Updating

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Updates

A number of people have asked how we are so a short update. Here are a couple of quotes from a news site:

The DANA weather system Storm Adam began to ease on Tuesday after leaving at least five people dead and causing severe flooding in eastern Spain. In the Valencia region, the Civil Guard evacuated more than 2,100 people and rescued almost 500 since the start of the storm, according to the latest update released by the force.

The Valencian town of Oliva is among the worst affected, with rainfall of 600 litres per square metre in 24 hours. Around 600 people received assistance at the municipal centre and 400 spent the night there from Monday into Tuesday.

The level of rain was intense – some 600 litres per sq metre in 24 hours. Every ground floor apartment has been trashed with the streets currently full of furniture that is being thrown away, totally unsalvageable. The damage to our top floor apartment is limited – a leak in the flat roof meant several gallons through that and the window at the bask was so battered that it (though shut) allowed some 3 gallons of water through it! we have lost quite a few tiles at the back wall also – the sheer force of the rain. Like everyone else we were without water for 4 days and have to wait now another 24 hours before it is drinkable.

We are the ‘fortunate’ ones and have spent the past days seeking to make sure others are OK, clearing water out, washing clothes that can be savaged, preparing a bed and food to those who have been wiped out. A typical response though came from a woman that I spoke to last night. She lives alone with her dog in a bottom floor apartment. She said she had her papers, including her passport, under her bed and so they have also been trashed along with furniture. After coming to terms with it she then said that she felt ‘light’ as she thought what do we need in life. Behind us likewise a woman said to Gayle – it is only ‘stuff’. Certainly we have thought often of Gaza (2 million made homeless) or the Ukraine. Sobering.

We currently wait for a crane to remove our van, and are in the ‘queue’ for that; once removed it will be in the next ‘queue’ to see if it is repairable.

Sadly some of this is the new ‘normal’ as the heavy rain was caused by the temperature of the sea; greater evaporation then meeting cold air, and slow moving hence the level of rain in a locality.

The flooding of the land – the water over the land is something we are pondering. In the creation story of Genesis 1 the dry land appeared from the water; out of chaos came a place for us to live. I have thought many times about the tattoo on my shoulder that this time last year I had inked there – I saw a new creation. The chaos here is great; the chaos globally is immense. Our hope is for a new creation. As we hope we have to go slower, old ways of navigating and journeying have been removed, and we have to go with others, some of whom find faith, but we journey with all.

I will probably not post too regularly as out focus is elsewhere for a while.

There are numerous videos of the flooding on YouTube, here is one short one:

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A little pause from the Apocalypse

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I am planning to get back to Revelation soon… but we have had our own very mini-apocalypse here. And so small in comparison to Gaza or the Ukraine. Dana ‘Adam’ (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos, or isolated high-altitude depression). With rising sea temperatures it is an increasing issue.

Every downstairs apartment has been trashed… today a truck is slowly coming down the street to take away the furniture that has been thrown on the street. Gayle has just brought back a woman from a downfloor apartment – everything trashed including her clothes, furniture and car. She is one among many.

The situation would have been much worse – probably with a few hundred dying – but the early warning and also the evacuation of a local camp site by the sea was ever so timely.

There are numerous situations that are natural (should not be normal, but ‘natural’ in the sense of the result of the mess we are making with the climate) but there seems to be a connection as signs…let me backtrack.

A year ago last April – and I posted on this – we ‘rolled up’ the old ‘Queen’ map of Europe as sign that abusive, dominant power was being rolled up. 24 hours later we sat in the power outage that covered all the Iberian peninsula and just beyond those boundaries. This year – Gayle had a training session with 25 people here from 7 different countries – and a big part of the theme (beyond the training) was the integration of land and sea. The person who opened that up and then with Gayle and team represented the Sama Dilaut (Wrongly termed ‘sea people’) was here. Gayle works with a mat as the basis for personal and team transformation and together they had developed a mat with sea symbols and imagery for that particular work. Now, not knowing that a storm was coming in and walking to be the beach in the sun and 25ºC, we took the mat to the sea and ‘baptised’ it proclaiming that the water will cover the land. Maybe now an ‘ouch’. Symbolism is powerful. And all reports are saying ‘Oliva was the centre’ for this flood.

