Apocalyptic? #31: Armageddon III--The Plague of Famine: Jesus, John, Josephus

 

The Plague of Famine Transformed into War Terminology

When Jesus opened the first four Seals in Chapter 6 of Revelation, he outlined the development of the Battle of Armageddon as four men riding horses.  As I commented in an earlier post, conquest, war, and death are easily seen as war terminology, but “famine” could easily be taken as a “natural disaster.”  I promised, in that earlier post, to eventually demonstrate, by citing from Josephus, how “famine” became one of the greatest killers of Jews in the Jewish-Roman War of 66-73 A.D.

1.      The first horseman was conquest, as the second horseman, war between the Romans and the Jews, was touched off by Jews wanting to conquer Rome at Masada.  Josephus writes: “[S]ome . . . [that wanted to] go to war, made an assault upon a certain fortress called Masada . . . and slew the Romans that were there.  . . .  And this was the true beginning of our war with the Romans” (Wars II.XVI.2).

2.      The third horseman, famine, followed shortly after the war began, and the fourth horseman was “Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth [land], to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8 NKJV).

The Prediction by Jesus:  In the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24:7 (NKJV):

^“And Jesus . . . said to them: ‘. . . For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.’”

 

The Prediction by John:  In Revelation 6:5-6 (NKJV), John describes:

He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” 

 

Defining Famine: In Matthew 20:2, a denarius was a day’s wage for a farm worker and in John 12:5, three hundred denarii equals a year’s wage.  Working all day long for just a quart of wheat indicates famine.

Famines in Various Places: Even before the siege of Jerusalem, Jews in Judea were dying as a result of famine.  The sieges of the Romans on the various cities of Judea had the effect of producing famine.  For example, Josephus writes of the famine in Jotapata (Wars III.VII.11).  The Romans had destroyed the crops as they invaded the land of Israel. Josephus writes further: “[T]he people of Gamala . . . the more infirm perished by famine” (Wars IV.I.9), so it happened as Jesus had said: “there will be famines . . . in various places.”  But none of the prior famines compared to the famine in Jerusalem during the Battle of Armageddon.

The Prediction by Niger:  When the zealots managed to kill (one of the ten kings) Niger—in the civil war in Jerusalem—Josephus comments: “Now when they were slaying him, he made this imprecation upon them, that they might undergo both famine and pestilence in this war, and besides that they might come to the mutual slaughter of one another, all which imprecations God confirmed against these impious men, and was what came most justly upon them” (Wars IV.VI.1).  Niger’s prediction came true as the Zealots who killed Niger participated in the civil war activity that produced the famine.

Famine in the Civil War in Jerusalem:  The intemperate behavior of the various factions in the Jewish civil war in Jerusalem had the effect of producing famine.  Having arrived in Jerusalem after losing to the Romans in Gischala, John of Gischala joined in a civil war against other Jewish factions.  A bloody civil war broke out in the city between John, the zealot party, the Idumeans, and Simon son of Giora.  Josephus writes: “[T]hey were an unprofitable and a useless multitude, they spent those provisions beforehand, which might otherwise have been sufficient for the fighting men . . . they were the occasion of . . . famine therein” (Wars IV.III.3). Recall that Simon son of Giora had “enlarged many of the caves . . . as repositories for his treasures, and . . . the fruits that he had got by rapine” (Wars IV.IX.4) in his ransacking of the Acrabattene toparchy (Plague of the Locusts).  Meanwhile, the zealots had “seized upon the inner court of the temple . . . and . . . they had plenty of provisions” (Wars V.I.2).  Since “Simon had his supply of provisions” (Wars V.I.4), his adversary John of Gischala attacked Simon’s supplies:

[T]ill he set on fire those houses that were full of corn and of all other provisions.  The same thing was done by Simon . . . as if they had on purpose done it to serve the Romans, by destroying what the city had laid up against the siege . . . all the places . . . about the temple were burnt down, and . . . almost all the corn was burnt which would have been sufficient for a siege of many years.  So they were taken by means of the famine (Wars V.I.4).

 

Meanwhile, Josephus was using the famine to try to persuade inhabitants of Jerusalem to surrender: “For the Romans are not unacquainted with that famine which is in the city, whereby the people are already consumed” (Wars V.IX.3).

