From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Mon Jan 26 1998 - 12:42:19 EST
On Sun 25 Jan 98 (16:20:51), jwest@highland.net wrote:
> Your shock comes as a shock to me. I am certainly not alone in this
> but am preceded by 150 years of scientific scholarship.
Perhaps we ought to major on *Biblical* scholarship! 8-)
Yes, the denial of the possibility of future prophecy, and the dismissal of
miracles as against Science, and therefore "mythological", were two prominent
claims published in the Anglican symposium /Essays and Reviews/, 1860, by
seven Anglicans who recognised that "the time has come when it is no longer
possible to ignore the results of modern criticism" (Benjamin Jowett).
Details can be found in Alec Vidler, /The Church in an Age of Revolution/,
Pelican Books, 1961, chapter 11 (and elsewhere).
As we have seen in another thread, John wrote Revelation from detention on
the isle of Patmos to encourage the persecuted churches. This is APOKALUYIS
IHSOU CRISTOU hHN EDWKEN AUTWi hO QEOS, DEIXAI TOIS DOULOIS AUTOU *hA DEI
GENESQAI EN TACEI*, ktl. Reputable scholars (e.g. JRW Stott), have shown how
the Letters to the Seven Churches can be seen as "Christ's History of the
Church", remarkably prophetic of the "church ages" from the 1st century to
the 20th. Daniel's prophecy of the wars between the Seleucids and the
Ptolmemies (kings of the North and South) has been alleged by some to be a
/vaticinium ex eventu/; but in John's case this cannot be so.
A "historical" interpretation of Revelation chapters 6 thru 16 shows very
plausibly how the development of the Church from the 1st century down to
the 20th was adumbrated in advance: from the persecutions of Nero, etc.,
onwards, down to the "drying up of the Euphratean power", seen as the
withdrawal of the Turks from Jerusalem in 1917 (Revelation 16:12). 1917 is
2520 years on from 604 BC, whenabouts Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem,
took king Jehoiachin hostage, put his puppet Zedekiah on the throne, and
removed people like Ezekiel from the city. (2520 is twice 1260, a prophetic
number frequently occurring in the book).
The eschatological chapters 17-22 obviously await fulfilment. Jesus gave his
prophesies not as an almanac of future events, but as a future confirmer to
the faithful, as these things begin to unfold. "These things have I told you,
that *when the time shall come*, ye may remember that I told you of them"
(John 16:4). We shall only recognise the fulfilment of these prophecies *in
retrospect*. Sure, Revelation is symbolical: but it is symbolical OF
SOMETHING. It is foolish to ignore it or dismiss it on "scientific" grounds.
Are we living in "the latter days"? Yes we are: POLUMERWS KAI POLUTROPWS
PALAI hO QEOS LALHSAS TOIS PATRASIN EN TOIS PROFHTAIS *EP' ESCATOU TWN
hHMERWN TOUTWN* ELALHSEN hHMIN EN hUIWi, ktl (Hebrews 1:1-2).
-- Revd Ben Crick, BA CF <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK) http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm
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