NT Wright on filming the end times: metaphor and signposts pointing to fog

canned cheeseburgers, rumors of wars, and...

Of course the end times are often (always? inevitably?) misunderstood..

see, for example,

• "Of course, Christians will be left behind")

• If Jesus doesn't return for ten thousand years..

• "This is going to be helpful for people 2000 years from now who don’t want to get left behind”

And especally:

Three signs of the (good) end times

But today I learned that a wonderful source has listed "Signs of the End".
You may think the Door is all satire, but #2 may be right out of the Bible? See this.

They include:

• Victorious Life Church, conveniently located right off Interstate 35 in Robinson, Texas, guarantees to get you in and out of a church service in under 30 minutes, divided into 8 to 10 minutes of “praise and worship,” 12 to 15 minutes of “the word,” and 5 minutes of “response."
• “I said to myself, ‘I love him, but I love me more.’”-Televangelist Juanita Bynum, explaining on Divorce Court why she had to leave her husband
• A German company sells a canned cheeseburger.

Click to read the whole list...before it's too late

evangelical pornography or ideational ergative paraenesis

(image credit)

It's not the "evangelical pornography" of "Left Behind.'
(and hopefully you know who the Bible says will really be left behind)..

It will never make it on TBN..even if the writer turns out to be on crack.

And it is not for the casual fan, as Peter Wilkinson almost jokes here:

"requires an active brain, a working knowledge of NT Greek, and a dictionary which contains the definition of words like ‘ideational’, ‘ergative’, ‘paraenesis’, ‘anaphoric’ etc" link

But Wilkinson is right:

Gustavo Martin has, to my mind, made an important contribution in support of the case that the Olivet discourse has two horizons of understanding: the destruction of the temple in AD 70, and a more distant parousia of Jesus which has yet to occur. It’s also a fascinating piece of scholarship.

So here it is...have fun:

• Procedural Register in the Olivet Discourse: A Functional Linguistic Approach to Mark 13

If that was too heavy...start here with Rob Bell, below..he might be equally heavy in a way, but no sightings of a ‘ideational’, ‘ergative’, or ‘paraenesis'...though the heresy hunters will have a field day with the title quote alone:

• "This is going to be helpful for people 2000 years from now who don’t want to get left behind”

"This is going to be helpful for people 2000 years from now who don’t want to get left behind”

I love and hate teaching Revelation.
Maybe it's because I have pretty much figured out what/who 666 and mark of the beast is (:
(keep reading, it was never meant to be a secret.).

I fear Douglas Wilson may be prophetic (and apocalyptic, in the truest sense of the term) in his comment about 'hitting a bull on the ass with a banjo".

So I am so glad Wellspring church had already posted what I have pasted below:
the helpful Rob Bell/Don Golden section on Revelation from "Jesus Came to Save Christians."
I have taken the liberty of highlighting a few sections..

Just the kind of stuff that is basic Christianity, but hardly ever heard or taught in our country.
Whatsup with us? Not enough violence in Revelation, so we have to sex it up?

This section could be read in tandem with the famous/infamous sermon on Revelation by Rob Bell at Willow Creek, finally unbanned and on video here.

Other helpful posts would include:

• "Of course, Christians will be left behind")

• If Jesus doesn't return for ten thousand years..

• Beginning of the End

• "Left Behind" as Evangelical Pornography
  

• Three signs of the (good) end times

• Domitian Games in Revelation
  

• 
  

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Bell and Golden:

A tragic example of what happens when Christians miss the central message of the Scriptures is the way in which Revelation, the last book of the Bible, is taught and understood in American culture. Revelation is a letter from a pastor named John to his congregation. To understand how significant the letter is, it helps to understand its first-century historical backdrop.

First, the emperor: The Caesars, who ruled the Roman Empire, sow themselves as gods on earth, sent to bring about peace and prosperity. Throughout the first century, the Caesars had taken their divinity more and more seriously, demanding more and more overt displays of worship and acknowledgment from their subjects. Many of them demanded that their subjects worship them as the Son of God, the divine one ruling the earth with the favor of the god. One Caesar had a choir that followed him wherever he went, singing, “You are worthy, our Lord and our God, to receive honor and glory and power.”

Second, economics: The Caesars understood that at the heart of the empire is economics. If you want to truly control people, you need to control their money. So if you went to the market to buy or sell goods, you first needed to give an offering acknowledging Caesar as Lord and that you were an obedient subject of his kingdom. If you didn’t, you couldn’t take part in the economy, which meant you wouldn’t make any money and you’d eventually starve. It is believed that a system was developed to identify who had made the offering to Caesar and who hadn’t and this system involved some sort of mark you received to acknowledge your confession of Caesar as Lord and your ability to take part in the market.

