Lot's wife, apparently turned into a pillar of salt, or more likely was covered by the sulfuric emanations that descended from the air as a result of a sulphuric eruption in the Dead Sea Region. And according to the legend, if she had been looking ahead, she would not have been subjected to such a dreadful fate.
The god of historians is a God of literature, story, and legends that have been passed down from generation to generation and to us today. And as a result, we continue to be stuck between 2 poles, that of looking back, or getting to know what we refer to as God in a current or post-modern context.
An interesting juxtaposition! The former are typically ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, because they are not looking for the truth. Why? They believe that they already have all of the truth, and the unraveling of history (similar to Lot's wife looking back) appears to be their religion as well as their love. And, translating, discovering, interpreting and examining texts, is also their God. Similar to their counterparts, the ones who love to put a puzzle together, take it apart, flip it on its flat side and then put it together again, it would appear that they are in love with the puzzling-exercise, more than they are with getting to know what the puzzle seeks to portray, in other words, its meaning.
At least in the past, our predecessors apparently knew their God, or did they? One writer put it this way when speaking for God and said: "My People Do Not Know, Neither Have They Considered". Not much has changed from where I am standing. Believers today, remind me a lot of the would-be sorcerers, in Acts Chapter 19. They attempted to exorcise the demons by invoking the name of Paul's God. Why? They didn't know God for themselves. Sadly, too many humans today are repeating similar behavior, when talking about the power of someone elses God, a God that they know of historically.
Beam us up Scotty and "boy, I say boy, now what was the name of that God you mentioned", Foghorn, Leghorn would ask?Ah, don't get mad at me, the Prophet Elijah made fun of the religious people of his time too. And today, what some individuals and religious institutions are doing, is as comedic as a Fog Horn Leg Horn cartoon.
Wake up folks. For example, consider religion teachers like Harold Camping, that appear to know nothing about God in the present, which explains why he keeps looking back to the past.. His latest eschatological predictions are based on his historical research in the canon, and the conclusions that he has drawn are a result of his restricting himself to that singular ancient text. He doesn't hide that, and neither pretends that God told him, nor that some spirit revealed the latest set of eschatological predictions that he has posited, with respect to the Rapture of the saints (approximately 200M, and the end of the world)!
Harold's predictions are only as good as the conclusions that he has drawn based upon his historical-biblical research. And, his predictions may be correct, based upon the source that he relied upon to draw his conclusions and to make his predictions. He has been wrong before, but that is not enough to cause to him admit that either his research is flawed, the source documents are flawed, or both he and they are flawed.
Looking back, and, eschatologically forward is dangerous at best. I believe that it satisfies the longings of individuals who refuse to look at what is right in front of them. These individuals refuse to search for the real God and its meaning in the present, instead they accept a historical God as being the real thing, depending on which culture they happen to come from.
Harold, why don't you look for and connect with what we call, ' God today', and save yourself the trouble of making predictions that are based upon flawed, and often incomprehensible texts from the past. At the very least, it would help you to stop making a fool out of yourself, and a very serious matter?
Having said this, and you can add this to the list, there have been numerous epochal and catostrophic events that have occurred before, in which people, I believe, thought that it was the end of the world - not just the end of them. For example, consider all of the individuals who died recently as a result of the earthquakes and Tsunami in Japan recently, Indonesia recently, or Haiti. They likely believed, when they saw the inescapable catastrophe coming, that it was the end of the world. Those of us who were not affected, understand that the world as we know it is still here.
Perhaps Harold, should consider that provisio in terms of his predictions in the future, that is to differentiate the end of the world from the destruction of a group of people, as a result of a geologic anomalies.
I suspect that readers, can come up with even more historical scenarios, wherein it might have appeared to the individuals who witnessed the coming of a great flood, tsunami, earthquake, the bombing of their nation by nuclear weapons dropped from the sky and were effected ... that it was the end of mankind or the world - take your pick!
Religious teachers ..., I ask you this question: Will you indeed sacrifice a whole generation of individuals, who refuse to share in the folly of 'looking back worship and romanticism', because you refuse to grow, learn, experience and teach about what is true in the present? And what is that?
Hint: Or, we can stay with the Harold Campings of the world, keep looking back, and forfeit what is here for us in an ever-evolving present, or we can change our focus, and begin accepting our present reality and recognize and understand God in the present, not a static anthropomorphic being that we learned of from history. Sacrilege? I know. And you, just keep looking back, and ignore what is right in front of you in the present!!!
to be continued in my God Today Series
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