Famine Worsens: “Those that went out into the valleys to gather food,” as described by Josephus, did so because “the severity of the famine made them bold in thus going out; so nothing remained but that . . . they should be taken by the enemy” (Wars V.XI.1). Josephus describes the worsening state of the famine:

[T]heir famine . . . inflamed more and more . . . no corn . . . appeared publicly . . .but the robbers came running into . . . private houses . . . they saw that they would very soon die of themselves for want of food.  Many there were indeed who sold what they had for one measure; it was of wheat, if they were the richer sort; but of barley, if they were poorer.  When these had so done, they shut themselves up in the inmost rooms of their houses, and ate the corn they had gotten . . . they snatched the bread out of the fire, half baked, and ate it very hastily . . . children pulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating, out of their very mouths . . . so did the mothers do as to their infants; and when those that were most dear were perishing . . . they were not ashamed to take from them the very last drops that might preserve their lives . . . the old men, who held their food fast, were beaten . . . the women[‘s] . . . hair was torn . . . they lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the morsels . . . and shook them down upon the floor (Wars V.X.2-3).

 

Eating Old Cow Dung: Josephus describes the thousands who died in the famine: “Manneus . . . [told] Titus . . . that no fewer than one hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty dead bodies” were carried out of Jerusalem through a single gate he was guarding in just a few days.  Manneus had been tasked with keeping an accurate count.  After that:

[M]any of the eminent citizens . . . told [Titus] that no fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at the gates . . . and . . . that when they were no longer able to carry out the dead bodies of the poor, they laid their corpses on heaps in very large houses, and shut them up therein; and also that a medimnus of wheat [=1 ½ bushels] was sold for a talent [=100 lbs. of either gold or silver] . . . some persons were driven to . . . the common sewers and old dung-hills of cattle and to eat the dung which they got there . . . now used for food (Wars V.XIII.7).

 

Eating Anything Chewable: When food was virtually gone, “those that perished by the famine . . . their hunger was so intolerable, that it obliged them to chew everything . . . girdles and shoes; and . . . the very leather which belonged to their shields they pulled off and gnawed . . . wisps of old hay” (Wars VI.III.3).

Eating Their Own Babies: In what Josephus called “horrible” (Wars VI.III.3):

[T]here was a certain woman [whose] name was Mary [who had fled to Jerusalem when her town Bethezub was attacked but now] it was . . . impossible for her . . . to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow . . . .  She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, “Oh thou miserable infant! For whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine . . . be thou my food . . . she slew her son and then roasted him, and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed” (Wars VI.III.4).

Burning the Victims of Famine: After burning down the temple, Titus “gave orders to the soldiers, both to burn . . . the city . . . also . . . burnt down . . . were . . . those houses that were full of the dead bodies of such as were destroyed by famine” (Wars VI.VI.3).  Josephus concludes:

Accordingly, as the people were now slain, many . . . deserters were caught . . . and were all slain; for these were too weak, by reason of their want of food, to fly away from them; so their dead bodies were thrown to the dogs [note the "beasts of the earth” reference in Revelation 6:8].  Now every sort of death was thought more tolerable than the famine . . . .  Nor was there any place in the city that had no dead bodies in it, but what was entirely covered with either those that were killed by the famine or the rebellion; and all was full of the dead bodies of such as had perished, either by that sedition or by that famine (Wars VI.VII.2).

      

“[W]hen [the Romans] were come to the houses to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is of such as died by the famine” (Wars VI.VIII.5).  The Four Horsemen had arrived:  Conquest, War, Famine, and Death.

Apocalyptic? #6: The Divorce of God (7 Seals)

Thus says the Lord: “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, with which I have put her away?

 (Isaiah 50:1—See also Jeremiah 3:6-10)

                                                                                                                                              

Have world events caught your attention lately?  A world-wide COVID19 pandemic, the resulting shut down of the world’s economies, riots, looting, burning, and anarchy in the streets of American cities, the impeachment of an American president based on an interpretation of a phone call, earthquakes all over the globe, massively destructive hurricanes?  Even within the past century:  two World Wars, a genocidal holocaust, wars and rumors of wars surrounding the newly established State of Israel, the use of atomic weapons, 911, and other Islamic Terrorist Attacks? 

