Requested by Susan: When the Man Comes Around, by Johnny Cash. You might call it the Book of Revelation, set to music.
There’s something about this song that demands to be taken seriously. Revelation has an urgent message; and maybe it’s time we started listening.
And changing our ways.
Set to music the Book of Revelation, and this is what you get–The Man Comes Around, by Johnny Cash.
This is not a light-hearted jaunt through the scriptures. This is something that we need to know–and had better not forget.
(Sorry I’m late! I just wanted to stay in bed, wasn’t feeling well, etc.)
Requested by Erlene: the Gaithers sing Alpha and Omega. It’s sort of the Book of Revelation set to music.
Scanning the nooze in the course of my work, a question has occurred to me today.
How far can we distance ourselves from God before we can’t get back?
Canada promotes assisted suicide as an answer to life’s problems. American politicians promote “transgender” as if their lives depended on it. And abortion: they endorse it whole-heartedly. Stocking school libraries with “gay” pornography. Having the FBI spy on parents who think the schools should not “teach” racial paranoia. Etc., etc.–it’s a depressingly long list.
I’ve just read Martin Selbrede’s article at http://www.chalcedon.edu , “Rushdoony and the Book of Revelation (https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/rushdoony-and-the-book-of-revelation). It gives food for thought. I think I need quote one sentence from it: “There is total victory woven throughout the book of Revelation.” (Read more if you’re in a mood to do some thinking.)
The total victory is to Christ’s Kingdom on the earth.
Which suggests that some of our more insane public policies, “insane” in the sense of being diametrically opposed to God’s Word, are also insane in that those who stand for them stand against Christ’s total victory. Does that sound like a place where you want to stand?
We don’t need a Great Reset. We need repentance.
I’ve been trying, really trying, to understand the insanity our country and the world are living through, these days. So far, it eludes me.
Lately I’d been wondering if it was time I revisited some of the books by R.J. Rushdoony that I read when I first joined the Chalcedon Foundation, going on 20 years ago (longest job I’ve ever had!); and that thought jelled yesterday when my daily Bible reading brought me to Daniel 10. At about the same time, “Unknowable” made a thought-provoking comment about an incident in that same chapter, verses 9-14: the angel’s struggle with a spiritual “prince of Persia.”
I want to know more. Some instinct is telling me that this has become a key Bible chapter for understanding the realities of our own time, here and now.
I know I’ll find insights in Rushdoony’s Thy Kingdom Come: Studies in Daniel and Revelation. I have to make time to re-read it. Revelation echoes the Old Testament prophets–Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah, to name just three.
I hope some of you will decide to study along with me and share your insights here.
Is there a spiritual realm that impinges on our world and can make its effects felt in it? Are those worlds less radically separated than we thought? After all, God inhabits both of them. Are the events described in the prophecies already taking place? What do we need to know from the Bible to make this present point in history intelligible–and navigable–to us?
I think of it as providing guidance for my prayers.
I’m tired of writing about the nooze. Tired of watching Democrats murder my country by inches. Nevertheless, I have to write for Newswithviews this week; and I think I’ll write about my books–because there’s a lesson in here somewhere, if I can dig it out.
When Bell Mountain No. 12, His Mercy Endureth Forever, came out last year, a few readers said the series had gone on too long and it was time to put it to bed: grant the good guys final victory and let them all go home, to live happily ever after. Like, it’s a fantasy series, you should be able to do that. Why not? Tolkien did.
In my series, the characters plod ahead through good times and bad, enduring one crisis after another, doing their best to serve God, although the world seems to fight them every step of the way. This pattern is also known as “history.” We don’t get a final victory, just a lot of little ones–and that’s if we’re lucky.
Was World War II a final victory? Hardly. The Cold War took its place. Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East. To say nothing of the domestic crises each and every nation must endure. But that’s history. It doesn’t stop. When the Byzantine Empire finally defeated the Sassanian Persian Empire after some 300 years of war, the same emperor was still in office when Islam broke forth from the deserts of Arabia and crashed against the walls of Constantinople.
As Christians we believe in final victory. We can read all about it in the Bible. Jesus Christ has won it for us. Ultimately Christ shall reign forever and ever.
But we don’t know when. We just keep working. We don’t get to see God’s calendar. It would be a terrible mistake to show it to us, and God doesn’t make mistakes. We get a glimpse, in the Book of Revelation, of what Christ’s final victory will look like. And then, as C.S. Lewis hinted, the story really begins. We can’t even imagine what’s in store for us then.
God rules history. From time to time He intervenes in it. We have no idea what our history will be like after the restoration of all things. How could we? God has the whole universe at His disposal.
There’s no telling where He will take us from there.
My Bible reading has brought me around again to Revelation. In the intervening time, I had occasion to edit a Chalcedon article by Martin Selbrede which made it clear to me that in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, Our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to the “angels”–that is, the leaders–of the seven churches in Asia (https://leeduigon.com/2018/02/12/the-lukewarm-angel-of-laodicea/). The leaders, not the congregations.
So I read Chapter 2 this morning, and this time it made much more sense.
In 1:20, the Lord makes clear that the seven stars that John sees are the “angels” of the churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches. Let’s see what Jesus says to the leaders–pastors, elders, whoever–of those churches.
Ephesus: the “angel” has “left thy first love,” and if he doesn’t repent, the Lord will “remove thy candlestick”–that is, take away his ministry. Or their ministry, if the church is governed by a council of elders.
Smyrna: Persecution is coming. It’s going to be hard. Hold fast! Your reward will be forever.
Pergamos: Whoever was ruling this church let doctrinal corruption into it–probably allowed certain of the congregation to snuggle up again to some of the old pagan gods. This sin is assiduously practiced in many, many “liberal” churches today.
Thyatira: Here, whoever was in charge allowed “that woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols” (v. 20). Have we seen this in churches today? The Lord allowed time for the false prophetess and the erring “angel” to repent, but they chose not to.
The miracle is that somehow the Church survives the churches! Even in the most far-out, all-but-apostate churches, Our Lord has His true servants doing their best to “occupy until I come.” All of them, whatever the denomination whose sign is out in front of the building, are part of the true Church built without hands–and we are united in more ways than we know.
I’ll be reading Chapter 2 tomorrow.
Joshua requested this–Alpha and Omega by the Gaither Vocal Band. Lots of brio in this worship song! I especially like the intro, words of Revelation set to music.
P.S.–Our Esteemed Colleague Joshua has just started his own blog, so let’s see how many views and comments we can give him, to get it launched.
This article is a little long, but stay with it: because Mark Rushdoony nails it.
“Babylon is the kingdom of man,” opposed to the Kingdom of God. It is human beings trying to be gods.
https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/dont-pray-for-the-peace-of-babylon
If your Bible reading has brought you around to Revelation, this essay will be illuminating. It’s a “big picture” view of Revelation–speaking for myself, at least, something which I’m always in danger of losing in the details.
What a beautiful hymn! And yet I’d never heard it until this morning: What a Day that Will Be. Message from the Book of Revelation. Sung by the Sharon Bethel Quartet. Listen!