I want to keep this November 29, 2021 post up near the top of the page to increase the exposure to the concept....which is....'What if the Tribulation has already started?' Go ahead and laugh....but I bet it's a nervous laughter....because there is no more ignoring what is going on in this world! I think that it would be a good topic for cell groups....or Bible study....or even if you have friends over. This pandemic has been a judgment from God in more ways than just deaths....as an already fractured society has been broken clear in two. The Second Coming to us right now is something that will happen....later on. There is no urgency to it whatsoever. So if the possibility of the Tribulation.....having already started....is even momentarily considered....the Second Coming would take on a whole new meaning. Can we not even discuss this....should we not even consider the vast difference between the two scenarios?
Preface: The following post was for shock value as much as offering something to think about. Whatever words or phrases we use today in describing the return of the Lord Jesus....they are just words. They may be based on truth....and by and large we all give our assent to them....but as for the Lord coming soon....well let me put it this this....you don't dwell upon something that you don't really want to happen. No....our Santa list is for first....a republican congress in 2022....and second....Trump or someone like him in 2024. The return of our Lord isn't even on the list. If the speculation in the post below would turn out to be correct....then the Tribulation....of biblical end-times prophesy....would have already started....either in 2019 or 2020. The white horse of Revelation six....with the bow and the crown....would be the pandemic....with war the next horse.
The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse has been a well-recognized phrase in American culture forever....as even Knute Rockne's backfield at Notre Dame in 1924 was given the nickname.....but I don't know if the phrase is quite as recognizable today. The other day I was talking to a young man....about 25 years old....about pipes.....tobacco pipes....and I happened to mention Bing Crosby. At first he thought I was talking about Sydney Crosby....and then said that he was not familiar with a Bing Crosby.
The first horseman of Revelation 6 has always.....quite naturally....as it should all of us....intrigued me. Many have thought....and still do.....that it points to Christ.....but most today believe it points to the Antichrist....with the bow signifying a man coming in peace.....given a crown to go out an conquer. I have never been convinced of either....thus I ponder on it occasionally....storing thoughts in the back of my mind. In doing this the other day.....my thinking led me to the post that is below. As for pondering on passages of Scripture....not yet fully knowing the complete meaning....I'm reminded of the words about the mother of Jesus in Luke 2:19...."But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." (ESV)
Word Of The Year.....or.....Bow and Crown
The Oxford English Dictionary each year chooses a....word of the year....after the issue is debated. For example they choose the word vax as their word for 2021.....and unprecedented for 2019. They describe the choice of the word as based on the "mood, or preoccupations of that particular year."
In 2018 they choose the word....toxic....originating from the Greek....toxon....or bow.......because in war....arrows were often dipped in poison. From this Latin gives us....toxicus....which gives us words such as....toxic and toxin.
I don't know why I pick up on things like this.....maybe it's because my only near-academic award came in a spelling bee as an eight grader. Speaking of spelling bees.....the 2009 Scripts National Spelling Bee winner was thirteen year old Kavya Shivashankar. It was odd that after extremely difficult words such as palatschinken and herniorrhaphy knocked out a few of the young contestants....she won on the word....pronounced to her as....lay-odd-uh-see-an.....or Laodicean....the word description given being....:"lukewarm or indifferent, particularly in matters of politics or religion"....another interesting word at the time as we surely had become in America a Laodicean church.
As for the Oxford English Dictionary....their "team of expert lexicographers" decided that no one word would be appropriate in such an "unprecedented" year as 2020....so they instead chose themes around Covid-19....the coronavirus....because of the monumental effect it has had on the world....so what is....corona? The Merriam-Webster definition for corona is...."something suggesting a crown"
