World Without End

Proposing Ears to Hear

I am often asked by friends and those in church circles if I ever want to formally put my thoughts regarding Eschatology and the book of Revelation together.  I carefully navigate these questions because I feel called to the local church. Therefore, much of my energy related to these topics is placed inside the local church. I don't like the idea of meandering through 100 pages of the use of the genative case. I know people much better at that than me, and I will gladly point others in their direction.

I am writing a Master's Thesis, because I liked the idea of a place to systematically work through some ideas.  My proposal was approved last week, and I am officially starting today, although I have spent years mulling over various rabbit trails regarding Eschatology and contemporary culture.

If you are so inclined, here is my proposal.  Only 3 pages are actual writing, the rest is bibliography and such. Thanks for staying with me on this journey.

Thesis Proposal v.3

Christian Time and the End of Times

I took this picture earlier in the year of my favorite prayer shack at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Bardstown, Ky.  Famous as the monastery of Thomas Merton, I can completely lose track of time during my retreats there.  This particular Rosary Hut is my favorite place to forget about things and concentrate on prayer. I leave behind the time that often rules me and enter into the liminal space of eternal time.

In my studies on the book of Revelation, I am coming to the growing conviction that the book is less about a linear dating of a dramatic close of life and instead that it is a narrative of Christians living inside the world.  How we further identify our own dwelling place, either in the city of God or in Babylon, Revelation speaks to the timeless breadth of the Church. 

I have been surveying what others think about this idea and I have found some very interesting thoughts.  In the book Narrative Reading, Narrative Preaching: Reuniting New Testament Interpretation and Proclamation,Stanley P. Saunders writes a chapter titled Revelation and Resistance: Narrative and Worship in John's Apocalypse. Saunders quickly sums his reading of Revelation in this quote;

Revelation was created for oral performance amid the eucharistic gatherings of the early Christians.

Saunders trots this out by dealing with the linear structure of the way that we assume narrative generally takes place, and explains it as only making sense inside a non-linear "imaginative participation".  I have also been listening to lectures by Thomas Hopko's Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation Within Orthodox Christian Tradition. This series outlines the book of Revelation within an Orthodox framework.  The Orthodox lectionary doesn't have a single reading from Revelation, it is the only NT book left out of their reading cycle.  Hopko goes on to teach that its inclusion is not necessary because Revelation is woven throughout the Orthodox liturgy as a foundational principle.

Christian time differs from earthly time.  It is caught up in the idea of time being something that is conceded to man so we can better understand who God is. Worship is then an active rehersal of the world according to God.  To think of time being final to God is quite silly.  Revelation as scripture is highly illogical in the most rational sense, because it must be read in relation to the entire canon. By removing the fairly recent interpretation of Revelation being a calender and instead integrating it within Christian time gives us a better reading, and a truer one to the larger tradition of Christian history.

Doing this isn't easy, and it takes stretches that might need a generation.  Revelation must be preached, and not just to ease congregational concern.  It is like remolding play-dough, and even having to add some water to it in the process.  Revelation is a book of worship acted out in participation.  It is an apostolic narrative of resisting the world.  The 7 churches in chapters two and three set the stage, and the rest of the book is a culmination of biblical idolatry and the consequences of it. 

In the end (no pun intended), we live against the idea of the end of times and actually think of the book as the entirety of time.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning, is now, and shall ever be, world without end.

 

Adding to the library

To make Christmas easier for the various parts of my family I started an Amazon wishlist years ago.  This year, it seemed to be used by more and more people in the family.  Most of them had things to say about the amount and type of reading that was on my list, but I think my sister's thought takes the cake:

Mom..the funny thing is this isn't just for school, this is his leisure reading!!!

I will say that building a good library on things your are interested is is important, and part of that is putting resources in that you don't necessarily agree with. I am working on a post for my main blog about how to review commentaries for personal use, it should be up in the next few days.

But here is what I added to my Revelation library this Christmas through the graciousness of my family.

 

End Times Roundup 10.1.10

The web has been quiet these last few weeks, so our offerings have been slim.  Here are a few that I have found to be interesting and way from the usual conversations.

1. Wesleyan Eschatology and a Personal Perspective
From Laura over at Arulba.com.  This post really jumped out at me because I am a Wesleyan and I understand how frustrating it is the study eschatology from this perspective since John Wesley didn't seem to be concerned with it.

2. John Piper's "An Evening of Eschatology"
Continually in my twitter search on #eschatology this video keeps popping up.  I am planning on watching it this weekend to finally get familiar with it.  I want to link to it because it is becoming a pretty serious work that many are citing and using to form their views on The End.

3. 2013: Or, what to do when the Apocalypse doesn't arrive:
A great article from a secular perspective about the fervor of 2012 and the development of Apocalyptic thought in modern culture.

4. Rapture Snacks
Matt Stout is a friend here at Asbury Seminary who draws several comics.  One of them is Community Life and can be found on our seminary blog.  He just published his first book of strips from this series and I found a great one that snuck by on me.  I figured I would share it here with you.