The sea then the land in the creation story; so as we move toward something shifting I guess we need to see something like that to get a fresh beginning?

Desperately not trying to make too much of it… and yet.

Acts leading to signs are important. But far more important are signs that lead to reality. For Europe as things polarise we have to see a new levelling out – there is a triumvirate of those in power beyond Europe that we would love to see shift – and a coming back to a place where slowly we can see new beginnings. It is always painful to write about such stuff and connections but have also been looking for an event that will change the outcome of the forthcoming election. (It happened before in 2004.)

This is ‘our’ planet so there has to be a concern / responsibility to see it come through to a better (relational) place. And sadly the process is not always a pleasant one. And it also means getting our hands dirty with (not for) neighbours.

We are OK. Third day of no running water – oooofffff think of Gaza 2 million people displaced or the Ukraine. We emptied 8 gallons (36 litres) of water from our floors as we are top floor.

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A very inadequate overview

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Biblical Observations

Did the original hearers understand what was being read to them? I doubt it. But they would have had a few advantages over us. They would not have had a book in front of them (it was being read to them) and they certainly would not have had access to books explaining that the army of 200,000,000 is a vision of the 21st Century and a graet army from the far east!!! The hearers would have been impacted through a journey of disorientation and we would benefit from a similar disorieattion rather than trying to gain an understanding that pinpoints all the vsions in historical events.

So here are a few ways in which we might consider to be a bit of an overview.

The over all book is an uncovering (ἀποκάλυψις: apokalupsis) – it is there to help us ‘see’. A bit like the ’emperor has no clothes’, but a somewhat more profound. With the emperor there was a denial, but with us there is a blindness so that we are unable to see. The unveiling of Revelation is to help us see what is really going on, or at least to give us choices as to what we then subsequently believe. In the original context a broad issue that would have immediately have impacted the hearers would have been that of the choice of believing whether Rome’s government or heaven’s were the determining factor in releasing the future and destiny of humanity. A future shaped by Rome or one shaped by heaven? Take Romans 4 and the throne room vision. Or for a moment think about Domitian’s throne surrounded by 24 advisers. John is describing something that is from their world but really his vision poses a question – is John suggesting that maybe Domitian is ‘god’. If John had the vision in the 21st Century and he was writing to the seven churches in the USA I think he would be entering heaven through Pennsylvania Avenue and the throne room would be an oval room… or the UK might be read along the lines of ‘I walked down the street to enter by a door with ’10’ above it and…’

Is John describing Rome, or the USA, UK, China, Russia, Iran… well you the hearer decide. But I am confused – that is part of the reason for the vision, for unless we come through our confusion we will become deceived and…

We need to see things as they are. We need Revelation as a book not to confuse us for it all to become clear when we read as ‘this is what will happen in the future’. We need the book to help show us how confused we are and so that we stop putting our faith that if only this person was in ‘number 10’ or in the ‘white house’ then all things would change. (Though if we were able to see many of them removed and some genuine feminine energy in there? That though is another post!!)

Anyway back to the overview.

There are different genres throughout and some major (abrupt) changes that take place. The opening chapters don’t read too oddly. They are not too far removed from the standard letter genre. ‘Letters to the seven churches’. They give way to typical apocalyptic style writings – a lot of other worldly descriptions with angels, riders on horses riding out, a scroll etc. That style of writing was not intended to be understood literally but claimed to give insight into what was happening in the unseen so as we could understand what was being experienced in the seen realm. Then we jump to apocalyptic on ‘speed’, or maybe apocalyptc mixed with mythology. Myths such as Nero never really died and was waiting to come back from the East with the Parthians who had always been seen as the enemy of Rome. Myths combining fear coming from what was perceived as a real threat. Maybe we could compare it to something from say 1946 and as crazy as ‘Hitler never died but has been kept live and is ready to come back at the head of the Russian forces to subjugate great parts of Europe’! Are you being serious we would ask. In these chapters we encounter beasts from land and sea, a woman with twelve stars over her head, a dragon and other such ‘fantastic’ (fanclful?) imagery. So we need to push back a little on John at this point with a response of ‘really John?’ as to try and translate this into ‘real world’ would be to miss the point. We don’t do that with ‘fairy stories’ and yet we do not dismiss them as not ‘unveiling’ truth for us.

