The final sequence of Revelation begins with the fourth “in Spirit” vision of John (21:9-10). From that point to the end of the book, the “Lamb” is mentioned 7 times (21:9, 14, 22, 23, 27; 22:1, 3). The Lamb is entering His Sabbath, the wedding feast with His Bridal city. The seven references to the Lamb correlate, roughly, with the days of creation. As the Lamb brings new creation to fulfillment, He re-creates the world. Day 1: The Lamb appears... Read more
Paul Griffiths (Decreation) ably defends a minority position in the history of theology, namely, that angels are not bodiless, though they are “immaterial.” They are “living creatures with discarnate bodies of energy” (125). To defend this point, he offers this brilliant little analysis of the meaning of “matter” and “body”: “Angelic bodies . . . have mass, but not, or not necessarily matter. ‘Matter’ is a word that has no generally agreed definition in contemporary physics, and no consistent pattern... Read more
Apocalypse is also supposed to describe a particular form of eschatology, particularly beliefs about the end of the world. This is the sense in which the word is used in Ernst Kasemann’s famous claim that apocalyptic is the mother of Christian theology. Kasemann meant that early Christians believed in the imminent return of Jesus, and this expectation shaped their entire outlook. Kasemann said that it was characteristic of apocalyptic eschatology to acknowledge that the world is not yet subjected to God’s... Read more
As Andrei Zorin argues in a TLS piece this week, Tolstoy intended to defy novelistic convention in writing War and Peace. His book was not a novel, and Tolstoy refused the easy resolutions of the novel genre. Zorin agrees that there is something to this: “In one of the best studies of War and Peace, Gary Saul Morson’s Hidden in Plain View (1987), this perception is seen as the main clue to the mystery of Tolstoy’s masterpiece. Tolstoy’s efforts, Morson argues,... Read more
Following a long tradition, Paul Griffiths says that creatures who come from nothing are constantly inclined to return to the nihil. We “remain uneasily in being, hovering over the void from which we came” (Decreation, 142). Venerable as this is, it’s misconceived. For starters we can ask what it is it that keeps us suspended over the void? Griffiths rightly stresses that “every creature must be ‘conserved,’ maintained or kept in being by the LORD” (141). If we hover in... Read more
When the seventh trumpet blows, heaven opens and the ark of the covenant appears (Revelation 11:19). We’re in the Most Holy Place. Before the ark-throne are two heavenly signs – a laboring woman and a dragon. It’s Zechariah 3, with Satan and the priest Joshua before the throne, Satan accusing. Zechariah 3 is a Day of Atonement episode: The temple is not yet built, so normal Atonement rites cannot be carried out. Yahweh breaks through the impasse by declaring Joshua... Read more
At the Theopolis site, A.K. Shauku examines Franklin Graham’s response to recent racial conflicts in the US. Shauku writes in part: “Christians are called to be the peacekeepers and a redeeming influence upon society. We cannot do that so long as we allow ourselves to become partisans in a battle of reaction and counter-reaction. Loving our neighbor does sometimes mean confronting their sin, but often a focus on the sin of our neighbor is a way to (1) avoid truly taking... Read more
Baptism is God’s promise to and claim on the baptized. It demands response, a response of faith. Anything else is an insult to God. God tells the baptized, “You belong to me,” but some will say, “No, we don’t want to belong to you. We want to be our own men.” God speaks through the water, “I forgive you sins,” but some say, “We’d rather wallow in our guilt.” God says, “I offer you all blessings in Christ. Trust me,... Read more
In an article published in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Tuomas Tepora “analyzed flag speeches given in Helsinki and published in newspapers alongside with other writings related to the subject in different media” during the years 1917-1945. Drawing on Durkheim’s work on aboriginal totems, he drew a number of conclusions about the role of the Finnish flag in creation Finnish national identity. “Firstly, the nation was defined by what it was not. The communists were designated as the definers of the national... Read more
One of the difficulties involved in dating Revelation to the 60s and linking it with the fall of Jerusalem is the fact that both John and the churches he writes to are in Asia Minor. Revelation 1:4 is arguably an opening to the entire book, as a letter from john to the seven churches of Asia. If the focus of the book is on Jerusalem and surroundings, why the focus of this book on Asia Minor. On this question, we... Read more
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