Revelations... A Call to Arms (Part 1)

         I'm taking a class right now on Acts and Revelations. It's interesting how we normally think of Revelations as dealing with the end times. Throughout this semester it has become clear to me that John was not concerned with the end times as much as he was the present... It has become my favorite book in the Bible aside from the Gospels, Acts and Ezekiel... Revelations is focused on unveiling the world, showing Christians their situation seems horrible from their perspective but it looks completely different from the throne of the Most High. I would love to take the time to explain a few things (in different posts) I think the church needs to hear from this book... I'm thinking about writing a Bible study about it... I won't be exhaustive here...

          The church was dealing with extreme governmental and societal persecution, the kind we can only read about here in America. The church was afraid. They were losing their passion. Imagine having an entire world around you hating you for following Christ. You could make it in this world and have incredible happiness and acceptance if you weren't so straight forward about your faith. Instead you were suffering for your faith every day. The Romans were blaming the Christians for the fire, for bad luck and for everything that could go wrong. They were killing your friends and family, or turning them into slaves or keeping food from them. The religious leaders hated Christians. The big religion at the time was what is known as the imperial cult- to worship Rome herself. This is where my first interesting point comes from. To worship Rome was to worship the one providing you food. Over 50% of Romans were on the food-handout plan - they were dependent on the government to supply their portions of food. 

         On top of that Nero, Domition  and the other Caesars were claiming to be sons of the gods. They were demanded worship because of their graciousness and generosity to the people. Since Caesar provided your food as a god then he deserved to be worshipped. So what started happening was a spring up of temples to the emperors. Citizens were to have the religion of the Roman Empire. Worship involved paying tribute financially, prostituting yourself, and focusing your mind on Caesar to worship him. Interestingly enough, scholars generally agree that this imperial cult movement started in Asia Minor, the churches John wrote to. 

         Also realize that Rome was looked at as a goddess. She was a beautiful women who had grace, wisdom, wealth and stature. Being a confident woman she demanded respect. 

         Here's where it gets good! John comes right out and says it... This woman everyone around you is praising as a gorgeous, wonderful woman is a whore! " The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, festooned with gold and gems and pearls. She held a gold chalice in her hand, brimming the defiling obscenities, her foul fornications. A riddle-name was branded on her forehead: Great Babylon, Mother of whores and abominations of the earth." Understand that Rome was seen as Babylon in its context, for John could not use the name Rome itself; if he did Rome would've killed him too! From the world's perspective Rome seemed to be powerful. Everything she did was beautiful, upright, just, holy. Throne room perspective shows us something different entirely. Rome was a woman prostituting herself in abominations and fornications. 

         The Old Testament is pregnant with the same type of imagery. Hosea actually marries a prostitute and names his children "Not pitied/loved", "Not my people" and "I am not yours". Hosea and John are speaking the same message - do not become adulteresses between God and the world. There are some things that seem so gorgeous, peaceful, hopeful, life-giving, even holy... But from the throne room of God they are sin-saturated whores that most of us have given into! John says this whore is someone, "who the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk. We give into so many things that are culturally normal; so normal we don't even think to question them! My question I am wrestling with and asking you today is, what are the whores that we are prostituting ourselves to?

         So many people think Revelations is a book that only deals with the end times. It is apparent that John was concerned with the early church more than the second coming. He was demanding holy, obedient lives. The Lord was/is telling His church that He demands holy lives, that we will be judged according to what we have done (See Rev. 20:12-13). He demands the same things for us today. This is no slight guiding hand, this is a wall that is demanding us to make a decision, a choice, a change. We are to analyze our actions. Jesus says in Matthew 7:16-18, "You will know them (false prophets) by their fruit... The same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit." We (definitely myself included) need to take this challenge seriously. Assess yourself. What does your fruit look like? Who are you whoring yourself to?

