Friday, June 2, 2006

Good Morning 

 

See everyone on Sunday morning. 

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 13:6-10      Barclay 108-110

 

-- doing two sections in Barclay today due to them being short.

 

-- in the first Barclay section, it talks about the beast and his charge to overcome those whose names where not written in the book of life.  Long and short of this is really the idea of, in spite of how bad it might get for Christians during the reign of the beast, our place among God's people is secure.  If we are faithful, we will not be snatched away from God.

 

-- the second section is a call to Christians, really to give them counsel on how to act vs. the trials presented by the beast.  John, to me, essentially says, that tough times are coming, and our call is overcome through endurance and steadfastness, not through violence.  We are not called to fight the beast to overthrow it -- it is not like we are supposed to be an underground guerilla army, or some sort of armed resistence or insurgency.

Today's Scripture   

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation

Isaiah 12:2

Today's prayer requests:    Dr Page

Dr. Page is Ron and Brad's finance teacher at Auburn, who has lymphoma, and is not doing well.  We need to remember him as he struggles with the disease and the treatment. 

Today's class member prayer: 

 

Brad Douglas 

 

Jay 

Thursday, June 1, 2006

Good Morning    

 

Good morning from Sandestin -- really nice weather this morning at the beach.  Headed home today though .  

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 13:6-9    Barclay 107-108

 

-- Barclay is losing me a bit here.  In his commentary for the day, he talks about the blasphemies that the beast launches against God, and Barclay talks about two possibilities -- either John is referring to the Roman Empire in general, and the empire's general disregard for God and the exaltation of the emperors, OR John is referring to a very specific emperor, which Barclay identifies as Caligulia.  

 

-- We still have the issue as to whether this section is a vision of the things to come, or in this case, a retelling of things that had already happened.  Barclay is clearly coming down on the side that, in this part of John's book, he is writing about the Roman Empire from his immediate past.

 

-- In today's section, Barclay completely ignores the reference to the beast having been given power to blaspheme God for 42 months (3.5 years).  It would seem like a very specific reference that would shed some light on this passage.  But Barclay is silent on that part of the verse.

 

-- I will say that he does, in passing, mention that Caligulia was emperor of Rome from 37 to 41 -- depending on the months he started and stopped, that could represent a 42 month period.  I'm surprised that Barclay does check that out, because if Caligulia did serve as emperor for 42 months, that would really bolster Barclay's contention.  On the other hand, in Barclay's view, the beast is supposed to reference the entire Roman empire, not just a single emperor.

 

-- Long story short -- the beast, not surprisingly, speaks all manner of blasphemies against God and everything connected to God.  He gets away with this for a period of time, either literally for 3.5 years, or for symbolically for a short period of time..  Whether the beast is the Roman Empire, as Barclay asserts, or some individual or institution who came later or is to come in the future, is still up for discussion and debate. 

 

 Today's Scripture   

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

Today's prayer requests:    Christie Peebles

 

Our soon-to-deliver mom (I don't think she's delivered yet) is getting pretty close to her due date.  Just need to keep her and the rest of the Peebles clan in our prayers.      

 

 

Today's class member prayer: 

Wes Russell   

 

Jay 

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