认真阅读圣经的人，生活在两端之间。
创世记清楚地传达了上帝的心意，要我们为他用爱和智慧去管治他创造的世界。尽管后来人类偏行己路，但在挪亚出方舟后，上帝仍坚持他的创造必须继续昌盛。
来到现在，人类面临着巨大的挑战，令许多人感到绝望。流行的教导说灾难性的「末日」即将来临，这什至被视为圣经预言。如果这是真的，认真的基督徒会成了悲剧英雄：上帝希望我为他的创造尽我所能，但我所有的努力将会白费，因为上帝已经设定了创造被人类──什至上帝自己──去摧毁。对某些人来说，这些先兆已很明显，例如气候变化和生态崩溃。
在这两端中，第一端（上帝要我们照顾受造世界）是无可争议的。第二端取决于我们如何阅读启示录，就是圣经的主要终末（末世）文本。它的主干包括三个「七」的系列：七印、七号和七碗。只有碗是上帝的愤怒，它只倒在罪人身上，而不在上帝的创造上。我们如何阅读印和号角是关键。
别只着眼带灾马，忘了良善的活物
如果只读前四印中的四匹有色的马，那么只会看到灾难：压迫（白马）、互相杀戮（红马）、稀缺（黑马），最后是死亡（灰马）。从这样的阅读开始，启示录接下来的大部份内容都被定性：一、未来是充满灾难；二、因为是羔羊揭开每一个印，所以上帝就是预定了这些灾难；三、更严重的灾难即将来临；四、这一切都将导致人类和上帝的创造灾难性的结局。
但是启示录的四马只是经文的一半。整段经文还有四个独特的活物，从美善上帝的宝座而出。每一个活物召唤一匹马来。这起始的前四印最合理的意思是：上帝要人以威严（狮子）、忠诚（牛）、智慧（人）去统管受造世界，带来不断的更新（像飞鹰更新羽毛）。但人却扭曲了上帝的心意，带来刚刚相反的结果（马的灾难）。
以上不是别的解释，而只是不折不扣地读全文。这肯定：一、上帝要人类统管受造世界的不变意图；二、那些灾难来自人的歪曲；三、上帝仍然要人类通过适当管治来更新创造。随后的段落（启六9至十11）详细阐述了这三点。
很奇怪地，我从来没有找到任何人（学者或占卜者）正视文本要求的，将良善的活物和带灾难的马之间的张力来解释这个关键的开篇段落（启六1-8）。他们只看到骑士。（请尝试证明我错了：[email protected]）
然而，重述上帝对人类不变的要求只是信息的一半。人若是继续犯罪，是不是说上帝的初心永远成不了，这个世界还是灭亡？
创造．复活．终末
后半部份是：自称为安息之主的耶稣不懈地在历史中作工，去带领人类和上帝的受造世界进入最终的安息，成就上帝的初心。
第六号角（启十一）的最后一片段描述了这个壮举。其中两个上帝的见证人抵抗了外邦人对上帝圣城（受造世界）的践踏，但被杀害了。然而，上帝叫这两个见证人复活，并把他们带到天上。
约翰深思熟虑地将这两个复活的见证人（代表律法和先知）放在两个安息时间尺度（上帝工作的一周；以及人类工作，将上帝的创造带进安息的安息年周期）的中心。复活之前，是一套安息时间尺度的一半（42个月、1260日、3.5日）；复活之后是另一半（42个月、1260日、「一载，两载，半载」）。将它们匹配起来，就形成两个完整的安息时间周期。
月份是根据管黑夜的月亮而设定，日是根据管白昼的太阳而设定。令人惊叹地，约翰将「月」只用于反对上帝的人，而「日」只用于上帝的追随者，从没有混淆。这说出那些人如何生活：是在黑暗中，还是在光明中！
这两个见证人象征着耶稣通过律法和先知在旧约中的工作。在耶稣成全律法和先知之后，从启示录十三章开始，他以羔羊的身份出现。同一位耶稣正在推动受造世界从创造之初一直走往最终的安息，这充份说明耶稣在符类福音中，宣称他是安息之主的重大意义。
安息循环当中的耶稣
耶稣的复活是上帝工作（在3.5日+「一载、两载、半载」中）的中心，耶稣将完成上帝创造的心意。耶稣的复活是圣徒工作（在2×1260日中）的焦点，耶稣会带领圣徒洁净上帝创造的秩序。耶稣的复活是上帝战胜对手（在2×42个月中）的关键，耶稣将审判罪人。这审判随后在上帝的七个碗的愤怒中详细阐述，因为耶稣的复活，没有人能逃避他。
约翰将耶稣置于圣经安息时间尺度的中心，指出了人类和受造世界应该努力迈向的终点：一个人透过他手所作的工与自己复和，就像上帝在他的安息中爱慕他的创造；人类与受造世界复和，像农夫学习和尊重自然界丰厚的供给，使到在没有农耕的情况下度过安息周期的第七年。这所有都是在上帝禧年中，人类要彼此复和不可或缺的基础。上帝就悦纳这些作为人与上帝和好的具体凭证。只有当这三种复和（人与自己、人与受造世界、人与他人）一起在上帝的带领下同时进行，受造世界才能迈进。
当上帝在启示录中结束对人的教导时，他重申了他要人类带来宇宙和谐的初衷，并立耶稣去带领迷失了的人类回到起初的旅程，走向上帝预定的安息。
有许多迹象表明上帝通过他的子民更新他的创造（例如在人类社区中，在自然生态中）。我们是否会因为看到这些耶稣为将来撒下的种子而雀跃？
圣徒关爱受造世界的盼望是：知其不会失败而为之。
笔者按：详参拙着Fung, Christopher(2017) The Lord of the Sabbath Opens His Book of Revelation Wipf and Stock, Eugene, Origen.
