Then I heard another voice out of the sky saying, “Come out, my people, out of her, in order that you all will not have fellowship in and partake of her sins, in order that you would not take hold of her wounds.
“Because her sins have been following close to her as far as heaven, and the wrongs she has done have been recalled to God.
“Render to her as she has herself rendered, and two-fold the double according to her deeds: Mingle double for her in the cup she mingled.
“As how great was she glorified and has luxuriated, is how great you all are to give to her torment and mourning. Because in her heart she is saying that ‘I am sitting a queen, so a widow I am not, and I will not ever have mourning.’
“Because of this, in one day her plagues will come: death and mourning and scarcity, and she will be utterly burned up in fire, because mighty the Lord God the One having judged her.”
Revelation 18:4-8
Historicist
The call of the angel to come out of Babylon echoes similar calls from Israel’s ancient prophets.
From Isaiah
“Go out from Babylon; flee from Chaldea;
Isaiah 48:20 (NRSVUE, emphasis added)
declare this with a shout of joy; proclaim it;
send it forth to the end of the earth;
say, ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!’”
From Jeremiah
“Flee from the midst of Babylon;
save your lives, each of you!
Do not perish because of her guilt,
for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
he is repaying her what is due.
“Come out of her, my people!
Save your lives, each of you,
from the fierce anger of the Lord!”
Jeremiah 51:6, 45 (NRSVUE, emphases added)
True Church
Historicist scholars see this as God’s call to those true believers in communion with the Roman church. Martin Luther, and others with him, heeded this call and launched what would become the Reformation movement. But God’s call continues, through the book of Revelation, to each new generation of believers who find themselves within the corrupt and doomed Roman church.
The proportion of God’s judgment will be double the sum of the Roman church’s sins, and it is not ruled out that the physical seat of the Roman church will ultimately be completely destroyed by fire in a divine act of castigation.
Preterist
Throughout this chapter, John makes allusions to oracles Israel’s ancient prophets had leveled against famous cities of old: Babylon, Tyre, Sodom, and Jerusalem. The details are less important (even whether Jerusalem or Rome was the intended target of John’s prophecies) than the fact that God’s judgment will roll down on such cities.
Of particular note, however, was Jesus’s own warning to those who followed him to flee Jerusalem when they saw certain events signaling Jerusalem’s looming demise.
“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it, for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people”
Luke 21:20-23 (NRSVUE, emphases added)
The book of Hebrews later repeated the same call to “come out” (perhaps figuratively, from the world that denies Christ).
Jerusalem had already been compared to Sodom earlier in Revelation. Now, the glorious messenger used similar language concerning Babylon’s (meaning Jerusalem’s) sins reaching up to God as was used in Sodom’s sin reaching up to God, who responded:
“I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know.”
Genesis 18:21 (NRSVUE)
Covenant of the Hebrew Bible
Sins being recalled to God is one of the key differences between the covenant God cut with the Hebrew people at Mount Sinai, and the covenant Jesus cut with humankind in his own blood. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of a time when sins would no longer be recalled to God.
“No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”
Jeremiah 31:34 (NRSVUE, emphasis added)
Jerusalem still operated out of the Sinai Covenant, therefore God judged Jerusalem’s sins, with double indemnity against Jerusalem’s wrongs, as Jeremiah, centuries before, had warned would happen.
“And I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”
Jeremiah 17:18 (NRSVUE)
“In one day” indicates this destruction would come suddenly, it would be intense, and the destruction would be complete, as was the case in 70 CE.
Covenant in the Book of Hebrews
The writer of Hebrews confirmed the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy.
“Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on the basis of better promises.
“… In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.”
Hebrews 8:6, 13 (NRSVUE)
Believers will never have to risk the judgment embedded in the Sinai Covenant.
Futurist
The angel’s call is addressed to whatever godly people might remain during this last stage of the Great Tribulation. Though perhaps believers will have little recourse, the angel exhorts not to compromise with the world around them. They must resist the enticements of Babylon, and of participating in Babylon’s ways, and they must remove themselves from anything like Babylon so that they will not be swept up in the punishments Babylon will suffer.
