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2 Peter 3:1-10 1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want y

2 Peter 3:1-10 1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. 3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

exikyut 7y ago
It's not hard to figure that those who've come from the front lines of fighting the fires, those who've helping the injured and those who have lost their homes are probably doing some hard thinking about their experiences right now. Fighting any confronting, seemingly loosing battle will do that, and it's human nature to be philosophical ("let me find a logical model that pattern-matches well to these specific inputs, but which is sufficiently complicated enough that I juuust can't quite logically verify the model itself properly") to cope. But if I were going to pick a Bible passage that I felt was the most consistent pattern-match for this situation, I'd probably use Matthew 24:6-7: 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. Shrug I'd file what's going on over here pretty unhesitatingly under "pestilences". I'm actually wondering where to move to in future; I'm currently a comfortable distance away from all the hotspots, and would (selfishly) like to keep that status quo. Such logistical considerations may become disillusioningly commonplace in future; hopefully not too distractingly so... The reason I like the passage above is the bit about "the end is not yet". It's ironic: even as I do believe in the Rapture (or at least the vague, hand-wavy gist of it that the majority of denominations that are prepared to face the idea all agree on) and/or life after death, my soul's currently stuck in this specific body for now, and I have to figure out the best way to move forward. Luke 19:11-13 comes to mind: 11 And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. 12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. The end of verse 13 is my current focus at the moment, and helping me deal with some circumstantial depression that is causing me to lose sight in the value of the simple things. ADHD and concentration issues also make it easy for me to get distracted by details and lend me to top-heavy thinking and castle-building in the sky. The thing is, beyond the simple understandings that are conveyed in the Bible, and the experiences of a few people that say they've visited Heaven (and who all have noteworthily consistent stories), I have no idea what happens Next™ - you know, after the end of the world. So trying to plan or schedule for or obsess over the future would be premature optimization - even as that leaves me with an absolute sense of "but wat even do I do now then????". One final verse comes to mind, 1 Corinthians 13:12: 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. Cross-referencing this with later verses in Luke 19 from before, 16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. Obviously my life goal is to figure out how on earth I'm supposed to "occupy" even while I can't even see what I'm doing properly because I "see through a glass, darkly" (mirror technology wasn't too great 2000 years ago; modern semantic equivalences might be 300k webcams, or JPEG quality levels below 40) so that, beyond the end of the world, what I do retains value. I officially have no idea what I'm doing.

exikyut 7y ago

It's not hard to figure that those who've come from the front lines of fighting the fires, those who've helping the injured and those who have lost their homes are probably doing some hard thinking about their experiences right now. Fighting any confronting, seemingly loosing battle will do that, and it's human nature to be philosophical ("let me find a logical model that pattern-matches well to these specific inputs, but which is sufficiently complicated enough that I juuust can't quite logically verify the model itself properly") to cope. But if I were going to pick a Bible passage that I felt was the most consistent pattern-match for this situation, I'd probably use Matthew 24:6-7: 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. Shrug I'd file what's going on over here pretty unhesitatingly under "pestilences". I'm actually wondering where to move to in future; I'm currently a comfortable distance away from all the hotspots, and would (selfishly) like to keep that status quo. Such logistical considerations may become disillusioningly commonplace in future; hopefully not too distractingly so... The reason I like the passage above is the bit about "the end is not yet". It's ironic: even as I do believe in the Rapture (or at least the vague, hand-wavy gist of it that the majority of denominations that are prepared to face the idea all agree on) and/or life after death, my soul's currently stuck in this specific body for now, and I have to figure out the best way to move forward. Luke 19:11-13 comes to mind: 11 And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. 12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. The end of verse 13 is my current focus at the moment, and helping me deal with some circumstantial depression that is causing me to lose sight in the value of the simple things. ADHD and concentration issues also make it easy for me to get distracted by details and lend me to top-heavy thinking and castle-building in the sky. The thing is, beyond the simple understandings that are conveyed in the Bible, and the experiences of a few people that say they've visited Heaven (and who all have noteworthily consistent stories), I have no idea what happens Next™ - you know, after the end of the world. So trying to plan or schedule for or obsess over the future would be premature optimization - even as that leaves me with an absolute sense of "but wat even do I do now then????". One final verse comes to mind, 1 Corinthians 13:12: 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. Cross-referencing this with later verses in Luke 19 from before, 16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. Obviously my life goal is to figure out how on earth I'm supposed to "occupy" even while I can't even see what I'm doing properly because I "see through a glass, darkly" (mirror technology wasn't too great 2000 years ago; modern semantic equivalences might be 300k webcams, or JPEG quality levels below 40) so that, beyond the end of the world, what I do retains value. I officially have no idea what I'm doing.