The way of imagination

       Questions .   Many people turn to the book of Revelation with the following question in mind: How is it all going to end?   As often happens when we bring our questions to the Bible, we discover that our questions aren’t exactly the right ones.   This is often simply because our questions reflect our concerns, while God’s concerns are often quite different.   In the beginning of the book of Acts, the resurrected Jesus is with the apostles outside of Jerusalem, and the disciples ask him one of those questions: “…“Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1.6-8) Like good, faithful Jews, the apostles are eager to know if Jesus will finally do what they think the Messiah is

  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God... And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and be their God; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” (Rev. 21.1-4)      The ancient world was choked full of temples, much like the modern world is replete with churches, synagogues, mosques, and various places of worship.   The ancient gods were believed to “inhabit” their temples in some way; the image of the god(dess) in question symbolized the divinity’s having taken up residence in its “home” (naturally, the last step in the construction of a temple was the installation of the god’