Only when we get to the end of the book does it settle back down again! Maybe if we cut out the middle section of apocalypse and apocalypse plus myth we might see the connections. Jesus is coming soon and when he appears that which has been separated (heaven and earth / God and humanity) will be united. ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth’. Now we have entered the ‘end’, the culmination of the opening words of Scripture; the culmination of the creation project, the time when ‘all things’ will be made ‘new’ (not the obliteration of all things to be replaced with ‘new things’).

Probably the end never (fully) comes in the earlier part of the book, but there is a relentless move toward the end. The question is left hanging – will it ever come (a question posed by the martyrs in the book from early on… and I think a question posed throughout the centuries by those who have put their faith in Jesus).

We need to connect Chapter 1-3 to chapters 21 – 22. ‘To the mixed bag of people that were called to be the ‘ekklesia’ there are some heavenly perspectives that will reveal the mixed bag you really are… I encourage you to continue to step it all up a level… keep with the program for the day will come when the way things are (the status quo: Latin for the mess we are in) will give way to a whole new creation…

That is kinda how I think the message goes. (Not suggesting my paraphrase should become canonical, and there is a far amount of important stuff in chapters 4-20!)

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A way in to Revelation

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Biblical Observations

I am sure there are structures to the book of Revelation and I use the plural ‘structures’ as probably there is no one structure that give us an easy read of it. Overall I think the book is meant to grip the imagination not the mind, and certainly not to fuel speculation that we then feel safe with the inside information that we can cling on to. There is a four-time repeated phrase that I offer as giving a very broad understanding of John’s journey. It is the phrase ‘in the Spirit’. Here are the four times it occurs:

  • 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day
  • 4:2 At once I was in the Spirit
  • 17:3 I was carried away in the Spirit
  • 21:10 he carried me away in the Spirit.

Four major movements that shaped John’s visionary encounters. The first is when John sees the Risen Lord actively walking amidst the lampstands. We are introduced to a familiar pattern – he hears something and when he turns he sees

I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying… Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw…

John is a Seer and his sight (how many times to we read ‘and I saw’????) gives explanation (and redirects / perhaps even corrects) what he hears. This first ‘sight in the Spirit’ is of an engaged Risen Lord.

The second occurrence is when he enters the throne room of heaven (described in such terms that Caesar’s throne room is exposed as a parody). He hears that the destiny of humanity has been secured for ‘the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome’. He then sees a Lamb slain. The Lion embodies the hope of the ages, but this is the only mention in the book of this Lion… the overcoming of God on behalf of humanity has a different lens – it is achieved only through the slain Lamb. Power over gives way to submission that appears as if one is overcome. A life laid down not lives being consumed is the path to overcoming. The critique of power is very strongly evident in this encounter.

Then comes a long section of conflict and battle. (Jumping over the third reference) the final ‘in the Spirit’ is of the New Jerusalem (redeemed humanity) manifesting on earth – the fulfilment of creation where there is no dualistic divide between heaven and earth. But preceding that is the judgement of Babylon (the third reference). Everything that is the opposite of the kingdom (βασιλεία: basileia) of heaven / God. Contextually those first readers lived in a hostile world within the Roman empire (βασιλεία).

The outcome is settled for the slain Lamb is the one who has overcome; the path is the challenge and ‘Babylon’ will manifest and seem dominant. Those who follow the Lamb wherever the Lamb goes are the overcomers, even if it seems that they are the ones being overcome. The ‘battle’ is not eternal, the outcome is settled, but the path is brutal at times.

