Two Million, Three Hundred Thousand Years

While it makes for interesting, and some would insist historically important, Bible study, and, no doubt, it enrichens one's understanding of God and a host of other aspects of soteriology, I, for one, lose very little sleep worrying about the 2,300 days, years, or millennia.

Years have come and gone without those words crossing and recrossing my mind. Through the dark days that have come and gone, only Christ and his ever-present reality have been both in the forefront, as well as, in the back of my mind.

Whenever I happen to note other religious traditions and their detailed and exacting studies, reinterpretations, and endless quibbling of fine-haired details, I'm relieved to thank God for the beautiful simplicty of righteousness by faith in Christ Jesus.

So much time and effort is spent on rehashing all these dates, and possible interpretations and whether this person is right, or if they aren't how can they still call themselves Adventist, or Christian, or Spiritual. Why not give it a rest? That's right. Declare a moratorium, or a Sabbath Rest, that lasts longer than anyone has ever dared. Why not concentrate on more pressing matters, such as receiving and continuing to receive the Holy Spirit? Once more and more believers are filled with the heavenly comforter, all these dates and problems with dates, or with horns, or with places, times and reinterpretations will vanish. How I long for the simplification of Christianity. How far we've gotten from the apostolic church and their one-big-family style of worship and fellowship. We've unncessarily made Christianity into something as complex as are other tradition-obsessed schools of thought and practice.

Let's keep it simple, like Morris Venden suggested, salvation in a nutshell: "Pray to God, study His word and work with Christ." "...Apart from me [Christ] you can do nothing." John 15:5 (NIV) & "I can do everything through him [Christ] who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

Or as John Keats once said, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all you know on earth, and all you need to know.”