Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Good Morning    

 

I was out traveling at the end of the last week (Atlanta and St. Louis) and will be much of this week (Destin -- for work -- really), so I might continue to be hit and miss with emails.  

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 13 :1-5   Barclay 105-106

 

-- Barclay's approach to this chapter starts with his identification of the two beasts, which he assigns to the Roman Empire.  The seven heads are the seven emperors of Rome - the ten horns cover those same seven, plus three minor rulers.  He connects the rumors about Nero's return from the dead and his atrocities against Christians to the wounded head of the beast and the idea of the antichrist.   The other beast, according to Barclay, is the Roman governmental infrastructure, that helped to maintain the rule of Rome and the worship of the Roman Emperor.

 

-- So, in Barclay's view/interpretation, this is not the future, but the past that John is writing about.  In one sense, this fits nicely with one interpretation of Chapter 12 -- that John was describing past events in connection with the birth of Christ and the war in Heaven that had Satan tossed to earth.  There are lots of reasons why to consider the Roman empire an evil and satanic organization, and its rulers the very embodiment of evil.  But many readers of Revelation have interpreted the beast as being something to come -- for instance, many would-be experts about Revelation identify the beast in Chapter 13 as the new European Union, or some other government. 

 

-- Barclay also connects the language that John uses here as symbolically linked to language used by Daniel in his Old Testament book.

 

-- So, the bottom line, so far, is that the symbol pointed to the most as the symbol of the antichrist is, in Barclay's view, not something that is to come in our future, but something that has occurred/appeared centuries ago.  We'll just have to keep reading to see if that interpretation connects with our own view of the chapter.  Maybe that is correct, but it certainly isn't the view that these people have:  http://www.heedtheomen.com/. 

 

 Today's Scripture   

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:7a

Today's prayer requests:      Our high school seniors 

We have a number of high school seniors in our church, and others in our families, that have graduated this past week or so.  Let's remember in them in prayer -- both during this first part of the summer, as many of them travel to the beach and other places to celebrate, and for their future success and happiness. 

Today's class member prayer: 

Elizabeth Barrett  

 

Jay