I’ve read the bible through many times for many years. Yet sometimes I read lines or even whole chapters as if they were brand new, like I had never read them before. Here was one today:
“Then I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke.”
How could I have skimmed over it before, or entirely missed it? Have all the events of these last three years changed my point of view, bringing these lines into view?
Ever since Russia raised its ugly head and began to raze Ukraine to ashes, people from all nations and religions have been researching ‘end times’ philosophies. But I shied far away from any of these guesses, assumptions, and speculations.
Yet today I have stopped to ponder this angel.
“Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to the heavens. And he swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will me no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”
God in us.
God in us.
“If we love one another, God lives in us…”(1Jn4:12)
What has the vision of the seventh angel and “God in us…” have to do with each other?
An abundance of arrogant mice live in the walls and ceilings of this A-frame house. The traps are set everywhere possible, and there are three jars of unopened peanut butter in the pantry. Until last night I thought it was just us and this house. But my daughter informed me that lots of people in the area have an invasion of small rodents living rent free in their homes.
“You know, animals know before humans do when a natural disaster is pending,” she added. I let the comment go (her husband is into conspiracy theories).
But what if they do feel, or are feeling, some atmospheric change? The presence or the preparing of the seventh angel’s future? Conspiracy theory – I know. Doomsday theology.
But we are taught from the pulpit to anticipate Christ’s return.
If God is in us then we’d have some inkling, some restlessness that something new was about to happen. Of course books, fiction and non-fiction, have been written for hundreds of years about this. Every great war or natural disaster brings on a fresh take on the old idea. “This is it! Christ is returning.”
In all fairness I have read tons of these books through the years. My favorite authors are Tim LaHaye, Jerry B Jenkins and Joel C Rosenberg. I’ve read most of Jonathan Cahn’s books too but they make me feel very uneasy.
“Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1Jn4:1)
From experience, I have discovered that if I do not return to a book for a second read, or only read a book part way through, it is not for my spiritual consumption. MY spiritual consumption. We are all on different paths in our quest to know God. On my path half read books stay half read until the time my spirit – God in me- requests a reread.
“…and this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.: (1Jn5:4)
My victory is the faith that Jesus through His Spirit is leading me…even through my library.