Plagiarism

I have a friend who's going to the world's most prestigious journalism school. She's an incredible writer. I was going to write a story about an experience that we had along with Andrew "the stud" Feight but I thought that her words were better articulated then mine could ever be. I went to her blog to post a link from mine to hers, but she has redone hers and now no longer has it... So I'm going to post it up for everyone to read until hers gets reposted. Take to heart her openness and honesty:

Giving to the Hungry

So last night (technically the night before last night - Wednesday night) I attended a youth Bible Study with Vineyard Church. Turns out, Google deceived me; they are not a cult. Not that that's why I was going. We talked a little bit about feeding the hungry, about how God has called us to give to the needy. We would have right then and there, mind you, but we were quite busy enjoying our ice cream sundaes. But we would have, honestly. After the Bible Study was over, we (my boyfriend, Andrew, and our friend, Daniel) decided to go try it out. Can I just interrupt myself for one moment and say that it was the most rewarding thing I've done in a long time? Seriously, do it. But back to the story. We went to Taco Bell where we ate some of those crunchy-flat-taco-burrito things (I don't remember what they're called, just that the commercial says they're "good to go".) and ate them quickly while deciding where to go and what to do. We started by asking the lady behind the counter if she knew where any homeless people congregated at night, and she looked at us like we were sick. She probably thought that we wanted to start a hobo war and film it for YouTube. (Turns out people actually do that. Weird.) Anyway, with the entirety of the Taco Bell staff laughing at us, we purchase 5 tacos (the lady probably felt bad because she threw in some extras) and head on our way. We begin searching the streets for hungry-looking people, but it was harder than we thought; the first guy actually turned us down. Not too long after, we pull into a Home Depot parking lot (day laborers, right?) and Daniel began to pray. We couldn't find anyone there, so we make a U-Turn and by some miracle, or perhaps because it was nighttime and we were in a Home Depot parking lot, we find ourselves a guy that couldn't have been more than five years older than us. He was tall, skinny, and carrying what we couldn't decide was a beer or an energy drink. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed the latter. We pull up next to him and ask him if he'd like a hot meal. With zero hesitation, he responds, "Hell yes, man, whatta you guys got goin on here?!" We laughed and got out of the car and handed him the tacos, which were luckily still warm. He told us that his name was Andrew and that we had just granted his Christmas wish. His Christmas wish?? Seriously? It's freaking January 10th, we were sixteen days late. You want to know what my Christmas wish was? A new iPod and Guitar Hero 3. That could have been 375 tacos. And I already had an iPod. What the hell, man. And it gets better. We go to another Taco Bell and purchase another half dozen tacos or so. We begin driving, and after about two miles, Daniel and I spot some bums literally digging pizza out of a dumpster. Perfect. We make the most ridiculous U-Turn resulting in my head hitting the window quite hard, and turn into the parking lot. Daniel and I grab a Bible and get out, hoping for the best, and hoping we weren't about to get killed. Or mugged. But you know what? They needed my material possessions more than I do. I live in Phoenix and I'm walking around with a scarf? What the hell was wrong with me, I should have given it to them then and there. We walk up to them mid-dumpster-dive and ask if they'd like a hot meal. The two men get up and smile at us as if they never had been shown charity without first asking for it. They introduce themselves to us as Daryl and Kevin. We asked them where they slept at night and they looked at each other hastily before answering. “We sleep under the overpass a few blocks south of here,” Daryl said. (Seriously? Well it’s a good thing I have two bedrooms.) Andrew got out of the car (probably not in hopes of talking to homeless guys, just to make sure Daniel and I were okay) and joined us after about five minutes. You know what? It didn’t even feel like charity. It felt like talking to really pleasant people at the grocery store. I can’t believe I’ve been told to give to the poor for the past eighteen years, and I just now did it. It was exhilarating. And even better? We’re meeting them Sunday morning and taking them to church. And that was their idea. How cool can God be if you let him? Seeeeriously. - E M Kunz

posted by Eleni at 5:37 AM on Jan 10, 2008

Underwear, socks, undershirts.

Here's something that just happened, which I found very interesting.

I was contemplating some things I heard Tony Campolo say that I normally tell people. I did this during the 45 minutes it takes me to fold all of my laundry. I have a friend named Kevin. People complain about how bad he smells because he has been wearing the same pair of clothes for the past 4+ months. This happened a few days after I read an article online where people commented for 2000+ posts in 4 days about the hypocrisy of Christians. I'm not trying to be legalistic but when you love someone (for instance... Jesus) certain actions/life styles just happen (not having that much clothing?). What do you think?