Lee Harmon's Blog, page 14

Revelation 20:4, The Thousand Year Reign

… and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

//Ever wonder where the idea of a thousand-year reign came from? Most of Revelation’s ideas come from prior writings, both in and out of the Bible. Revelation borrows so many themes from the book of Ezekiel that I like to think of it as a rewriting of Ezekiel. But there’s no other reference in scripture to a thousand year length of the Messianic era, even in Ezekiel.

Nevertheless, the idea is borrowed, this time from a Jewish book writt...

Mark 9:24, Pascal’s Wager

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

//Blaise Pascal, a 17th century philosopher, proposed that believe in god is logical, if perceived as a wager. Either God exists or he does not, and reason can defend neither possibility. Therefore, the practical solution is to weigh the gain and loss in wagering that God exists. If you gain, you gain much: an “infinitely happy life.” Because the stakes are so high (indeed, infinit...

Judges 21:20-21, The Tribe of Benjamin Is Rescued!

So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, “Go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, rush from the vineyards and each of you seize one of them to be your wife. Then return to the land of Benjamin.

//Judges chapters 20 and 21 describe a squabble between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of Israel. It seems that a Levite stopped for the night in Gibeah one day (Gibeah is part of the tribe of Benjamin), and they weren’t very good hos...

Job 1:4-5 Why Job Ignored His Friends

And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

//You may remember in the book of Job that several...

Book review: The Book of Revelation and the Coming Judgment

by Dale Tolmasoff

★★★★★

Here is a well-researched guide to Revelation that seems to combine the best of futurist and preterist views. Tolmasoff draws strongly on Beale’s exposition of Revelation, and makes a serious effort to accommodate Revelation’s first-century atmosphere without compromising his belief in a Second Coming. He writes from the perspective of a “fallen Jehovah’s Witness,” which is intriguing in itself; I’ve long felt J/W’s have a better handle on Revelation than most of us.

Some...

Genesis 19:32-33, The Daughters’ Revenge, Part II of II

And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

//Yesterday I told the story of how Lot, seeking to protect two unknown visitors, offered his daughters up as play-toys to the evil men of Sodom. The angels step in, rescue Lot, and lead him into the mountains away from Sodom. Then Sodom is...

Genesis 19:8, The Daughters’ Revenge, Part I of II

Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes.

//In this bizarre story, Lot is living in the city of Sodom when he is visited by angels. The men of Sodom come knocking at his door, wanting to abuse the angels sexually. (Angels are probably quite good-looking.) But Lot begs them not to harm the two visitors (he seems not to know they are angels) and asks the men of Sodom to accept his daughters a...

Hebrews 4:12, Killing with the Word

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

//This verse is often quoted by Bible-thumpers justifying their use of the Bible as as weapon, bludgeoning unbelievers into submission. But context shows this understanding to be in error; the sword in this verse is turned inward, not pointed at another. So that leads us to a qu...

Luke 2:38, The Promised Redeemer of Israel

Coming up to them at that very moment, [Anna] gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

//In today’s verse, an old widow of 84 years happens to spy Joseph and Mary with their 12-year-old son Jesus, and goes up to them. She identifies the child Jesus as the redeemer of Jerusalem, the anticipated Messiah who would set Jerusalem free. This, of course, matches the expectation every Jew had of the coming Messiah. He would arrive wit...

Book Excerpt: The River of Life

Imagine a tree which divides into two grafted-in branches. The root and original trunk of the tree is the words of the Bible and the life of a long-ago man who inspires us still today. This trunk reflects the Jesus movement which began 2,000 years ago, though two millennia of bitter theological argument has obscured its original character. We no longer know with any precision what the tree was first like—perhaps it was a fig tree—but we all have our opinions, projecting upon Jesus the image w...