Catching the attention of the Egyptian pharaoh was the goal of the Ten Plagues brought by Moses.  God wanted to warn Egypt that He was taking Israel away to the Promised Land, to give the Pharaoh the chance to repent and let His people go.  Catching the attention of Israel was the goal of the Seven Seals of Revelation.  He wanted to warn Israel that she was in the process of being DIVORCED, to give her the chance to repent.  

J. Massyngberde Ford observes:

The Hebrew document which resembles the apocalyptic scroll most closely is the get mequssar, the tied (folded and sealed) deed.

. . . .

It is said that the folded get originated with priests who wished to divorce their wives, as in Baba Bathra 160b (Epstein):

What is the reason why the Rabbis instituted a folded (deed)?—They were [in] a place [inhabited] by priests, who were very hot-tempered and they divorced their wives (for the slightest provocation). Consequently the Rabbis made [this] provision, so that in the meantime they might cool down.

. . . . [T]he Lamb's biblion . . . might easily be a bill of divorce . . . .

Biblion is used for a bill of divorce in LXX Deut 24:1,3, Isa 50:1, Jer 3:8, Mark 10:4, Matt 19:7 . . . .  Although the Greek biblion is usually qualified by apostasion, the Semitic word get is often used without qualification when it means "bill of divorce." (J. Massyngberde Ford, Revelation, vol. 38 of The Anchor Bible [Garden City, New York:  Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975], 92-94.)

In Deuteronomy 24:1 and 3, the very same term for “bill” of divorce (biblion) is used when God gave Israel the law concerning divorce as when in Isaiah 50:1 and Jeremiah 3:8 prophesied that God would divorce Israel—would give her a bill of divorcement.  The term biblion is the Greek word translated “scroll” in Revelation 5:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9.  The document actually resembled a pamphlet or brochure, rather than a scroll.  It was sealed at every fold.  Jesus (the Lamb) was the only Israelite deemed “worthy” to break the seals and open the biblion.  Jesus was the victim of Israel’s greatest sin—demanding his crucifixion.  Each time a seal was broken, there was an opportunity for God’s wife—Israel—to repent and be forgiven. 

Since we are “Reading Revelation through the Mirror” (See Apocalyptic? #2), John has now moved two steps away from the mirror, in the following steps:

1.      The church in dispersion (to whom John is writing) was informed largely through the “epistles” of Paul and others.  There, in Revelation 1-3, John began his book exactly where the church was at the time, sending “epistles/letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor.”

To:

2.      The Gospels’ presentation of a mortal Jesus, the servant of God, was updated with John’s picture of the exaltation of the Lamb in Heaven (Revelation 4-5).

To:

3.       The Jewish prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea) presented Israel/Zion as the wife of God who played the “harlot” and who was, therefore, threatened with “divorce.” John precedes his “plagues” with the telos of this divorce threat--the “divorce” scroll with seven seals, as seen by J. Massyngberde Ford (Revelation 6-11).

With the number 7 operative in the divorce scroll, one is reminded of Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness-based-upon-repentance in Luke 17:3-4: “If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he sins against you seven times . . . and turns again to you saying ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”  Matthew 18:21-22 reports that Peter asked Jesus, “Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?  As many as seven times?”  Jesus answers: “Seventy times seven.”  What seems clear is that Jesus and God encourage forgiveness, so long as there is repentance.  In opening the seven seals of the divorce biblion in Revelation, God is trying to capture the attention of his wife, Israel, to give her the opportunity to repent.  The bottom line, however, is stated in Revelation 9:20-21: 

“And the rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk, and they repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

So, what were the warnings that God gave to Israel?  What are the Seven Seals?

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE:  The first four seals are described as horsemen.  Israel has seen these warnings for years.