Third, peace: The Roman army would march into a new land or region, one they had not conquered and announce they were taking over. They would demand that the citizens of that land confess Caesar as Lord. If they refused, they could be killed, often crucified, as a public demonstration of what happens when you defy Caesar. This had a way of bringing people in line with the Roman way.

Fourth, exile: The Caesar in power at the time of John’s writing understood just what a challenge the church of Jesus was to his rule. These Christians believed that someone else, someone not him, was the true Son of God and that he alone deserved their worship and acknowledgment of divine status. Caesar believed that the way to get rid of this threat was to send the pastor into exile so that he couldn’t lead his people.

Revelation is a letter written from John, the pastor, to his church during his time of exile. He writes in a subversive literary style called apocalyptic. It uses a vast array of symbols and images and stylized language to convey profound truths about how the world works. John refers to a beast, which is his word for the corrupt, destructive system of violence and evil that is pervasive in our world. He writes of a dragon, the one who does the work of the beast on earth. And then he talks about a mark of the beast.

We can assume John’s audience knew what the mark was – how you bought and sold in the market. The mark was a symbol of your participation in the military-economic complex of the Roman Empire. The mark represented an all-encompassing system aligned against people doing the right thing. The mark spoke to all of the ways humans misuse power to accumulate and stockpile while others suffer and starve.

The mark was anti-kingdom, and John says don’t do it. Don’t take the mark. Don’t take part in the animating spirit of empire: Resist – Rebel – Protest.

Revelation is a bold, courageous, politically subversive attack on corrosive empire and its power to oppress people. The people who read this letter would have been confronted with a fundamental question: Who is Lord – Jesus or Caesar? Whose way is the way – the way of violence or the way of peace – the way of domination or the way of compassion – the way of building towers to the heavens or the way of sharing our bread with our neighbor - the way of greed and economic exploitation or the way of generosity and solidarity?

Who is your Lord?

Imagine how dangerous it would be if there were Christians who skipped over the first-century meaning of John’s letter and focused only on whatever it might be saying about future events, years and years away. There is always the chance that in missing the point, they may in the process be participating in and supporting and funding the various kinds of systems that the letter warns against participating in, supporting, and funding.

That would be tragic.

That wouldn’t be what Jesus had in mind.

That would be anti-Jesus.

That would be anti-Christ.

Were the people in John’s church reading his letter for the first time, with Roman soldiers right outside their door, thinking, “This is going to be really helpful for people two thousand years from now who don’t want to get left behind”?

It’s a letter written to a real group of people, in a real place, at a real time, enduring excruciatingly difficult times. Christians were being killed by the empire because they would not participate.

John comforts them, challenges them, warns them, teaches them, inspires them – don’t take the mark of the beast.
-Rob Bell and Don Golden, "Jesus Came to Save Christians," pp 131-134 .. emphases are mine

of course Christians will be left behind

Preface (sigh); Don't hear what I'm not saying. I am not necessarily saying there is no "rapture," etc. I am just saying read this one particular scripture in context. No hate email necessary.

It astounds people when I tell them that

no one

reading the famous "one will be taken; the other left behind" 'rapture' passage..

(in context; and without everything you've ever heard that it said influencing what you hear)

will read it as Christians being taken/raptured.

It is the most obvious interpretation in the world that in this Scripture:

the Christians are left behind.

!

Try it out! Follow the flow and logic; read text and context prayerfully and carefully.

There's a reason this passage was not spun this way in the early church (B.L.H.-"Before LaHaye")

⁴⁰⁴¹⁴²

the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

And Rossing:

Only by combining this passage together with First Thessalonians can a dispensationalist begin to piece together their notion of 'left behind'...But here's the problem with their use of this passage in Matthew: Dispensationalists make the leap of assuming that the person 'taken' in this passage is a born-again Christian who is taken up to heaven, while the person 'left' is an unbeliever who is left behind for judgement. This is a huge leap, since Jesus himself never specifies whether Christians should desire to be taken or left! In the overall context of Matthew's Gospel, the verbs 'taken' and 'left' (Greek paralambano and apheimi) can be either positive or negative.

