As always, I put together a list of verses for Christmas. I'm pretty sure any of the readers who were going to get them from me have gotten them in the mail or via email already, so sharing them shouldn't spoil anything.
You can read the PDF by clicking the link.
Happy New Year, and Merry Christmas. I hope the advent of Our Lord and Savior has gripped your heart anew.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Monday, December 6, 2010
They Shall Seek Death
I'm nearing completion of my Bible in a Year, reading through Revelation with an eye toward having a week or more off from reading. Recently, Revelation 9:6 has stood out to me:
It has long been a pet idea of mine that all of man's efforts today—or at least most of them—are really efforts at ending the curse. Science is a great process for this, and it has dramatically improved quality of life in many places (although the effects of this progress are not uniform, and we may argue reasonably that progress has actually caused more problems than it's solved). Recently, Harvard scientists reversed ageing in mice by injecting them with telomerase, an enzyme that prevents telomeres from shortening as cells divide. (Telomere shortening is thought to be one of the principle causes of ageing in humans. Telomeres are repetitive pieces of DNA at the end of chromosomes; as cells divide, telomeres contribute this DNA to cells and are eventually used up. When this happens, the original cell can no longer divide. Presumably, telomeres degrade over time, so cells cannot go on reproducing forever. It is thought that cancer cells do not have this problem.)
The verse I have quoted has always puzzled me, because it seems like it should be fairly easy to seek death and find it. Perhaps it is macabre, but I have found myself wondering about the torments of hell a bit lately, and it struck me that in the beginning, God prevents man from living forever precisely because living forever without God is hell. It seems the original design was not to have decaying bodies, ones subject to the shortening of telomeres or other genetic breakdowns, but to have bodies that never die, that don't need repair (hips that don't crack on every kick!). Would it not be hell to prevent death without fixing the other problems?
Eventually it would not surprise me to find that science will eventually succeed in ending at least one part of the curse. The stuff of fiction—reversing ageing, even in mice—is now a reality. It may be that man will eventually succeed in thumbing his nose at God, defying death and thereby concluding there is no need for a resurrection. I don't really know, of course, but I can see it happening this way.
I hate death, but I see it also as a mercy in its way: the effects of sin and our ability to sin both are stopped in death, and it is only through this final door that we are granted access to the presence of God. But of course, death is also the door to eternal loss, and I think mankind will ever strive to stave off eternal torment. What an irony that they could do so and bring upon themselves the consequences that they most desire to avoid!
I can see in this beggarly concept of eternal life an eternal death. It seems almost like Bilbo with the Ring of Power; he does not appear any older, but in a classic Hobbit-phrase, he describes himself as thin, as though he were butter scraped over too much bread.
How shameful it would be to find that all of our efforts to defeat the curse on our terms bring us an immortality of dread and loss, one in which death is preferable to living on, and yet it is impossible to achieve.
And in those days shall men seek death, and not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
It has long been a pet idea of mine that all of man's efforts today—or at least most of them—are really efforts at ending the curse. Science is a great process for this, and it has dramatically improved quality of life in many places (although the effects of this progress are not uniform, and we may argue reasonably that progress has actually caused more problems than it's solved). Recently, Harvard scientists reversed ageing in mice by injecting them with telomerase, an enzyme that prevents telomeres from shortening as cells divide. (Telomere shortening is thought to be one of the principle causes of ageing in humans. Telomeres are repetitive pieces of DNA at the end of chromosomes; as cells divide, telomeres contribute this DNA to cells and are eventually used up. When this happens, the original cell can no longer divide. Presumably, telomeres degrade over time, so cells cannot go on reproducing forever. It is thought that cancer cells do not have this problem.)
The verse I have quoted has always puzzled me, because it seems like it should be fairly easy to seek death and find it. Perhaps it is macabre, but I have found myself wondering about the torments of hell a bit lately, and it struck me that in the beginning, God prevents man from living forever precisely because living forever without God is hell. It seems the original design was not to have decaying bodies, ones subject to the shortening of telomeres or other genetic breakdowns, but to have bodies that never die, that don't need repair (hips that don't crack on every kick!). Would it not be hell to prevent death without fixing the other problems?
