Creatio Ex Nihilo

The Revelation Zone

I was just reading a news story about a reading of Rod Serling's script "Noon on Doomsday," a story about the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till. Serling was never able to get the script produced in its original form, due to network censorship and pressure from sponsors. After several attempts to produce the project ended in watered-down productions, Serling grew disillusioned.

Eventually, he found a vehicle where he could address controversial social issues, slipping them under the censors' radar protected by the metaphor and myth. That vehicle was "The Twilight Zone," which other than "Star Trek" was one of the few TV shows to really wrestle with philosophical and theological issues.

While reading the story, I thought how the Book of Revelation was and is a similar vehicle. Revelation empowered "John" to write about issues and critique the powers of his day in the seemingly fanciful images of angels with bowls and trumpets, beasts and dragons. It was his way of dealing with a repressive empire, much as "Twilight Zone" was Serling's way of dealing with a repressive TV industry.

How ironic that the "Left Behind" and "Late Great Planet Earth" have misguidedly looked to Revelation as a coded road map to future events. Will people centuries from now look to "The Twilight Zone" to portend the events of their future? Will the gremlin on the wing of the jet be seen as a prediction of over-regulated or poorly maintained airlines? Will Bill Mummy's cornfield be used as a proof text for a new doctrine of Hell or Purgatory? Will future believers cite "To Serve Mankind" as a warning to accept Jesus or be left behind... and eaten by aliens?

Strange Jersey Names

I always wondered whatever happened to Steve Forbert ("Romeo's Tune" and "Say Goodbye to Little Joe"). Growing up in Northern NJ, I was somewhat numb to the oddness of NJ town names. But his song says it all. I have to thank my Aunt Jean for passing this along to me.

N. T. Wright and Heaven

Time has a thought-provoking interview with Bishop N T Wright about heaven. Ironically, I always associate Wright with being more conservative and traditional. My first exposure to his writing came over a decade ago when he was popularly known as a critic of the Jesus Seminar. He is hardly a left-wing agnostic.

Basically, he says that the popular Christian notion of heaven is mistaken. It is not a place of disembodied existence we go to after we die. The Bible describes a "life after life after death" of Jesus returning and restoring Creation - a merging of heaven and earth as described in the Book of Revelation. This has profound implications about how we live our lives now.

Check it out.