“Cemented” up to Heaven
The Greek word that describes Babylon’s sin is κολλάω | kollaō, meaning “glue” or “cement.” I struggled to translate it and turned to Greek scholars for help. I chose “following close,” and got an image in my mind of how the reek of something rotten sticks close, like a greasy miasma, to the thing producing those noxious fumes. One scholar described bricks being cemented together in a tower of sin reaching up into heaven, sort of Tower of Babel style.
“… they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.”
Genesis 5:1 (NRSVUE, italics added)
Jeremiah, in the final chapters of his book, wrote of a similar destruction of Babylon that would bring about great mourning, but Jeremiah’s prophecy was never completely fulfilled. This leaves open the possibility that Babylon will be rebuilt in a future time, and God’s judgement will be fulfilled in concrete reality in one fiery day of devastation. Some see this shocking conflagration as a depiction of nuclear warheads stationed in Babylon somehow being detonated. Others suggest there will be a massive volcanic event.
Spiritual
It is noted how closely John’s oracle follows the oracles of Isaiah and Jeremiah, including Babylon’s arrogance.
“You said, ‘I shall be mistress forever,’
“who say in your heart,
Isaiah 47:7-9 (NRSVUE)
‘I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow
or know the loss of children’”—
Come Out from Worldliness
To John’s audience, to every generation since, and to us today, comes the call of God to separate ourselves from those aspects of the world that pull us away from worship of God alone, and of being drawn into other evils.
This separation is not so much about a physical leaving—though certainly many have taken it this way, beginning with the desert fathers and mothers, inaugurating the Christian monastic movement. More important than removal from a place, is the spiritual exhortation for separation, as Jesus prayed,
“I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
John 17:15-19 (NRSVUE)
The four perspectives taken from Revelation: Four Views A Parallel Commentary, edited by Steve Gregg
Sister Joanne, as usual a beautifully explained and illustrated exposé! I want to be frank as to the nerve some of the theologians strike in me with their interpretation of reality in this matter, not to be argumentative or brash, but, to be totally honest and productive! I know you can help me to see the finer details and know the truth better in this matter for sure! Of course you know me as a man who tried to speak his mind boldly; with the caveat I should hope, “to bring clarity and discernment!”
We can conclude that Martin Luther with others “led a rebellion” but in the end that rebellion was the “wrong action” because it led to a “scattering of the flock” and many unhealthy offshoots of the original were formed because of it; this the work of the Devil. Say for example former Jim Jones with his “People’s Temple,” an evil preacher who led 909 souls to their deaths and perhaps hell; which I certainly hope not, through God’s grace!
Another example is a current so called preacher Mike Murdock in Texas, running his commercials of so called faith on television continuously in a loop. A real scam artist and wicked evil man, as I see it an antichrist, who is “using and abusing” the Bible and God’s word for “material gain” (wealth) or “money” the root of all evil, with his speaking of “planting donation seeds” by his followers that will be multiplied to “reap a harvest of money!” I’ve watched him online and see only a “Flim-Flam Man!” I’ll put it another way, he’s no Billy Graham, not by a million miles!
No those men in ancient times “created a multiplication of division” and a “massive scattering” which has to be the work of Satan. With 2 billion Christians worldwide divided or separated even further into “thousands of denominations.” Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Apostolic, Methodist — the list goes on and on and on. Presbyterians now “promote abortion” as a church edict saying it’s “a good thing” to abort innocent human beings! This has all become a “blasphemy” of unprecedented proportions, a true “abomination” of what Jesus Christ Himself brought to humanity and gave with “His blood on the cross;” that surely has to anger God; and Judgment is coming swiftly now!
I say working with the original Church and not fleeing from it but gathering the heroes within, the saints and truly devoted to Christ, who then in turn strive to improve the faith of the Church from “within it,” that is “a best policy with merit;” rather than Luther’s rejecting and fleeing, in essence “tossing out the baby with the bathwater!” I see nothing to admire in Martin Luther who to me was “a coward and traitor!” That said, I must add there is “no doubt” that over the centuries many corrupted individuals, devils themselves, have entered into that Church gaining a greater foothold to further “destroy it from within!” Something we know communism is very good at; it being an ideology spawned directly from hell, by Devil worshiping madmen like Lenin and Marx! So “the battle is within and without,” even now here in America; bringing us to the frenzy we now witness in the entire world, “heading toward hell on earth!”