Two strong positive visions – one from the past (Lamb slain as the foundation for the unlocking of human destiny); one from the present (Jesus walking), connected to one future positive vision of the eschaton of heaven coming to earth and in and through it all a conviction that all that opposes the kingdom of God will be judged and fall.

Perhaps Babylon grows and maybe as per Jesus’ incarnation being at the ‘fullness of times’, so maybe there is a growth and increasing opposition to the kingdom of God. Maybe. But chronology is something we need to resist putting on Revelation. The sight given is not to give us a time-line but a plumb-line to critique all oppressive power and powers.

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Understanding (or being confused by) Revelation

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Biblical Observations

Been thinking of posting on Revelation for a little while cos I so understand what is written there. Every vision, every time-line: all so easy!! However, I take comfort that the writer declared that those who read and listen to the words will be blessed (1:3), not those who get it all… and the writer does add that we need to ‘keep’ what is written which I guess means we should seek to align ourselves to the Jesus that is revealed in the book.

Traditionally it was written by John (one of the twelve) who was imprsoned on the island of Patmos. Two dates are suggested – in Nero’s (or Galbo’s) reign in the mid to late 60s pror to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, or in the late 90s in Domitian’s reign. The weight seems to come down on the later date, and given the clear details with many ‘hidden’ details it is well possible that the book developed over time. As for the author, probably we are as well referring to him as ‘John the Seer’.

The book was included in what is probably the first written record of a list of NT books to be regarded as ‘canonical’ (the Muratorian canon – probably late 2nd Century) but Martin Luther thought it was somewhat dodgy and placed it in a ‘disputed’ section of the German Bible.

Canonical it should be, but many interpretations should be in the ‘disputed’ category, or better ‘the well dodgy, hyper speculative and of no use to anyone’ section! (IMHO.)

There are different genres in the book with a huge part of it being ‘apocalyptic’. There are a few other sections of Scripture that employ that language but no part of our Scriptures where that genre shapes a whole book. Apocalyptic might be compared to political cartoons that appear in newspapers – they are not to be taken literally but make a point through exaggeration and often use imagery to describe something. A political leader sitting in the top pocket of a billionaire, or being taken for a walk on a dog lead by someone is not to be understood as a photograph but as a non-literal representation of the reality that is being communicated.

Tom Wright uses the illustration with the description of the Berlin wall collapsing as being ‘an earth shattering event’. If someone a few centuries later were to discover that description and then wrote that the wall collapsed because of some massive earthquake they would be making quite an error!

Thus we should be very wary of seeking to understand the imagery and language as being literal. The exagerrated language and imagery is to capture the imagination so that the readers’ world woud be seen and responded to in an informed way.

All of that suggests that the book was written for those first Century believers so that they might live faithfully to their call… and written for us – those in every generation so that our eyes might be open. Given that the language of the NT is highly charged politically it is not a surprise that I consider the book is a political critique of the Imperial world, that had Caesar as its ‘lord, saviour, king of kings’…and other such titles.

There are a (surprisingly) few OT quotes but over 400 allusions. Those allusions would not have been recognised at a first, nor a second reading and this is part of the ‘redemptive and confusing gift’ of the book. By that I mean once the writer includes (for example) a description of the throne room of heaven that parallels Domitian’s throne room and adds allusions to Nero as one who did not die or mythological creatures, any listener would have been confused. But redemptively, for we need to be confused about what is proclaimed as normal and only through the path of confusion do we discover the questions that will lead us on a different path.

Ah well some initial thoughts.

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Prophetic foreshadowing

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Prophetic Perspectives


I do not often post here along the lines that follow, but want to pull together a few threads as I anticipate there will be a highlighting of where things are headed. Change is constant, and as someone added, and ‘constant change is here to stay’ and to that phrase needs to be added ‘but constant change does not happen at a constant rate’. There are times when change increases in pace and this seems to be the situation we are entering.

