Reading Daniel

The Book of Daniel is one of the most interesting in the Bible, mainly for it's combinations of genres. At points, it reads as a narrative, and others as a prophetical book. It flits continually from past to present to future, without much notice at times. But with this, the book provides a rich, vast expanse of lessons for all ages at all times.

The main focus that I took away from the book was the prophecies regarding the end times. This is mainly because I just finished an university course in Revelation, with the Old Testament connection continually being drawn to Daniel. The two tend to touch on many similar prophecies regarding events, or persons/creatures, of the end times.

For example, both books describe a Beast. This similar beast is the first of two in Revelation 13, and the last of four in Daniel 7.

"Then in my vision that night, I saw a fourth beast - terrifying, dreadful, and very strong. It devoured and crushed its victims with huge iron teeth and trampled their remains beneath its feet. It was different from any of the other beasts, and it had ten horns. As I was looking at the horns, suddenly another small horn appeared among them. Three of the first horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it. This little horn had eyes like human eyes and a mouth that was boasting arrogantly." Daniel 7:7-8

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." Revelation 13:1

Both beasts speak great words against God, making war against the saints, gaining more and more power, and then ruling over the nations for 42 months.

The symbolism is massive in these two verses. In Daniel 7, the ten horns on the beast refer to ten Gentile world powers who follow in Satan's footsteps to conquer the world. Three will eventually fall, before the Antichrist, or the little horn, arrives on the scene.

The beast in Revelation is specifically referring to the Antichrist who arrives from the sea of Gentile rulers. He sides with the seven powers who are conquering the world, and continues Satan's mission to overthrow Israel and God.

The good news is that this beast, or the Antichrist, will be destroyed eternally in the lake of fire, or hell. God will remain triumphant through Jesus Christ, and the saints.

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Reading Ezekiel

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Ezekiel and Isaiah and Jeremiah are all part of a package deal in prophecy. Together they form the major part of prophecy in the Old Testament. Ezekiel is the lesser known book, because it is a harsher form of prophecy, and slightly less organized. Still, it is a highly intellectual, bold, vision like prophetic book.

Just like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel first receives a call. In my opinion, if you are listening, everyone receives a call in their life. This call can be for a multitude of things (career, relationships, missions, church involvement), and can come in a multitude of different ways, but my belief is that God has a specific call for every one of His children. Ezekiel's call was to be a prophet.

His focus was on the future of Israel. Again, he seems to bounce back and forth with his prophecies from present day to near future to far future. Still, he remains focused on the future of Israel, and specifically the holy city Jerusalem. He first predicts the destruction of the city, and cites the sins of the people as the major reason. He then moves on to prophecies regarding foreign nations and cities. Again, even though he's not talking directly about Israel here, the two are inexplicably linked. Israel isn't secluded at all. In fact, after a study in the book of Revelation, the relationship between the Israelites and Gentiles could not be more intertwined. Finally, Ezekiel ends the book on a high note, regarding the restoration of the nation. Again, the differing timeframes can be seen here. On one hand, he was talking about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. But, a lot of what he said could be taken for the end times.

The interesting thing with prophecy is that every vision, every idea, every prediction comes from the Lord. How the author describes that vision, idea, or prediction is up to the author, but still his words are divinely inspired. The dual process is one of the most amazing things about the Bible.

Noah Movie Review

Rating: 6.8/10
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Noah
Purchase: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/movie/noah/id834786516

Last year, this was the huge movie in Christian circles. The anticipation was great, but the resulting reaction was one of huge disappointment. The movie was built up in secular and Christian circles alike, with big name actors, a big budget, and a cinematically exciting trailer. Surprisingly, the movie was backed by many popular Christian associations, including Focus on the Family.

In reality, secularly, this movie was a huge success. As a cinematic experience, this was a great movie. Strip away the Biblical background, the origin or source of this story, and the movie and plot was actually surprisingly good. However, the issue is that the movie is based on a Biblical story, and therefore it has to be a strong interpretation of the original material, which is wasn't. Especially for someone who knows the Biblical story of Noah, the differences in this movie were shockingly huge.

There are multiple twists in this version of the Noah story. First, the fallen angels. In this film they are depicted as being punished by God for helping humankind too much, being sentenced to rock bodies for eternity. These fallen angels are called Watchers. Now this is the movie's first un-Christian spin. There are no mention of Watchers in the Bible, and although there are mention of fallen angels, there is no mention of punishment for any specific reason in the actual story. Later on in the Bible, the fallen angels are mentioned as followers of Satan, which would offer a reasonable explanation as to why they were cast out of heaven. God would never punish someone for helping humankind.

