Month: December 2024

Week 52  Revelation 21

I finished reading Revelation today.
I wondered about the city – New Jerusalem – that John saw in his closing vision. It was a nicely-balanced & geometric & huge cube that measured 1500-miles on all sides. My question was about it’s population-holding capacity. It seemed small. I decided to compare the earth and the Cubical New Jerusalem.
The surface area of the earth is pretty close to 197,000,000 square-miles. By contrast the surface area of a 1500-mile square is 2,250,000 square-miles – big enough to cover most of western Canada…but still only about 1/90th of the earth’s surface.
Will that be enough space for the people in the New Jerusalem?
It’s a hard calculation. For instance: how many people will there be? Let’s say that the total number of all people who have ever lived on earth is ~100,000,000,000. John makes it pretty clear that not everyone will be there. But – for argument’s sake – if they all were would there be enough room?
I also haven’t factored-in the vertical dimension of New Jerusalem – 1500-miles high. Mount Everest is less than six-miles high so the Cube is way higher. How would that vertical space be utilized?
And I really don’t even know whether people will live in the Cubical New Jerusalem. Maybe its the central facility on the New Earth and people will visit it.
So John is short of details (but I assume that space won’t be a serious issue).

Note: see the Cube in Revelation 21:16. Numerical calculations from Wikipedia “Earth” December 30, 2024 and Universe Today (https://www.universetoday.com/25756/surface-area-of-the-earth/).

 

Week 52  Revelation 16

Three creatures (or persons or beings) are mentioned in this chapter: a dragon & a beast & a false prophet.
The bible I’m using has a cross-reference to each one of them – meaning that John refers to them more than once:
The dragon was already mentioned in Revelation 12:3 (The Woman and the Dragon chapter).
The beast showed up in 13:1.
And the false prophet was there too in 13:11.
So by the time I read chapter 16 I’ve already heard about these three beings (and I’ll see each one of them again in chapters 19 & 20).
John says that the dragon & the beast & the false prophet each had mouths and when they opened their mouths unclean spirits come out. These spirits were visible to John – they looked kind-of-like frogs.
The three spirits that looked like frogs were also called spirits of demons or demonic spirits.
These three demonic spirits went out far-and-wide performing signs – or most likely miracles – that impressed leaders around the world so much that they prepared their states for the war of the great day of the Lord.
The location where the big battle would take place was: Armageddon (or Har-Magedon – depending on which version I’m using).
Reading this chapter the thing that stands out as being pretty (ominously) revealing is that the national decisions of leaders & governors & prime minsters & presidents is being prompted by demonic spirits. It’s pretty sobering to think that demons will be foreign-affairs influencers.

Note: quotes from Revelation 16:14 16 (NASB NIV NLT)

Week 52  Revelation 12

This chapter is called The Woman and The Dragon (I checked a couple of bible versions and they both add that title).
The verse that jumped out at me said: the dragon became angry with the woman, and he declared war against the rest of her children – all who keep God’s commandments and confess that they belong to Jesus.
A starting-point Question & Answer here is:
Q#1: who is the dragon angry with?
A#1: the woman
Unfortunately (from the dragon’s perspective) the woman escaped and he missed his chance to murder her son. So…next question:
Q#2: now that the woman has escaped who does the dragon transfer his rage against?
A#2: the woman’s children (i.e. people who a) keep the commandments of God and b) stay loyal to the Lord).
The bible doesn’t exactly say so but I think negativizing Q#2 & A#2 is accurate too:
Q#3: who is the dragon not angry with?
A#3: people who a) don’t obey the Lord and b) don’t have any loyalty to Jesus.
Chapter 12 is complicated in some ways but the basic idea isn’t too difficult: if I don’t have any loyalty to Jesus and I don’t make any effort to follow his ways then the dragon won’t be angry with me and won’t give me a hard time. And one way of looking at it is that there’s a certain appeal to not making a serious enemy of a really bad guy.

Note: quote from Revelation 12:17 (NLT)

Week 52  1 John 2

We can be sure that we know him (the Lord) if we obey his commandments.
One of the tests for knowing whether I genuinely know God is if I obey his commandments. The idea of having some sort of ‘personal relationship’ or ‘personal connection’ with God (of knowing-the-Lord) is out in the unknowability-ether. I don’t think anyone – not me you or anyone else – can know definitively if I-you-anyone-else knows God without some kind of testing device or mechanism (a Knowing Meter of some kind). John doesn’t say it has anything to do with whether I’m feeling convinced. The test is whether I’m doing what the Lord says I should be doing.
John gives a two-part quiz to test whether I know the Lord.
• Q#1: do I want to do what he tells me to do?
• Q#2: do I follow that up by actually doing what he tells me to do?
John’s idea is that if I do know the Lord then I’ll want to work at doing what he tells me to do. (If I negativize the rule I’ll end up in roughly the same place: not knowing the Lord means I won’t be doing what he tells me to do.)
When it comes to knowing-the-Lord John’s proposition is: knowing leads to doing.
Doing means I know. If I’m not doing then that’ll be proof enough that I don’t know.

Note: quote from 1 John 2:3 (NLT)

Week 51  James 4

Verse eleven has three sentences:
Don’t speak evil against each other.
If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law.
But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.
The third sentence is the one I’m interested in: a guy’s job is a) to look at the Lord’s law and b) to do it (not to try deciding whether it applies to him).
I check the sentence in a couple of other versions:
When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it
If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.
The question is: when it comes to the Lord’s law what’s my role?
And there are two (basic) answers: a) my job is to assess & evaluate a law – weigh it’s pros & cons – and then decide whether I’ll do what it says. Or else b) my job is to look at a law and then do what it says.
I think what James is driving-at is that if I get to choose whether I’ll do a law or not do it then I’ve become The Law Decider (making me The Lawmaker’s Right-Hand-Man).
It’s hard to know how many people choose choice a) but James’ recommendation is pretty clear: the smart choice is choice b) – doing what the law says.

