Yulunga

Yulunga is the title of a song from Australian band Dead Can Dance. I have been a fan for nearly two decades now, thanks to my friend Henk who, back in Marseilles, introduced me to the strangeness of their resuscitated melodies. Since then, all their tracks have been copied from iPods to iPhones and I have been listening to Yulunga in many countries and during countless trips, including the most trivial ones: My daily bus trips to work, trailing across the Harbour Bridge in the sun rise.

For some reasons, this has been a reverberating tune over the last few days. And I was quite astounded to realised that this song which played a thousand times in my headphones was actually remastered in Australia, and is rooted in the aboriginal Dreamtime. Yulunga is the name the Wataroga people from New South Wales give to the Rainbow Serpent. It is said Yulunga sleeps in the Duck River to this day and may be seen when the sun shines after rain, patrolling the sky and protecting the people.

James 1: The World as test of Faith

Tags

james, mindmap

A Mind map summary:

From the NIV version:

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.

Trials and temptations

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

⁹ Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. ¹⁰ But the rich should take pride in their humiliation – since they will pass away like a wild flower. ¹¹ For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.

¹² Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

¹³ When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

¹⁶ Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Listening and doing

¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.

²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Who is the “restrainer”?

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2 thessalonians, archangel michael, escathon, michael, religion, restrainer, theology

It is referred to as such by Paul in 2 Thessalonians, or at least as “The one who is holding back the Man of Lawlessness”. Who is He or It? Many have speculated about it, and the common answer is the Holy Spirit. However this is not valid, since the Restrainer will be “taken out of the way” at some point, reaching the Escathon, or end of Time. It cannot be the Holy Spirit, which is ubiquitous and everlasting. Here is an interesting video explaining why:

So if the Holy Spirit in The Comforter, who is the Restrainer? A more convincing answer is the Archangel Michael, as this is defended by Gavin Finley for instance.

“The Man of Lawlessness

2 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, ² not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. ⁴ He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

⁵ Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? ⁶ And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. ⁷ For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. ⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, ¹⁰ and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹ For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie ¹² and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”

Michael the restrainer

Tags

2 thessalonians, angels, michael, restrainer

Another possible proof of Michael as the Restrainer of Evil, spoken by Paul in 2 Thessalonians:

“And the Lord said unto Michael: ‘Go, bind Semjâzâ and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: 〈and〉 to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever. And whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed will from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all generations.” (Enoch 10:11-14)

For further details I recommend this great analysis by Gavin Finley.

24 Elders explained

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24 elders, revelation

In the book of Revelation by John, it is said that 24 Elders are sitting on thrones around God’s throne. Who are these guys? How did they achieve such a prominent position?

Revelation 4:4 & 10-11

4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the
thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in
white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads.

10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on
the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever,
and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

11 “You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were
created.”

Revelation 5:8 & 14

8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures
and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each
having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are
the prayers of the saints.

14 Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!”
And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who
lives forever and ever.

The 24 elders are probably what the Bible says they are, as usual. They are elders, human elders. Angels don’t grow old. There are no elder angels. So the 24 elders are 24 men who have lived as men on earth. They must have lived out their lives before God and served him in a special way in times past. The Bible does not tell us precisely who these 24 elders are, but they have to be men of distinction somehow, safe to say it could even be the very first borns in our human lineage? Considering now Luke 3:34-38:

34 …the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham,
the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the
son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the
son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the
son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch,
the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan,
the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the
son of God.

Now we take this lineage and reverse it so it makes sense…

1. God
2. Adam
3. Seth
4. Enosh
5. Cainan
6. Mahalalel
7. Jared
8. Enoch
9. Methuselah
10. Lamech
11. Noah
12. Shem
13. Arphaxad
14. Cainan
15. Shelah
16. Eber
17. Peleg
18. Reu
19. Serug
20. Nahor
21. Terah
22. Abraham
23. Isaac
24. Jacob

One change needs to be made: God couldn’t be one of the 24 “elders”, so we remove God as one of the elders and replace it with the one person who is missing in this lineage. Who is missing from this lineage?

ABEL!

Before Seth, Abel was the chosen line before he was murdered by his brother Cain. Abel is definitely an “elder”. This sounds like a fairly credible possibility.

For what it is worth, here is another opinion on this matter of the 24 elders. And it is just that, an opinion. If we look at Revelation 21 we see the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. We see that it has 12 foundations. These 12 foundations represent the 12 apostles The Holy City also has 12 gates representing the 12 tribes and 12 patriarchs of Israel. I believe these offer some valuable clues as we seek to look into this matter of the 24 elders.

As we search out the identity of these 12 elders we note the number 12 is represented in Holy Scripture in association with the government of God. So we might well suspect that these 24 elders are in fact two sets of 12 men. All 24 of them would have had great importance in the unfolding of God’s plans and purposes here below. Here is something for us to consider. Is it possible that 12 of the 24 were key witnesses to what God was doing early on in the Old Covenant? And might the other 12 be key witnesses to what God was doing in the New Covenant?