Seal #1:  Conquest.  Beginning with the Jews being carried away into Babylon, Israel had been subdued by a constant progression of World Empires:  The Babylonian Empire, followed by the Medo-Persian Empire, followed by the Greek Empire, and now finally followed by the Roman Empire.  John, in Revelation, changes the meaning of “Conqueror” from its typical meaning of “one who kills and destroys” to the meaning of a martyr—"one who is willingly killed and destroyed.”  Jesus, who willingly allowed himself to be crucified, serves as the paradigm of a true Conqueror.  But in this passage, John reverts to the original, typical meaning.  The Jews were sent into captivity in Babylon to catch their attention—to enable them to repent and avoid Divorce.  In the 7 years from 66 to 73 AD, the Jews are facing the worst of the Roman conquest.  The Jewish state declared independence from Rome in 66, and Rome promptly responded, crushing-killing-enslaving the Jews, looting and burning the Temple, and destroying Jerusalem.  This “conquest” should, most surely, have caught the attention of Israel, right?

Seal #2:  War.  Beginning with the declaration of independence in 66 AD, the war began.  Josephus, the Jewish writer from that period, wrote the gory details in his book, The Wars of the Jews.  One of the most cruel tactics used by the Romans in this war is described by Josephus in War 5, Chapter 11:

So now Titus . . . sent a party of horsemen, and ordered they should lay ambushes for those that went out into the valleys to gather food. . . . [T]he greater part of them were poor people, who . . . could not hope to escape away, together with their wives and children. . . . [T]hey were first whipped, and then tormented with all sorts of tortures, before they died, and were then crucified before the wall of the city. . . . they caught every day five hundred Jews; nay, some days they caught more . . . .  So the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest, when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies.

This “war” should, most surely, have caught the attention of Israel, right?

Seal #3:  Famine.  “Those that went out into the valleys to gather food,” as described by Josephus, did so because “the severity of the famine made them bold in thus going out; so nothing remained but that . . . they should be taken by the enemy.”  The Romans had destroyed the crops as they invaded the land of Israel.  This “famine” should, most surely, have caught the attention of Israel, right?

Seal #4:  Death.  According to Wikipedia: 

Josephus claims that 1.1 million people were killed during the siege, of which a majority were Jewish. Josephus attributes this to the celebration of Passover which he uses as rationale for the vast number of people present among the death toll. Armed rebels, as well as the frail citizens, were put to death. All of Jerusalem's remaining citizens became Roman prisoners. After the Romans killed the armed and elder people, 97,000 were still enslaved . . . .  Of the 97,000, thousands were forced to become gladiators and eventually expired in the arena. Many others were forced to assist in the building of the Forum of Peace and the Colosseum. Those under 17 years of age were sold into servitude.  . . . Titus and his soldiers celebrated victory upon their return to Rome by parading the Menorah and Table of the Bread of God's Presence through the streets. Up until this parading, these items had only ever been seen by the high priest of the Temple. This event was memorialized in the Arch of Titus.

This number of “deaths” should, most surely, have caught the attention of Israel, right?

THE MARTYRS UNDER THE ALTAR:  The fifth seal is also something Israel has witnessed for years.

Seal #5:  Martyrs’ Prayers.  Revelation 6:9-11 (NIV) states: 

⁹ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

¹⁰ And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the [land]?

¹¹ And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

Jesus was not the only one who was slain in Jerusalem for the word of God.  Matthew 23:7 (NIV) quotes Jesus as saying:  “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” (See also Luke 13.34). Matthew 23:35 (NIV) expands:   ^“And so upon you [Jerusalem] will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar” (See also Luke 11:51).  John the Baptist was beheaded by King Herod.  The deacon Stephen became the first Christian martyr, whose death-by-stoning was approved by Saul of Tarsus.  The Apostle James, the brother of the Apostle John, was the first Apostle to be martyred (Acts 12:2).  These “martyrs” should, most surely, have caught the attention of Israel, right?  Just as the police stood by silently while George Floyd was killed by a fellow police officer, would not the guilt of silently aiding and abetting in these killings have gripped their conscience?  It certainly gripped the conscience of Saul of Tarsus as he silently aided and abetted the killing of Stephen.  It caused him to REPENT.  Acts 22:20 (NIV) records his repentant confession: “And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.”  God accepts repentance.  On the first Christian Pentecost, Peter tells the Jerusalem crowds (Acts 2:36-38 NIV): 

