The Disclosure of Christ

Below are 15 of the 24 verses in the NT that use the Greek word "parousia," which, in our modern translations, are usually rendered "coming." That use may have been a theological conclusion rather than an exact rendering, which might more clearly be "revelation" or even "presence." I inserted the word "disclosure" below as it is another synonym for revelation. When read, with this word inserted instead of "coming," with that word's theological implications, I see these verses taking on a different character.

In the first Matt. 24 verse I also inserted the word "Jewish" in parentheses adjoined to the word "age." A futurist would place the word "church" here; but a preterist reads this as Jewish. That is, Jesus's disclosure to the world replaces God's Jewish emphasis. The disclosure of Jesus renders the old age as past, if not obsolete.

Futurists would see this disclosure of Christ as a future event, which I don't think is totally invalidated by the preterist view. In that case, the full disclosure doesn't occur until the end of this present "church age," instead of the Jewish age. That's why I'm also exploring an added, logical concept suggested here: the parousia is ongoing, or progressive in nature. That is, Jesus was disclosed in the ruination of Jerusalem and in the subsequent history of the church, culminating in the full disclosure at some future date, when all of mankind will actually see him at the resurrection.

. Matt. 24:3 - "And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, 'Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your disclosure (parousia), and of the end of the (Jewish) age?"
2. Matt. 24:27, 37, 39 - Jesus repeatedly said, "So shall the disclosure (parousia) of the Son of Man be."
3. 1 Cor. 15:23-25 - "But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, after that those who are at Christ's at His disclosure(parousia), then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet."
4. 1 Thes. 2:19 - "For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord at His disclosure (parousia)?"
5. 1 Thes. 3:13 - "So that He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the disclosure(parousia) of our Lord with all His saints."
6. 1 Thes. 4:15-17 - "For we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the disclosure(parousia) of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord."
7. 1 Thes. 5:23 - "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the disclosure (parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ."
8. 2 Thes. 2:1 - "Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the disclosure (parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him."
9. 2 Thes. 2:8 - "And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His disclosure (parousia)."
10. James 5:7 - "Be patient, therefore, brethren until the disclosure (parousia) of the Lord."
11. James 5:8 - "You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the disclosure (parousia) of the Lord is at hand."
12. 2 Peter 1:16 - "For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and disclosure(parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty."
13. 2 Peter 3:4 - "And saying, "where is the promise of His disclosure (parousia)? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."
14. 2 Peter 3:12 - "Looking for and hastening the disclosure (parousia) of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat!"
15. 1 John 2:28 - "And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His disclosure (parousia)."

Dogma Blender

2 Peter 1:19-21 (New King James Version)
19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Verse 20, above, is rendered in the NIV this way:

20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.

As I meditated on this, I was thinking about the problems of interpretation down through history and to the present day. Our own -- or our "private" -- interpretations often become dogma.

Here is the dictionary.com explanation of dogma:

1. a system of principles or tenets, as of a church.
2. a specific tenet or doctrine authoritatively laid down, as by a church: the dogma of the Assumption.
3. prescribed doctrine: political dogma.
4. a settled or established opinion, belief, or principle.

Above, the NIV translation makes the most sense, that Peter is trying to say that the Word of God is not man-made. But I also like the King James rendering because it suggests that prophecy and biblical mystery is enigmatic and not subject to human interpretation -- that is, it does not or should not yield intractable dogmas.

The history of the church is one of trying to establish reliable dogma:
There were the early arguments over the identity and deity of Christ that led to the establishment of the Trinity doctrine; there was the huge split between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox; there was the later Protestant Reformation that led to schisms of all kinds and establishment of new dogmas; the ideas that became dogmas like Arminius' and Calvin's teachings; and the rise of dogmatic movements within Pentecostalism, Fundamentalism, and even Evangelicalism -- including the prophecy dialogs that rose from John Nelson Darby. The list of the establishment of competing dogmas is enormous.

In the Wiki article, it says of dogma: The term derives from Greek δόγμα "that which seems to one, opinion or belief" and that from δοκέω (dokeo), "to think, to suppose, to imagine"

Basically, dogma is our suppositions raised to absolutes. These become organization-foundations that are more immovable than God Himself.

But the church is moving into a new milieu ahead: a world of disintegration and reintegration.

I thought of this illustration: If you take a blender and put in various ingredients, then turn it on slowly, the pieces begin to disintegrate before they reintegrate into something else. At the close of the Modern Age, the blender was beginning to be ratcheted up and absolutes began disintegrating. The future -- what we now call post-Modern because we don't know what it will be -- looks to be a reintegrating into a new concoction.

