So, what sort of a title for a blog post is About the Previous Post, the Codex and Satan, On Doubt, On Scriptures like Daniel 10, and On Struggles? Well, I suppose I could say that they could all be things that ran through my mind today just like the many things that go through my mind other days which in silent prayer I question God about; however, I have yet to hear an audible response for those questions. Now, the title mentions several things, and perhaps I should explain them all in one way or another. I will try to explain them briefly; however, I am sure the explanations will probably be understated by comparison as to how intense some of these thoughts may actually have taken place in reality inside my brain. Let me tackle one thing at a time, and I hope it stirs up some thinking in you the reader as well.
The previous post that I wrote was titled: The Third Oldest Bible. This post was about the Codex Washingtonianus being on display in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Museum. The interesting thing about this Bible is that it contains a passage towards the end of the Gospel of Mark which reads: "And Christ replied to them, 'The term of years of Satan's power has been fulfilled, but other terrible things draw near.'" The verse does not appear in any other known manuscripts. Well, Jesus ascended almost two thousand years ago, and most of us Christians are waiting for his return. Acts 1:10, basically, says that, Jesus, who has been taken from us into heaven, will come back in the same way he was seen go into heaven. Now, in Mathew 28:18, Jesus said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."Based, on these two verses, one can wonder why Jesus would have also said something like, “the term of years of Satan's power has been fulfilled, but other terrible things draw near.” Well, this is a good question, but it makes me wonder why someone that has been given all authority in heaven and on earth would allow “other terrible things to draw near?” I suppose that I can say that a little doubt about the Scriptures and the possibility that there has been tampering with them seems to overwhelm me a bit when I question these type of things, but this is difficult to prove unless we find much older manuscripts, although we do have plenty of them by comparison to other literary works. Some Scripture passages I simply cannot understand.
Even in the Old Testament, I find things that make me question Scriptures, and if the events being described in them are true they certainly bring doubt to my mind. For instance, in Daniel 10 there is a story which involves Angels, but a couple of the ones mentioned are fallen Angels. One of the angels is delivering a message to Daniel about a dream. In Daniel 10, it reads as follows: “[13] The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, so I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia [14] and came to make you understand what is to befall your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.” My question here is why are angels at war because if they are all God’s creation than why is this ongoing battle. Moreover, Daniel 10: 20 goes on to say: “[20] Then he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I am through with him, lo, the prince of Greece will come.” Well, the whole thing sounds crazy because the angel battled another for 21 days, and now it is going back to battle some more. Well, with relevance to all this Angelic warfare, the apostle Paul who was a learned man of Scriptures who probably had copies of manuscripts we do not even have today said the following in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” I am sure that if Paul said this he knew why he said it, but still why did Jesus say: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me?" Well, it seems that I am back to square one, on doubt.
Now, the last idea on the extensively long title for this post is Struggles. Of course, I am really referring to a sort of mental struggle. I am thinking that the definition of a struggle is to make forceful or violent efforts to get free of restraint or constriction, so this sounds more applicable to a tangible or physical idea, but in my case I am applying it to a mental state of mine whether it fits or not because it sure does sound like how I feel in dealing with certain Biblical text. However, the fact that the Codex says in Mark: “other terrible things to draw near” make me think that these words were indeed said by Christ because without a doubt in the past two centuries we saw an American Civil War and the Holocaust in the 20th century, and they sure seem to fit the description of “terrible things” to a T, not to mention that both of those words used begin with the letter T.
In closing, I am not sure that anything mentioned in this post will be helpful to you spiritually speaking, but deal with it because other terrible things may draw near. Furthermore, I have two blogs at this time, one is this one, Arango’s Apologetics Page, and the other is Unifying the Faith. The first deals with apologetics or the defense of the Faith and the other deals with Ecumenism in the Faith which is basically the idea of bringing unity among Christians and others. Now, if we think about it, apologetics is very difficult because no matter what we say or show, we cannot prove anything, we ultimately have to apply a little bit of faith. Now, with relevance to ecumenism, we can show the need for it and how it can be beneficial for the entire world; however, to bring it about will probably require an enormous amount of faith. Now, I didn't say any of these things to make anyone laugh, but if it makes you laugh, I hope you enjoy because it has been said that “laughter is the best medicine. I hope that now you understand why I titled this post: About the Previous Post, the Codex and Satan, On Doubt, On Scriptures like Daniel 10, and On Struggle. Hope you enjoyed reading and blessings to you!
Bible References:
New International Version and RSV
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Saturday, January 4, 2014
The Third Oldest Bible
Now here is a bit of Apologetics, I mean the type that is related to ancient manuscripts of the Bible. The Codex Washingtonianus will be on display in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Museum's Freer Gallery. The ancient Bible is indeed very rare. It was transcribed in Egypt during the time of the Eastern Roman Empire, perhaps around the late fourth or early fifth century. The Codex Washingtonianus is known for an additional passage towards the end of the Gospel of Mark which reads as follows: "And Christ replied to them, 'The term of years of Satan's power has been fulfilled, but other terrible things draw near.'" This foregoing verse does not appear in any other known manuscripts of the Bible. Scholars believe that this verse deals with the question of whether God or Satan is in control on the planet for the time being. Whether any of the manuscripts attributed to Early Christianity is on display anywhere or in a lab somewhere being analyzed it is always good to know that they do exist, and perhaps one of the main reasons that I write this blog and why I am a Christian.
For more information regarding this rare display, I highly recommend reading the article titled: World's Third Oldest Bible Displayed at Smithsonian which was written by Jane J. Lee and is published by National Geographic. The link to the article is below.
Reference:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131227-ancient-bible-codex-washingtonianus-freer-logion-religion-culture/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20131231news-oldbible&utm_campaign=Content