Beginning and End!
A reading for Friday, March 18, 2016: Revelation 21:1-6.
The book of Revelation was written somewhere between 69 and 79 A.D. Some scholars believe the central core of the book was far older than that, perhaps even written by John the Baptist and then added to much later. It has been around for a long time...
So then, how do we hear the words "See, I am making all things new." When? Where? Were all things new in the first century or must we continue to wait for all things to be made new? How can something so old be new?
This is the core of Christian eschatology, the idea of what happens in the end times. Truth is, our lives are being made new each and every day as God continues to create and redeem us, rule and sustain our lives, and transform us more and more into the people we were created to be. The truth also is that someday the final "making things new" will happen and all that we know of sin and death will be finally, and inalterably removed from the earth. So we are new today and new someday...
Here's the simple point to a very complex idea: It gives us a reason to find joy in our day to day lives, while at the very same time looking for joy even in the event of our death. We are new and not yet new... from the beginning until the end.
"It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."
Thanks be to God!
The book of Revelation was written somewhere between 69 and 79 A.D. Some scholars believe the central core of the book was far older than that, perhaps even written by John the Baptist and then added to much later. It has been around for a long time...
So then, how do we hear the words "See, I am making all things new." When? Where? Were all things new in the first century or must we continue to wait for all things to be made new? How can something so old be new?
This is the core of Christian eschatology, the idea of what happens in the end times. Truth is, our lives are being made new each and every day as God continues to create and redeem us, rule and sustain our lives, and transform us more and more into the people we were created to be. The truth also is that someday the final "making things new" will happen and all that we know of sin and death will be finally, and inalterably removed from the earth. So we are new today and new someday...
Here's the simple point to a very complex idea: It gives us a reason to find joy in our day to day lives, while at the very same time looking for joy even in the event of our death. We are new and not yet new... from the beginning until the end.
"It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."
Thanks be to God!
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