The second interesting spin that dominates throughout the entire film is an interesting ritual where a snakeskin is wrapped around the forearm. This is by no means a Christian act. Instead, it is an ancient ritual, something called tefillin. It actually bears strong Satanism symbolism.

The character of Noah is also horribly twisted. The movie pictures him as violent, destructive, and no different then the men of the earth. This is possibly the farthest from the truth. The Bible states that Noah was a righteous man, one after God's own heart. He's the only one from the whole Earth who is worthy of being saved. He is peaceful, a caretaker, a nurturer.

Finally, perhaps the biggest mistake of the movie is the depiction of God. God is pictured as distant, cruel, violent, and definitely not like our Christian God. Throughout the movie He is never called by name, instead referred to as the Creator. He never talks to His people, staying silent and letting them suffer. He curses His angels and then never helps them. He loves violence, and enforces Noah killing everyone without mercy, including newborn babies. That is not the true God. Reading the Biblical story gives a completely different picture of God. God loves His people and does everything He can to save them, through Noah. He guides Noah's every step, protects him and his family, and even promises after the flood never to destroy the world through a global flood.

This movie does help to open the mind to a new perspective regarding the story of Noah. It helps the viewer to think about what Noah would have actually gone through, and the world at that time. Take our world and triple its wickedness. It's hard to imagine. The ark would have been magnificent as well, throughout the building and flood phase.

So while it is a "Christian" movie, it is not one Christians should support, even if it does introduce non-believers to the concept of God. It actually introduces them to the wrong concept of God, and warps everyone's preconceptions about our relationship with Him.

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Reading Jeremiah

For many, Jeremiah can be seen as a very depressing book. In fact, for the prophet himself, he didn't want to write down God's words they were so downcast. The book is filled with prophecies of upcoming doom, of horrors in the future. And much like Israel in the past, the present people completely ignored the words of the Lord, and continued down the wrong path of sin. When what the Lord had promised actually happened, only a handle of people were actually prepared, possibly only Jeremiah and Baruch.

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However, Jeremiah is an extremely helpful prophetic book as well. Obviously, it joins the long list of books in the Bible of wildly straightforward warning or caution signs. Over and over again, there are stories and stories of God warning the Israelites not to turn away from Him or trouble will come on them. But over and over, the Israelites ignored God completely, and ended up in despair. Jeremiah is no different.

We need to learn from the Israelite's mistakes, and take God's Words to heart. We can't be like the Israelites, and ignore God, especially when we have all of history, the whole picture to look at and learn from. We need to follow God with all of our hearts, and without turning to evil, or evil will overtake us.

Jeremiah also serves another purpose in my opinion. The book shows that at every single moment, God is in control. Through the good and through the bad, God remains all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere. Sometimes, we may not notice that God is in control, and we lose sight of exactly what our God can do, and what He does. That's what happened with these Israelites, and we have to use this story as a warning sign for us. We cannot lose sight of the almighty power of our God, and we must always trust and believe that everything happens for a reason. 

Wanting to Do Something Great

I've always had high aspirations, high goals for myself, sometimes ones that are nearly impossible, or highly unattainable. Everything I do, I strive to be the best at. Now this can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing.

Obviously, being the best at everything you do can be a great thing! Especially as Christians, one of the ways we can be great witnesses is through serving by example. The way that we live our lives should have people questioning what makes us so different. Whether it's being the best employee an employer could ask for, the best employer an employee could ask for, the best friend anyone could ask for, the best teammate, the most determined, the most humble, e.t.c., when we utilize our gifts to their maximum potential, people begin to take notice. When they take notice of the success of Christians (and not necessarily success in worldly terms, but that does definitely take a part of the equation), they begin to question what they don't have. That opens up the perfect door of opportunity to evangelize.

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However, we can get caught up in being the best too much. I think there are two ways this can happen. First, in striving to be the best, or the most successful, we could begin to judge ourselves on worldly terms, such as what accomplishments we have, what trophies, medals, awards we have accumulated. That is not successful in God's eyes. Secondly, we can get sidetracked by our mission to become the best. In fact, when we are so occupied at being the best, it can almost become a religion. It occupies our every thought, it's the reason we are living, it becomes our everything.

