Terror - TEN YEARS

First published Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Scripture references are mostly from Revelation 9

Here is where the prognosticators go a little crazy. Everybody is so certain they've got it all figured out. 

We have got to give other humans a little credit for being intelligent! People don't want to get their science, or their theology, or their facts wrong. They don't deliberately put out something that they believe is open to scrutiny or second-guessing. It would be good, though, if we could all have a little humility and maybe learn something from each other.

In Revelation 9, we see a glimpse of real terror. When you are reading this, it looks as if each event follows the other in rapid succession. But it need not be so. It could take centuries to accomplish all of it (and maybe has!)

Here, we get a third of humanity wiped out each time. Where the prior disasters may have been natural, now we get what seems to be chemical or biological agents, delivered via some futuristic military craft yet to be invented. <Reminder, I wrote this in 2010>.

But the main point of the passage is not the devastation. It is the hardheartedness of humanity. Indeed, this has been the common theme from the very dawn of creation. 

Look at verses 20 and 21:

And the rest of humankind that wasn't killed by those disasters would not turn back from their evil handiwork and stop bowing before demons and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood that cannot see or hear or move; nor would they turn back from being murderers, witches, whores, and thieves.

Now, you would think that if there was one verse in the entire Bible that we would want to get right, this would be it. We could take many different approaches: 

Why won't people change? (Some did, after 911, for a little while). To what degree do we do such things? Do we worship idols? (Put anything ahead of God). Do we participate in killing others (is our employer a killer?). Do we practice witchcraft (other religions, follow horoscopes, etc.)? Are we sexually impure? (Come on, now!) Do we take from others (in our borrowing and lending, in our tax policy, in our charitable giving)?

A church or family would do well to spend a long time reflecting on these two verses.