Climbing the Tree of Life

As a boy I was a climber of trees. I guess most boys are. While growing up, my favorite spot on earth was high in an old pine or oak. At my grandfather's house in New Hampshire, I built a tree house (actually just a platform made of a few planks) as high as I could in a tall white pine. I envied the Swiss Family Robinson and Tarzan, because they got to live in trees.

In Sunday School, my favorite Bible story was about Zacchaeus, the little guy who climbed the sycamore tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. Later on the story became even more meaningful when I learned that Christ climbed another type of "tree" to save me from a Fall. (Galatians 3:13)

The Garden of Eden also fascinated me. The storybooks always pictured the serpent entwined around a sturdy branch on the Tree of the Knowledge offering Eve some fruit. At some point during my Christian education, I must have made a comment about wanting to join the snake. For I remember being sternly warned that the serpent was "bad," and I should not want to be anywhere near him. Too bad, I thought. He had the best seat in the garden.

The Book of Revelation ends the way Genesis begins - with the Tree of Life. This wondrous tree in the New Jerusalem is much better than the old Edenic variety. It is no longer a solitary tree in the middle of a garden. In New Earth, the Tree of Life grows on both sides of the River of Life that flows from the throne of God. "The Tree of Life was planted on each side of the River, producing twelve kinds of fruit, a ripe fruit each month. The leaves of the Tree are for healing the nations" (22:2).

I once read that largest single living organism on earth is an aspen tree in Utah. It is known as Pando or the Trembling Giant. It appears to be many trees, but is in fact one massive root system with many trunks. This "tree" weighs over six thousand tons. It is considered by some to be the oldest single living organism on earth, having an estimated age of eighty thousand years. That is how I picture the Tree of Life in the garden of New Earth.

Robert Frost wrote a poem entitled "Birches." He reflects on seeing white birches in New Hampshire leaning unnaturally toward the ground. He writes: "I like to think some boy's been swinging them. / But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay. / Ice-storms do that."

So when you get to heaven and are walking along the streets of gold by the riverside, you may see some branches of the Tree of Life that look as if some boy's been swinging on them. If you see such a tree, look high into the highest branches. You may discover that I got there before you and have found the perfect spot. To paraphrase Frost's closing line: One could do worse than be a climber of trees.

Millennium, Smillennium

I have never liked how Christians divide themselves up into factions based on their view of the millennium. On more than one occasion I have been asked the pigeonholing question, "Are you Pre-, Post-, or A-millennial?" For those readers who are eschatologically challenged, that question refers to the timing of Christ's return in relation to the thousand-year reign of Christ mentioned in Revelation 20. (Please don't ask me to explain any further, or I will fall asleep at the keyboard.)

Then the premillennialists further divide themselves into Pre-, Mid-, or Post- tribulation ....zzzz..... (Oh, did I just nod off? Sorry.)

For a while I called myself a pan-millennialist - meaning that it would all "pan out in the end." But that joke got old quickly. Then I tried to expand the options with concepts like quasi-millennial, supra-millennial, or trans-millennial. No one liked my answers. I am obviously not taking the issue seriously enough.

What I really want to do is shout, "IT'S A BOOK OF SYMBOLS, FOR GOODNESS SAKE! DON'T TAKE IT SO LITERALLY!" But then I would be accused of really being a closet amillennialist. A friend recently gave me a disc with twenty lectures that prove the superiority of the amillennial position over premillennial dispensationalism. I was bored after fifteen minutes. So I guess I am not a amillennialist.

I wish more Christians would see symbols as windows to a spiritual reality beyond doctrine. You don't explain things like the millennium; you step through them into the reality that they point toward. It is like the old Zen story about mistaking the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself. The symbols of Revelation are like Alice's looking glass, a portal to a different world. If you ask me if I am "Pre, Post, or A," then all you are doing is showing me you don't get it.

If John wanted to teach history or theology, he would have written a history or theology book. But he wrote an apocalypse. The closest thing to it today is a "graphic novel." Graphic novels look like comics, but they aren't for kids. They are all about the narrative and the pictures. If someone has to explain them to you, then you have missed the point.

Revelation is spiritual imagination. If you don't have one, then you can always choose between Pre, Post or A.

Who is that Masked Man?

When I was a child I regularly attended the movies on Saturdays - that is, when there wasn't a game to play or watch. Like all boys my age, oaters were my favorites. These were classic Westerns that had archetypal good guys and bad guys. You could always tell the bad guys by the background music and the color of their clothes. The hero likewise could always be identified by his white horse and white hat.