Note: quote from James 4:11 (NLT NIV & NASB)

Week 50  2 Thessalonians 1

Yesterday I saw a couple of common features about people who will eventually end up in hell. The first was that they did not know God. The second was that they did not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. There might be other circumstances that land a person in hell but Paul only mentions these two at this point.
Anyway today I was thinking about a different question: what is hell like? I found three things:
1. Hell is a place of everlasting destruction (which I think means a permanent state of ruin where there’s no chances for renovation or rebuild)
2. In hell people will be shut out from the presence of the Lord
3. People will also be shut out from the glory of the Lord’s might.
After reading the verse in my version I decided to do a confirmatory double-check (and in the end I octuple-checked it). The other versions I looked at were pretty consistent.
1. They all used either the phrase eternal destruction or everlasting destruction
2. They all agreed that hell was a place away from the Lord
3. They all agreed that in hell there wouldn’t be any evidence of the Lord’s glorious power or might.
No mention of flames. No pitchforks. No torture. No horned demons.
But it was a permanent destination that was a long long way from the Lord.

Note: quotes from 2 Thessalonians 1:8 9 (NIV). Comparison versions: NASB NLT Phillips Amplified Common-English KJV (21st C) RSV & WEB

Week 50  2 Thessalonians 1

There’s lots of people who figure that hell doesn’t exist. For people who think it does one important question is: how does a guy get there?
Paul offers a short (and incomplete) answer in this verse. He says when the Lord returns to earth: he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.
(I checked a couple of other bible versions and they use slightly different words for “punish”. For instance retribution. Penalty. Judgment. Justice. Like that. Alternate words…same general idea.)
My sense is that this “punishment” isn’t a freaking-out kind of blood-thirsty vengeance. It’s more like restitution. Compensation. Indemnification. I’m getting what I earned.
The idea is that if I’ve steadily & consistently repudiated the Lord – disregarded his prompts & turned-my-back on him & dismissed him – then I get to go on steadily & consistently repudiating the Lord for the long-term.
The converse – though Paul doesn’t say it here – is that if I’ve steadily & consistently endorsed the Lord – listened to him & tried to follow his prompts – then I get to steadily & consistently endorse & listen to & follow the Lord for the long-term.
So during my lifetime I get to determine my future. And then I end-up getting what I chose.

Note: quote from 2 Thessalonians 1:8 (NIV). I compared NIV’s “punish” with NASB NLT Amplified & Phillips.

Week 49  2 Thessalonians 1

Paul told the church people in Thessalonica he was praying for God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live…This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.
When it comes to me successfully living a worthy and good life it’s the Lord who makes it all possible.
Thinking about it from the other side I figure it’s completely possible to live a fairly worthy life on my own. I can make good lifestyle choices (follow the Golden Rule & be helpful kind generous selfless sympathetic & like that). I figure there are lots of people who live good lives. Good lives lived independently.
Paul doesn’t actually call it this but I think his view would be that living a good life – an independent good life – would be a Life of Limited Goods (goods with in-built ceilings). Paul wasn’t talking about that kind of life. There’s two features to the life he was talking about: a) it honoured Christ & b) it was made possible (only) by the grace of God.
Is it possible to live a good life minus the Lord? For sure. But it would be a different kind of good life. Not Paul’s. Same word. Different meaning.

Note: quote from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (NLT)

Week 49  Philippians 2

Paul makes an interesting comment about how following the Lord is a collaborative venture: continue to work out your salvation with fear and  trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
So following the Lord isn’t a one-sided affair. There’s Part 1: I work hard to do my part. And Part 2: the Lord works on his part. There’s a partnership (me working out and the Lord working in).
I don’t have comprehensive knowledge about the Lord’s side of things (what-all his working-in-me involves) – but I figure it’s safe to say that he’s taking adequate care of his part of the effort so as to (as Paul says) fulfill his good purpose.
My bigger concern (maybe my only concern) is my side of the deal. The department I’m running. Me.
I realize I have to be incentivized to work my side (I also know very well that having the inclination & the want-to-ness & the appetite isn’t an automatic state-of-living for me). Plus…even with the motivation I still have to actually act – do some things that are contributing to my being a follower of the Lord.
I figure that one simple & general & realistic rule on the practical side of doing-my-part is: Doing What I Can Realistically Do. One example: I can start to tell the truth regularly. That’s a fairly do-able starter. I’m pretty sure that when I’m not lying I’m working-out.

Note: quote from Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV)

 

Week 49  Philippians 2

Paul gave this advice to readers of Philippians: do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but to the interests of the others.
So…it’s a kind of double-whammy:
• Don’t be motivated by my own self-centered ambition
• Consider other people to be more valuable than I am.
It’s a potent combination and no doubt Paul anticipated the How-Do-I-Do-That? question because he went on to say that I have to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
Then to illustrate Christ’s mindset Paul launches in on a long and fairly complicated description of how Christ voluntarily took on the role of a poor working-class man. He made himself nothing. It’s a tricky concept because it raises the technical question of what-all exactly was involved in Christ’s becoming “nothing”. How much of his divine self did he offload?
But I have to be pretty cautious. I’ve got to remember that – as important as it is that Christ made himself nothing – that’s not really Paul’s point. It’s the example illustrating the point (and the illustration can’t be bigger than the point). So a couple of bible reader’s reminders:
First: my focus has to be on The Point (which in this case is to learn humility).
Second: I have to remember that The Illustration is there to illustrate (no matter how elaborate it is).

Note: quotes from Philippians 2:3-4 5 7 (NIV). And see the whole passage 2:3-11.