Eventually it would not surprise me to find that science will eventually succeed in ending at least one part of the curse. The stuff of fiction—reversing ageing, even in mice—is now a reality. It may be that man will eventually succeed in thumbing his nose at God, defying death and thereby concluding there is no need for a resurrection. I don't really know, of course, but I can see it happening this way.
I hate death, but I see it also as a mercy in its way: the effects of sin and our ability to sin both are stopped in death, and it is only through this final door that we are granted access to the presence of God. But of course, death is also the door to eternal loss, and I think mankind will ever strive to stave off eternal torment. What an irony that they could do so and bring upon themselves the consequences that they most desire to avoid!
I can see in this beggarly concept of eternal life an eternal death. It seems almost like Bilbo with the Ring of Power; he does not appear any older, but in a classic Hobbit-phrase, he describes himself as thin, as though he were butter scraped over too much bread.
How shameful it would be to find that all of our efforts to defeat the curse on our terms bring us an immortality of dread and loss, one in which death is preferable to living on, and yet it is impossible to achieve.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Idolatry and Salvation
When it rains it pours, I guess.
Intervening these paragraphs is the span of about ten days. So at least in this case, it's not quite pouring posts here.
To be honest, I'm recycling a few thoughts that I've had in the past, anyway, so there is not much in the way of original thought. It was prompted by my recent sprint through the major and minor prophets (I'm nearing the end of the Bible in a Year program!).
It is somewhat ironic that the Israelites seek freedom in their worship practices, and that this freedom leads them to cast off the law and to ignore the prophets. They eschew the judgment of the law to choose that which is no law and carries no judgment.
The irony in this is that while the idols promise no judgment—the Israelites may live as they please if they fulfill whatever cult rituals seem appropriate—they cannot save, either. God chides them for this:
It is God alone who is the Savior (43.11), and these idols cannot save. The connection that is made here is that God's ability to save is intrinsically related to his ability to judge. He is both Savior and Judge, and we cannot have one without the other.
This is common sense, of course. If God is to save us, from whom does he save us? Who is more powerful than he? Whom should we fear but him (cf Ps 27.1)?
This is, in fact, a big theme of the gospel passages in Isaiah. God promises to save Israel. In the context of the prophecies, it is salvation from the wrath of their enemies and redemption from the lands to which they were consigned, but all of these are God's judgment on Israel.
The message, then, is clear: idols promise no judgment, but they cannot save either. The ability to save is intimately related to the ability to judge. We cannot have a God who does not judge, but somehow saves. It is simply nonsense; but of course this is what the gospel has told us all along.
Intervening these paragraphs is the span of about ten days. So at least in this case, it's not quite pouring posts here.
To be honest, I'm recycling a few thoughts that I've had in the past, anyway, so there is not much in the way of original thought. It was prompted by my recent sprint through the major and minor prophets (I'm nearing the end of the Bible in a Year program!).
It is somewhat ironic that the Israelites seek freedom in their worship practices, and that this freedom leads them to cast off the law and to ignore the prophets. They eschew the judgment of the law to choose that which is no law and carries no judgment.
The irony in this is that while the idols promise no judgment—the Israelites may live as they please if they fulfill whatever cult rituals seem appropriate—they cannot save, either. God chides them for this:
They have no knowledge
who carry about their wooden idols,
and keep on praying to a god
that cannot save (Is 45.20).
It is God alone who is the Savior (43.11), and these idols cannot save. The connection that is made here is that God's ability to save is intrinsically related to his ability to judge. He is both Savior and Judge, and we cannot have one without the other.
This is common sense, of course. If God is to save us, from whom does he save us? Who is more powerful than he? Whom should we fear but him (cf Ps 27.1)?
This is, in fact, a big theme of the gospel passages in Isaiah. God promises to save Israel. In the context of the prophecies, it is salvation from the wrath of their enemies and redemption from the lands to which they were consigned, but all of these are God's judgment on Israel.
The message, then, is clear: idols promise no judgment, but they cannot save either. The ability to save is intimately related to the ability to judge. We cannot have a God who does not judge, but somehow saves. It is simply nonsense; but of course this is what the gospel has told us all along.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)