So it is with the greatest oater of all time - the Book of Revelation. (Remember how it started with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse?) In the second half of chapter 19, the Lone Ranger finally arrives on the scene to save the day. A white horse appears, and on the horse is a Rider whose name is Faithful and True. Three guesses who this guy is! Right, this is the long awaited return of Christ. He enters on stage to save the day with his cavalry on their white horses right behind him.

The long awaited Battle of Armageddon is actually anti-climactic. In one sentence the battle is over, the villain and his minions are defeated, and the victory celebration begins. This is the highly anticipated hope of evangelical Christians.

Last Sunday we celebrated the Lord's Supper at our little Baptist church. The pastor closed the service with the traditional words of the apostle Paul, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes." Then he added his own heartfelt addendum: "Lord Jesus, come quickly!" This is the true spirit of Revelation. The Bible ends with these words.

I am enough of an evangelical to have my heart stirred by such words. I feel uncomfortable in time. I yearn for eternity. This human role that I am playing in time and space is already old. I have had enough glimpses behind the curtain to know that this world is a stage and we are all players, as the Bard said.

I have read the script. I know how the story ends. I am impatient for the Director to wrap up the show, so I can set aside my persona and enjoy the cast party. Lord Jesus, please come quickly!

The Secret Chord

When Canadian singer k.d. lang sang at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, I thought I was witnessing a scene from the Book of Revelation. She was dressed all in white standing on a towering dais, surrounded by an audience of thousands of people, also dressed in white. And she sang a beautiful rendition of  Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah." 

The song begins with the story of King David who first used the sacred word in his psalms: "Now I've heard there was a secret chord that David played, and it pleased the Lord .... It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift, the baffled king composing Hallelujah."

Scientists tell us there is background radiation that permeates the universe, white noise emanating from the Big Bang, the moment of creation. It can be heard as static on radios and televisions when no earthly signal gets in the way.

The Hindus say this sound is the sacred syllable AUM (also spelled Om). Lao Tzu, the philosopher of ancient China, called it Tao. The Greek philosophers called it Logos, meaning Word, the basic principle of the universe. The apostle John opened his Gospel with this same Greek word and says that the Word was incarnated in Jesus.

I have heard the chord, and I suspect that you have also. The psalmist said that the heavens sing it day and night. Not with words, but with an audible silence that goes to the ends of the cosmos. "Their words aren't heard, their voices aren't recorded, But their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere." (Psalm 19:3-4) The apostle Paul described it as "words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words." (I Corinthians 2:13)

I hear it when my heart is quiet enough to pay attention to the Song beneath the noisy ramblings of my mind. But it is not AUM or Tao I hear. I hear Hallelujah! Handel recorded it in his Hallelujah Chorus. The apostle John wrote the words to the song in Revelation 19:1-4.

The version of Hallelujah that k.d.lang sang does not have the original lyrics. She chose to sing a later version. (It went through four revisions from 1984 to 2008. You can read the account of the revisions here.) The last verse was changed from words of faith and praise to words of doubt and violence. She sang, "Well maybe there's a god above. But all I've ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who'd out drew ya.... It's a cold and broken Hallelujah."

I cannot imagine why anyone would change a song of worship to one of despair, but I guess the darkness of the human heart should no longer surprise me. The closing words of the song, as originally written by composer Leonard Cohen, are these: "I'll stand before the Lord of Song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!" To that I can only say "Amen! Hallelujah!"

Without a Trace

Archeology has always fascinated me. At one point during my ministry, I subscribed to no less than three different archeological journals! Most interesting to me are the so-called "lost civilizations." It amazes me that whole cities, and even empires, can vanish without a trace. Jungles, deserts and oceans swallow civilizations whole. Empires rise, fall and vanish completely. When the ruins of an unknown metropolis are discovered in some desolate corner of the world, often there are few clues as to the language, culture or fate of the residents.

Cultures are fragile and temporary phenomena on this planet. Empires collapse into dust. In Revelation 18 the symbolic city of Babylon burns and crumbles. Its economy is shattered. (18:11-17) Its art and music destroyed. (18:21-24) It becomes nothing more than a ghost town (18:1) and eventually disappears into the sea like the mythical Atlantis (18:21).

So it is with all cities and cultures. So it will be with American culture. It is hard for most of us to fathom this reality. Our country will one day cease to be. This nation has existed for a little over two centuries - a blink of an eye in world history. It is already showing the signs of cultural obsolescence. Likely even the name of the United States of America will be forgotten. Certainly the names of all the politicians, businessmen and entertainers will be lost.

