. 13: 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Love is patient, kind, not covetous, self-effacing, humble, mannerly, generous, slow to anger, forgiving, pursues the good, is true, protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. This is the goal of the faith-life. If we do this, we won't be breaking God's laws.

Paul shows that we have to graduate beyond the law. Law seeks vengeance for wrongs. These are "childish ways." All the world is involved in law, even Christians. But when we move up to living out the love described above, we become mature. The cross and the 10Cs are about love. God is love. If we practice love, we are like Him

Zodiac and the Bible

When we observe the heavens we see pictures. The ancients devised a coded representation of the constellations we now call "the Zodiac." Pasting these pictures over the Bible we come up with something like this:

1. VIRGO, the Virgin: Revelation 12: 1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

The virgin is an important symbol in the Bible, as is the "virgin birth." This oxymoron describes both the birth of the Savior and the "bride" that He is seeking.

2. LIBRA, the Scales: Psalm 89: 14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.

God is just. He wields the scales of justice.


3. SCORPIO, the Scorpion: 1 Cor. 15: 55"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"[b] 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord has removed the sting of death. In Revelation 9: 5, 6 there is a description of the sting of the scorpion related to death. Jesus removes that sting when we place our faith in him.

4. SAGITTARIUS, the Archer: Rev. 19: 11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

This constellation features a man-horse firing arrows. It reminds me of this picture of Jesus as a warrior.


5. CAPRICORNUS, the Goat: Matthew 25: 31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

The goat constellation is a picture of a goat with a fish tail. The goat is often a picture of the unbeliever or the wicked. The fish is a picture of the redeemed. The combination speaks of the redemptive power of faith on the unredeemed, to transform us from death to life.


6. AQUARIUS, the Water-bearer: Joel 2: 28 "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days."

The picture of a man pouring out an urn into the sky. It reminds me of the Holy Spirit pouring himself into mankind.


7- PISCES, the Fishes: Mark 6: He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Two fish reminds me of the multiplication of the fish. This is what Jesus came to do.

8. ARIES, the Ram or Lamb: Revelation 5: 6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.

There is the Lamb figure here, but I am reminded of the ram in the thicket, which also represents the sacrifice on the cross. He is the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.

9. TAURUS, the Bull: 1 Timothy 5: 18For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain..."

This is the picture of a rushing bull. The church is a bull ox, treading the grain of the harvest.

10. GEMINI, the Twins: Ephesians 2: 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

The twins are united, suggesting unity. This speaks of the power of the cross to unite mankind in God. It is a symbol of peace.


11. CANCER, the Crab: Hebrews 13: 5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

The crab is a tenacious critter, holding on with its claw. Jesus is tenacious with his inheritance, the human race. He never leaves us or forsakes us.

12. LEO, the Lion: Revelation 5: 5 Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."

The lion is king and Jesus is that lion, the King of kings. There is no beast that can stand before the king of beasts. He will best them all.