Open Reflections

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One like the Son of Man

I turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me.

And when I turned I saw seven golden lamp stands, and among them was someone “like a son of man”, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his chest.

His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire

…His voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

…His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

 (Book of Revelation, 1, 12-16)

 

The Ancient of Days

Above, fresco of the 14th century of the Ancient of Days in a church in Ubisi, Georgia.

“As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him…”

This is how Prophet Daniel describes the first Dream he had (Dan. 7, 9).

In that dream the earthly kingdoms are compared and differentiated from God’s kingdom (Dan. ch. 7)

God is mentioned as “the Ancient of Days”, a reference to His eternal existence and pre-existence before the creation of the world, which is His work anyway.

There is emphasis in God’s transcendence, i.e. that He is beyond time and He has neither beginning nor end.

We, children of time upon this earth, have reason to rejoice because the ever-living God took our human nature and became a man— like all of us but without sin, and granted us the possibility to participate in His eternity once we leave this earth.

This eternity with God we call “Salvation”.

 

Did you know…

The religion of the Bible is founded upon a historical revelation. This fact differentiates it from all other religions.

Some of these religions claim no revelation, as  is the case with Buddhism, which at its starting point relies on the all-too-human lights of a sage.

Other religions present their content as a heavenly revelation due, though, to a legendary or mythical founder, as is the case of  Hermes Trismegistus for the Hermetic knowledge.

On the contrary, in the Bible, the revelation is a historical concrete event; Its mediators are known and their words have been preserved either directly or within a steady tradition.

Moreover, the Biblical revelation, in addition to the signs which show its authenticity, does not content itself with the teaching of a unique founder it, rather, develops in the space of fifteen to twenty centuries before its fulfillment through the coming of Christ, who is the revelation par excellence.

Faith is, for the Christian, the acceptance of this revelation that history transmits to men and women.

The Church is the historical continuation of the transmission of this authentic revelation.

 

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