MY BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF REVELATION

MY BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF REVELATION

 

John, was the friend of Jesus, gospel writer and evangelist. The purpose of Jesus’ incarnation was so real and empowering to John. He watched Jesus die. He saw him alive again. He saw Jesus ascend through clouds and out of sight. He knew everything Jesus said about the devil and sin and redemption, and the Kingdom were true. He wrote that God loved the world so much that He sent the divine Son, Jesus, so whomever believes in Jesus will have eternal life. 

John heard Jesus alert his followers to the fact that in this world where sin is prevalent, being faithful to God as follower of Christ is difficult and dangerous. John was sent to the island of Patmos as a prisoner of the Roman State. Before Jesus died, John heard Jesus promise that though he was leaving, he would send His Holy Spirit to be with them and in them. Now on the island, John found himself possessed powerfully by the Holy Spirit, as the LORD gave him a vision of the future. We read that this vision contained an immediate message to each of seven churches that existed at that time. Those messages contained commendations, warnings and promises. Since this is inspired scripture from God, the information to the churches is transferable to churches in every age, because evil exists in every age. 

A CHRISTIAN’S VIEW OF CREATION

The only exclusive timeless spiritual being, Triune God, surrounded by spiritual creatures, angels who worship and serve God eternally, decided to create a species of physical beings, unique, humanity, in whom God would invest a divine similarity. A delicate feature. There would be affinity between God and humanity. To affect this plan, God created a universe of galaxies, and in one galaxy he made one planet suitable to human physical life. Humanity, with this divine resemblance, both genders, should enjoy Earth and wisely govern this jewel of a planet.  God was pleased with creation. Because God knows all things, ends from beginnings, even then God knew humanity would fail to maintain God’s likeness. Sin would interrupt the affinity God had with humanity. Sin changed humanity. Transience and Mortality. God’s penalty on sin. Still God loved this Earth full of people. God’s plan in eternity was to restore this Godlikeness, this affinity in humanity. Restoration would result from God’s greatest of all time demonstration of love. The death penalty would be paid. God determined to take on a human form to briefly reside on planet Earth, then die. God’s eternality would conquer death. Penalty served. Sin’s interruption arrested. God’s prerogative. The benefit to humanity, contingent on individual faith in the efficacy of God’s death. Plus, a promise. Eternal life with God for the believer. It worked. It works.

WHAT SHOULD YOU SAY ON THE DAY HE DIES?

WHAT IS APPROPRIATE TO SAY ABOUT A FELLOW CHRISTIAN ON THE DAY HE DIES?  Some people think it is suitable to denigrate his memory on the day he dies. On the day he dies is my point.  We're not speaking about a madman or a money launderer or a serial rapist. It would be entirely apt to recite his transgressions one minute after he bites it. I'm talking about an upright man whose entire life was devoted to God. What would be appropriate to say about him on the day he died? Be clear, this is not an hypothetical personality. I refer to someone whose 99 years of earth life were spent talking to God, and to people who loved God and to people who did not know God but would. What 's fitting to say about him on the day he died? If the person making the post mortem comment hates God, then anything goes. Say what you want about the deceased. But if the commenter is a child of God and a good brother has died, would the right time to point out all of the brother's alleged bad stuff be on the day he died? Why am I asking this question here? 

This is what some Christians posted on the day Billy Graham died this week.

"This is very sad, and especially so when you read of so many within the Christian community who feel that he was sound in his theology. He did not simply make a few errors within his theology; his entire ministry was based on anything but the pure truth of the Word of God. Anyone who can write a book entitled "How To Be Born Again" is far from the truth of Jesus' description of regeneration.”

You saw the line that I highlighted I’m sure, or what was the point? 

Oh, and they have said much worse than that.  Or, they have checked out from being original and merely pasted in a link so that every curious reader goes to a site belonging to someone else. Or they just cast some doubts on an area of Billy’s theology with which they profoundly disagree, or some comment he made within a peculiar context or when he was older or confused or mistaken. And to what end? Slanderous articles like those posted on the day he died, did what? Thousands of people from many ethnic communities welcome Billy in Heaven this week or will join him when their time to cross over occurs. There is a time to analyze, dissect, publicly challenge the man, before his death or some respectable time after his death ... but not mere hours after he has realized the promise of Christ that he has shared with all who would listen to him. 

THE WESTERN HEAVENS CRY

THE WESTERN HEAVENS CRY

Rain gently wetting all that's green and dry

Celestial notice that the heavens cry,

Ending our slow summer days in the sun,

Anguishing at what humanity's done.

Drone carried missiles exclusive of sound

Spray innocent blood on contested ground;

Guiltless targets rapt with work and play.

Comes violent death on this routine day  

Inner-city violence, selfish greed,

Wanting and getting distinct from need,

Society devoid of security,

Few children survive to maturity.

