Day 90: The Millenium, The New Heaven and Earth, The End

So an angel comes down from heaven with a key, and the angel chains Satan in the abyss for a thousand years.

And there is one thousand years of peace, when the saints reign with Christ.

Ever heard of "the millennium"?  Right here in Revelation, Chapter 20, is the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ.

There are several schools of thought about the millennium.  Some people believe that there will be a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ.  The pre-millennial view is that Christ will come before the thousand year reign, and that he will take believers away (rapture) before the tribulations.  The "post-millennial view" is that Christ will come at the end of the 1,000 years, a time of peace (maybe not a literal thousand years) during which most people will become Christian.

Others (including most Lutherans, by the way) believe that the millennium is not literal, but that the 1,000 years represent the entire church age.  "Amillenialism teaches that good and evil, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, develop simultaneously and grow until the end of this age."  (this sentence is from an old book on The Revelation by Esther Onstad, "Courage for Today/Hope for Tomorrow."

At the end of the 1,000 years, Satan is loosed again briefly, and then, the new heaven and the new earth arrive.  God will dwell with God's people in a new creation that is what God intended in the first place. There is no longer any death or darkness, the holy city is replendent with jewels and wealth, and God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of those who have suffered and have been persecuted and have been vilified in this life.

So the basic message of the book of Revelation is this:  even when the world looks darkest and most frightening, even when God's people are being persecuted and killed, the victory belongs to God and the Lamb.

At the very end of the book of Revelation, the Prayer is this:

Come, Lord Jesus.

Day 89: Babylon and Company

We're nearing the end of the Book of Revelation, and I can't say that I'm unhappy about that.  It's hard to read, for a number of reasons:  1) the symbolism, some of which is pretty easy to follow, some of which is impossible to discern; 2) the violence, 3) the gloom and doom.  But read Revelation in the midst of a war, or if you are a religious minority being persecuted, or at one of those scary apocalyptic times in history, and perhaps the book of Revelation becomes more interesting.

Now we hear more about Babylon (Remember, "Fallen is Babylon the great!)  Babylon probably referred to a particular government or Kingdom at the time Revelation was written (possibly the Roman Empire, with its 7 hills), but now it has come to mean any corrupt kingdom or people.  Babylon does not recognize any god but itself, and idolizes power, wealth, greed, violence.  You name it.

Babylon is "a whore" (pretty strong language) and is contrasted with the church, which is the Bride of Christ.

Babylon will be defeated.  And it's not pretty.

So at the end of Revelation 19 we have this great scene of worship, but we also have this gruesome scene of the defeat of the beast.  And as much as I want the good guys to win, I still have a hard time reading the words about the "feast" at the defeat of Babylon, and "drinking the blood of kings."  All I can say is, when I read these horrible words, is I remember talking to Veterans, and especially Veterans of World War II, and how they don't like to talk about their war experiences much, or at all.  I think it is because they have been to hell and back, and even though Hitler (for example) needed to be defeated, there is no way they want to glamorize what they went through.

So Revelation is about the war between good and evil, between God and the forces of Evil, and the good news is that God will win, God has won already, but in the meantime, the battles are sometimes gruesome.

Tomorrow, we come to the end.

Day 88: More Worship, More Warnings, No Repentance

Again, John sees visions of the saints (the 144,000) worshipping around the throne of the Lamb.  I love the detail about the name of the Lamb and his father written on their foreheads.  They sing a "new song" in front to the throne and (here's something I'm going to remember, too) no one can learn the song except the 144,00).  It's not that I'm eager to exclude people who can't learn the song, it's just that lately I've become so aware of the power of music, and how God uses music to imprint the truth of his love on our hearts.

Three angels bring warnings to the earth about the coming judgment.  They warn people to worship God, to turn from following "The Beast", to watch out for Babylon.

(and do you notice this line?  "Favored are the dead who died int he Lord from now on."  "Yes, says the Spirit, so they can rest from their labors, because their deeds follow them." -- this is where we get our hymn, "For all the saints, who from their labors rest.")

Then there is the judgment, the two harvests.  The Human one has a sharp sickle in his hand, for the harvest is ready.  there is another angel as well, also reaping a harvest, but this is a harvest of judgment. The image is clusters of grapes, "cutting the vineyard of the earth" -- again, here's a song with which you may be familiar, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord/he is trampling out the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored".  This hymn was written during the civil war, a bloody conflict that must have seemed like the end of the world to those who were fighting.  Both sides felt that God was on their side, and that truth was on their side.  But this hymn was written by an abolitionist, and she used words from the Revelation to express God's judgment on the country for the sin of slavery.

After this there are seven bowls with plagues that will come over the earth.  To me, what I notice most in these chapters is not just the plagues, but the fact that it seems that no matter what plagues are unleashed on the earth, people do not repent.  (This reminds me of the story of the Pharaoh and the people of Israel in Egypt.  God sends many plagues, and yet Pharoah does not repent.  It also reminds me that the book of Revelation was written during a time of great persecution, and was written for a people who were being persecuted.)

We are nearing the end of the book of Revelation.  How much destruction is left?  What more can be said?

Day 87: It gets Worse

...and weirder, too.

This section of scripture is filled with strange, and fearsome images.  We're no longer talking about famines and wars and plagues, but both worship and wars in heaven.  There are beasts and dragons.  So it's obvious that all of this is symbolic, not literal.  What are these visions about?

In chapter eleven a temple is being measured, and there are prophets.  Many people think that this refers to the literal rebuilding of the temple.  Others believe that the measuring and rebuilding of the temple refers to the growth of the church, until the end of the age.  Prophets will come who will testify to the truth of Christ's victory over sin and death, and ultimately, no one will be able to stop the prophets' witness, even though terrible things happen.

The scene shifts to heaven, where the heavenly throng worships and sings "the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ..."  (see how this keeps happening?  reminding beleaguered people of the ultimate victory).

Even though we think of the beast and the dragon as future enemies, it's very possible that the early Christians read them as powerful people who were actively persecuting them then.  Emperors of the Roman Empire and other leaders opposed to the church were waging war against Christians, and the dragon and the beast might be those leaders.

Some people consider that the woman being pursued is the ideal church (remember that sometimes the church is compared to a bride.)

It's worth mentioning that number "666", since so many people refer to it.  Some people try to read it as a code, and think that it might refer to a specific evil person.  Others point out that in Hebrew, numbers have meaning (for example 7 is the number of perfection,  3 represents completeness, and 4 is the number of the earth).  So 6 is one short of a perfect 7, and 666 might just mean "perfect evil.'