Arch Bishop Viganò who presently has been a warrior for God in the current Original Roman Church, and who during the Plan-demic was one of the few in the world, with a position of stature in the public eye and Church, who actually spoke out continually against the wrong or harm being done by this fraud, even contradicting the Pope who as I see him was only caving to the “Globalists and NWO Cabal” stating that “all should get the jab out of love for others!” Isn’t it Satan, who is the “Original Rebel and Destructor,” which should tell us that is the only reason this modern day world, is a continuous nightmare! All work of the Devil!
I pray the world and its humanity awakes sooner rather than late, so that as many as possible will be saved from damnation! Amen.
Brother in Christ Jesus,
Lawrence
Sister in Christ Jesus-Joanne,
Here is an example of the kind of hero or warrior for Christ that I alluded to previously after leaving the above comment and having breakfast this appeared at the top of my email cue. And I must add how I see there can be no comparison with those like Martin Luther who were causing damage or in the very least trouble within and without! This actually came to me today after having only inquired of the site for the first time yesterday, which is very telling to me.
Thank you for all of the spiritual stimulation, insight and knowledge!
God bless you and yours!
Brother in Christ Jesus,
Lawrence
January 27
SAINT HENRY DE OSSO Y CERVELLO
Priest
Henry was born at Vinebre, Catalonia, Spain, on the 16th October
1840 and was ordained priest on 21st September 1867. He was an apostle to
young people in teaching them about their faith and inspired various
movements for the teaching of the Gospel. As a spiritual director he was
fascinated by St. Teresa of Jesus, the great teacher in the ways of prayer and
Daughter of the Church. (She is better known in the English-speaking world as
St. Teresa of Avila.) In the light of her teaching, he founded the Company of
St. Teresa (1876) dedicated to educating women in the school of the Gospel
and following the example of St. Teresa. He gave himself to preaching and the
apostolate through the printing press. He underwent many severe trials and
sufferings. He died at Gilet, Valencia, Spain, on the 27th of January, 1896. He
was canonized on 16th July, 1993, in Madrid, by Pope John Paul II.
From the common of pastors or of holy men (religious)
Office of Readings
SECOND READING
From the writings of Saint Henry de Osso, priest
(A Month in the Heart of Jesus, Prologue, EEO III, Rome, 1977, pp. 456-458)
Identification with Jesus Christ
This is our main endeavor: to think, to feel, to love as
Christ Jesus, to act and to speak as He—in a word, to conform our
whole life to Christ’s. No one can be saved unless they are formed
in the image of Christ. To conform our life to Christ’s, we need,
above all, to study His life, know it, and meditate upon it, not
JANUARY 27 — SAINT HENRY DE OSSO — 15
only in its outward appearance, but by immersing ourselves in the
thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams of Jesus Christ so as to do
everything in union with Him. In His goodness, Jesus Himself
invites us, both in word and in action, to do this. For example, if
we do not know the sentiments of His heart so as to put them into
practice, how can we learn from His gentleness and humility? Or
how can we come into His presence each time we act in order to
imitate Him? Christ lived, ate, slept, spoke, kept silent, walked,
worked, sweat, got tired, rested, was hungry, thirsty and poor; in a
word, He suffered and died for us and for our salvation. Why is it,
then, that we cannot make or imagine Jesus as real and down to
earth, but only in theory and as the ideal, which is the reason we
do not love and imitate Him in everything, as we must? Jesus is
our brother, flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood, bone of our
bones. This is who our Jesus is, true God and true Man, alive,
personal, and intimate. He let Himself be seen; He lived and
spoke with us. For our salvation, being the eternal Word of God,
He descended from heaven, became flesh, suffered, died, rose,
ascended into heaven, and remained among us until the end of
time to be our companion, our consolation, and our food in the
Blessed Sacrament.
