THE BOOK OF REVELATION - A SYNOPSIS

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. 

RECIPE FOR RESTORATION

  PSALM 51  ABBY FREE, JULY 8, 2001        'RECIPE FOR RESTORATION'

When a novel begins with the agonizing cry, "O God, have mercy on me," you know that the character is in trouble. This person is so lost or so sick or so worried or so afraid or so guilty, that he or she can't go on without relief. Life has been interrupted by the deepest anguish. And when you read further and learn that this person is wealthy and healthy you really become curious. What could have happened here? - That's how Psalm 51 begins.

A psalm is a song, and there are 150 songs gathered together into one book or scroll called the Book of the Psalms. Psalm songs were sung or recited by Jews and also in the early church and in some present day churches. Ps 51 has been dubbed the Psalm of Psalms. We are about to find out why. This not a poetic composition but a desperate cry. There is a story behind this psalm.  Psalms often have back-stories behind them and Ps.51 may have the largest back-story of all the psalms. In fact, if this were on TV, it might begin with a content warning.

7 DEADLY ZINS: The wine is good, the zins are bad

Don't get your shorts in a knot. This is not a wine review but an illustration. There is an exquisite Lodi region California wine called 'The Seven Deadly Zins.' The label lists the zins as Wealth, Vanity, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony, Envy, and Lust. The name is a clever pun spun from the fact that seven wines come from seven growers to comprise this big, bold and fruity spicy flavour that is great with barbecued meats. Connoisseurs say it has a spicy nose with raisins, jammy blackberry, walnut and black pepper, a bit of raspberry, tomato and cola. In the States it's $14.95 and in Canada it's $22.95 if one is lucky. The wine is good. 

Some of the seven are precisely the kind of zin or sin that offends God. Christian theology informs us that God is a three-personal God, three distinct persons not manifestations while remaining one being - God. Clearly it is something that must be received by faith because visual evidences are in shorter supply than they were in early New Testament times. Then, Jesus, the second person was actually resident on earth in human form. The Holy Spirit, while invisible most of the time, occasionally demonstrated his presence in the form of a dove that appeared in timely fashion. And God, the Father, also invisible, spoke intelligible and audible words such as "this is my beloved son with whom I am very pleased."

By the time Jesus was schedule to leave earth, he had clearly promised that in his absence, the Holy Spirit would continue to be with the disciples and all who follow Jesus anytime, but he would also be inside them, living within them. That is up close and personal. And this promise was given because Jesus is inclined to be graceful to us, God the Father loves us and the Holy Spirit partners with us. Since that is the dynamic or this relationship with God, it becomes clear that when we find sins so tasty, we risk offending the God-one inside us. So, the scripture declares a caution, "Don't grieve the Spirit of God." Do you know how he can be grieved? By us committing zins, well sins, such as lying, anger, corrupt language, bitterness, unforgiveness which are mentioned in verses that surround Ephesians 4:30, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”  

Are these sins deadly? They cost us more than money. Unless we give them up, they certainly kill everything that God would powerfully accomplish in us and through us. That's because by continuing to sin, we quench the Spirit, dampen the spiritual fire. And there is an accompanying command against that.   I Thessalonians 5:19, "Do not quench the Spirit.” The wine is good. The zins are bad.

IT'S BLACK. IT'S WHITE, OR GREY IS OKAY

I'll clear the air immediately. This post is not a reference to E. L. James erotic romance trilogy titled, Fifty Shades of Grey. Nor am I thinking about Michael Jackson's hit song, 'Black or White' in which the refrain repeats, "but, if you're thinkin' about my baby, it don't matter if you're black or white." James and Jackson do not own basic colours. I will however, talk about blacks and whites and greys. I do this because opinions about ethics and morality and actions and attitudes emerge from one's colour commitment. That's a metaphorical allusion to the sin vs. righteousness, black vs. white association often made by principled people with a background in scripture. It's understandable. In the Bible, black is primarily associated with the negative aspects of human experience, including death, disease, famine, and sorrow, all of which are bi-results of sin. On the other hand, white is a color of purity and righteousness, refinement and health, even victory.

With that contrast from a trusted source, some people may as a default, view almost everything as either black or white.

WORSHIP IN THE TRUEST SENSE

Worship, within the culture of the present church, comes down to, how well did certain performers do during a specific period of time on Sunday. Worship in the minds of many churchgoers is understood as that which certain people with certain skills do, even when what they do is designed to involve churchgoers. Worship is then evaluated in terms of how well the worship time was planned, how singable and intelligible were the songs that were chosen, how well the musicians played and sang and appeared, and how well the preacher communicated.