St. Augustine on the Lion and the Lamb

I am preaching from Revelation 5 this weekend, and in my prep I was reading through the Revelation (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture) volume on Revelation.  This is a great series highlighting Patristic writing on the Bible.  Below is an extended quote from St. Augustine on viewing Christ as the Lion and the Lamb in chapter 5.

"Like a sheep he was led to be slaughtered, and like a lamb in the presence of the shearer he was without voice, thus he did not open his mouth." Who is this? Obviously the one about whom he goes on to say, "In humility his judgement was taken away. His generation, who shall relate?" I can see this model of humility in a  king of such power and authority. Because this one, who is like a lamb not opening its mouth in the presence of the shearer, is himself "the lion from the tribe of Judah."

Who is this, both lion and lamb? He endured death as a lamb; he devoured it as a lion. Who is this, both lion and lamb? Gentle and strong, lovable and terrifying, innocent and mighty, silent when he was being judged, roaring when he comes to judge. Or perhaps both in his passion lamb and lion, and also in his resurrection lion and lamb. Let us see him as a lamb in his passion. It was stated a moment ago: "Like a lamb in the midst of his shearer he was without voice, thus he did not open his mouth." Let us see him as a lion in his passion: Jacob said, "You have gone up, lying down you have slept like a lion." Let us see him as a lamb in his resurrection.

The book of Revelation, when it was talking about the eternal glory of virgins, "They follow the lamb, it is said, wherever he goes." The same book of Revelation says, what I mentioned just now, "The lion from the tribe of Judah has conquered, to open the book." Why a lamb in his passion? Because he underwent death without being guilty of any iniquity. Why a lion in his passion? Because in being slain he slew death. Why a lamb in his resurrection? Because his innocence is everlasting. Why a lion in his resurrection? Because everlasting also in his might" Sermon 375 A.I."

I love how the Fathers are able to explain scripture from what is called "the mind of scripture", being that they were so read in the scripture that they are able to explain things from the entire canon, reading the Christ event across the whole text.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

Worship, Eschatology and Sacramental Imagination

I teach people about blogging and social media alot (its one of the main topics I hit on at the other blog outsideisbetter.net).  In keeping up with my hits from search engines on this blog I notice that I get alot of inquiries regarding sacraments and eschatology.  I have referenced this paper before, but I wanted to put it up in the embedded format.  I wrote this for a Sacraments class a couple of years ago and I think it answers alot of questions.  I will warn that this is an academic paper-so it gets heady, but I still like it and have sent it to folks that have emailed me with questions.  Enjoy

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

Worship, Eschatology and Sacramental Imagination

Biblical Eschatology Blog

I have linked to this site before, during "Resource Week" in January, but I wanted to highlight it again.  The Biblical Eschatology Blog  is affiliated with the Francis Shaeffer institute.  They take the time to explain the book of Revelation, along with theological ideas, in a real deep manner.  They also line out the theories of interpretation across the 4 majors schools in Revelation studies; Preterist, Futurist, Idealist and Historicist. The book is taught in blocks that are easy to digest.  They are up to chapter 16 right now, so go jump in.

Announcing the Eschatology Round Up

I was thinking a few days ago about some more scheduled posting on this blog, while at the same time surfing my usual links for anything eschatology related that didn't seem to "nut-jobby".  What I want to attempt is a weekly post here gathering up the best blog posts, articles and other useful information regarding all things eschatology and get them together.  I posed the question on twitter and it seemed to go over well, so I wanted to make the official announcement.  The Weekly Round Up will be on Friday or Saturday, so get ready.  If you see something cruise through, let me know via twitter or facebook.

Hope you look forward to it.

Millennial What?

On twitter, I have a search set up for a few things, one of them being "eschatology".  Last week sometime I was pointed to this post from Chris Ashton by one of the links.  In the post he outlines several video's made by Dr. David Murray describing the different millennial timelines.  I haven't really dealt with Millennial issues around here that often, partly because there aren't easy ways to explain some of them.  These videos do a great job and I wanted to direct you towards them.

Eschatology Resources from David Murray

Forming an Eschatological Community: Taking the Book Back

As a worship designer, I often point folk to the Vanderbilt Lectionary website (an online RCL help), to find scripture to use throughout a service.  This is great even if they are in a thematic service, because it will allow them to have a wide spread of scripture available to them.

You might have noticed that the Easter readings for this year take people through five passages in Revelation. These happen to be five of my favorite parts of the book  This is a great way to jump into Revelation for the first time.

Just last night I was having a conversation with a friend and mentioned that much of my fascination with Revelation is the deep desire to help the church take back this book.  I really think I went for at least 18 years without a sermon or lesson on Revelation.  This is our Book.  The fear that has been given to the book of Revelation can only be eradicated by reading the book.  This verses are a great primer.

The 5 readings give a great overview of the book, and follow redemption’s story.  You get some hymnic passages and the great narrative in 21 that I have preached on before.  You miss chapter 19, but that is my only real complaint.

Take the book back. 

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be