If this is true of nations and civilizations, the powerful and famous, how much more is it true of us? Let me tell you something you may not like to think about. You will be completely forgotten. (Ecclesiastes 2:16; 9:5) No one will remember our names ... not even our own descendants. Can you name any of your great-great grandparents? You have sixteen of them! So is our fate.

All that will remain of us is that which is eternal. If man is truly more than an animal, if we are the intentional creation of God, made in God's image with an immortal, spiritual essence... then that is all that will last.  Therefore the cultivation of the spiritual life is of supreme importance.

Yet our American culture is obsessed with the temporary - temporary fame, temporary prosperity, temporary pleasure, temporary happiness - and the permanent is forgotten. Learn a lesson from Babylon. "The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever." (I John 2:17)

We Have Met the Enemy

The best ending is a surprise ending. Suspense films weave intricate webs of hints and innuendos, twists and turns, trying to misdirect the audience. We diligently try to figure out "who done it." Who is the real villain? The mark of a good film is when all the clues are clearly present, yet we are completely fooled. The Sixth Sense was such a film. I never imagined that Bruce Willis was a ghost. Yet when I saw the film a second time, all the clues were there in plain sight.

Revelation has this type of surprise ending. But most readers are so ignorant of apocalyptic symbolism, and so blind to our own sinfulness, that we fail to see the identity of the villainess when she is literally "unveiled" in Revelation 17.

The Whore of Babylon is the culmination of the Book of Revelation. She is the revelation of Revelation. In this apocalyptic narrative we have seen all sorts of heroes and villains come across the pages of the book. Finally in chapter 17, the archenemy of God's people is revealed. Who is it? The Whore of Babylon is a frankensteinian replica of the Bride of Christ. The enemy of the Church is the church - an imitation church!

Protestants have historically identified the Harlot as the Roman Catholic Church. She is a church, and she is obviously in Rome. So who else could it be, right? Wrong! As any aficionado of suspense films knows, it is never the obvious choice.

A few years ago I read the book Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan, the founder of Gospel For Asia. He describes coming from India to the United States for the first time. He saw the obscenely opulent church buildings of American Christianity, and he was rightly shocked. On the other hand we, like the proverbial frog in slowly heated water, don't even notice anything unusual. We are "dressed in purple and scarlet, festooned with gold and gems and pearls" (17:4) and do not see anything wrong with that.

Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna was another book that impressed me in the same way. The American church, both Evangelical and Protestant, is dressed like a Pagan Priestess, but we don't even notice. We are "brimming with defiling obscenities" (17:4) but do not see anything blasphemous in the way we do church.

Walt Kelly, creator of the Pogo comic, first used the phrase "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us" on a poster for Earth Day in 1970. It woke us up to the environmental truth that we are committing global suicide.

We need the same wake-up call when it comes to our Christian faith. The enemy of the church is not "out there" in some villainous papacy, Muslim fundamentalism, secular humanism, or New Age spirituality. We have met the Scarlet Harlot, and she is us.

The God of Disasters

Pat Robertson said that the earthquake in Haiti was a curse from God for a supposed pact that Haitians made with the devil to free them from French occupation. (There was no such pact, but let's not let the facts get in the way of a convenient theodical argument.) Most Christians scoffed and looked down their noses at this televangelist who remains an embarrassment to their religion.

But what alternative explanation did they propose? Was the quake nothing more than a natural phenomenon outside of God's control? If that were true, it would make the Deity into a powerless demigod incapable of controlling what he created.

Was the earthquake simply not important enough for God to prevent? Really? One hundred thousand people die in a minute and it is not worth divine attention? The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed over two hundred thousand. How many people are important enough to get his attention?

The explanation I hear most often is that God "permitted" the earthquake but did not cause it. Does that really get the Lord off the hook? On January 28, a fifteen-year-old girl was severely beaten in a Seattle transit tunnel while three security guards watched and did nothing. They "permitted" the violence, and we are rightly shocked. Is this the type of God Christians believe in? I am as appalled by this type of evangelical deity as I am at Robertson's vengeful cursing god.

The other common solution is to lobotomize God, picturing the Divinity as less than a Person. The Cosmic It is not responsible. It doesn't think or feel. It is just a Force, an impersonal Power, the Energy of the universe. So let's all sing, "We are the World," give a few bucks and feel better. If there is one thing that is obvious to me, it is that God cannot be less personal, conscious or caring than humans are!

So what is the solution? Revelation 16 describes the God of Jesus Christ as "the God behind these disasters" (16:9), referring to the "bowls of wrath" that fill this chapter. In the end the buck stops with God.