关爱受造世界系列
Caring for God’s Creation in the End Times: Tragic Hero or Victor in Christ?
People taking the Bible seriously live between two poles.
Genesis clearly conveys God’s intention for us to rule over his creation for him, i.e. with love and intelligence. Despite subsequent humans’ waywardness, God insisted, after Noah came out of the ark, that his creation must continue thriving.
Fast forward to now. Mankind faces great challenges that have led many to despair. Popular teachings suggest that a cataclysmic “end-time” is approaching and this is taken to be biblical prophecies. If this is indeed true, serious Christians find themselves as tragic heroes: God expects me to do my utmost for his creation, but all my efforts are wasted because God has set creation to be destroyed, by humans or even by God himself. To some, the writing is already on the wall, e.g. climate change and ecological collapse.
Of the two poles, the first – God wants us to look after creation – is beyond dispute. The second pole depends on how we read Revelation, the Bible’s main eschatological (end-times) text. It has a backbone comprising three series of sevens: seals, trumpets and bowls. Only the bowls are God’s wrath which is poured out only on sinners rather than God’s creation. How we read the seals and trumpets is crucial.
If one reads only four colored horses in the first four seals, then one finds only disasters – oppression (white horse), mutual killing (red horse), scarcity (black horse) and finally death (ashen horse). Starting with such reading sets the trend for much of what follows in Revelation: 1. The future is full of disasters; 2. God is responsible for these disasters since the Lamb opens each seal; 3. More serious disasters are to come; 4. All these will lead to a disastrous end for mankind and God’s creation.
But the four horsemen of the Apocalypse is only half the passage. The full passage also has four distinct living creatures coming from the throne of the good God, each calling forth a horse. The most reasonable meaning of these trend-setting first four seals is that God intends people to rule over creation majestically (lion) in faithfulness (ox) with intelligence (human) to bring about continual renewal (flying eagle, renewing its feather). But people have perverted God’s intention to bring about the corresponding opposite (horsemen’s disasters).
Such is definitely not a different interpretation, but just reading the full text. It affirms: 1. God’s unchanging intention for mankind to rule creation; 2. the disasters mentioned come from humans’ perversion; 3. God still intends mankind to renew creation through man’s proper rulership. Subsequent passages elaborate on these three points.
Strangely, I have not found anyone (scholar or soothsayer) who has interpreted this pivotal opening passage (6:1-8) by upholding the tension between the good living creatures and disastrous horses which the text demands. Only the horsemen matter to them. (Please try to prove me wrong: [email protected]).
Yet, retelling God’s unchanged demand for mankind is just half the story. If man is perverted, does that mean God’s original intention will never be fulfilled and this world is still doomed?
The second half is: Jesus who claims to be Lord of the Sabbath holds God’s work together throughout the ages and is leading mankind and God’s creation to the final Sabbath, making good on God’s original intention.
This magnificent act is described in the last episode of the sixth trumpet (Rev. 11) where two witnesses for God counteracted the gentiles’ trampling of God’s holy city (creation), but were murdered. Yet, God resurrected these two witnesses and took them up to heaven.
Thoughtfully, John has placed two resurrecting witnesses (representing Law and Prophets) in the centre of the two Sabbatical timescales (week for God’s work; Sabbatical year for man’s work to bring God’s creation into the Sabbath). Before the resurrection is a set of half Sabbatical timescales (42 months, 1260 days, 3.5 days) and after the resurrection is the other half (42 months, 1260 days, ‘time, times and half a time’). (A month is 30 days.) Matching them up would form complete sabbatical timescales.
Months are set according to the moon which rules the night. Days are set according to the sun which gives light. Amazingly John has used months only for God’s opponents and days only for God’s followers without confusion, thus elaborating on how these people live – in darkness or light!
The two witnesses symbolize Jesus’ work in the OT through the Law and Prophets. After Jesus has fulfilled the Law and Prophets, he is represented by the Lamb from Revelation 12 onward. The same Jesus is moving God’s creation forward from the beginning of creation to its very end in the Sabbath, thus giving full meaning to Jesus’ claim in the Synoptic Gospels that he is Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus’ resurrection, being the center of God’s work (3.5 days + ‘time, times, half a time’), would complete God’s intention for his creation. Jesus’ resurrection, being the focal point of the saints’ work (2×1260 days), would lead the saints to cleanse God’s created order. Jesus’ resurrection, being God’s pivotal victory over his opponents (2×42 months), would judge the sinners. This judgment is subsequently elaborated in God’s seven bowls of wrath. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, no one can escape him.
In setting Jesus in the middle of the Bible’s sabbatical timescales, John is also showing the end point towards which mankind and creation should strive: a person reconciled to himself through the works of his hand, as God was endeared to the creation of his hand in his Sabbath; man reconciled to the created order symbolized by the farmer learning and respecting nature’s abundant provision in order to live the seventh year of the Sabbatical cycle without agricultural activities. All these are indispensable foundations in the Jubilee year when people are reconciled to each other. God accepts all these as concrete proof of man being reconciled to God himself. Creation can only proceed when these three reconciliations (man with himself; man with the created order; man with other people) happening under God progress together.
When God concludes his instructions to mankind in Revelation, he restates his original intentions for a cosmic harmony to be brought about by humans and sets Jesus to lead wayward humanity back to the original journey towards God’s intended Sabbath.
Currently, there are many signs of God renewing his creation through his people. These point to a greater harvest.
Saints are victors in Christ, not tragic heroes.