With regard to church dogmas, this pressure places them under intense examination and a resulting disintegration into something else. These dogmata may have institutions behind them, but the dogmas themselves are breaking down. What will emerge is not a new dogma, but an integration of what the faith is, what it really means. It doesn't mean the dissolution of what was past, but a reconstitution that points to what it really is.

We have interpreted scripture until we are blue in the face, so to speak. We have strained it through various grids, tweaking as we went, and even going to war over it. In fact, often, our goal was to establish the complete credibility of our suppositions about the message of Jesus Christ. That would make us secure, and security is not actually faith. What we need more now is the ability to adapt.

The Modern Age was about nationalism and nation-states: the post-Modern world is about globalism. The mindset of the Modern Age was redux and "we-they" thinking: but the new world is "both-and". The blender is a-stirrin'.

Idiot Winds

The tale of Markopolos vs. Madoff doesn't bode well for
future regulation of financial industries, but it may yield
clues as to how to make the SEC (and others like it) more
effective. Larry Kudlow thinks this guy should head the
SEC -- and I say why not? That would be a very Lincoln-
like thing to do. Here, SEC, is your new boss, your former
biggest nightmare. He is the Eliot Ness of the New
Untouchables.

That said, the dude could become just as frustrated as the
head of such an organization because, though Madoff
should have been obvious, nobody flat cared that much.
He seemed to be making green. He was impregnable.
Still, yes, whoever appoints such people, I'd say Markopolos
is your man.

Where's the Madoff money? At present, 950 million has been
found. That should ease the gobs of investors who used
Madoff a bit. Also, the total lost may be more like 25B, not
the 50B he told his sons.

Markopolos, though, is saying there are 14 more Madoffs out
hiding in the weeds in Europe. Be careful, scammers, there
are also terrorists in them thar hills. Financial terrorists and
human bombs hiding out together -- now that's a potential
threat.

Meanwhile, we're finding out that some of our legislators
are above the law and are exempt from paying the taxes
they exact from us. Shades of Rome in decline!

Apparently, the only thing anybody can agree on in this
new stimulus is to tackle the infrastructure. Then do it!
Get it started. You don't have to start big, especially if it's
all fluff -- a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying
nothing.

Idiot Wind -- Dylan

Someones got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press

Whoever it is I wish theyd cut it out quick, but when they will I can only guess.

They say I shot a man named gray and took his wife to Italy,

She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.

I cant help it if I'm lucky.

People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act

Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts.

Even you, yesterday you had to ask me where it was at,

I couldnt believe after all these years, you didnt know me any better than that

Sweet lady.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth,

Blowing down the backroads headin south.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,

Youre an idiot, babe.

Its a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

I ran into the fortune-teller, who said beware of lightning

that might strike

I haven't known peace and quiet for so long

I cant remember what its like.

Theres a lone soldier on the cross,

smoke pourin out of a boxcar door,

You didnt know it, you didnt think it could be done,

in the final end he won the wars

After losin every battle.

I woke up on the roadside,

daydreaming bout the way things sometimes are

Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head

and are makin me see stars.

You hurt the ones that I love best

and cover up the truth with lies.

One day youll be in the ditch, flies buzzin around your eyes,

Blood on your saddle.

Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb,

Blowing through the curtains in your room.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,

You're an idiot, babe.

Its a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny

which broke us apart

You tamed the lion in my cage

but it just wasnt enough to change my heart.

Now everythings a little upside down,

as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped,

Whats good is bad, whats bad is good,

you'll find out when you reach the top

Youre on the bottom.

I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways

had finally made you blind

I cant remember your face anymore,

your mouth has changed,

your eyesDont look into mine.

The priest wore black on the seventh day

and sat stone-faced while the building burned.

I waited for you on the running boards,

near the cypress trees, while the springtime

Turned slowly into autumn.

Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull,

From the Grand Coulee dam to the capitol.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,

You're an idiot, babe.

Its a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

I cant feel you anymore,

I can't even touch the books you've read

Every time I crawl past your door,

I been wishin I was somebody else instead.

Down the highway, down the tracks,

down the road to ecstasy,

I followed you beneath the stars,

hounded by your memory

And all your raging glory.

I been double-crossed now for the very last time

and now I'm finally free,

I kissed goodbye the howling beast

on the borderline which separated you from me.

Youll never know the hurt I suffered

nor the pain I rise above,

And Ill never know the same about you,

your holiness or your kind of love,

And it makes me feel so sorry.

Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats,

Blowing through the letters that we wrote.

Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves,

We're idiots, babe.

Its a wonder we can even feed ourselves.

BTW, the best version of this song, by far, was the live
performance by Dylan with the Rolling Thunder Review

(click on the purple)
on the album "Hard Rain".