Giant Man-hole Covers
June 14th, 2005There’s a shaft in the bottom of the sea, leading to the abyss from which will issue forth the abomination that causes desolation. It is really not fair of me to begin this post in such a fashion, but I simply could not resist. I view this statement as ridiculous. I heard it during a Bible class on Revelation ” and no, the class was not held at my church.
It’s not any fun being wrong. I think it is hard on our pride. You find yourself having to give up on firmly held ideas and possibly to admit that your carefully developed thoughts were wrong. I’m trying to think of times when I was wrong about something Biblical, but it is a very difficult process, probably due to my pride and my relative youth. As a teenager, for example, I had greater difficulty with symbolism than I do now. I remember reading an author who discussed the description of Jesus as he appeared to John in the beginning of Revelation. The author’s view was that this view must be symbolic because the actual figure would be a “monstrosity.” At the time I was offended; now I understand his view a bit better.
I think about being wrong when I read complicated theories about the end times or hear people talking seriously about shafts in the bottom of the sea. (I can’t get the picture of a giant man-hole cover out of my head!) Just about everyone was wrong about whether Jesus was the Messiah when He came the first time. They expected and wanted a mighty conqueror who would defeat the Romans. What they got was quite different. If they were so wrong about Jesus, what reason is there to suppose any of us are right about the end times?
Peter was pretty hard-headed about unclean animals. In fact, he struggled with holding on to the law a little too much on several occasions. Martin Luther thought the book of James was a “strawy epistle.” Even “great” people are wrong about things. We will all be wrong about things, and we won’t always know it.
The more serious error is in the refusal to adjust to the truth. The disciples were wrong, but they weren’t hard-hearted about it. The Pharisees were wrong and hard-hearted.
I love this essay! It makes me think of a few things:
Heard once in a sermon: Live according to the light you’ve been given. Obedience yields more light.
The idea that we see all “through a glass darkly”…do you think heaven will reveal where we were “on” and where we were way, way off?
and, mostly,
How in the world is everyone going to adjust to the fact that George W. Bush is the antichrist? *grin*
First of all, it’s not George W. Bush, it’s Arnold!
Seriously…so are you saying that the more obedient we are, the more light we get? I think I like that…the more I obey, the more I’ll be shown how to obey.
Maybe we’ll spend long periods of time in heaven figuring out where we were wrong…but then again, maybe it will be more like it was for the disciples when they finally understood about Jesus. Can you picture us looking back and talking about how ignorant we were to think the way we did?
We have no real concept of what it would be like to be in the presence of God…
In Luke the demons beg Jesus not to send them into the abyss. They prefer the pigs to the abyss.
Maybe it’s really true!!
Here’s verse two of the song Kiki and I have created to commemorate that class.
There’s the abomination that causes desolation in the shaft in the bottom of the sea!
There’s the abomination that causes desolation in the shaft in the bottom of the sea!