In the verses immediately preceding this passage, Jesus says that his coming will be like the flood at the time of Noah, when people were 'swept away' in judgement. If being 'taken' is analogous to being 'swept away' in a flood, then it is not a positive fate. That is the argument of New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop N.T. Wright:

'It should be noted that being in this context means being taken in judgement.
There is no hint here of a , a sudden event that would remove individuals from terra firma...It is, rather, a matter of secret police coming in the night, or of enemies sweeping through a village or city and seizing all they can.'
(NT Wright, Jesus and The Victory of God, p. 366

If Wright is correct, this means that 'left behind,' is actually the desired fate of Christians, whereas being 'taken' would mean being carried off by forces of judgement like a death squad. For people living under Roman occupation, being taken away in such a way by secret police would probably be a constant fear....McGuire suggests that the 'Left Behind' books have it 'entirely backward.'. McGuire, like Wright, points out that when analyzed in the overall context of the gospel, the word 'taken' means being taken away in judgement, as in the story of Jesus' being 'taken' prisoner by soldiers in Matt 27:27. 'Taken' is not an image for salvation"

(Rossing, pp 178-179)

‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son,nor the Son');";^{*373839404142} but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day at what hour');your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. '
-Matt. 24

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RELATED:

• Where did the rapture come from anyway?

• "This is going to be helpful for people 2000 years from now who don’t want to get left behind”

 

• If Jesus doesn't return for ten thousand years..

• Beginning of the End

• "Left Behind" as Evangelical Pornography
  

• Three signs of the (good) end times

• Domitian Games in Revelation

Domitian Games in Revelation ?

Anyone have evidence on this Domitian Games/Revelation theory? Tenuous? Probable?

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From "Velvet Elvis-Repainting the Christian Faith:"


The first chapters of the book of Revelation follow a sequence of events of the Domitian games, held in honor of the caesar who was in power at the time Revelation was written. Domitian would address the leaders of the various provinces, then his choir of twenty-four would sing worship songs to him, and then there would be a horse race. John is
writing Revelation to people who had seen the Domitian games; they know exactly what he is referring to. He wants them to see that Domitian is a fake and Jesus is the real King.

The writers of the Bible are communicating in language their world will understand. They are using the symbols and pictures and images of the culture they are speaking to. That's why the Bible has authority-God has authority and is present in real space and time. The Bible is a collection of stories that teach us what it looks like when God is at work through actual people. The Bible has the authority it does only because it contains stories about people interacting with the God who has all authority.

The point in the book of Acts isn't the early church. The point is the God who is at work in and through the early church to change the world. When we take the Bible seriously, we are taking God seriously. We believe that the same God who was at work then is at work now. The same God in the same kinds of ways. The goal is not to be a "New Testament Church". That makes the New Testament church the authority. The authority is God who is acting in and through those people at that time and now these people at this time.

The point is to ask, what is God up to here, now?
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From James Graves:

"Our passage has much to say about the human proneness to animal and angel escapism.
First, I need to say a word about the format. You should note, by now, a curious form in
the churches addressed. Not only do the various churches get to hear read other people’s
mail (don’t we all like that!), the churches are first praised before they are charged and
challenged. Some scholars believe that the address to the churches follows
closely the model of the way in which Domitian, a Roman Emperor,
addressed the various regions of his empire. During the Domitian games (clever
title) each region of the empire would be addressed: “To this city: you are hard working,
dedicated and loyal. But I have this against you. You do not pay all of your taxes, report
all your earnings, etc.” Churches would surely recognize this pattern as a reader unfolded
the scroll and read the first few chapters of Revelation. “To Ephesus, Smyrna,
Pergamum…and now, Thyatira.”
-Joshua Graves, link,
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Johnny:
In order to read of him in the book of Revelation, we have to have the records of Josephus and other ancient, historical writings which speak of him.

The entire book of revelation is a depiction of the Olympic Games and every role, including the Emperor, is there playing the part. John changes the roles from the emperor to Jesus and from the athletes to the followers of Jesus. The 24 elders in Revelation were a heavenly depiction of the actual 24 elders of the emperor.

Those who read Revelation in the first century would have immediately recognized the correlation between John's eschatological, heavenly signs and people in contrast to the Olympic Games where the emperor is the god of the games and Jesus is the God of the universe.

Again, we won't know this unless we read the writings of antiquity which tell us the history behind the text.

For anyone interested in more information on this subject, please go to http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=5548

Be sure to listen to the audio file on the site listed above, which is a teaching by Ray Vander Laan.

-Johnny, link
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Ray Van Der Laan audio

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Domitian's greatest passions were the arts and the games. He implemented the Capitoline Games in 86. Like the Olympic Games, they were to be held every four years and included athletic displays, chariot races, but also oratory, music and acting competitions. The Emperor himself supported the travels of competitors from the whole empire and attributed the prizes. He was also very fond of gladiator shows and added important innovations like female and dwarf gladiator fights.

-Wikipedia