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Friday, September 03, 2004
An employment revelation Skimming the top stories on my Yahoo! news page, I spotted this one: AP headline: U.S. Economy Adds 144,000 Jobs in AugustI've clearly been working on Bibles too long, because I immediately recognized 144,000 as the number of people redeemed in Revelation 14. (Some interpreters say that only 144,000 people will be redeemed, and the rest of us are hellbound; but Revelation actually just says that 144,000 male virgins* get to go to heaven and sit out the rest of the Apocalypse, while everybody else's soul doesn't come up for review until after the plagues and the beast and the thousand-year war; at which point they may or may not get into heaven,† but they're certainly not doomed just because they didn't make the 144,000 cut.) (Yes, I've very clearly been working on Bibles too long...) Anyway, the number and its associations jumped into my head, and I got to thinking, "What kind of 144,000 jobs were added, exactly—stairway-to-heaven masons, pearly-gate polishers, pale-horse groomers? Are the elect getting the last 144,000 jobs before the thousand-year war begins? Is someone trying to sneak the Apocalypse in before the election?" Because, now that I think of it, that wouldn't entirely surprise me... *Rev. 14:4: "These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure....They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb" (NIV). †Rev. 20:12: "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." [ at 1:44 PM • by Abby • permalink • ] |
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