One of my favourite autobiographies is Me, Myself and Bob, the story of Phil Vischer's life (creator of VeggieTales). Not only is this an amazing story of perseverance, dedication, and extreme vision, but also of extreme devotion to God. Perhaps one of the most insightful statements that Phil Vischer makes is "I am growing increasingly convinced that if every one of these kids burning with passion to write that hit Christian song or make that hit Christian movie or start that hit Christian ministry to change the world would instead focus their passion on walking with God on a daily basis, then the world would change. What is 'walking with God?' Simple. Doing what He asks you to do each and every day. Living in active relationship with Him. Filling your mind with His word, and letting that word penetrate every waking moment. Because the world learns about God not by watching Christian movies, but by watching Christians." 

I'm not sure what I can add to that; it sums up everything perfectly. Are we focused on our own dreams, or on God's dream? Sure, God's dream might be that one day we do happen to have a hit something, or win a gold medal, or achieve our wildest ambitions, but first and foremost His dream is that we are working on our relationship with Him. His biggest desire is that we are walking with Him. Everything else doesn't matter.

As a sidenote, Me, Myself and Bob is an incredible book. I strongly encourage everyone to read it. Phil Vischer is blessed with vision, and a piercing clarity. His knack for putting that down into clear, concise words is also perfect. His amazing testimony has been a true blessing to my life.

Reading Isaiah

Isaiah is perhaps the most profound book of the Old Testament when it comes to revelation about Christ. Actually, much of the Old Testament contains prophecy or typology (types of people, institutions, sacrifices, e.t.c. that symbolized Jesus) regarding Christ, as the Messiah. The New Testament prophecy after Christ's ascension moves to revelation regarding Christ as a King, but that's a topic for a different post.

Isaiah is mainly a prophetic book that focuses on Christ's coming as the Messiah, but also the deliverance of Israel from slavery. The main idea is that the Messiah would release Israel from the bonds of sin, through salvation. In fact, the name Isaiah means Yahweh is Salvation. The book contains the word salvation 26 times, compared to 6 times in all the other prophetic books combined.

The book is also used to support the Substitutionary Atonement theory of salvation. Substitutionary Atonement states that Christ died as a substitute for others, instead of the people dying themselves. With the penalty of sin being death, Christ acted as our substitute and bore all of our sins, so that we wouldn't have to be punished. Isaiah tends to focus on the suffering of Christ in this act. His symbolism and imagery is piercing, and is commonly used in many Christology studies.

Interestingly, the book of Isaiah is structured much like the whole Bible is. The first 39 chapters can be compared with the first 39 books of the Bible, more commonly referred to as the Old Testament. Just like the Old Testament focused on judgement, so do these first 39 chapters, with judgement on immoral men the chosen focus. The next 27 chapters can be connected with the 27 books of the New Testament, which focus on a message of hope. Of course, that hope is Christ, our Messiah and King.

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Reading Song of Solomon

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For some reason, this book of the Bible is commonly tossed under the rug by Christians. The topic and descriptions included seem to embarrass or even shame many believers. Of course, considering the so called taboo topic of relationships, it seems like Christians want to entirely avoid discussing love. To be honest, it almost seems like we act like school kids when it comes to the topic, running away so we don't have to deal with it.

However, if we accept that the Bible is the Word of God, that means everything included comes from God. Anything that comes from God is important, including the book, and talk about relationships.

Our world today heavily relies upon relationships, especially of the romantic variety. It seems likes our lives are based on finding that perfect someone. Even if it isn't finding that one special relationship, we all seem to find fulfillment in who we are connected with. Society has picked up on that, and it seems like every major movie, book, TV Show, and even advertisements describe who the perfect person is, what they look like and how they act. Popular culture has also defined what the perfect relationship is, what is involved, including roles, emotions, actions, e.t.c. But popular culture has ruined what God designed relationships for.

If anything, we should be looking to the Bible to find out how God designed relationships to be like. Throughout His word, He lists ways we should interact with the opposite sex. Song of Solomon is just like the tip of the iceberg. In God's perfect world, He had one man and one woman together. Throughout history, men were either built up or destroyed in regards to how they participated in their relationships. Many of Paul's letters also contained helpful information regarding relationships.

Clearly, it is important to God that we have biblically defined relationships. In fact, that's the only way to have a successful relationship in Christian terms.