Immediacy

I was born in 1950.  Around the time the Korean War started.  In that year Harry Truman was the president.  It was the beginning of the nuclear arms race.  The first credit card, a Diners Club card was used for the first time.  The French part of the Viet Nam war started.  Cinderella was released by Disney.  “All the King’s Men” won the academy award for the best picture.  The first 500 mile NASCAR race was run.  Peanuts by Charles Shultz was first published.  What’s the point…

Revelation, the last book in our New Testament was written around 95 – 96 AD, Christ was crucified in about 33 AD which was about 62 – 63 years earlier.  The same distance in time that we are now from 1950.  The authors wrote the 27 books we have in our canon, starting in about 40 through 95 or 96, using the 1950 illustration, from 1957 through 2012.  Those men were deeply engaged in a world changing movement that was resisted by all of the governments of the countries in which they lived and ministered.  The details were deeply etched in their psyches.

On top of that, the Holy Spirit guided their hand, 2 Timothy 3:14 – 17; 2 Peter 1:20 – 21; 3:15 – 16.  Our Bible has the advantage of being written by men not only contemporary with the times but intimately engaged in the events.