Eternal life, then, our only happiness in time and eternity,
consists in knowing Jesus more intimately. How happy will be the
person who learns this lesson and lives it daily. What an inspiring
thought! I will live, sleep, speak, listen, work, suffer—I will do
everything, I will suffer everything in union with Jesus, with the
same divine intention and sentiments that Jesus had and with
which He suffered, which is what Jesus wants of me. Whoever
does this—and all of us are called to do it—will live in this life
the life of the world to come and will be transformed into Jesus,
able to say with St. Paul: I live—no longer I—but Christ lives in
me.
16 — JANUARY 27 — SAINT HENRY DE OSSO
RESPONSORY
I live by faith in the Son of God,
—who has loved me and given himself up for me.
I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.
—who has loved me and given himself up for me.
PRAYER
Lord God,
in your priest Saint Henry de Ossó
you wonderfully combined
the ideals of the apostolic community:
a life of continual prayer,
and of untiring apostolic activity.
By his intercession may we persevere in the love of Christ
and serve your Church by word and deed.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
docslib.org/doc/5173535/discalced-carmelite-proper-offices-of-carmelite-saints-and-blesseds-in-the-liturgy-of-the-hours
Dear Brother Lawrence, here indeed is a true brother in the Lord, and a saint. Grace and peace, your sister in Christ, Joanne
Thank you brother Lawrence, for weighing on these four views. I try hard to make sure that’s what people are reading, and not my view, but rather my discovery of what these four different views offer. I wince, sometimes, when I read these various scholars, but there it is. This is what they teach. I feel it gives better perspective to see these views together. It allows people to see the alternatives available. I find myself often empathizing with the spiritual view. It is not all there is to John’s Revelation, but I often find it life-giving and Spirit-filled.
I think we need to also be open to the futurist view, as biblical prophecy is always fulfilled completely and concretely, though often enough biblical prophecy is also fulfilled partially as a foretaste and affirmation of what is yet to come.
The preterist view has quite a bit of merit, and doubtless John’s audience saw many parallels between their lived experience and what John relayed to them in his oracles.
And finally, the historical view is quite certainly written from a Protestant point of view, and makes sweeping statements about the Catholic Church. I find that troubling, for there are Spirit-filled Christians throughout the world who worship from a variety of faith traditions and are all one Body with Christ as the Head. It is no good to castigate this tradition over that one, when our Lord Jesus transcends all that. Jesus knows His own, no matter what name they might bear.
But, to be faithful to my mission, I am reading all four perspectives and relaying them as best I can as I study this amazing book of Revelation.
Your sister in Christ, Joanne
Sister in Christ, Joanne,
I totally understand the wide band of academic coverage you practice in your study/research at such a level of historical/biblical context of what has been interpreted and put forth over the millennia in order to have as clear and concise an understanding of the truth in this vitally important matter for humanity so as to have a complete view of God’s Church on earth! That said you explain this extremely well in my humble opinion and your study now only broadens your knowledge, understanding and wisdom relative to the subject at hand but that too of the readership following along seeking more insight such as myself included!
I don’t for a second think I understand enough or see all these things as they truly are or should be considered in relation to what Jesus Christ Himself would point out to me directly if He were physically here to do so! But, of course to those who truly seek Him He is here in Spirit to guide and protect us from falling into disillusion, misunderstanding or any quagmire out there in this fallen world!
You did mention here in this fine dissertation the protestant perspective or the way in which they have handled things or do now when specifically speaking about Roman Catholics and I have to be blunt I have my problem with them as they truly at times are antagonistic or even wretched in their slanted or as I see it fouled up perspective of what Jesus Christ by the power of our heavenly Father ordained and did not! I’ve written a few essays over the past few years where I delved into this quagmire of disagreement mainly because I was attacked directly by some Protestants online and too others I grew up with, some around me in close quarters, even so called friends at the time who all brought about “trouble or plain stupidity” at one time or another being “thick as bricks” as the saying goes! Lacking for sure any of this “tender mercy or sweet kindness” that I refer to with the example of “Saint Henry de Osso.” Of course I couldn’t have known him but from what I read about him and some of the historical record he most certainly exemplified some of the best Christian traits that any of us should try our best to “practice in our own missions” or stations in life, as we hopefully try our best living the lives God has given to us here on earth, until we can be eternal with Him!