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

³⁷ When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Repentance is the proper response for being confronted with each seal in the divorce scroll.  Some of Israel actually DID REPENT, as Saul of Tarsus and the Jews at Pentecost did.  NOT ALL OF ISRAEL was to be divorced.  John the author of Revelation is a Jew, himself.  As mentioned in Apocalyptic? #5:

The part of Israel who is the HARLOT is the woman dressed in scarlet in Revelation 17, Mystery Babylon.  The part of the woman who is the remnant and represents true Israel is the 144,000 “VIRGINS” referred to in Revelation 14:4:  “These are they which were not defiled among women; for they are VIRGINS. These are they which follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.”  Technically, the HARLOT is being divorced, but the VIRGINS are the bride of Christ in the [third] woman.

ASTROLOGICAL, METEOROLOGICAL, AND GEOLOGICAL EVENTS:  The sixth seal is also something Israel has witnessed for years.

Seal #6:  Earthquakes and Heavenly Signs.  Revelation 6:12-14 (NIV) states: 

¹² I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, ¹³ and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. ¹⁴ The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

In the enlightened age of the 21^st Century, do you ever stand in awe of astrological, meteorological, and geological events?  I was astounded by the vast devastation of Hurricane Michael, in 2018, as it came on shore in the vicinity of the Panama City Campus of Florida State University, where I teach.  It flattened virtually all of Mexico Beach, Florida, destroyed much of Panama City, itself, closed the campus for a semester, and made it impossible for me to return to the city from the shelter I had taken in—Orlando.  When I did make the trip, stretches of Interstate 10, fifty miles to the north, were closed because of forests snapped off like toothpicks and littering the roadway.  The devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017 as it struck Puerto Rico and other islands also captured the attention of Americans, as did Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, slightly more than a decade earlier.  The San Francisco Earthquake (during the World Series of 1989) was astounding.  So, why would we be surprised that the Jews might have noticed the earthquake in Jerusalem as Jesus was being crucified, accompanied by the darkening of the skies.  Small wonder that Josephus noticed that, during the War for Jerusalem, “there broke out a prodigious storm in the night, with the utmost violence, and very strong winds, with the largest showers of rain, and continual lightnings, terrible thunderings, and amazing concussions and bellowings of the earth that were in an earthquake . . . that . . . forshewed some grand calamities that were coming” (Wars, IV,4,5).  Solar and lunar eclipses, and meteorite showers are common occurrences that were witnessed from time to time.

These “natural signs” should, most surely, have caught the attention of Israel, right?  So, did some repent?  Yes.  144,000 of them, to be exact.  But those 144,000 are the subject of my next post, as we approach the 7^th and final seal.  Meanwhile, do you think there is any tendency to repent on the minds of people in America in 2020, in light of the many “warnings” we have been receiving?

Apocalyptic? #1: The End

I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Ἐγὼ [I AM] τὸ ἄλφα [ALPHA] καὶ τὸ Ω [OMEGA], πρῶτος [PROTOS] καὶ ἔσχατος [ESCHATOS], ἡ ἀρχὴ [ARCHE] καὶ τὸ τέλος [TELOS],

(Revelation 22:13—See also Revelation 1:8 and 11 and 21:10)

                                                                                                                                              

Four hundred years before John penned these words in the Book of Revelation, the Greek philosopher Aristotle coined a word—entelechy/εντέλεχεια—to describe any process that has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  The last Greek word in the quotation from Revelation 22:13-- τέλος [TELOS]—is actually found in Aristotle’s term entelechy.  The “TEL” in enTELechy is short for TELOS.  Trillions of everyday processes are entelechies, processes that have a beginning, middle, and end.  A seed being planted, germinating, growing and finally producing new seeds, for example.  A day, beginning at dusk (in the Biblical pattern), proceding to morning, and ending, once again, at dusk.  Water, evaporating from the seas, rising and condensing in the skies, falling back to the Earth as rain, flowing from puddles into creeks, into streams, then rivers, and eventually reaching the seas again.