Worship is different from that and so much more than that when scripture is the resource for a definition. When scripture describes angels in heaven worshipping and when ancient patriarchs and peoples worshipped, and when early New Testament saints worshipped, that worship clearly related to the person who is the object of the worship rather than to the quality of human performance. Worship in this scriptural sense, has to do with the worth of the object of worship, to be worshipped. God is worthy of worship. Inherent to who God is, is this obligatory response from every created being. There is a natural relationship between God and all that he has created, between the Creator and creation, creatures, mortals, individuals. This normal relationship should naturally compel the created to worship the Creator. The requisite response to worship God has been suppressed and repressed in some of creation, blocked and inhibited, confused and misdirected, intellectualized and redefined or ignored altogether. When something so right as worship, goes so wrong, the only explanation is sin as scripture defines and describes and condemns it. When sin is eradicated from the human through human faith in the reality of Christ's atonement, which issues in divine pardon and renovation of human loyalty, then the Creator once again receives the worship suitable to him, the worship God deserves, the worship the creature yearns to give. Such worship is not prescribed by specific days and times. It is relevant always and constantly appropriate. All that we think, say, do, see, and imagine, shall be to the glory and praise of God. Such concentration insures purity of thought and action.

GLORY IS THE GOAL

Defeat of Rebel Angels by Pieter Breugal Sr

At a time before time, a cadre of angels perpetrated a rebellion against God and while it was an unsuccessful coup, the rebel group spun off to infect others. In the broad window of pre-history God determined to create humanity and the world in which humankind would live. The original design and creation was perfectly achieved by the command of eternal God and time began. Humanity bore God's likeness in goodness and innocence. Humanity's participation in God's life and glory was the pre-eternal plan of God. For the briefest of moments there was intimacy between God and the first humans until the supernatural dissidents who had been evicted from God's presence, infected humankind. The faultlessness of the human species was soiled by personal sin that went viral. From that earliest time until now, the disabling effects of sin have dishonored the human story. This was not unforeseen and God did not react to that infiltration of wickedness as if surprised by it. Rather, since pre-eternity is that state of being from which God views all time, past, present and future as the same moment, He simply did what he intended to do. God elected to rescue fallen man through the incarnation and substitutionary atonement by God's Son who came supernaturally and then returned to the glory of his Father’s person. Since sin is viewed as personal liability, only individual faith in Christ's work that leads to salvation will be effective to regenerate a sinful person. Yet that person recreated and lived in by God's own Spirit, the second person of the trio of divine persons, lives with the assurance of entering the glory where God dwells beyond time. Glory is the goal toward which the whole story of redeemed humanity is moving.

FIRST MAN AND FIRST WOMAN

That act of rebellion by the first man and first woman defaced the image of God in the human in various ways. Human intelligence was impaired so people constantly erred in their reasoning. Morally and socially humankind no longer reflected God's image, being unable any longer to distinguish between good and evil but rather began to exploit others. Human mental, emotional and relational health has been damaged ever since. And you can’t fix those areas first and then hope to have a relationship with God.

God’s good news is that because God made humanity to reflect him and that image was marred by sinfulness he determined to restore the image bearing capacity and to do that he sent his Son into the world where the Son, Jesus, lived such a perfect sinless life that he revealed the exact image of the invisible God, actually God in human flesh, and the plan all along was that this sinless one would give himself as an atoning sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. This is the great recovery of the image bearers.

When the resemblance was distorted, God went to an extraordinary length to rescue us. And from the moment that you place your faith in Christ’s atoning death for sin, you are redeemed through Christ and you begin to bear the image of His Son. Jesus modeled that life. Your life now corresponds with God’s creation purpose that you should be like God and enjoy powers that God puts in you. It is what it means to be truly human.

PARADISE WAS LOST

The Bible tells the tale that something terrible happened within humanity. The Reflection Of God Became Impaired By Sin. That happened in the paradise lost story, when Adam and Eve got the whole ball rolling. Like a snowball on a hill, it got larger and large affecting us all. Mankind today is only remotely like the ideal humanity portrayed by the psalmist in Psalm 8. The original Adam and Eve was ideal humanity. The human possessed the God-given capacity of self-determination, which meant that he and she had freedom to choose to obey God or to disobey. To disobey would be a violation of the relationship with God. When the original humans from whom we came, chose to disobey God, that act of rebellion defaced the image of God in the human and has affected the entire race. Long after creation, Solomon observed the tragedy that man did not remain as he was created. "This only I have found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes" (Ecclesiastes 7:29).

SIN’S POLLUTING INFLUENCE

We know that the first man and the first woman sinned by disobeying a command of God, not to eat something, the fruit that came from one tree in a garden paradise. In the narrative it is not long before we read about the heart-wrenching aftermath to sin’s polluting influence. Adam’s and Eve’s offspring, Cain and Abel, one an agricultural farmer and the other a sheep farmer, had a falling out. Each brought an offering to the LORD from his produce, one of vegetable and fruit and the other an animal sacrifice. God showed his preference for the animal sacrifice, and Cain instead of dialoguing with God so he could understand, blamed Abel, despised him and killed him. Now within less than two generations, sin is so communicable that there is murder. And from that point humanity only became worse and worse and within several generations God made the decision to place a time limit on the human lifespan of 120 years, which was followed some time later by God's expressed sorrow at having created the human species and his determination to exterminate the race. There was only one man who found favor in God’s eyes and that was Noah.