Eschatology part one.

This examination is meant to be comprehensive, and will come in many posts. I encourage discussion along the way, please do. I think discussion is the most important part of this process, so please offer up whatever discussion you have.

To start with, we need a broad historical overview of biblical literature. It sounds vast and expansive (and it is) but I am not teaching systematic theology, only biblical interpretation in historical context. I will focus on three main types of biblical literature.

The earliest written books in the bible are the Pentateuch (Torah, Genesis thru Deuteronomy.) They are a type of literature called Historical Narrative.

Historical narrative in it's most basic form, tells a history. It can contain narration, poetry, song, genealogy, and law. There are a specific set of tools (all wrought out of common sense) you should use to interpret historical narrative. Historical Narrative is by far the easiest type of biblical literature to interpret, because generally the writers did not attempt to be poetic. If you have historical and cultural context in mind, you can simply use common sense and a few very handy text analysis tools and tackle many of the big questions presented.

The second type of literature is Prophetic literature.

Prophetic literature is highly figurative. It makes extensive use of hebrew style poetry and many figures of speech and hyperbole. It is often presented as a covenantal lawsuit: "This is what you have done. You are guilty, and now this will happen."

Only 27% of the Bible is prophecy

Only 2% is about the Messiah

Less than 1% is unfulfilled.

There are specific phrases prophets generally use when they speak.

There is forth telling: "Repent"

and Foretelling: "if you don't repent"

It's full of repeated phrases that are clues to what the writer is writing about.

"in those days"- ususally speaking of the church age

"the day of the Lord" can be either a day when Yahweh brings specific judgement or the final judgement.

"a remnant will return" could be talking about any number of remnants Israel experienced. (the remnant of the northern kingdom, the remnant from babylon, or the remnant that came out of sin)

It can become impossible to interpret if you don't have historical and literary context, because prophets will often jump around in their verb tenses. One minute they are talking about what already happened as if it's in the future, the next minute they are talking about the future as if it's already happened. This is easily visible in most prophetic literature

Not only that, but Telescoping happens frequently. telescoping is like looking down a mountain range. It often appears like the mountains are right next to each other, but they may be hundreds of miles apart. We lack depth perception. In the same sense the prophets lacked time perception. They can in one place be in the present , and then a verse about the future, and then a reference to the past.

So: how do you interpret something like that?

Well, we have the advantage of history. We can look and see how prophecy has already been fulfilled, and then see how the prophet wrote about it, and get learn a lot about how that type of literature works.

Time has shown their is method to their madness. They have cycles and systems, and wrote with interesting poetic conventions. If you read prophetic literature, make sure you get the context or you may walk away with some very interesting ideas the writer never intended. Look for the writes intention. "Oh, the book is about the Assyrian invasion? Okay, now I can make sense of some of these cryptic references from historical knowledge about the Assyrians."

likewise, we can tell when the prophets switch in and out of past an future tense with repeated phrase conventions that they used in their writings. There were two schools of prophets, and Prophecy was an established literary style with expectations and a common understanding by the writers and hearers about how to interpret certain things. It very rarely is meant to be mysterious.

Also understanding their poetry/story style is helpful. In Hebrew literature, the climax is in the center of the block text, with matching "steps" of text on each side. Heres an example from ecclesiasties:

Eccl. 11:3	A	Clouds and Rain
Eccl. 11:7		B	Light and Sun
Eccl. 11:8a			C	Consider the days of darkness
Eccl. 11:8b				D	All that comes is breath
Eccl. 11:9a					E	Enjoy your Youth
Eccl. 11:9b						F	But know ... God will bring you to judgment
Eccl. 11:10a					E'	Enjoy your Youth
Eccl. 11:10b				D'	All of youth is breath
Eccl. 12:1			C'	Consider God before the days of darkness
Eccl. 12:2a		B'	Sun and Light
Eccl. 12:2b	A'	Clouds and Rain

This is called Chiasm.

Also a convention in Prophetic literature is hyperbole. Does this sound familiar:

"

Behold, the day of the LORD comes,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the land a desolation

and to destroy its sinners from it.