Your life is an entelechy.  It had a beginning, as you were conceived by your parents.  It has a middle—which you are now experiencing.  It will have an end, whether that end is produced by a coronavirus, an automobile accident, a terrorist attack, or just the limits of old age.  Likewise, God created the existence of humanity as an entelechy.   Humans had a beginning, with Adam and Eve.  They have had a middle—chronicled from the Book of Genesis to the future predictions of Revelation.  They will have an end.  But, like all entelechies, ends are just new beginnings.  The seed that grew and produced new seeds started a new beginning in its seeds.  The day that began at dusk and proceeded through the daylight hours to dusk started a new beginning at dusk.  The water that evaporated from the seas, rose, condensed, rained, and flowed back into the seas started a new beginning, there.  99% of all humans that have lived on Earth have sensed that death is not only an end, but also a new beginning.  There is an afterlife.  And, humanity, which began in Eden, and which will someday end, is expecting a new beginning—a New Heavens, a New Earth, a New Jerusalem, coming out of Heaven from God.

It is fair to question my credentials on this matter.  After all, thousands of theologians have written and taught trillions of words in explanation of the Book of Revelation.  Why should anyone accept the teachings of a seventy-year-old professor at a secular university on this subject?  Please, pardon what may appear to be my lack of humility as I offer you my credentials, but I know that I would never personally trust someone on this subject, unless I knew his or her credentials.  Although I have presented more than a dozen scholarly papers on Revelation, over the years, at regional, national, and international conventions of such learned societies as the Society of Biblical Literature, I have found that biblical scholars have a herd instinct.  If one diverts from the conclusions of the herd, one meets resistance.  For example, I contend that the Book of Revelation was written (as the book itself claims) in 69 A.D., as do F. F. Bruce and John A. T. Robinson.  This dating makes a definite difference in the interpretation of the book, as I will explain in future posts.  The herd, however, believes it was written in 96 A.D. or later.  The herd’s mentality was indicated to me, as I was once introduced at a national convention with words to the effect that Dr. Lindsay contends that Revelation was written in 69 A.D.; the majority of scholars disagree, but let’s “pretend” for the moment that he is right and see what he has to say.  I answered by thanking him for “pretending,” and proceeded to point out that, while mine was the minority position among scholars, it makes more sense than does the majority view.

I do, however, claim to be foremost in scholarship on the subject of entelechy.  My Ph.D. dissertation, at Purdue University, was entitled “The Burkean Entelechy and the Apocalypse of John.”  My department’s graduate faculty at Purdue chose to nominate my dissertation for a national honor:  The Council of Graduate Schools/University Microfilms Dissertation Award.  The University Press of America subsequently published my book Implicit Rhetoric:  Kenneth Burke’s Extension of Aristotle’s Concept of Entelechy and Lehigh University Press published my book Revelation:  The Human Drama, which is a unique approach to Revelation, using the principles of entelechy.  I believe I can offer many interesting insights to the Book of Revelation from this perspective.

Let’s begin, counterintuitively, with the END.  There are numerous articles, sermons, books, advertisements, etc., in the news today regarding what are called “apocalyptic” events.  The Opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal on March 27, 2020 reports: “Though less devastating than World War II, the pandemic has remade everyday life and wrecked the global economy in a way that feels apocalyptic” (https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-coronavirus-great-awakening-11585262324).  The Jewish publication The Jerusalem Post proclaimed on March 26, 2020:  “According to some on social media, the coronavirus is part of the biblical prophecy of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (https://www.jpost.com/International/Why-do-some-Christians-believe-coronavirus-is-an-apocalyptic-prophecy-622425). 