I know that Protestants often times point fingers at Catholics saying, “way too much pomp and paganism ritualistic behavior” in the Catholic Church; but to that I say, so they think it’s all so wrong and God hates all they do, and then what about turning that mirror around on themselves and taking a “hard honest to goodness look at what they are or are not doing,” and I assure you I know, plenty, from what I witnessed over the years!
Just the missionary work that so many Catholic nuns and priests have done throughout the centuries is highly commendable and any of those folks that devout their entire lives to quite humble selfless missions, say like Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta; I can’t find any fault at all in them! I’m sure you see how those who are on the attack and this subject in particular strikes a nerve with me, and I have good reason to be turned off by those attackers, some who are real Catholic bashers! Other folks are just conditioned or brainwashed; perhaps needing to open their hearts and see the light of God more radiantly, and even so, I pity them for their slanted bias and outlook! Oh wouldn’t it be so beautiful and beyond imagination, for God to get all of humanity here on earth on the same concise page, and for all humanity to finally see His truth absolutely; for this we pray! “Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, amen!”
Why do I cry when I think of these devout Christian persons, St. Henry de Osso and St. Teresa of Avila from long ago and read about them or what you just said about Henry here? To me it can be only due to the fact that they are beautiful souls and I know it would be so fantastic if I could only be that good, and what a world it would be if most people were such as these! I knew a priest so well like an ally for around 15 years but during a massive hardship of my own he was so instrumental in my overcoming so many obstacles with many hours on end conversations and then my gaining insight to get me though the battles that were very difficult, but I found I could do it and did! I do regret that during the Plan-demic the world lost this really good man who I consider quite saintly; as well many people knew him in this way, but to me he was being a true brother, mentor, teacher, fatherly and saintly! I even see his passing as “a sign,” and if I’m not wrong about this it means get a move on people, “our window of opportunity to get ourselves right with the Lord our God through Jesus Christ is closing faster all the time!”
By the way Sister Joanne, I absolutely agree with you so please understand me when I sound off in any way shape or form in such matters; at times I’m “sure and steady” but at other times I “fumble one thing or another!” Of course as the professor and scholar that you are, you must always offer the “broad band view” of what is really going on in the Church throughout, and with regard to theology for sure! My nerves might be delicate at times, but I get it, it’s always best to see the fullest picture that we can find, especially us novices out here like me; and you do offer the real deal as I see or understand your work here! “Absolutely commendable and rich with truth!”
You gave us a mountain of truth here staring us in the face, for all to see and there really is no excuse to not be aware of this “foundational tenet!”
“It is no good to castigate this tradition over that one, when our Lord Jesus transcends all that. Jesus knows His own, no matter what name they might bear.”
Scripture tells us that when one of His lambs becomes lost he won’t quit looking for it and when they meet again the immediately know each other so too this world we navigate through is a conflicting and too treacherous place to not have separations or confusions of one sort or another come upon us but our only compass is or Savior Jesus Christ who is continually wanting to save His own from this world!
He is called the Good Shepherd for this very reason that He won’t let us be lost and tries to continually save us from this world but also from ourselves, foolish little sheep that we are!
The Shepherd Knows His Sheep
John 10:22-30
22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. 24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in [a]doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, [b]as I said to you. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.”
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2e/c3/49/2ec34918836e80c798020460248dfa2b.jpg
Oh Sister Joanne, yes please always be faithful to your mission here and with everything you do; it’s all of God Almighty, my Sister in Christ Jesus- Joanne!
Thank you ever so much again!
Brother in Christ Jesus,
Lawrence
So thankful to read your notes today, brother-in-Christ Lawrence! I agree with you, the contentiousness between some Protestants and those of the Catholic or Orthodox faith tradition are incredibly hurtful to the Body of Christ. I sometimes imagine how our Lord must grieve over what happens between people who claim Christ as their Lord and yet turn and to awful things to brothers and sisters who don’t align with their personal ideas.
I received the Gospel when I was five years old, in Montessori school, from a young novice. She watched over my soul during that tender age, and it is through her care that I came to know who our Lord Jesus is. Though today I do not worship at a Catholic church, I have only kind and good memories from my childhood time.
