God is funny when he gives you the smackdown

Well, I guess I didn't get an actual smackdown today, but more along the lines of God whistling a bit, sidling up and sliding something into my view.

So, I'm minding my own business this morning, fixing to read James (favorite!) both for a paper and to spend some time in The Word™, and I see 2 Thessalonians.  "Hmmmm," I think.  "I need to find a passage for my exegetical paper, and I don't really spend much time in 2 Thess (I can call them that) and don't really know what it's about, so I'll read that today.  Good idea, Robin!"

The title for this blog entry should be a link to 2 Thessalonians online.  Go ahead, read it.  But only if you read my angry, quite sure of itself post on Revelation.  I'll wait.

Didja read it?  Did you laugh? *sigh*  So, I think I'm going to pick something out of there to write my paper on, just so I can try to figure it out.  For those of you who didn't read it and would like me to just go ahead and tell you what I'm talking about: it's all about what we would call the Anti-Christ, End Times freakishness, and Jesus punishing people.

Of course, I didn't read about 1 Thess. for class when I was supposed to because I was being lazy.  You can bet your bottom dollar, though, that I'm going to get my textbook next time I feel like getting out of this chair and I am going to expect Achtemeier, Green, and Thompson to explain the stuffing out of this book.

It really does feel like what I've learned about Apocalyptic literature: Paul says that he's encouraging a church going through trials and tribulations, so it makes sense that the drama would be amped up about God's saving power and how good will triumph.  But being that it doesn't have the imagery and clear craziness of Revelation, it makes it even more confusing when he talks about the man of lawlessness, etc.  Especially since I can't easily read it as referring to a historic situation.

*sigh*  It doesn't really surprise me at all anymore when I think that I finally have something figured out about God and then find out I'm wrong.  It should surprise me even less when things about the Bible confuse me, but I guess that since it is a physical thing that can be studied and examined somewhat, I keep thinking we'll be able to wrestle it down.  Even though I also know that it isn't possible, my insane human brain keeps trying.  Oh well.