Daily Retreat 11/22/08
2008 Nov 22 Sat: Cecilia, v, mt M
Rv 11: 4-12/ Ps 143(144): 1b. 2. 9-10/ Lk 20: 27-40
From today’s readings: “I, John, heard a voice from Heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses.... Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!... He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”
Two Witnesses
Another unsettled point of interpretation concerns the identity of the two witnesses mentioned in Chapter Eleven of the Apocalypse. Initially, a strong case can be made linking Moses and Elijah (and by extension, the whole Old Testament collection of Law and Prophecy) to these two witnesses, since “they have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying” (cf. Elijah in 1 Kings 17:1), and “they also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish,” (cf. Moses in Exodus 7:17-20).
On the other hand, though, this conjecture is not entirely satisfactory since, for instance, neither Moses nor Elijah died and had their corpses lying in the main street of Jerusalem, the city “where indeed their Lord was crucified.” Possibly these two witnesses are personifications of the Old Testament and the New Testament, or possibly history has yet to see the definitive fulfillment of this prophecy.
What is to be avoided, however, is the gratuitous identification of these witnesses (or the infamous “beast”) with any current world figures. That’s the biggest mistake made with the Book of Revelation: to read the prophecies with an active imagination that can creatively find a way to link all of them specifically with current events and persons. A few years ago, some alarmists were arguing that Saddam Hussein was the Beast of Revelation - sixty years ago, however, Adolf Hitler was the person some people believed the “beast” prophecies applied to.
Scripture presents God’s Revelation for all ages - we read it, study it, and learn much from it, but it would be the height of arrogance to claim that our age can establish the definitive interpretation of all of Revelation!
Rv 11: 4-12/ Ps 143(144): 1b. 2. 9-10/ Lk 20: 27-40
From today’s readings: “I, John, heard a voice from Heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses.... Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!... He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”
Two Witnesses
Another unsettled point of interpretation concerns the identity of the two witnesses mentioned in Chapter Eleven of the Apocalypse. Initially, a strong case can be made linking Moses and Elijah (and by extension, the whole Old Testament collection of Law and Prophecy) to these two witnesses, since “they have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying” (cf. Elijah in 1 Kings 17:1), and “they also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish,” (cf. Moses in Exodus 7:17-20).
On the other hand, though, this conjecture is not entirely satisfactory since, for instance, neither Moses nor Elijah died and had their corpses lying in the main street of Jerusalem, the city “where indeed their Lord was crucified.” Possibly these two witnesses are personifications of the Old Testament and the New Testament, or possibly history has yet to see the definitive fulfillment of this prophecy.
What is to be avoided, however, is the gratuitous identification of these witnesses (or the infamous “beast”) with any current world figures. That’s the biggest mistake made with the Book of Revelation: to read the prophecies with an active imagination that can creatively find a way to link all of them specifically with current events and persons. A few years ago, some alarmists were arguing that Saddam Hussein was the Beast of Revelation - sixty years ago, however, Adolf Hitler was the person some people believed the “beast” prophecies applied to.
Scripture presents God’s Revelation for all ages - we read it, study it, and learn much from it, but it would be the height of arrogance to claim that our age can establish the definitive interpretation of all of Revelation!
posted by FrPitstick | 11/19/2008
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