Background:

Around two years ago I was praying and suddenly saw (not praying in the direction of what I saw) that there was coming a time when the global population was going to be reduced drastically – cannot say the number but I suggest by a billion or so. Currently there are great losses but the overall population continues to grow… but this was different – a ‘before’ and a marked different ‘after’ figure. (I noted a couple of days ago that Bill Gates warned that AI has the potential to kill 1 billion in the foreseeable future.)

I sensed the great reducton was related to famine, natural events that were in the main triggered by climate issues, climate issues themselves, viruses that spread with no medical respnse (not one and not variants one of another but different viruses) and significant military conflicts. (Since then a number have warned of imminent war. Roger Mitchell has made a response to those warnings with a perspective that pushes into a response that continues to seek ‘the common good, especially among the poor and marginalised’. I do suggest it as a ‘must read’:
https://rogerhaydonmitchell.wordpress.com/2026/09/27/wars-and-rumours-of-wars/.)

Over a somewhat longer time frame I see the years 2020 – 2040 as being a season when there could be a turning either way. In other words we have opportunity for there to be sufficient push for a new day, and one that is very different to the one we are in now. What has been is not here to be restored.

We have been living through gloablly visual elements:
1989 (9/11 – European date format). Berlin wall: east / west issue.
2001 (9/11 – US date format). Twin towers – trade centres.
2008 – financial crash but there was no true reset.
2020 – COVID and a call for a global reset. But in society and in the church there was always the hope of getting back to normal. I have documented a dream related to what could have taken place in that decade leading up to the 2020 when all the façades were opened up but they closed down again because of a dependence on the familiar that ‘brings things back to where they were and restores the status quo’. ‘Back to normal’, the ‘good old days’etc. all stand in the way of forward movement meanwhile the old world has gone, not to come back.

The ‘church’ as the counterpart to empire has been complicit on this ‘back to normal’, so the very means of effective change had no authority to bring about any level of change. Deception does not kick in when one realises one took the wrong road, the ‘wake up moment’ simply indicates that a wrong path was taken somewhere back on the journey.

In 2022 I had an uprecedented two weeks of conflict with powers that I saw early on had a strategy of total destruction. I thought it was a strategic release at the time, but probably more see it now as it has always been a way the demonic works. It had a personal and a corporate application. I termed it ‘the four waves’ when I wrote about it at the time as there were four distinct related movements to it. Below is what I wrote at the time:

Four Waves of ‘Attack’Download

Perhaps the early part of that encounter has value in recounting. The initial twin attack was that of jealousy and intimidation – both coming to remove a person / corporation from their place. Once that happened timing was thrown off – with either events coming too soon or the connection being missed because the moment had passed. The missing of timing was held in place through false wisdom. The provocation of ‘false wisdom’ is that it can be true wisdom in another situation, and can certainly appeal to Scripture, but in a gven situation is false.

When in Sicily (2025-26) I was able to enter a war room in heaven. The surpise was that there were no angels assembled in battle fatigues ready to go to war, but a small angel with a simple invitation – let’s go together to some key portals and plant some seed there. Heavenly strategy is not always impressive!

That background brings me to this point of time. The phrase ‘be the prophecy’ is ringing in my ear today. (Not a phrase original to me.) We might also term it ‘incarnate the reality’, or in the language of ‘seed’ a call to ‘sow where we want the world to go’. There will be many opportunities to turn the threats that are on the horizon. At the centre is that of the economy. Always! God or mammon; you will not be allowed to buy and to sell. (Not simply money but the colonisation of money so that those who comply prosper becomes the battleground.)

A new economy is needed – a major turning point of the advancement of empire was the stronger alignment of the banking system and war. Buying and selling need to give way to giving and receiving.

Meanwhile… we continue to get out of bed and connect with whoever we meet, and in that process corporate revelation will flow.

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Sicily trip – the last one, not the next one

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

There is unlikely to be a repeat, but there can always be recordings that make 10 months ago just feel like yesterday! Martin Purnell (‘Of Grid Christianity’) interviewed me on our venture to Sicily. Listen in or simply dip in here and there:

Off Grid Christianity – Episode183 – A Road Trip To Sicily Special

Hope you enjoy – cos of course everything I write and blab on about is enjoyed by one and all, so I guess that would be one o y deep hopes fulfilled.

