December 13, 2013 – Revelations 19 – 20

I don’t know if we ever fully reflect on the WORD as a SWORD or weapon to use against the world and the evil we find in it.  Christ gives us this example when He is against Satan in the dessert.  Every temptation is countered by quoting the Scripture.  I find that I am coming to know the scriptures more and more, but I am nowhere near able to quote them to counter the evil in the world.  I am in awe of those that can do so.  If you ever listen to Catholic Answers, they spend 2 hours answering questions and many times come up with scripture passages out of the blue.  It amazes me.  I am better at knowing different stories or parables, better at going to find them, better at understanding the bigger picture or flow of the Bible, but tell me to quote John 6:14 and I have a blank look.  I have never been good at memorizing things, so it will take a special grace from God for me to ever be that person, but I am proud of the knowledge I have gained and feel I am more equipped to use this weapon when I have a need.  (Whether I have the courage to use it is another question, still working on that too.)

The 1,000 years is an interesting topic.  It is a period of time when Satan is chained up and Christ reigns on Earth.  The footnotes say that Christ Resurrection (defeat of death and sin) is when Satan is tied up and the end of the 1,000 years is the end of the world, the final judgment.  It seems as good an interpretation as any, but I just have a couple of questions that are raised.  First, you look around at the world and I don’t think anyone would say this feels like a world Christ reigns over and in which Satan is not allowed to work.  Counters to this is that Satan influence is not as much to blame for what is wrong in the world as our free will against God.  Also, Christ reigning still doesn’t mean He will force His subjects to bow to Him.  He will still allow free will.  That allows you to reflect on not only how much our choice to sin effects the world but also how much worse it could be if Satan were allowed to be free.

Lastly, I just saw a video talking about the idea that we can hope there is no one in Hell because the Catholic Church has never expressly said anyone is in Hell.  I don’t necessarily think it is wrong to say that, but I don’t agree with it.  I just don’t think we can say there is no one in Hell when it is expressed throughout the Bible that there are people there.  I just don’t think it is a realistic hope, on the flip side, nothing is impossible with God, on the flip side, He isn’t going to force Heaven on those that don’t freely choose it.