Excavations and Revelation

A couple of years ago Winston and I took a trip to Greece, and in every single travel book and website we were admonished to visit the Palace of Knossos… it was amazing…. it was a labyrinth… it was the home of the Minotaur… in short, not to be missed under any circumstances. We got really excited about going. We hopped into our little car, drove down 1 lane roads in Crete, got lost a couple of times, got stopped by some sheep, all to fulfill this quest.

Once there, however, we got a far different picture of what kind of excavation this really was. Basically, back in 1900, this Englishman named Arthur bought the Palace of Knossos and set about “renovating” it. I picture him walking into empty halls and rooms and imagining what it might have been. “Maybe this is where they hung their clothes”; “This hole in the floor could have been a toilet”; “This red line on the wall could have been a giant painting of a Greek goddess”. Except that after he was done imagining, he actually reconstructed the rooms according to his fantasies. We pay money to go visit this site, and unless you very carefully read all the signposts and interpret them for what they are, you might actually think that it’s the real thing. I’m petitioning to have the site renamed “Place of Arthur”, but so far the Greek government hasn’t given me the time of day.

It’s human nature to “reconstruct” history like this. We don’t like the unknown, and God gave us a vivid imagination. We take the book of Revelation, which to me at least, is incomprehensible, and we make neat little connections and with a little bit of imagination we have something that kinda sorta makes a little bit of sense. But it’s not the real thing, and we have to remember that it’s just a reconstruction.

I’m not holding out hope that I’ll ever understand Revelation. And I hope that I’ll continue to have the strength to accept the not knowing.

it's the end of the world as we know it...

this song has been stuck in my head ever since i found out we are doing a series on the end times. it just keeps going, on repeat, and it's driving me insane. but beyond that, i'm really enjoying the series and am learning stuff i would never have explored otherwise. eschatology isn't exactly the most exciting topic i can think of- when it gets down to its history and all the angles and layers. it all sounds a bit like crazy-talk. like i want to bust out in the middle of some of the explanations and yell "that's crazy talk!!" (revelation is bad enough as it is.. we needn't any more craziness). but i like how we're at least looking for some semblance of relevancy and seeking the nature of God through it all (rather than just being 'okay' with the left behind theology and continuing to scare children into a quick and efficient salvation). *the technical term for this theology is 'dispensationalism'. see? i learned some'in!

last week at church, we had a lot of discussion throughout the sermon (or 'talk', as we are prone to calling it). when the question was posed, "if we don't believe this (dispensationlist) theology, then what is the alternative? what's going to happen?" (i think i actually said: "what's going to help me sleep at night?") in response, someone (a new guy- his first time at journey) said something to the effect of: it doesn't make a difference. the not knowing is okay, and even freeing...

that 'not knowing' works for me when it comes to many big issues- like evolution, for example. if it's ever 100% proven, my foundation will still be in tact. i won't have to question my faith or denounce christ or concede that christianity is ridiculous. this is because i've decided that it's still worthwhile in SPITE of the evolutionary process. i've just got to start looking at revelation in the same way and go from there. so far, i've avoided it entirely. but then i feel ignorant, and there's nothing more frustrating than an ignorant christian who knows nothing about a very big part of the bible. (not as frustrating as narrow-minded christians who refuse to ever see the color gray), but i don't want to be either.

so the point is, i'm excited about this series.

Welcome to the JourneyDallas Blog!

We'll be blogging here a couple of times each week to keep you posted about what's happening in and around the Journey Dallas Community. We'll tell you what's coming up, what's been going on, and what we've been thinking/talking about.

And this blog is for the whole community. If you have an entry you'd like to submit about something happening at Journey, e-mail Luke at luke@thedetour.net.

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BTW- We kicked off our new series, "Leaving Behind Left Behind: a 4-week series about the end of time, the coming of God, and the future of the world," last night. The conversation was great, and we look forward to exploring these ideas over the next few weeks.