March 2011: The message of the Apocalypse for today
I intend to publish here, ten times a year, a text theological or spiritual, of the minutes of critical readings. I am a Protestant culture, but my question is about how Christianity can s'anticiper today. Such, perspective can not accommodate a purely religious or dogmatic attitude.
I draw inspiration from the biblical source unsurpassable and I lean against the Christian tradition I'm supportive. At the same time, I saw blood in the incompleteness of the current reality and truth (which is different from doubt), with other religions and cultures, modernity and postmodernity.
(I invite readers of this blog to look as other blogs, listed at the bottom of this page)
THE Messsage OF THE APOCALYPSE FOR TODAY
Mostly, we read our Bible in a individualistic perspective: "What will I receive word TODAY "Today for my life right now? . Thus, we are reducing much scope. The Bible is a prophetic message for individuals, peoples and nations. It does not give us the meaning of events that we are personally, it brings us the significance of international events, global, universal.
To the Christians of the late first century, which, in essence, are Jews arrested by the Temple's destruction, the destruction of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jewish people, the persecution of Emperor Domitian the Apocalypse gives visions: 1) since Jesus as lamb slain, and rose high in the Glory is to God that are the sanctuary and the cult around the archetypal arch, 2) is Heaven and not from any human reconstruction, that new Jerusalem will descend on earth and eternal, and 3) now, the people of God has extended to the whole world as long as it includes all those who welcomed Jesus as the Messiah, the nucleus that are the twelve tribes of Israel, 4) namely the Lord knows all the martyr of the faith, he hears their call the revenge and he responds in two ways: a) by announcing that they end up living (First Resurrection) for a thousand years reign on earth kept the power of the Adversary (Satan) by the occurrence universal resurrection (the second resurrection) and b) inviting them to be watching everything, anything, as promised in a transfiguration.
Church, located to the right of imperial power, from Constantine (in iv th century), considering themselves as the true people of God and the true philosophy (Justin Martyr, circa 160-165) , punishing with death all those who did not accept his orthodoxy Christianity to fear from the late Middle Ages the clergy exercising social control on narrow populations; totalizing tradition of faith defined and promoted to higher post , inspiring authoritarian forms of mission, and this church she received the meaning of his being and his action of listening to the prophetic message of Scriptures?
After writing history with our blood, we have written with the blood of others, then we have been excluded from history and preferring our comfort, we're removed .
The universal message of the Bible that we hear at first is our internal use. The timing is not it time to receive a new garment, as the apocalyptic language? Table the considerable baggage of doctrines, beliefs, rites, accumulated on our backs over the centuries? We unload, place them next to us, used clothing that needs washing, without, however, throw them overboard, because they form the screen to another, they can still be helpful to something .
This message is at the same time, external use, for, receive, the live acts and words. But this is risky: being typecast as someone who feels superior to others, rejected, teased, feel left out, misunderstood sometimes even our relatives. It involves the courage to be a sinner forgiven some one who recognizes himself racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, sexist, nationalist, revolutionary-cons ... while knowing nonetheless enabled him to reach out to others, all others, whoever they are because they are with us, called a transfiguration that is no respecter of person.
Today, the Book of the Apocalypse, with its language allows us to global warming, not to predict the date of the end of the world, but to give meaning to the nonsense of destabilization cataclysmic planet we ourselves have set in motion.
In the Apocalypse, everything happens on earth as in heaven, that's what we call the Our Father: "Thy will be done on earth as in heaven." I say things like this: there is mature reality worthy of the name, as that is the counterpoint to what is happening in the mind and even better in the Spirit.
This message is prophetic. If we do stop for a moment to listen, we understand that it makes sense to modern man.
To those for whom everything is in everything, anything goes, no one, no institution, is superior to others, everyone's opinion, the voice of everyone, the same weight in the debate and the urns Children are small adults, adults older children, the contents of an overturned garbage can is a work of art just as a sculpture, the future is not better than the past and the present, the 'Now, the lightweight, entertaining, eventful, served by technology "magic", are foremost.
This egalitarian attitude, falsely democratic, humanist false, has the unintended consequence of further widening the gap between rich and poor, educated and non-intruits, new slaves and free citizens. It leaves us totally unprepared to the ethical application of scientific discoveries that are part of this general leveling in that, in themselves, they are neither moral nor immoral, but utilities.
vision inspired by the Apocalypse to share today is this: the duration of this globalized Babylon that sounds hollow, like the days of the dragon with many heads of missiles armed for mass destruction, is limited (a "time, times and half a time"); everything is going to truly our real land is as in and by the Spirit, which took over the angels and, recognized or incognito (as it does not sound the trumpets before him), he gives life to our minds and thus, in the world.
Jacques Gruber
Other texts available via email : Evidence; elections or plebiscites; Where do we stand with the truth? ; Protestants, the souk, Jews and Christians, the divergence of monotheism (first and second parts) The Don and attention; Holy Spirit, who are you, what are you doing? ; Send Church (s) What is believed Jesus entering Jerusalem; Messages highlights of the year, am I a creationist? ; Confession of Faith, Evangelism, Forgiveness, The Shipyard, Grace; Easter A vision for the world; Resources; The roadmap of Jesus, Open Letter to my Catholic friends, Clement , Most Merciful Led by the Spirit; Contemporaries distant For entry; The trickery of Calvin, Rome and Canterbury; Woes; Woes (continued) Easter 2010; Remember and learn, Buddha or Jesus, Buddhism, The narrow gate , Berlin; Retreats, Islam, Islam 2; Apocalypse, decor, Apocalypse, language.
the same author: "The Representation Dorothy Sölle, Journal of history and religious philosophy, Strasbourg, 66 th year, 1986, No. 2 and 3, p. 179-318;
Hear the Word. The inner witness of the Holy Spirit , Paris, Editions du Cerf, 2003,
" You will be my witnesses." For a time of confusion and change , Paris, Editions du Cerf, 2009.
other sites: cevennesproches.blogspot.com (drawings); alpesestivales. blogspot.com (drawings)
sartresansechec.blogspot.com (philosophy).
The texts of this site may be reprinted or used for personal use with the indication: © Jacques Gruber " alleztheo " followed by the month and year of publication.
I will answer the comments of my ability in publishing the following month.