Those Four Horsemen (from Revelation 6) are Conquest, War, Famine, and Death.  The two World Wars, followed by the attempts of the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, and Communism, plus the attempts of Iran, al-Qaida, and Isis, have allowed the world to witness, in the last century, numerous entities intent on conquest, leading to war.  Pandemics (such as the coronavirus), abortion, and terrorists have produced mass death among the relatively innocent population, but not yet to the same extent as the Bubonic Plague (which killed an estimated 50 million people).  Famines have occurred in the world, but they have often been counteracted by the welfare programs of benevolent nations.  Nevertheless, Conquest as a motive has been a part of the human condition for a long, long time.  The ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans have tried to conquer the world, just as Hitler and Napoleon did in more recent years.  War, unfortunately, has been a near constant throughout the history of mankind.  Famine has seen more powerful effects in years past.  Death, of course, has been a problem for every human, other than Enoch and Elijah, throughout all of history.  So, why do the present circumstances seem apocalyptic?  Revelation does speak of the last plagues, and the coronavirus does seem very much like a plague.  We’ll consider that fact in future posts.  Both Exodus and Revelation speak of a plague of locusts, and we have recently witnessed widespread locust devastation.  We’ll look at that.  Abortion is the killing of innocents on a global scale, so there is plenty of reason for humankind to examine its behavior.  I will, therefore, engage in a series of posts on the subject of Apocalyptic.

For today, however, let’s look at the end/TELOS, not in terms of the end of humanity, but the end of you, personally.  Granted, your personal earthly life could be ended by the coronavirus.  As I have driven some of the deserted highways, streets, and back roads around Walt Disney World, in recent days, I am struck by the fact that, although the likelihood of my death may have been increased, if due to a virus, it has been significantly decreased, if due to an automobile accident.  The roads are safer, much less traveled.  For a portion of my life, as I was working toward the completion of my Ph.D., I was a life insurance agent.  I wrote a book, explaining the rationale behind purchasing life insurance.  It was first published by Oasis Books, under the title The Twenty-One Sales in a Sale.  Now, in its third edition, the title is Making Offers They Can’t Refuse. 

In the book, I point out the incontrovertible fact: “You will die.”  The odds of this happening are 100%.  I used to tell my clients that LIFE insurance is misnamed.  No company can guarantee that you will live.  You won’t.  I told them that the middle name of LIFE insurance is the two letters IF.  There is no IF when it comes to your dying.  You will die, sooner or later.  The only question is WHEN.  So, I take the IF out of LIFE insurance and substitute the letters OV.  I call it LOVE insurance.  The only reason anyone buys it is if there is someone that he or she LOVES.  The one or ones you LOVE will receive the money from the LIFE insurance policy, not you.

Here, then, is the advice I have offered for years, since you will definitely die, but you don’t know when.  Four GETS:

1.  GET RIGHT WITH GOD, so that if you die today from a virus, accident, or anything, your family will not have to worry about your well-being.  Read your Bible, believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, repent from your sins, confess to others that you believe in Him, and be baptized.  Then, work every day to live closer and closer to his Word.

2.  GET LIFE INSURANCE, so that if you die today from a virus, accident, or anything, you will not have to worry about your family’s well-being.  You need at least 10 times your annual income in life insurance.  At your death, it will come income-tax-free to your family.  They can invest the entire amount and live on just the interest generated.

3.     

GET SAFE.  Don’t take stupid risks with tobacco, alcohol, drugs, dangerous activities.  In the age of the coronavirus, follow the recommendations of the government.  I smile that I wrote the following in my book The Seven Cs of Stress:  A Burkean Approach, page 21, over 15 years ago:  “If the lives of newborn babies can be threatened by what one would consider the clean hands of health care workers, everyone is at risk of corporal stress from the transmission of disease through hand contact.  Sparklingly clean and disinfected restrooms in the home and the office are certainly helpful.   Frequently disinfecting door handles, faucets, flush handles, locks, and railings should reduce disease transmission.  Frequent and proper hand washing, consciousness of the diseases passed by handling paper currency, and being on the lookout for potentially accident-producing circumstances in the home and office reduce other types of corporal stress.  . . . Clearly, everyone at times enters environments that might pose risk for corporal stress.  Even if you wash your hands frequently, you may encounter germs on the door handle as you exit the lavatory.  Consider keeping a supply of alcohol-based wiping cloths at your desk, in your car, wherever it is convenient.  Additional protective measures might include flu shots and pneumonia shots.”

     4.  GET ON WITH LIFE.  You can not possibly know or do everything that could save your life, so just accept the fact that some day the end will come.  Don’t worry about it.  As Jesus said, “Take no thought for your life . . . But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6: 25-33).  Enjoy your life on Earth.  There is more life waiting for you when it is over.