10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations

will not give their light;

the sun will be dark at its rising,

and the moon will not shed its light.

11 I will punish the world for its evil,

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,

and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

12 I will make people more rare than fine gold,

and mankind than the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place,

at the wrath of the LORD of hosts

in the day of his fierce anger.

"

(Isaiah 13:9-13)

Most people would think it's about revelation, because of the specific events mentioned.

However, history and context show it is about the conquest of Babylon by Media in 539BC.

This is just one of many uses of this imagery. Obviously those things didn't happen. There is an orderly way of interpreting these exggerations with lots of historical context and evidence. This would be shaky evidence of a non literal approach to prophecy if this only appeared here. But this exaggerative style appears in every known prophetic hebrew literature.

Modern Christians tend to glamorize prophetic literature as not interpretable or magical. In fact, the vast majority of prophetic literature is more like a court transcript: Yahweh was judging, and he wanted them to understand the severity of their sin. So he threatened with a mighty roar. It turns out God is very practical in his actual application of judgement, as history has shown.

Eschatology write up in progress...

Heres a nice video by Rob Bell that helps give some context to revelation. It's a lot of historical context.

A VERY interesting video regardless of your desired interpretation of Revelation or Eschatology.

It's important to realize that God doesn't talk to you in ancient hebrew, greek, or aramaic today if you speak english.

Yahweh didn't speak to John and make references to Kanye West, Lost, or crack Obama jokes.

Yahweh talked to people of a specific culture, in a specific fashion. They had their issues and traditions of the day. It just so happens one of those traditions is worshipping Caesar as lord of lords, while a choir followed him around ans sang Hymns to him.

Eschatology: An Introduction.

Hey everyone

After a nice discussion on Facebook, I have decided to do a series of posts on Eschatology: the study of the end.

Instead of endorsing a particular view (even though some of you have some ideas of what I believe), I'm going to do a big contextual study, and do a commentary on several texts, mainly Revelation.

I will quote from some commentaries, but the main tools I will use in breaking down Eschatology are Inductive Bible study methods.

According to the Apple Dictionary, Inductive means:

inductive |inˈdəktiv|

adjective

1 characterized by the inference of general laws from particular instances : instinct rather than inductive reasoning marked her approach to life.

Basically, Inductive study has several methods for people to get into the Bible and study it for themselves. The whole idea is context, content, and direction. It's a very logical, very accurate bible study method taught pretty much everywhere. All Bible study programs use bits of Inductive Bible study methods.

So I'm pulling together an outline of the main tools we will be using for this "unraveling" of Eschatology. They are all Inductive study tools.

The goal of this study is to see the text for what it is, and understand the context, writer, writers intent, common culture, and ultimately get application. Study should never be done without the intent of application .

Our culture of spoon fed religiosity has somewhat disarmed the church in America. It's important to never just accept what someone writes or tells you in church. Asking questions is crucially important.

The same in this study, please hold me to these two criteria for any interpretation I attempt:

1. I must prove support historically, contextually, or with inductive study methods based on reason and critical thinking.

2. An interpretation must not stretch the context or the text to fit itself in. Lets not read a particular idea into the text, rather lets let the text present it's own case.

Musicianaries

So a friend of mine invited me to lunch. When we sat down, he asked me why I came to Kona. I told him I was working on music for a year. He said God told him to talk to me.

He presented me with an enormous opportunity.

He asked me to help him pioneer a community of songwriting missionaries. (Musicianaries?)

The premise is that we would move 10 or so musicians, producers, and songwriters into a house off campus and build a recording studio. We then would all commit to live in this house for one year, doing nothing but practicing, writing, recording, producing, performing, promoting, worshipping, interceding, outreaching, and living in community.

The goal is to write amazing music written out of intercession for the world. Not in a Switchfoot sense (they are a Chrisitian Band with secular fans...) but rather as authentic, real indy musicians operating in the secular sphere, writing pop/rock/indy/electronic/whatever music to bring awareness to spiritual and social issues, shining a light for the nations and attempting to bring transformation to music industry and western society as a whole.

