Daily Readings Reflection for 6/22/11

Scripture: June 22. Lectionaray 373. Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18. Psalm
105:1-2,3-4.6-7.l8-9. Matthew 7:15-20

"Be on your guard against false prophets." We know how important this
advice from Jesus is as we read about certain "religious" figures who
predict the end of the world is around the corner or wil come on this
specific date or when we look at this specific calendar. We all had a
flood of this prediction in the year 2000 when all that is characteristic
of millenialism inundated the country. Hopefully we learned something
about it and maybe even about ourselves and our anxieties about when the
end would be. Recently we witnessed the action of some religious persons
who wanted to burn the sacred books of another person's religion probably
without even read one page of that religious text. Book burning is always
a bad omen. The Nazis did this with their pogroms and then created the
Shoah (the holocaust). Again in discerning who are the false prophets or
the false maxims and statements some leaders make, we need to discern the
signs of the times and know well the values and principles of the Gospel
and the Bible. Jesus has been teaching us these rules and guidelines in
the Sermon on the Mount.

Returning to the predictions of latter day prophets this statement from one
of the best and erudite of Scripture scholars says, "It may be important,
then, to propose for discussion a strong clarifying statement--one that
will scandalize some Christians (and implies no rejection of inspiration or
revelation). God has not revealed to human beings details about how the
world began or how it will end, and failing to recognize that, one is
likely to misread both the first book of the Bible (Genesis) and the last
book of the Bible (Revelation). The author of Revelation (the Apocalypse)
did not know how or when the world would end, and neither does anyone
else." (Intro to N.T., by R.E. Brown, pp. 809-810).