A Taste of the Faithful Life

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James Hopwood James Hopwood

Revelation not about doomsday

Religious and political charlatans want you to think the book of Revelation is about blood and guts and revenge and all that. It’s not.

It’s about how God is trying to redeem the world from our sinful ways. Forget the “rapture.” Forget the “Antichrist” and other fictions. Think faithfulness under fire. Think God’s faithfulness.

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      Many misguided or ignorant folks are praising Trump’s bombing of Iran as fulfilment of biblical prophecy and a sign that Jesus will soon return in triumph and slay all his foes.

      Yes, in the twisted minds of many “evangelicals,” the Prince of Peace is actually a mighty warrior who will ride a white horse to bloody victory over the forces of evil.

      To the extent that these people have the ear of Trump and his advisers, our world will be led deeper into this rabbit hole of perverted theology and perverse politics.

      The image of Jesus on a white horse comes from chapter 19 of the book of Revelation, which is perhaps the most widely misunderstood and desecrated passages of scripture.

      To put it bluntly, Revelation is not a book of “prophecy” as prophecy is usually mistakenly understood. It does not predict the future.

      It offers no blueprint to the widely anticipated “end of the world” (which Revelation does not describe, though it does describe the purpose of the world.)

      The “rapture” is cruel escapist fiction. (Try finding mention of it in Revelation. Not there.)

      There is no “Antichrist.” (Try finding mention of one in Revelation. Not there. You can find ones – plural – elsewhere, though. And they look suspiciously like today’s purveyors of “End Times” nonsense.)

      Revelation is not about the future. It’s about the perennial present. It’s not a preview of coming events. It’s an exposé of what’s already happening right here and right now and what will continue to happen until Jesus Christ returns in glory. It’s an appeal to followers of Jesus to remain faithful in the interim.

      Revelation hucksters say they are taking it literally, and if you look at their work you’ll see that they take it literally only when that suits their purposes. Most of the time they read it magically so that it fits into their Ouija board prophecy charts.

      Revelation was never meant to be taken literally, as John of Patmos hints more than 50 times in his account of visions he’s been given by God. If you read his account literally, you will misunderstand it terribly. But if you read it as a dramatic parable, as a symbolic exposé of how human systems oppress people and how God acts to save us from oppression by human empire, you will gain much from it.

      Today’s Revelation snake-oil salesman want you to think that theirs is the historic understanding of Revelation. They lie. Their version of Revelation is less than 200 years old. It’s the invention of John Nelson Darby. Darbyism by any name is still heresy. Today it is poised to tip the world into disaster. If it does, it is truly a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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James Hopwood James Hopwood

Of mice and men

Trump regime backs off one stupidity but considers another.

Can writers of cop shows do anything faintly original?

Can TV writers write clean dialogue?

Goodbye, Walter.

More on blogs page.

Win some, lose some:

Ÿ The US Navy has agreed to restore all but about 20 of the 381 books it removed from the Naval Academy library. So apparently the banned books were not burned, only put someplace where they could be retrieved. What happened to the 20 that didn’t survive further review? Will we ever know? Will they emerge from the netherworld status after more enlightened folk take the helm?

Ÿ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the renaming of the Navy vessel named after gay activist (and former Naval officer) Harvey Milk. This was done deliberately at the start of Pride Month. Take that, Pride folks!

Reportedly also being considered for renaming are vessels named after Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriet Tubman and Cesar Chavez. Good company, I would say.

Ÿ I haven’t posted here much recently because I don’t have the heart to rant against the daily atrocities committed by the Trump regime. I don’t think it would change any minds anyway, so I’ll keep most of my grumbling to myself.

Ÿ Burned out with police work in the big city, a veteran cop retires in a small rural town where nothing ever happens, except that now bad things are happening there as well, and he/she has to confront demons from his/her past to take down the bad guys.

Seems like some writers and publishers and TV producers can never get enough of this story so they keep cranking it out with few variations beyond more sex or more violence or both. No wonder I’ve grown so selective in my reading and TV viewing.

Ÿ In my house we’ve been watching a new Netflix series called “Dept Q.” It’s a little too intense, frankly, and I am really tired of hearing the f-word so much. Isn’t it possible for you flipping morons to write a flipping line of flipping dialogue without resorting to that flipping word every two flipping seconds? Or is that asking two flipping much?

Ÿ Another giant falls: Theologian and scholar Walter Brueggemann died today (Thursday).

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It’s already been rejected by Abingdon Press, the United Methodist publishing house. It says it has other similar works already in process. I’ve always given Abingdon the right of first refusal on all my book proposals, and I’ve always been rejected. I think it’s time to put some other publisher at the top of my query list.

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Three KU profs are under fire for allegedly faking their Native American ancestry. Kansas City Star columnist Yvette Walker confesses that her family also had unconfirmed stories about a Blackfoot ancestor.

“For as long as I can remember, I believed I had Native ethnicity,” she writes. “I even thought I knew which tribe I supposedly belonged to because it was a part of my family’s oral history.” To test the family memory, she took a Family DNA test. Turns out family oral history was wrong.

My family also has an oral tradition that a woman several generations back was Native American. Not exactly the classic “Cherokee princess” story, but close enough.

I’m about all who’s left to carry on family oral tradition, and my searches on Ancestry.com have found nothing to corroborate this story. I once assumed that it was because racists in my family conveniently “forgot” about the Indian ancestor until it became more socially acceptable to claim her, but by then all details were lost in time. Maybe it was a myth all along.

I did have an uncle who was Native. He married into the family. Sadly, he died relatively young as an alcoholic.

Whether I have any “Indian blood” in me matters less than how I view and treat Native Americans. Since childhood I have been fascinated by various Indian cultures. The more I learn about the genocide campaign against Native tribes, the more I am appalled by the tragedy of racism.

If you’re interested in learning more, I suggest reading The Rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk. Actually, I wasn’t capable of reading all of it. I had to skim parts. It’s well written, but many parts will simply break your heart.

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Back to school time nears already. Where did the summer go? Weren’t summers longer back in the “good old days”? Granted, summer child care can be a chore for busy parents. Maybe advancing age fools me on the passage of time, but I wonder if today’s kids suspect they’re being cheated of days in the sun.

Linda and I just bought school supplies for a Spring Hill 9th grader. We deliberately did not keep track of how much it cost. I can’t imagine the expense of having two kids in high school right now, let alone one. Tell me: Why does any high schooler need five two-inch three-ring binders?