buffy and friends and friends

i'm supposed to be writing a talk this week on angels and demons.

C.S. Lewis writes in 1941:

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”

(C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Barbour and Company, Inc., 1990)

i believe the same can be said regarding angels.

although i did read on a site discussing the theology of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that several people working on the show did become Christians, in no small part due to the constant discussion of heaven and hell, angels and demons.

if only my youth group kids were old enough to have watched the show, i could justify doing a talk all about how dodgy the Buffy theology is!

Enoch I

i've been reading the Book of Enoch lately, to try and get a picture of the C1 thought on eternity, immortality, punishment etc, prompted by the reading of another book, The Fire that Consumes, by Edward Fudge.

for those unaware, the Book of Enoch, is part of the pseudipigrapha, ie written pseudonymously, of which not a few copies were found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls - it was actually the fifth most popular scroll among the Qumran community, after the Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah and Genesis (listen to this fascinating talk for a heads-up on the scrolls).

the book has been described as Revelation on Steroids! it's 108 chapters long (although most of them are pretty short), but by no means a difficult read.

1. there's a lot of discussion of the angels. the idea we sometimes hear of this big war between the good angels, versus the fallen angels really takes off here. Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel take on the likes of Azazel, Semjaza, Armaros, Baraqijal, Kokabel, Ezeqeel, Araqiel, Shamsiel and Sariel. Enoch sort of combines the flood narrative, with the battle language of Joel among other places, with hell-fire language.
   
   
   Chapter 10:
   'Go to Noah and tell him in my name "Hide thyself!" and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it.'
   
   'Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates, and against the children of fornication: and destroy [the children of fornication and] the children of the Watchers from amongst men [and cause them to go forth]: send them one against the other that they may destroy each other in battle: for length of days shall they not have.'
   
   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.
   
   
   i thought that was quite an interesting succesion...
   
   
2. chapter 10 continues with a picture of restoration (something i am particularly trying to think through):
   
   
   And then shall all the righteous escape,
 And shall live till they beget thousands of children,
 And all the days of their youth and their old age
 Shall they complete in peace.
   And then shall the whole earth be tilled in righteousness,
   and shall all be planted with trees and be full of blessing.
   
   
   there is here, as well as elsewhere, a picture of the earth being restored, a place for the righteous to dwell.
   chapter 25 is particularly interesting, where we have a juxtaposing of the "garden" (ie restored earth), with the "temple" (c/f revelation).
   
   
   'It [the fruit of the tree of knowledge] shall then be given to the righteous and holy. Its fruit shall be for food to the elect: it shall be transplanted to the holy place, to the temple of the Lord, the Eternal King.
   Then shall they rejoice with joy and be glad,
 And into the holy place shall they enter;
 And its fragrance shall be in their bones,
 And they shall live a long life on earth,
 Such as thy fathers lived:
   And in their days shall no sorrow or plague 
Or torment or calamity touch them.'
   
   
   
3. my final note comes from the closing chapters of the first section (ch's 28-36). this is a very apocalyptic cruise around the earth, where all is restored and made even better! there is the tree of knowledge, the tree of wisdom, and many other fragrant, magnificent trees (i wonder if they were suffering from severe deforestation at that time, a bit of tree-envy?), and the first part (of five) culminates in this hymn:
   
   
   Chapter 36
   And as often as I saw I blessed always the Lord of Glory, and I continued to bless the Lord of Glory who has wrought great and glorious wonders, to show the greatness of His work to the angels and to spirits and to men, that they might praise His work and all His creation: that they might see the work of His might and praise the great work of His hands and bless Him for ever.

regardless of the canonicity of Enoch (the Ethiopian church - at least the Ethiopian Jews - apparently hold it to be truly canonical), it's definitely a fun read, and as we see at the end of this section, there is cause to praise God in all things.

1 Chronicles 16:25For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be held in awe above all gods.

photo, as well as the text of the book are sourced from here

eschatology and music (and angels!)

having read many a blog (drew et al) as well as articles suach as in the case magazine, and also seeing as drew's blog is inaccessible to simpletons such as myself (beta what?), i thought i'd make my response here!
Drew was commenting more specifically on U2, who claim to be Christian.
Nick Cave's claims, on the other hand, are not so straightforward. Having written the introduction to the book of Mark seems to have been more of a pop-culture-hook than embracing a fellow Christian with a common faith in a common God, the God of the Bible.
His eschatology is indeed quite sketchy, with a view few Christians would agree with.

But Drew's point about what i shall call 'osmosis' of spirituality, is something that quite intrigues me.
One of my favourite artists, Ben Harper, has some interesting thoughts in his music, yet is quite inconsistent with his thoughts when it comes to eschatology.

for example this section from waiting on an angel:

So speak kind to a stranger
cause you'll never know
it just might be an angel come
knockin' at your door
knockin' at your door
And I'm waiting on an angel
and I know it won't be long
to find myself a resting place
in my angel's arms
in my angel's arms
Waiting on an angel
one to carry me home
hope you come to see me soon
cause I don't want to go alone

this includes almost a direct quote from Hebrews 13:2,

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

but where does he get this idea of an angel being the one to take him home from?
The closest i can find is in 2 Kings 2, where Elisha is taken up, but by a whirlwind; in 1 Thessalonians 4 when Jesus arrives, with the voice of an archangel (not with an archangel), the dead in Christ will rise, then we who are left will be caught up together with them.
The whole idea of angel worship is something we in the west are very guilty of, Ben Harper not excluded.
Although there are many things angels do do, ascribing random things like this to them shows the lask of biblical theology involved by many a songwriter (robbie williams be warned - not least for other reasons!).