Polchinski
Active Member
Before I get to the interpretation of this verse, let me tell you my personal story, which would give you an inside as to why I interpret it the way I do.
So my mom was semi-together semi-divorced with my dad and, consequently, she was in my dads appartment part of the time and her parents appartment the other part of the time. My dads appartment was on the 6-th floor at the southwest of Moscow. My mom's parents appartment was in the 3-rd floor in the northeast of Moscow. In my father's appartment, I was afraid of curtains and closet in my room. In my mom's parents appartment I was afraid of closet and a door (yes, I was afraid of the door: basically this little gap between the top of the door and the wall above it looked scarry).
So I had nightmares about both of those rooms. Now, apart from those specific objects in those rooms, it was the whole air in those rooms that were demonic. Those objects just had higher concentration of demonic air. So, no matter where I was in the room, this demonic air would feel ticklish, it would make it harder for me to speak (to the point I would stutter) and it would make harder for me to move. Thats the best case scenario. In the worst case scenario, I might end up not being able to move at all, and that would be outright scarry.
Now, the role that those objects played is that if I were to approach those objects, the demonic air would intensify. So if its bad at the opposite end of the room from them, it would get ten times worse if I get close to them. But then the other thing that would happen is that the closet would start walking (in both appartments) and the curtains might walk as well (in my dads appartment). And they would walk towards me, and due to my own difficulty moving (induced by demonic air) I won't be able to escape.
In some of the dreams I was trying to escape. So I would get out of my room into the hallway. But then the hallway was demonic too. So trying to go into the hallway would be no good.
Ironically, one GOOD thing the curtains did in my dad's appartment is that, if I were to approach them, I would fly through the window. And then yes, I WOULD in fact escape. Once I am out in the streets, my problem is solved! Plus, in addition to that, I liked flying. So the fact that I would fly would be an extra bonus (and yes, I would fly every time: I would not fall or anything like that!)
Yet, somehow this never occurred to me ahead of time. I was always scared of curtains and trying to avoid them. The fact that they would make me fly through the window only scared me further. I don't know why -- given the good outcome when I did. So, instead of going to the curtains to fly through the window and escape, I would try to go to the hallway and then the hallway would still be demonic and I won't know what to do.
The other thing that seems a bit contradictory is this. If I were to forget the whole thing about the rooms, I was liking my grandparents part of town better than my dads part of town: I was thinking "the buildings are better there". So, when I was awake, I ran from my parents to try to find my grandparents appartment. And then I had dreams about it too.
But here is the problem with this. As far as the room, the room in my grandparents appartment was even worse than the one in my dads appartment. Because remember how I mentioned that in some of those dreams I would still be able to move just have difficulty moving, while in the other dreams I won't be able to move at all? Well, usually the dreams where I couldn't move at all took place in the room of my grandparents appartment. Yet, I wasn't far-sighted enough to predict that. I would try to go there, and then end up not being able to move. Conversely, in my dad's appartment I could move and, better yet: the curtains would enable me to fly out. Yet again I wasn't thinking that far.
Speaking of flying out, in my grandparents appartment, approaching the door would make me fly (I don't mean the door to my room that scared me but rather a door to the appartment that would scare me too). And it would make me fly with a specific destination: to my dad's appartment. So, since I wasn't liking my dads part of town, I was trying to avoid that door in order to avoid being forced to fly there.
Both of the rooms were called бездна. I didn't know what that word meant outside of those nightmares, so I assumed that it is just referring to a type of a room. But, just in case, I asked my mom what that word meant. She told me it meant bottomless pit. That was a bit surprising. Because nothing out in the nature ever scared me. It was always the rooms inside the house that did. But I still told myself that бездна is "really" about the room, or at least it has that demonic spirit of a room.
So once I knew that word, I had another dream, that started elsewhere but ended in my room of grandparents appartment. So the ending of that dream was that I was laying in the bed in that room, not being able to move at all, facing the closet. The air had extreme ticklish sensation, and the closet was walking back and forth towards my bad and back towards its place over and over. There was a voiceover singing "Эх какая глубокая бездна над нами" in a scarry voice. And I was stuck in that position for few minutes until I finally woke up. That was outright torture.
I strongly suspect that the torments in hell would not be just about fire, but they would also include inability to move. Not being able to move is far more torturous than fire. Especially if it would last for eternity.
So this finally brings me to the title of this post. So Matthew 24 talks about the endtimes, and the verse 17 says that those in the housetops shouldn't go down to the house to get anything. I think it is because Jesus predicted the demonic occurrences in the houses, similar to the ones I just described. And avoiding this demonic air and all those things would be the reason people at the housetops would avoid going down to the house.
When I brought it up to other Christians, most of them didn't agree with me. Instead, they told me that it is about trying to escape the antichrist and "not having time" to get down to the house. But I am not buying it. Here is why. Lets say you are at the roof of the house and you are trying to escape without going into the house. How will you do it? Either by trying to climb down the wall without falling, or you let yourself fall. If you try to climb down without falling, it would take you hours. So it would slow you down rather than speed you up. If you let yourself fall, then you would break your bones and you would be "limping" as you would be tryign to get to the hills. So again it would slow you down, not speed you up. So, from the point of view of saving time, it very much IS advisable to get down through the house. UNLESS ... UNLESS ... there are demonic occurrences in the house such as the ones I just described. Thats why I believe that Matthew 24:17 predicts the stuff I saw in my dreams (except that it predicts that it would in fact take place in the real world rather than just in the dreams).
