Revelation 101 - Part One

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Title - Revelation 101 - Part One
Church - Living Word Lutheran in Katy, Texas (ELCA)
Author - Pastor Mike Aus
Citations - Revelation 5:6, Revelation 20:3-4, Habakukk 3:17-18
Quality -Good quality

Summary - Pastor Mike Aus takes on the many misconceptions about the Book of Revelation. Some Christians take this book very literally and think that they can predict the end times by looking into the numerology and symbolic language.

In order to understand the Book of Revelation, one must understand how it came to be. The book was written during a time when Christians were being persecuted in large numbers throughout the Roman empire. During this time a man named John (John of Patmos, to many) was sent into exile on a prison on the island of Patmos.

John is hoping to send a message, from prison, to Christians who were being persecuted. The language is a little strange. There are two reasons for this. First, if he just sent out a descriptive letter the Roman guards would have read it and not sent it. Second, John is trying to describe a vision that's hard to explain and uses highly symbolic language. If you take the passage literally... it's creepy.

Numbers are a major source of symbolism that are often misunderstood. Here's a quick key:

Four = The four corners of the earth

Seven = Is the number of the seven days it took to create the earth and represents perfection

Six = Is perfection minus one, and therefore imperfection

Twelve = The 12 tribes of Israel

Thousand = A lot of something, not literally 1,000

666 = Everyone's name in Hebrew had they're own number (David has the number 14). If you write out the name Nero Caesar in Hebrew you get 666. So, it doesn't mean an evil spirit, it was just code to identify a specific person who was persecuting Christians.

Of course, focusing on all of this is a pass time of many people, but it just distracts from the main point of Revelation. The main point was this: GOD WINS!

John wrote the Book of Revelation to tell the Christians of the Roman Empire that, no matter how bad things are now, God has things in control and you will persevere. It is a hopeful book and it shouldn't be used as a tool of spiritual terrorism.

Inheritance

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Title - Inheritance
Church - Living Word Lutheran in Katy, Texas (ELCA)
Author - Pastor Mike Widner
Quality - Low quality.

Summary - Pastor Mike Widner discusses how we are disciples in a long line that goes back to Peter, James and John and the rest. We've been entrusted with carrying the faith and passing it off to others. There are times when we feel the presence of God, when we feel that our faith has taken a step forward. These are important moments of clarity, and it is our responsibility to take them with us and share them with others.

Answering Your Faith Questions Part Five

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Title - Answering Your Faith Questions - Part Four
Church - Living Word Lutheran in Katy, Texas (ELCA)
Author - Pastor Mike Aus
Citations - Psalm 119:105
Quality -Good quality

Summary - Pastor Mike Aus takes some prewritten questions about faith, Christianity and the Bible. This is part five, which has to do with a wide range of questions:


Q: When we say that we believe in the holy catholic church, what does that mean?

A: The translation is, we believe in the holy universal church. Not just the Lutheran church, but the universal church of believers.

Q: How do we know the Bible is true, how do we trust it?

A: There's no such thing as the original, complete Bible (like the Constitution). The Bible was written by more than 40 authors and was put together at the Synod of Carthage by a vote of a church forum. It wasn't really completed until the fifth century. So it isn't as old as you might believe. There are also numerous versions of the original greek New Testament that researchers can draw from.

Q: When I read the Old Testament and the stories of the violence and killing and animal sacrifices, how do we contrast this with the stories of God in the New Testament?

A: God started first started his new religion around 1800 B.C. in ancient Iraq, a time and place that was quite harsh. The civility of the culture and society had to evolve, and it did as people came to understand God more and more. The idea of "Eye for an Eye, Tooth for a Tooth," that was a leap in ethics from the kind of random revenge of the time. This then becomes "turn the other cheek" in the New Testament. It isn't that God changed, but that our understanding of God changed.

Q: I have a friend whose Baptist friend thinks she's going to be sitting closer to Jesus in Heaven, how do we deal with this?

A: There may not be much you can do to change your friend's mind. Of course, Lutherans don't believe that there are different levels of prizes in Heaven. If someone got a better shake in Heaven, got to drive a nicer car, there would be envy in Heaven... and envy is kind of a big sin. So how could that be?

Q: The Bible says that men were put above men and that women should obey their husbands, do you really believe that?

A: The problem with people and religious groups that claim that women have to obey men and can't take leadership roles, is that they take scripture out of context. A lot of people quote Ephesians 4:22 all the time "Women be subject to your husbands as to the Lord." It's a popular statement (especially among some men).

The verse before that is "Be subject to each other." Paul is writing an essay about relationships between men and women, and that's his thesis. "Wives be subject to your husbands" is a sub-point and "Men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church" is a sub-point, as well. How does Christ do that? In Philippians 2 he says "Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but in the form of a slave." Therefore, Men are to be slaves to their wives. Equality and service to each other is the important, Christian way to live as a couple. Subjugation is oppressive and has a lot of negative consequences.

Some churches won't allow women pastors or allow women to vote in church meetings. Many churches do allow women to do these things and have equality in the church (including Lutherans).

Matthew 18:18 says "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."

This passage goes back to the Rabbis of the era, and gave us the power to "bind and to loose" to adapt our interpretation in order to rise to an ever changing human circumstance. It allows us to defy the traditions of slavery and oppression while remaining bound to the teachings and love of Christ.

Does God Punish?

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Title - Does God Punish?
Church - Living Word Lutheran in Katy, Texas (ELCA)
Author - Pastor Mike Aus
Quality -Good quality.

Summary -This sermon asks the question: does God punish us? When something bad happens, is it because of some sin we've committed? Pastor Mike attacks this kind of reasoning, pointing out that Jesus himself says that God's rain and the sun visits both the good and the bad. God constantly intervenes to protect us, but God will not always enable us to do that which is harmful to ourselves and others. We should also be wary of thinking that just because we're faithful good things will always happen to us, this implies that when bad things happen to others it means they're not faithful enough.