DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER . . .

As I read through this weeks upcoming lection, I began to wonder if I was the only one who had visions of Ghostbusters running through my head. The last days ... the end times ... the desolating sacrilige ... antichrist rising ... the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man!!!

Okay, in all seriousness ... We are basically at the end of the Pentecost season, so naturally we get apocalyptic readings. Preachers all around the country are trying to figure out how to get a handle on this one. What with the desolating sacrilege, antichrist and general mayhem, how are we all going to preach this thing? I would suggest that you go check them out Sunday evening or sometime Monday.

A few things popped into my head this week that I'm trying to sort through and make sense of. The desolating sacrilege? What's that all about? Depending on when Mark was written, it could refer to the statue of Caligula in the Temple, or it could refer to Roman flags and/or occupation of the Temple a little later. Does that have any bearing on us today?

The whole anti-Christ thing. The interesting thing here is that, unlike LaJenkins and the whole Left Behind fiasco (go HERE for the best LB deconstruction on the planet), there is no one single Antichrist (ala Nicolae Carpathia). Over in 1 John 2:18 or so, he talks about many antichrists and, as well as saying something along the lines of, "and antichrist will come" (it's early, I don't have my bible in front of me). He doesn't say "the antichrist" ... and I think that is important.

If Christ is the true Word, then antichrist is the false word. And it would appear that many false words have come and will come. And then there was this quote that this friend gave me when we were discussing the readings:

We are all antichrist everytime we don't follow the Word of God.

So there we go ... that's what I'm playing with this week. Come back Sunday evening and see how it went.