Imagine if you were the first person in your church to read the book of Revelation. You’re just a first century Christian, trying to figure out what it means to follow someone who had been alive a few decades earlier. Then you get to read Revelation, a letter that encourages you and tells you how everything is going to end.
Think of all the spoilers you’d have to hold over people’s heads.
Revelation is full of amazing encouragement, grotesque imagery and the reality that God wins. I don’t think I would have been able to keep it all to myself; I would have spoiled it for everyone around me.
How could I not tell everyone about Jesus’s encouraging words?
How could I not tell everyone about the beasts and the dragons?
How could I not tell everyone about the New Heaven and the New Earth?
Thankfully we don’t have to worry about biblical spoilers. Even if someone has never opened a Bible, most everyone knows that David defeats Goliath and Jesus comes back to life. Unfortunately, though, we have to worry about spoilers for our favorite nerdclinations.
Game of Thrones’ fourth season kicks off soon and there are some major spoilers for this season.
I haven’t watched a single episode of Breaking Bad and now that the final episodes are on Netflix, I’m doing my best to avoid any spoilers about the show.
Apparently there’s a huge spoiler in one of the most recent television spots for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
I hate spoilers and I do everything I can to avoid them.
In order to avoid Game of Thrones spoilers I just decided to read all of the books.
In order to avoid Breaking Bad spoilers I tuned out any conversations about the show.
In order to avoid Captain America spoilers I have just stopped watching any new videos online.
It’s weird that spoiler evasion has become an everyday part of our lives. But, if we still want a sense of wonder and surprise, we need to keep those spoilers at bay. I’m really excited for Captain America and I want to stay that way. The less I know about the movie the more awe and wonderment I’ll have when I see it in about five weeks.
The more we know about something the less awe-inspiring it becomes. Thankfully, since he’s infinite, we can never completely know God. God can never be spoiled for us because there is always something new to learn about him. And no matter how long we follow him, there will always be something mind blowing and awe-inspiring about God.
What is your plan for avoiding spoilers?
With very few exceptions, I have stopped watching trailers online. If they show up on TV as ads, I don’t avoid them, but I have mostly decided to stop seeking them out.
You’re right, there’s always more to learn about God. It reminds me of the last line of the hymn “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry.” Not my favorite hymn, really, but the last line is something like, “When you close your eyes [i.e., in death], I’ll be there with just one last surprise…” Which I take to mean even the way God fulfills the promise of eternal life will be so amazing a surprise it will take our breath away (so to speak).
That’s a beautiful sentiment! In my busy days I rarely sit and think about coming face-to-face with Jesus. It will be amazing and undoubtedly leave my resurrected body breathless. Thanks for sharing!
@Michael, and of course Scott…
Every once in a while somebody near me gets into a discussion of what things would be like in heaven…I like to think it will be so mind-blowingly beyond our earthly ability to imagine that we can’t even conceive of what it might be like.
Which is probably a long-winded way of saying that their ain’t gonna be no spoilers……… 😉
Yeah, even if someone came back and described heaven to us, it’d be beyond description.