Good morning, Hearth.
Well, now, about seasons - I certainly did understand you to mean seasons as in leaves blowing around, and fall and winter but, duh! I forgot I was talking to a California person. Obviously when you think about seasons it isn't going to be remotely what I think when I hear seasons - I think of a bitterly cold fall wind, snaking around your body, looking for gaps in jackets, mitts and boots. Being snowed in for months at a time. Life in the igloo ;-^
Just to clarify - to you seasons on earth simply means that we aren't harvesting the same thing all the time? Gathering various kinds of fruit means seasons to you? As in radish season, pea season and strawberry season and corn season? Singing season, visiting season and praising season?
You say that you have a notion that there will be weather seasons of some vague sort but you don't say whether you think these seasons are in Heaven or on earth, or if Heaven and Earth in the new, redeemed world are one and the same thing. Revelations 21 says that there will be no more sea and in reference to sunlight, it states that (v23, NIRV) The city does not need the sun or moon to shine on it. God's glory is its light and the Lamb is its lamp. (v24) The nations will walk by the light of the city. The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut because there will be no night there....
It seems to me that John is writing about an earthly place due to the fact that he writes about the kings of the earth, but when he says that God's glory is its light, does he mean that God's glory is its only light and that there is no sun and no moon? He does say that there is no night there. Or is the city of God somehow separate from the rest of the earth in the sense that the rest of the redeemed earth has both a sun and a moon?
Okay, now on to flies and mosquitoes. I am sure this is just a little thing and I said it in a joking way but the fact is, that it used to bother me endlessly as a child, that I could not reconcile mosquitoes with God. And flies of course. Other things too, but mainly mosquitoes and flies. If I believe that animals have immortal souls, then how can I draw the line at mosquitoes and flies? The way I understand you, you believe that blood-sucking things are evil but I don't think that God makes anything evil.
We are told that both man's nature and the nature of animals will undergo a radical change, in that animals, including meat-eaters will eat grass instead of each other. So a similar change is possible for mosquitoes and vampire bats. However, possible though that may be, that mosquitoes undergo a change so that they don't suck blood and bother people, I just can't imagine what God would do with all these mosquitoes and flies, reformed or not. Sometimes it is the little things that are the stumbling block.
I don't read too much into the fact that Lucifer is called the Lord of the Flies because Gentiles are also called dogs, an animal for which ancient Israel seemed to have as much distaste as I do for mosquitoes. I think Lord of the Flies is a figure of speech, since flies are associated with death. And dogs, in the Bible, are associated with uncleanliness, as in they eat anything and then lick their butts. So that's what us Gentiles are compared to. Pretty picture, no?
Head-coverings. Ummmm. Well, what I was hoping for when it comes to Heaven was long beautiful, pitch black hair that never has a Bad Hair Day. But as to head coverings for women now, I am not sure what I think.
In the Mennonite church I grew up in - way back when - women covered their heads with shawls or hats on Sunday when they went to church. Some denominations of women covered their heads with a small version of the skull cap at all times. Usually it was placed over a bun. The denomination I grew up in didn't do that - head coverings in the form of a hat (modern hats) were strictly for Sunday church and worn only by baptised women. Nowadays most church-going Mennonites don't wear anything on their heads in church.
Frankly, I think the apostle Paul was more confusing than anything when he said that (Cor 11:6) What if a woman does not cover her head? She should have her hair cut off. But it is shameful for her to cut her hair or shave it off. So she should cover her head.
In the same chapter, (v 13-14) he says, ...Is it proper for a woman to pray to God without covering her head? Suppose a man has long hair. Doesn't the very nature of things teach you that it is shameful?
Paul has never made an ounce of sense to me with this argument. He seems to say that nature itself teaches us, as is the phrasing in the KJV, that it is a shame for a man to have long hair, and yet when you observe nature, it is the male lion that has the mane, not the lioness. It is the male peacock that has the beautiful feathers, not the peahen. It is often the males in nature that have the more brightly coloured plumage, not the female. So what is Paul going on about?
Nature, as far as I can see, does not teach us one single thing about what is the proper length of hair for a man or for a woman.
Furthermore, in the Old Testament, the Nazirite men deliberately did not cut their hair because they were consecrated to the Lord.
Numbers 6: The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the people of Israel. Say to them, Suppose a man or woman wants to make a special promise. They want to set themselves apart to the Lord for a certain period of time. They want to be Nazirites.
3. Then they must not drink any kind of wine. They must not drink vinegar that is made out of wine of any kind. They must not drink grape juice. They must not eat grapes or raisins.
4. As long as they are Nazirites, they must not eat anything the grapevine produces. They must not even eat the seeds or skins of grapes.
5. They must not use razors on their heads. They must not cut their hair during the whole time they have set themselves apart to the Lord. They must be holy until that time is over. They must let the hair on their heads grow long. And they must not go near a dead body that whole time.
Samson (Judges 13) was a Nazirite promised to God by his mother before his birth. He had long hair, until of course, Delilah made him cut it.
So I don't understand at all why the ideal of the Nazirite is contradicted (apparently) by the apostle Paul. Or why he would go even further and say 'nature' teaches us these things, when I know of nothing in nature that teaches us that men should have short hair and women, long.
Layla
