Is Sacramental Millennialism an Oxymoron?

Is it possible to be a millennialist and still hold to the sacraments?

This thought occurred to me today. If you are a millennialist, you are looking for Christ to come and establish His supposed 1,000 year reign on earth. If that’s the eschatology you’re waiting for, then the eternal is not (and cannot be?) something that breaks into the here and now. For a millennialist, there is no now and not yet - there is only not yet.

But doesn’t that militate against a proper understanding of the sacraments? For in the sacraments, the not yet, the eternal, is breaking into the now through water, words, and bread and wine. We don’t have to wait for Christ to come and establish His kingdom on earth, He is doing so already!

Luther said this in the explanation to the Second Petition: How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.

And so God gives us His Spirit here and now through Holy Baptism. We hear the judgment of the last day in the words of Holy Absolution. We receive a foretaste of the feast to come in the Holy Supper. In all these ways, the not yet is now, the end is breaking into the present, and the kingdom of God is coming to us.

To me, that seems diametrically opposed to any kind of millennial understanding. Is this why it’s often so hard to talk to evangelicals of this mindset? 

More to come as I have time to think . . . but I think this is important and there is a great need for us to think about this: How to speak Lutheran to an Evangelical?

Washington Monument in the Earthquake

You must watch this. This is video footage from inside the top of the Washington Monument when the earthquake struck last month. Yikes! There is footage from two different cameras, so about halfway through it starts again. Watch the shaking intensify and stuff begin to fall. It also gives you an idea how long the quake lasted. What a scary place to be when it hit!

Update: I updated the link to watch the video on YouTube since our local TV station took the original video down - or at least made it hard to find! The first camera shot isn't a part of this video, but the second (and better) still is, and you still see how intense it was.

Satellite Images of Bible Events

In doing searches for pictures, I recently found these . . . renderings of what certain biblical events might have looked like from a satellite. Pretty cool.

The parting of the Red Sea

Noah's Ark

Here's the link to the site where I found them, for proper attribution and such. There are some other images there, but these were to ones I thought the coolest. Also some interesting comments, though I don't have time to read through them all.

The Best Humor Contains a Kernel of Truth

I think I like this so much because driving often brings out the worst in me! (Especially in DC traffic!)

HT: Fr. Z

-------------------

The Light turned yellow

The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up..

He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door.  She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, “I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ‘What Would Jesus Do’ bumper sticker, the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday-School’ bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally….I assumed you had stolen the car.”

More on the Rain Last Week

See the little white area to the north and west of the big white area? That's where I live! According to these measurements, over 15 inches of rain fell last week. Oh my. Oh, and at the army base near my home, they measured 7.03 inches in just 3 hours on Thursday night. Hence the video I posted before. Incredible. But again, we are fortunate and thankful not to have been flooded out and that all our drainage systems worked as planned. Many were not as fortunate. They are in our prayers.

What Does 12 Inches of Rain Look Like?

The remnants of tropical storm Lee created a river behind our house where there wasn't one before. All that rain in so short a time was simply amazing. I'm just glad we didn't get flooded like some other towns and neighborhoods.

6:03

Yup, 6:03. Nope, that's not a typo. I complained yesterday (just here, not to the school) about the time my kids had to get on the bus, so guess what? Now, its even earlier! 6:03. AM! My kids have to get on the bus then for school that starts around 7:25. Unbelievable. If I believed in karma . . .