We would be full time missionaries with music as our mission field.

Here is an idea of how this would work. We live in community. We pray together, worship together, and make intercession together. As a community, we come together to intercede. We pray about a problem, and ask God to tell us what he thinks about it in intercession, and how to bring change. We then go and write music on what we hear from God: Totally prophetic pop music. It's a new concept.

Except that is has been done before in a sense, during the renaissance. From the renaissance came some of the greatest music ever composed. The church came together behind composers and supported them. The composers were free to write music for God, and write they did. Their music brought spiritual awakening, and the church saw millions of people added to it. Modern music as we know it is a result of this time in history.

We want to revive this model for modern spiritual transformation.

We would also be working with the producer of a documentary film about human sex trafficking in America called "Sex & Money." The producer will be living in the house with us working on editing, and they want us tow write music intercessory music about human trafficking they can use in the film, and then w man end up touring with their group later as they start a campaign to raise awareness.

The main focus of our group is Justice. We want to write prophetic songs about injustice and human trafficking and real problems, and raise awareness to make an impact on the general culture.

I told my friend I would pray about the opportunity. I asked God to give me peace about it if it was where he had called me. For 3 straight days I had people coming from everywhere telling me God told them to tell me to have peace.

I asked more than a dozen people to pray for me and hear what God said. I got lots of confirmation.

After talking about it with the leaders of my current school, and contemplating it for several weeks, I have made a decision to move forward with this project. I will be coming back to Kauai for several weeks starting April 1st (as my friend who is leading this project is teaching ex Al Qaeda members how to worship Yahweh in Nigeria for the next few weeks... a crazy story I'll blog about tomorrow)

We had a meeting with about 8 of us. Our group is full of amazing singer, songwriters, and musicians. As we sat and talked, we got to the topic of words spoken over our lives. We realized that all of us had many of the same words spoken over us, and God had called all of us to come to YWAM and work on music.

So as I come back to Kauai, I will be working to create a network and support base for this project. Following the Renaissance pattern we will be seeking support from the church (the people and the organization) and I will be looking for people who are willing to donate for the upfront costs.

So what can you do right now? Please cover us in prayer. This is an exciting opportunity to create a model we can duplicate among different nations and areas. Brad (my friend) is currently in one of the most dangerous places on earth, he needs prayer for safety. I need prayer for wisdom and prayer for fresh creativity. We all need prayer for resources and funds. We are currently putting together a media packet and filming a trailer for the project, which will be up by the end of april. We need recording equipment, help with designing a website, and as many industry connections as we can build. We plan on moving into the house on July 1st, and there is ALOT to do.

Thank you everyone, and thanks for your support and faith in me.

Alden

by which the dissonance becomes harmonious

Hello Everyone,

I came to Kona in obedience to Yahweh. I heard Him call me to something, and not just to anything, but to something specific. I heard Him call me to spend a year working on music. I heard Him call me to spend as much time as I possibly can writing, and producing, and recording, and performing music. Eat, Sleep, Breathe music.

I have had many words spoken over my life by many different people, some who know me, some who have never even met me and yet gave me a prophetic word when they saw me from across the room. Some words about the near future, some about how Yahweh views me, some encouraging, and some about long term goals and aspiration.

Nearly everyone who has given me a prophetic word in my life has mentioned the same thing: Music.

Since I was young I have loved music. I began piano lessons young and was inspired by the symphony. As I have grown and developed, so have my musical tastes expanded. A penchant for indy rock music as well as more intimate folk and Jazz have kept me burning for music for a long time. The intense creativity involved with putting down words and mathematical ideas and then transferring those ideas to a string to cause people to feel was intoxicating. I clung to music because it had the ability to make me feel and think about things in a very real practical way. Very abstract ideas become accessible when arranged with a guitar and violin or piano.