And have a look at other podcast interviews that Martin had done (182 prior to the Sicily one):

Off Grid Podcsts

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Never figured it out

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

I have always been somewhat surprised / perplexed by a number of women who convert to Islam and submit to their male counterpart in such a visible way. Growing up in that culture and living within it I understand, and perhaps if they are able to look at the West with the sexual exploitation of women the conclusion might be a way that it can be justified… but educated (and liberated) Western women converting? That I have not understood.

And beyond the above scenario the rise of a new ‘men need to be men’ emphasis (patriarchy and misogyny IMHO) and a number of women (not so many women as men) who advocate that the woman’s place is in the home is equally surprising. There is a movement to which is attached the adjective ‘Christian’ that is rooted in God is all powerful and the more powerful (bullying) a man can be the more that man is in the image of the all powerful god (cannot capitalise ‘god’ at this point as that definition of power does not relate to the God of Scripture)… take for example the critique in the book Jesus and John Wayne (author: Kristin Kobes du Mez). Jesus the tough man who crushes all opponents, so let us vote for those in positions of power who will be like that Jesus / John Wayne.

And into that setting come certain women who advocate men at the top as the divine order!

All forms of abusive power (Imperial spirit / Babylon) offer benefits to those who comply, and there will be certain benefits – safety, and in the words of Revelation ‘allowed to buy and to sell’. But the majority of (in this situation) women will not benefit at all – and just look at the statistics of women in the work place.

To the Bible for a mo…

The household codes that we find in Paul (wives submit to; children submit; slaves behave in this way… etc) are present for apologetic purposes. They follow the pattern that is recorded in the literature of the day, but Paul transforms the content. He moves them away from ‘you at the top (male husband, slave-owner, father) are the boss so keep everyone else in order’ and the most famous passage in Ephesians does not begin with ‘wives submit to your husbands’ but the verb is present in the preceding verse with ‘submit yourselves to one another in the fear / reverence of Christ’ (Ephes. 5:21 this is where the verb appears not in verse 22). That transforms everything, and all relationships. I don’t think it goes the whole way, no more than the NT comments on slavery go the whole way in the NT… but the gospel goes the whole way. There is in Christ, ‘no male and female’ (Gal. 3) – the change of language from neither… nor to ‘and not male and female’ indicates Paul is quoting Genesis 2. Make of what you want of the creation narratives but once we touch Jesus ALL hierarchy disappears, for all former categories are no longer relevant (Paul’s comments on ‘a new creation’ in 2 Cor. 5).

The challenge of Jesus is there to hit at all exploitation. Read the Proverbs and the male is warned over the seductive woman. Read Jesus and he hits the issue hard… ‘If a man looks at a women to lust after her’. Dress appropriately – for sure; seductiveness is an issue… but the blame game and therefore the need to control through legislation – no not the gospel.

Marriages need to work out how they partner together. Probably no one size fits all, but hierarchy, patriarchy, bullying – no, no, no.

Men need to be men. But the image is not John Wayne, but Jesus. Children, women, the marginalised – he came to lift them up… and far from being incarnated as male to show a superiority he is male as that is where the root of the issue lies. Scripture is consistent – it does not address the marginalised to rebel but the ones who abuse position to repent. And that is also why he comes as a Jew. No more at the top and let’s keep it that way, but emptying out power. ‘Being in the image of God he emptied himself’.

How far can we go along the trajectory of the gospel? One day the perfect will come – until then we are provoked to go further than yesterday… with no desire to restore a former era.

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Let’s give a shout for humanity

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

If I were to write further articles on ‘eschatology’ – and I plan to – the next one would be on ‘I don’t expect a millennium,a great tribulation nor an antiChrist‘. Now there are smarter people than me that tick all those boxes and there is a strong (and sensible) history of thought behind all three (as well as some fanciful stuff). As I need to reserve all my bright ideas to that article I will not give them away here!