Grace and peace, your sister-in-Christ, Joanne
Always happy and blessed to comment to your writings that are so special as well as bountiful!
Indeed the rivalry or even animosities that arise between the separated or even segregated schools of thought when it comes to Christianity are very perplexing, as well deeply wrong; simply I ask what or who could be behind such misgivings or trouble in the Body of Christ; and we know who that is without a doubt, which is the same from the beginning of God’s Church! I have learned to calm down and realize that there is good and bad or like you said in your current writings, even the ugly, when it comes to people differing with each other; and in some cases so defiantly even their God our Creator!
As I say, I’ve tried to examine the evolution of the Church and see how these differences occurred, and though I can’t touch the spectrum of knowledge in this realm that you have over the years, but I can readily realize much of it, this disarray, was inevitable, say for example, when the Forefathers of America set out to make a better life away from the tyranny and oppression of their European leaders, they had to “start from ground zero” and worship as a microcosm of the Church in a “New Land” that had “nothing but wilderness!” If I was one of them, I sure would be trying to find a good spot to gather with family and friends or neighbors, to sit and then kneel together, in order to pray to our God above in Jesus’ name! All the while a massive place of worship, within huge granite or wooden structures, faithful would be carrying on back in my previous land that I called home with music and choirs! So I think our beloved God is quite understanding about much of this, but, the part that would be “a clincher” would be “anger or animosities that get built up into hate or rejection of our neighbors for practicing their faith to the same God Almighty,” though in a bit different manner that is comforting and inspiring to them; God after all knows His own and I’m sure sends the Comforter to any of them, regardless of which gathering it might be as long as they are genuinely worshiping and loving Him through Jesus Christ His Son then the Holy Spirit will come to them to teach all things!
I really appreciate how fond C.S Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were of each other and yet their Churches having some obvious differences, that was never any issue and they indeed helped and inspired each other over the course of their friendship in brotherly love!
Thereby I must say what a beautiful story here about your own growth starting with a Montessori School something new to me, but which grew into your wonderful faith during your childhood and then the subsequent direction the Holy Spirit directed you to in time, in order to accomplish the mission you are now on and being asked by God to fulfill for His purposes! I just realized how this is more akin to how or what I spoke about when our Forefathers starting from a ground zero could build a new foundation from which to do God’s work and worship Him as they developed into a “New Nation under God,” free from tyranny or oppression of any kind!
To these thoughts I must add how now in our current time, these are but a few of the imperative thought and soul provoking matters of urgency in today’s very tumultuous troubled world that we are faced with daily. The “technical complexity of modern life” (artificiality) has really placed mankind in the “fast lane” hasn’t it, with so much happening and changing so quickly it’s mind boggling; but a cursory note that I have to admit here is, “that to me it’s quite frightening and not human!”
When I was a kid I loved science fiction and couldn’t wait for the newest film to be released, but now, since that more innocent time I see how this world has changed in many ways not for the better, and science fiction is ugly to me now.
I think more about “wouldn’t it be wonderful to go back to a time of simplicity and natural God created beauty like in the Garden” without the evil or liar lurking in the weeds, and to “just live, really just live!” To just be, and “in a perfect symbiosis have total peace and tranquility” all around, with everything in that idyllic place (heaven on earth)! Where “God Himself communes with His abundantly beautiful, loving world, as in the time of the prophets, daily by the moment; all is well!”
I dream, but as we know God’s word has explained in the Bible what and why this isn’t so, and how something even far beyond and better than my puny imagination can envision does await those who love Him!
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”
Amen.
Was not Dismas, holding some powerful self-condemnation in his sorrowful broken heart?
Then Jesus answered him succinctly with God’s absolute truth!
Luke 23:42-43 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” 43And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Amen and Amen!
Sister Joanne, just an added footnote that I feel better making to clarify my point of view here.
I dream, but as we know God’s word has explained in the Bible what and why this isn’t so, and how something even far beyond and better than my puny imagination can envision does await those who love Him! “And of course Jesus is the answer, He bridges that gap!”