Virulent diseases ravage the earth;           

No one could dream how much water is worth;

Entire nations lack necessary food;                       

Disasters transpire as the heavens brood.

Absorbed in our privilege we ignore,

How helpless other humans are offshore.

Can't bother to think, content as we live

But their brief lives measured by what we give.

© Ron Unruh, 2014

DEATH SEEMS NEAR AT TIMES

Arriving home last night we listened to a voice message from a friend Wilma telling us that her husband Al had passed away and his memorial service is scheduled for this afternoon. Al was 77 years of age, ten years older than I am.

If my first retirement year has not underscored for me already the transitory nature of life, these moments definitely do. There are more and more of these. So many of our friends, ageing as we are, become ill and some die. I have never been so conscious of the nearness of death. That’s noteworthy because the pastoral work in which I spent forty years of my life required me to visit seniors in nursing homes and hospital rooms and even be near for their dying moments. Yet I remained objective and detached. Now it’s personal.

Al had some health issues in recent years. Nevertheless, since I am 67 years old, age 77 does not seem so far off. I know how quickly time moves. It almost evaporates.

Christine and I, me with my sprained ankle, attended an afternoon 50th anniversary celebration of Arvid and Ruth Olson yesterday. It was very well attended by friends. Given the event, we saw a sea of white hair. As I hobbled along, I fit right in.

Al was a gentle and kind man. I liked him very much. Friends, children, spouse will speak well of him of him today because it will be true.

What will be said of me when I go? That is likely the most profitable aspect of reflections of this sort. I have time and I can make course corrections in some relationships where I need to do that. I can allow some of the graces of God to infect me more profoundly than they have so that I am more like my Master than myself. That would be an improvement. And I can use the time I have profitably. What I am glad about is that friendships have come to mean more to me in this phase of my life than they ever have. That makes life rich and enjoyable.

2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we do not despair, but even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison 18 because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord – 7 for we live by faith, not by sight. 8 Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So then whether we are alive or away, we make it our ambition to please him

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Where No One Has Gone Before - Are You Kidding?

A NEW LEARNING
The Bucket List. Funny movie. The premise is two older terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward to pursue a wish list of things to do before their number is punched. Even if we haven’t reached the expiry date yet, it’s interesting to me how interested my friends and I are in the obits. I am still only an occasional obits reader. Perhaps we are unconsciously doing probability assessments of how much time we have left. Sounds grim, but it’s not as if no one has gone before. It’s the rest of the story that fascinates me.

Is this introduction familiar to you? “Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Click the line to listen.

One of two people whose death announcements I noticed on December 18, 2008, was that of Majel Rodenberry, The other was Mark Felt. Majel was 76 and Mark was 95. Majel was the wife of the legendary screen writer and producer Gene Rodenberry, best known for Star Trek. He predeceased her in 1991 at age 70. His Star Trek universe was so prominent that in 1981 Australian scientists named a newly discovered asteroid in his honour - 4659 Roddenberry and also one of the bazillion impact craters on Mars bears his name. His ashes were aboard Space Ship Columbia in 1992 and in 1997 a small capsule of his ashes were sent into earth orbit. Majel married Gene in a Shinto ceremony in Japan in 1969. She was an actress who appeared on Bonanza and Leave it to Beaver before she was cast as USS Enterprise's Nurse Chapel in the original series and in subsequent films. She later appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation as one of its beloved: Betazoid ambassador Lwaxana Troi and as the voice of the starship's onboard computer — a job she held in spin-offs Deep Space Nine and Voyager as well as the forthcoming J.J. Abrams prequel film to be released in spring 2009.

Mark became an FBI chief agent in 1942 (actual photo on right) and worked as a Nazi hunter during the Second World War. He was serving as deputy associate director when he became the anonymous source of damaging information about Richard M. Nixon and his aides to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Their coverage of the Watergate scandal eventually led to Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Felt was known only by a code name Deep Throat which remained secret until 2005 when he publicly disclosed his identity. Woodward and Bernstein wrote a book entitled All the President’s Men which was made into a movie in 1976.

Gene Rodenberry, rejected his Southern Baptist family-faith and became a humanist. In 1941 following university he studied aeronautical engineering, gained a pilot’s license and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. He flew the B-17 Flying Fortress on Pacific Theatre missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. He became a Pan Am commercial pilot and received commendation for his efforts following a 1947 crash in the Syrian desert during a flight from Istanbul to Karachi. He joined the LAPD and served for seven years before resigning to pursue his writing career in 1956 which as we now know was immensely successful. And he was gone at age 70.

Few of us boldly go into this after life. It is usually a reluctant entry. But when we can have confidence that someone has gone before and his passage has made a difference to each of us, it makes the journey less strange and not at all worrisome. That’s what Jesus has done. I am pleased that my obit reading friends agree.