But in short reply why don’t I expect that trilogy? Well a millennial-rule is only found in Revelation, a book unveiling the reality of Babylon (Imperial rule), and being of the genre of apocalyptic literature. A literal 1000 years? Maybe. And in the same chapter the devil is bound by chains. Literal chains? Maybe not. Early church history certainly records those who believed in a (pre-) millennial time as well as those who took an a-millennial approach. But those writers are predominantly from the Hellenistic (Graeco-Roman) world not the world of Jewish apocalyptic writings. I probably don’t fit any of the three main schools of thought (pre-, post. and a-) on the millennium.

The ‘tribulation’ is found throughout Scripture cos that is our world. Two kingdom / values / commitments in total opposition to each other; and if we push for a ‘great tribulation’ we are back to Revelation and Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 (and parallels) where ‘all these things will be fulfilled in a generation’ (i.e. by 70AD/CE). So we expect tribulation but I am not so sure we are to expect a final great tribulation.

Then the antiChrist? Diverse Scriptures have to be shoe-horned together that do not seem to be addressing the same issue. So no…

Overall my main reason for not ticking those three boxes is Scripture itself. There is so little in the book concerning what is thought to be the ‘end times’, and there is so much in there that informs us that since Pentecost we have been living in a new era – the ‘end times’. Speculation is not a word, regardless of what accent is used, that spells the word Scripture. Leave that to the world of the horoscopes.

But hang on a minute. I actually think an antiChrist is highly likely, not because Scripture says there will be one but if we do not get our act together we will create the space where an antiChrist (or many) can appear. So I genuinely do not think that Scripture predicts one, but Scripture informs us there will always be one if we continue on a certain path – one or many.

If we gave Scripture a voice and there was a recognisable antiChrist around I don’t think Scripture would say ‘look I told you so, I predicted that in various texts’ but rather ‘look I told you so, this is the inevitable outcome’.

These last few days the world of AI has come central. Whistle-blowers who have left that world saying that within a decade AI could wipe out the human race; Claude is now at the point where the next iteration does not need coding – it can code the next upgraded release! And from there? Well we should not think of a team working on coding and a new release coming out, for example, annually.

I posted what might well be an AI generated video of robots running the 100metres and physically attacking others in the race. I suggested that we could caption the video ‘and humanity created in their own image’.

AntiChrist is not simply a major attack on God, it is an attack on humanity. John (who is the only one to use the term!) says that at the core there is a denial that Jesus was human. It is an attack on humanity.

It is not only whistle-bowers from the inside who have grave reservations about AI, I do too. Theology has not helped with a distant God and a perspective on humanity that denegrates them all in the name of preserving the glory of God (I don’t think that is our responsibility, God can take care of that).

Beasts from the land and the sea find their fulfilment in history, but history is ongoing. People, systems and the like are ever present to fill space.

If I were to shout two warnings – the first would be take note of the rise of narcissism (well documented how it has recognisably grown over the last 40+ years). I once spoke with a psychotherapist (no I was not lying on a couch!) who talked to me about narcissism. I replied with the wrong observation that such people ‘love themselves’ and he replied with ‘absolutely not; they love the image of themselves’. Image. And the second warning would be related to AI. Created in human image. (AI is here to stay and is part of our world, and will also be ‘good’.)

There is an eternal gospel, but that eternal gospel has to be incarnated in time and space, in the here and now.

There is one Saviour of this world (there is my eschatology in a nutshell) who is the image of the invisible God and the one into whose image we are being changed.

AI might wipe us all out… maybe that is the ‘end’ but I thank God for the ‘I see a new creation’ vision we find in Scripture.

I might not believe in an antiChrist in the classic sense of what that means but I want to make sure I am on my guard concerning every antiChrist manifestation that is present. The level of that presence grows and shrinks… let’s see how much it can shrink regardless of what is created and what anxieties are voiced.