Though my life, Yahweh has always placed me into ideal places for music. Many friends growing up were musicians, and encouraged me to pick up the guitar. As I transitioned from one guitar teacher to the next, they always had the right advice to keep me alive and a guitar glued to my hands. I would sit and shirk homework and responsibilities to create litte riffs and motifs.

Then one guitar teacher began to teach me how to record myself. Very basic lessons with Pro Tools and a mac computer that I earned the money for from one of my first jobs at a coffee shop. It came quickly to me, and I began to record and arrange as much as I could. As I got better by doing live sound for churches, I slowly upgraded equipment. I had my parents full blessing to pursuit music and music production to the fullest extent I wanted to.

My parents were so supportive they helped me to build a recording studio in my house. And through a series of events, not your average home studio. A nearly professional spec'd studio with thick walls, sonic isolation, and sound proofing. Professional quality equipment slowly filled the studio, and within several months, I was hard at work on producing an album for a friend (http://www.willielanders.com/).

Next thing you know, I am doing a DTS with YWAM. I did a performing arts DTS and went to Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, and Israel with a group of singers, dancers and actors as a sound engineer. I gained valuable practical experience and learned a lot about myself. I was able to finally process so many things from my life that were holding me back.

I knew I needed to come back to Kona, Yahweh wasn't done with me yet.

To summarize some of the recurring words spoken over me, I will say that I have had six different people tell me that God is going to start giving me songs. I had a word that I was going to help paint a new picture for people to navigate in the days ahead. Four different people (most of which didn't know me) told me God gave them a picture of me performing in front of thousands of people. I have had words that God was sending the right people for me to work with, people who would be lifelong friends. I have had words about making Prophetic music, music to inspire social change. A word came to me about being a sort of pastoral figure to fellow musicians. A word that I would be a light for people around me, and that people will come to me for guidance because of my strength. I myself normally would have been critical, except that was already evident. Many words have come, and they have been echoing in my mind and spirit as if trapped in a room full of expectation ever since they were spoken.

I came to Kona in obedience, and I came to a biblical core course focused on performing arts. But I have had the feeling like I'm waiting for the other foot to drop. A feeling that increased until a friend asked me to have lunch.

More info tomorrow....

Update

Hey everyone

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I have been pretty busy.

Some cool updates:

I got a chance to go connect with this film crew operating out of University of the Nations. They are currently in post production of a film they have been working on about the Marshallese refugees in Hawaii. I was asked to be a second cameraman for the last day of production, and filmed a bunch of good stuff I hope they can use. The director said I will get a credit in the movie, which is cool (my first IMDB stat?)

In case you dont know (you probably don't, they are a largely invisible people group,) the Marshallese are currently living in hawaii as part of a program the US government set up after all the nuclear bombings in the Marshall Islands. The people of the Marshall Islands were greatly affected by the fallout from these tests, and their land became barren and infertile, and so did Marshallese men and women. The children who were born were born with severe radiation caused birth defects. So the government offered them land as part of a settlement. When you walk onto one of their compounds, it's like walking into a 3rd world country. Piles of trash turned into houses, with children everywhere.

The movie these guys are making is a drama that I'm guessing they will be showing at film festivals, and eventually a theatrical release or DVD release.

As part of the studies I have been doing here, I have been doing alot of work with the Marshallese kids, and our group has been going to their compound every friday to teach them dance, singing, and music.

More cool updates:

I will be coming home for a week in the between quarter transition. I might be bringing some of my roommates (still to be worked out...) Vincent from France and Micha from Switzerland. They are here doing ESL, and both would love to come to Kauai.

My studies have been good. we have been doing a kind of biblical studies course. We are reading through the entire Bible learning literary styles, historical backgrounds, cultural practices, and why some of those really confusing laws and passages are the most important.

At the same time I am working on music. The music classes have been pretty theoretical (which I like) but there have been zero skill classes, and on top of that there is so much homework I don't have the time I need to practice everyday.

I heard Yahweh say this is where I'm supposed to be when I prayed about it, and I haven't really had any complaints, so I'm going to do what I can to get the practice time in

A quick recommendation:

I bought a little Martin on Kauai. It. Is. Awesome. Buy one. It sounds great, it plays great, the price is right.