So my mom was semi-together semi-divorced with my dad and, consequently, she was in my dads appartment part of the time and her parents appartment the other part of the time. My dads appartment was on the 6-th floor at the southwest of Moscow. My mom's parents appartment was in the 3-rd floor in the northeast of Moscow. In my father's appartment, I was afraid of curtains and closet in my room. In my mom's parents appartment I was afraid of closet and a door (yes, I was afraid of the door: basically this little gap between the top of the door and the wall above it looked scarry).
So I had nightmares about both of those rooms. Now, apart from those specific objects in those rooms, it was the whole air in those rooms that were demonic. Those objects just had higher concentration of demonic air. So, no matter where I was in the room, this demonic air would feel ticklish, it would make it harder for me to speak (to the point I would stutter) and it would make harder for me to move. Thats the best case scenario. In the worst case scenario, I might end up not being able to move at all, and that would be outright scarry.
Now, the role that those objects played is that if I were to approach those objects, the demonic air would intensify. So if its bad at the opposite end of the room from them, it would get ten times worse if I get close to them. But then the other thing that would happen is that the closet would start walking (in both appartments) and the curtains might walk as well (in my dads appartment). And they would walk towards me, and due to my own difficulty moving (induced by demonic air) I won't be able to escape.
In some of the dreams I was trying to escape. So I would get out of my room into the hallway. But then the hallway was demonic too. So trying to go into the hallway would be no good.
Ironically, one GOOD thing the curtains did in my dad's appartment is that, if I were to approach them, I would fly through the window. And then yes, I WOULD in fact escape. Once I am out in the streets, my problem is solved! Plus, in addition to that, I liked flying. So the fact that I would fly would be an extra bonus (and yes, I would fly every time: I would not fall or anything like that!)
Yet, somehow this never occurred to me ahead of time. I was always scared of curtains and trying to avoid them. The fact that they would make me fly through the window only scared me further. I don't know why -- given the good outcome when I did. So, instead of going to the curtains to fly through the window and escape, I would try to go to the hallway and then the hallway would still be demonic and I won't know what to do.
The other thing that seems a bit contradictory is this. If I were to forget the whole thing about the rooms, I was liking my grandparents part of town better than my dads part of town: I was thinking "the buildings are better there". So, when I was awake, I ran from my parents to try to find my grandparents appartment. And then I had dreams about it too.
But here is the problem with this. As far as the room, the room in my grandparents appartment was even worse than the one in my dads appartment. Because remember how I mentioned that in some of those dreams I would still be able to move just have difficulty moving, while in the other dreams I won't be able to move at all? Well, usually the dreams where I couldn't move at all took place in the room of my grandparents appartment. Yet, I wasn't far-sighted enough to predict that. I would try to go there, and then end up not being able to move. Conversely, in my dad's appartment I could move and, better yet: the curtains would enable me to fly out. Yet again I wasn't thinking that far.
Speaking of flying out, in my grandparents appartment, approaching the door would make me fly (I don't mean the door to my room that scared me but rather a door to the appartment that would scare me too). And it would make me fly with a specific destination: to my dad's appartment. So, since I wasn't liking my dads part of town, I was trying to avoid that door in order to avoid being forced to fly there.
Both of the rooms were called бездна. I didn't know what that word meant outside of those nightmares, so I assumed that it is just referring to a type of a room. But, just in case, I asked my mom what that word meant. She told me it meant bottomless pit. That was a bit surprising. Because nothing out in the nature ever scared me. It was always the rooms inside the house that did. But I still told myself that бездна is "really" about the room, or at least it has that demonic spirit of a room.
So once I knew that word, I had another dream, that started elsewhere but ended in my room of grandparents appartment. So the ending of that dream was that I was laying in the bed in that room, not being able to move at all, facing the closet. The air had extreme ticklish sensation, and the closet was walking back and forth towards my bad and back towards its place over and over. There was a voiceover singing "Эх какая глубокая бездна над нами" in a scarry voice. And I was stuck in that position for few minutes until I finally woke up. That was outright torture.
I strongly suspect that the torments in hell would not be just about fire, but they would also include inability to move. Not being able to move is far more torturous than fire. Especially if it would last for eternity.
So this finally brings me to the title of this post. So Matthew 24 talks about the endtimes, and the verse 17 says that those in the housetops shouldn't go down to the house to get anything. I think it is because Jesus predicted the demonic occurrences in the houses, similar to the ones I just described. And avoiding this demonic air and all those things would be the reason people at the housetops would avoid going down to the house.
When I brought it up to other Christians, most of them didn't agree with me. Instead, they told me that it is about trying to escape the antichrist and "not having time" to get down to the house. But I am not buying it. Here is why. Lets say you are at the roof of the house and you are trying to escape without going into the house. How will you do it? Either by trying to climb down the wall without falling, or you let yourself fall. If you try to climb down without falling, it would take you hours. So it would slow you down rather than speed you up. If you let yourself fall, then you would break your bones and you would be "limping" as you would be tryign to get to the hills. So again it would slow you down, not speed you up. So, from the point of view of saving time, it very much IS advisable to get down through the house. UNLESS ... UNLESS ... there are demonic occurrences in the house such as the ones I just described. Thats why I believe that Matthew 24:17 predicts the stuff I saw in my dreams (except that it predicts that it would in fact take place in the real world rather than just in the dreams).