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Big (good or bad?) words

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Here then are the words: leadership, accountability, submission, discipleship… and I am sure a host of other words that I don’t know or don’t know how to spell!

Words to have meaning but their effective meaning is more tied to how they are understood (and used) rather than ‘this word means…’

I remember talking to someone who was strongly in relationship with people he had been journeying with for decades but was not attending a regular gathering (to which had been ascribed the word ‘church’). He met one who was to be found ‘in the right place on a Sunday’ who was somewhat put out by his lack of attendance is such a setting. The conversation went,

Where do you worship?

With the response ‘Normally when I get out bed I turn my heart to the Lord, when I wash my face in the morning I am always thankful and praising God, then I take time to worship the Lord as I thank God for family, friends and the food on the table. I like to start the day in worship.’

Out of interest where do you worship?

That question was conveniently not responded to as the hard hitting, deeply penetrating question was next:

Who are you accountable to?

Such a penetrating question and the answer went as follows:

A great question, I guess I could answer that a number of ways, but as you are asking it, let me suggest I also become accountable to you, and maybe we could do something that is mutual. Here is the phone number of my wife. Why to give her a call and ask her to be honest about her observations and experience of me; I can easily give you access to my bank account and I would love to hear what you think about how I am stewarding what we have.Maybe then you could do that also in return and we become mutually accountable to each other? How would that sound to you?

Surprise, surprise… that conversation ended there.

The questions were not the questions. The two questions were to find out if this person ticked the two boxes with the right answers. But the answers would not have answered the questions. I often think about Paul (did he write those ‘pastoral’ letters) and his check list for leadership. They essentially came down to two categories: go check out their home and find out from neighbours what they think. (Oh and something on having some ability to teach and not being a novice in the faith.) Wow… practical.

A few comments on those words above. If we think institutionally we might answer them one way but if we think relationally we will go down a different route.

Leadership is not title-oriented (Paul is not ‘Apostle Paul’) nor is it hierarchical. Tom Marshall said that when truth flows one way and honour and respect the other we have a problem. Jesus pointed out the leadership pattern among the ‘gentiles’ with the statement that was not to be that way ‘among you’. And I think we have to extend this to affect our understanding of God. How does God ‘rule’? Top down? I understand what people mean by ‘God is in control’ but it often means that God is not taking any nonsense and controls, then we have a little internal conflict (did I write ‘little’?) because too much seems out of control! The mess is not down to God… and here comes another word (extra bonus I did not put it in the initial list) – delegate!

The way God works is to distribute not simply delegate. Leadership often delegates and at times there is the need to delegate, but God loves to divest. On the day of Pentecost there is not a delegated outpouring. First on Peter (that would help if we wanted to really think he was personally the ‘rock’) then Peter could bestow the Spirit to James and John… then we draw in the 12 and so on to the 120. God comes equally to all at the same time.

The work of God is hindered as ‘there is no king in the land and everyone does what is right in their own eyes’ and it is hindered as ‘there is a king in the land and no one can do what is right in their own eyes’ (second quote is not in the Bible!). The book of Judges has a ‘king is right’ lens and is very critical of the situation, and maybe a ‘king’ would have temporarily helped but it eventually led to Egypt coming back into Israel. We need an eye-test as not everything goes and we need corrective lenses (a Jesus-lens for life, Scripture, and particularly so as we no longer see people according to conventional categorisation). But with those lenses on – and getting them checked out regularly – we discover that there is to be no ‘king’ in the land and that we are to do what is right in our own eyes. Not stubbornly, nor independently but inter-relationally. So to one of the other words:

Submit… and always in the ‘middle voice’ and expressed relationally. Submit yourself to one another. Not I am at the top and I will subject you!

‘Where do I worship? And who am I accountable to?’ remain two really good questions. Imagine if we made the questions relational and not institutional. Maybe we could move toward ‘there was no king among them; there was a flow of life and openness; approval and push back was visible, and each person seemed to have sight on what they should do’. Maybe ‘the kingdom’ could just be ‘at hand’ if such was the case.

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