I don't have any neat explanation for the age-old problem of suffering and evil. But I know the problem is in our thinking and not in God's nature. It is not that God is inattentive or impotent, callous or uncaring. It is certainly not that God lets the devil do his dirty work while he keeps his hands clean by only "permitting" bad things to happen.

It is that our mini-brains cannot comprehend the Big Picture. All the hand-wringing, name-calling and excuse-making will not change that truth. Somehow the solution centers in the Suffering God, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, (Rev. 13:8) the Crucified One who died on the Cross. The more we know Him, the more we understand the pain of the world.

(Artwork is "Haiti will reborn" by Haitian artist Frantz Zephiri)

The World Without Us

I think Jesus was a gardener. I know the Bible says he was a carpenter. But in those days it was common for most families to grow their own food, and sometimes even have a small vineyard or olive grove to supplement their income. I think Jesus' heart was in growing things, not making things. You can tell by the stories he tells. There are very few building illustrations in his preaching, but lots of agricultural images!

I also have a modest garden in my backyard in which I grow a variety of vegetables. I have two favorite gardening seasons - planting and harvesting. Planting season is exciting for its sense of anticipation and expectation. Harvest season is even better. It is the culmination of all the weeks and months of work.

Revelation 14 pictures harvest season on earth. I could go into the details of the symbolism, but I would rather paint the big picture.

The earth has its geological seasons. They say the earth is warming. (I wouldn't know it from the mountains of snow in my yard, but let's say it is true for Al Gore's sake.) The earth has its ice ages and tropical eras, its winters and springs. We are entering the summer of the earth. Deserts are expanding, glaciers are receding, and ice caps are melting. That means global autumn - and harvest - is just around the corner.

Humankind has its seasons, and our end is approaching. Alan Weisman has a book entitled, The World Without Us,which describes the earth after the demise of the human race. His apocalyptic vision is worth pondering.

Each person has a life cycle. One day the world will go on without us. As I grow older, I become more aware of my mortality. One day my body will give out. It will be burned up, and my ashes scattered in the mountains to fertilize pines and maples. All that will remain is what I have done.

The East calls it karma. The West calls it judgment. Whatever we call it, it is true. Our works will follow us. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them."  (Revelation 14:13)

The good news is that this is pronounced as a blessing to be welcomed like the autumn harvest for those who "die in the Lord." Praise God for the work of Christ, which followed him ... and by his grace follows me after my time on earth is over.

(Artwork is Der Triumph des Lammes, der Fall Babylons / Ernte und Blutkelter by Matthias Gerung 1530-1532)

The Church & the Antichrist

The most popular sideshow in Christian circles is trying to figure out the identity of the Antichrist. The Roman Catholic Church has historically been the main bogeyman for Protestants, being identified as the Beast of Revelation by such leaders as Martin Luther, John Calvin, Roger Williams and John Wesley.

In modern history, Hitler and other Hitleresque characters have been common targets. Faddish variations on this theme in recent decades have been identifying Ronald Reagan or George Bush, Bill Clinton or Barak Obama as the Big Bad Guy, depending on which party of the congressional oligarchy you embrace.

I will not add my voice to this specious speculation. My guiding principle is this statement from Jesus: "For false christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect." (Matthew 24:24) That means that the False Christ (Revelation 13:1-10) and False Prophet (Revelation 13:11-18) will be very attractive to Christians. So beware whom you champion.

It is more helpful to see these two beasts of Revelation 13 in general terms. The John who wrote Revelation also wrote these words: "As you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come." (I John 2:18) Each age has its antichrists. There are many incarnations of the two beasts before the final ones. Who are they today?

I paint the two beasts of Revelation 13 in broad strokes as Government and Religion, especially big government and big religion. In a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, Lord Acton wrote this famous line: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

The greatest danger to believers - now and in the "last hour" - are those who hold worldly power - political, economic and religious power. Power corrupts. The best defense against the Antichrist is to rob him of his power. Small government and small religion are the best defense against this Great Offense.

But Revelation says that this advice will not be heeded in the future. People looking for some Great Leader to solve their worldly problems will embrace the Beast. Those who look to religion to save them from their sins will get what they desire - the Anti-Savior.

"Are you listening to this? They've made their bed; now they must lie in it. Anyone marked for prison goes straight to prison; anyone pulling a sword goes down by the sword. Meanwhile, God's holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground." (Revelation 13:9-10)

(Painting is "The Double Cross" by Fritz Hirschberger)