I might be looking to sell my GNX4 foot pedal for an electric guitar. If you want to know more about it, just google GNX4. But It's a great pedal, I highly reccomend it. The problem with it for me is that I have no access to gain if I am using it as a computer preamp, and the gain into Logid is kind of low. I am looking at one of these Apogee GiO's, and it seems to be exactly what I want, but I need to sell GNX4 first. I don't know about price really, someone shoot me an offer if you want it, it was $500 new.

Alright, I'll see you all later.

Alden

Busy busy busy...

After the weekend, we jumped straight into a crazy schedule. We have worldview and biblical studies classes from 8AM to 12:30PM, then technical and creativity training from 1PM to 5PM. A very full schedule, plus homework and practice times.

I finally managed to sell my old GY-DV5000 Pro video camera, and for full asking price too. I finally got the money and turned it around and ordered a Canon 7D, with a reasonable large Compact Flash memory card (32GB 266x). If enough money comes in, I'm going to try and order a Canon EF 50 1.8 (I think the 1.4 is too expensive for me right now) for low light shooting on outreach. I'm not sure how well the f/3.5 28-135 will perform in low light.

So this last week we read through Genesis and Exodus. Lots of genealogies. Moses is an very repetitive writer. Although, it was good that he was, as his repetition and accuracy have allowed the preservation of meaning for thousands of years.

My work duty is much better than last time (last time I had Kitchen duty.) This time I am working on construction and landscaping at King's Mansion, which is being turned into a kind of HQ/retreat center for world leaders. It's a very nice very green property, and it's nice to work up there. I also got a campus drivers license so I can drive the campuses big vans to bring people back and forth between Kings Mansion and campus.

Anyway, more updates to come this week.

First Update

Hello everyone.

I arrived in Kona safely. I began seeing familiar faces in the Oahu Airport. This quarter is pretty big, with over 250 students. Some classes are large, with over 70 students. My class is quite the opposite, with only 6 students. All the students in my class are from my DTS, except for one girl who is a staff kid.

Although we haven't had an official class meeting yet, we have visited our class room. Its up secluded a bit from the rest of the campus, and there are five rooms along with a kitchen and a bathroom: A classroom, a study room, a music room, an art room with brown paper all over the walls where we can draw whatever we feel like, and a resting room with couches and a bed. It is a peaceful and cool place, and I will probably spend a majority of my time there practicing singing and guitar.

During the opening ceremony last night, they had me carry the flag for Papua New Guinea (as there are students here from papua, but they didn't want to carry their flag). Kind of awkward, but fun.

I sold my HUGE camera, and I will be using the money for a Canon 7d. The stock lense that comes with the camera only goes down to 28. I am hoping to get my hands on a super wide lense for outreach (to fit as much of Switzerland and Egypt as I can in each shot.)

I have 5 room mates. My friend Adam from Indonesia, and four people who are new to me. Vincent from France and Micha from Switzerland are in the English as a second language program, and will be doing DTS's later this year. Rick from China is in the School of Illustration.

I am doing well. I have to admit when I arrived, it was quite surreal being back, and seeing old friends. I felt unsure of whether or not I was doing the right thing coming back. The feeling lasted until Friday morning. At that point, we had worship time on campus. They were having a welcoming ceremony, and then they spoke about the fact that this was YWAM's 50th year, and Biblically the 50th year is the year of Jubilee, the year when what is established and normal stops, and things change.

During my DTS worship times, people were very conservative in the beginning. later in the DTS, people started to lose their comfort zones and really reach out to God like they never had. It took months of DTS studies though.

The first day here, God was already working like in those last days of lecture phase. As I worshipped, God touched me, and all doubt about what I am doing was removed. The doubts about whether it's wise to be here with only about 1/3 the funds, the doubts about whether I am wasting my time with music, the doubts about everything were gone.

Today will be a day of rest. We start classes on monday, and I will update again about exactly what our schedule will be like.

I love all you guys,

Alden