The Book of Revelation

The final decision at the Council of Hippo in 397 was to include the Book of Revelation in the canon of the Bible.

It was a mistake.

After that, it has been hard to get Christians to listen to the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels.

Our natural inclination is toward revenge, and the Book of Revelation is a book of vengeance. In it, both God and his Son are rough customers.

God pours out bowls of wrath on the earth and sends fire and earthquakes.

And Jesus rides in on a white horse with a sword in his mouth and cuts off the heads of his enemies.

And that’s it.

That’s the undoing of the image of God we have in the Gospels.

That wipes out the essential teaching of Jesus—that God loves us, even if we are the worst of sinners. For God loves God’s enemies.

Jesus says God is “kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked.”

So, Christians face a choice: They must choose bowls of wrath or grace.

They must choose a Jesus who cuts off heads or dies for us on the cross.

They can’t have both.

And many Christians, particularly evangelicals, choose the image of God from Revelation.

That tells us why a political figure who is all about vengeance has the support of so many people who claim to follow Jesus Christ.

That politician was once asked to name his favorite verse of scripture.

He said, “An eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Yes, the very verse Jesus quoted to say that it was wrong.

And so is that “book of vengeance” in the Bible.

It is wrong about God.

Jesus Got It Right

Is theology more like philosophy or math?

There are many different philosophical positions.

But two times two is always four.

So, theology must be like philosophy. Look at the 20,000 denominations of Christianity.

There seems to be no stable truth. No clear single picture of what God is like.

I beg to differ.

God is knowable through experience.

Every experience of God gives us information about God. And that information is always consistent from one experience to another.

Talk to 100 people who have encountered God in an NDE or other form of religious experience.

The God they meet will always be the same:

Entirely loving.

Endlessly forgiving.

Every experience of God gives us information about God.

And that information is consistent and reliable.

Like two plus two.

Theology is a study of available information.

It is not guesswork.

It can be accurate.

And here’s the big news:

Experience gives us the same information about God that we get from Jesus.

Jesus got God right!

Plato didn’t.

Aristotle didn’t.

Not one of the great thinkers of antiquity got God right. But Jesus did. This is the most powerful argument for the claim we make that Jesus is Lord.

Luke 6:27-36 is the best description ever written of the God we know exists.

And how do we know this God exists? We meet God through experience.

Two plus two is always four. And God is always and at all times—love.

Exciting, isn’t it?!!

I’m sure you are all a-twitter with expectation.

January 5, tonight, is Twelfth Night!

Wow!

On second thought—yes, I know. Twelfth Night has lost all of its “wow!”

It is still the last day of the Christmas season, but you may have thrown out the tree days ago.

And it is still the Eve of Epiphany, Jan 6.

But I don’t know anyone sitting on the edge of their seat with expectation.

Epiphany used to be the big day. It was like Christmas Day is now.

And Twelfth Night was like Christmas Eve.

And people gave gifts on all of the 12 days of Christmas.

See what we’re missing out on? When’s the last time you got five golden rings—or a bird of any kind in a pear tree?

Things began to change in the 18th century.

The old ways died out and the “big day” shifted from Jan 5 to Dec 25.

But a memory lingered on in my family.

My grandmother said her mother used to talk about old Christmas, Jan. 6.

And the day was said to be so holy, at midnight on the night before, all the cattle in the barnyard knelt in prayer.

Mother, age nine, wanted to check this out herself.

So, at midnight, as Jan 5 turned to Jan 6, she went to the cattle barn to see the cows in prayer.

Turns out—not a holy cow in the bunch.

But the story of Old Christmas has lived on in our family for 200 years.

And the cows may not know it, but every day is holy. Have a blessed Epiphany.

And join us at the Lord’s Table on the first Sunday of 2024. At 11:00.

New Year’s Eve — Usual Time — 11:00

Well—the odometer of the world is about to click over to a new year.

Some people say they don’t make resolutions. I say we can’t help it. There’s just a feeling of new beginning.

For me, 2024 will be all about the book.

I got a call from Boots Richardson before she died. She and Jack were members of St. Matthew years ago, until they moved to East Texas.

Boots, on hospice care at the time, called to say she had worn out my first book, God, Grace and Gooseberry. She needed a copy of my next one.

I told her, “Boots, I’m not really through with it. Let me work on it a little longer. Then I’ll send it.”

“Max! I don’t have a little longer. I want it now! Immediately!”

I did have copies run off for a study group. I sent her one and she called a few days later.

“Max, I’ve read it three times in two days.”

I was touched. The book is 250 pages long.

A few days later she called again: “Your book has made me feel safe. We all belong to God.”

I told her that is exactly what the accounts in Discovering God tell us.

All 100 accounts of powerful religious/spiritual experiences.

Boots died not long after that last conversation.

The book encouraged her in her last days.

The material in the book encourages me.

Beginning January 1st, I will begin the last revision of the book. My resolution is to get it out into the world in 2024.

I may also start my own weekly YouTube program to take people through the book. Let me know if you would be interested. And!

Happy New Year

The Christmas story is full of angels. But here, in the 21st century, what do we think about them?

Dr. Raymond Elliott was a professor in the music department (after retiring, Professor Emeritus) at Texas Tech.

He saw one—an angel, that is.

His wife had a stroke at age 78. After this, all that she could move was her eyelids. She communicated by blinking her eyes.

Dr. Elliott was her sole caregiver. But after seven long years, he was worn out. He didn’t know how he could go on.

He took this to God: “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

When he lifted his head from prayer, he saw a man in the doorway of their bedroom. He was tall. He had to stoop to come into the room.

The man wore blue jeans and work boots. Young, with intense blue eyes.

The visitor crossed the room and sat in a chair near Dr. Elliott and the bed where his wife lay.

“It will be okay,” the man said. “You will be able to go on. It will be only a little longer.”

Then the stranger arose and left through the door he had entered.

Dr. Elliott felt elated—and filled with new energy.

His wife died a few weeks later.

That’s one story.

But it’s one of many.

Thousands, in fact.

I will tell another one on Christmas Eve–just after we read the scripture about those Christmas angels.

It may be time for all of us to open our minds—and our hearts. Life is deeper than we think.

And more wonderful.

Christmas Eve

Candlelight Service

6:00 p.m.

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