And...

I am overwhelmed by the greatness of God. The chorus "you do all things well" is on my lips today. My grandfather was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This sucks, but for my modern poetry class I am reading T. S. Eliot's East Coker, which has given me the encouragement I need to face the situation. I have been reading Joel for my bible study, notably comparing the prophetical section with its counterpart in Acts 2 pondering the theories of partial and complete fulfillment. Thankfully the Lord Christ opened my mind to a simple grammatical construct that I had not noticed before:

...

28 "And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
29Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

30"And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 32And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

...

Notably different from Acts is verses 30 and on in prose and not poetry, which indicates a change of context that must be significant. Also note the use of the word "and" which is a conjunction. The OED defines its use as: "introducing a word, clause, or sentence, which is to be taken side by side with, along with, or in addition to, that which precedes it."

This leads to my interpretation. Before the promise of the pouring of of his Spirit, God tells the Israelites to return to him. When they do he will have pity on them and then he will pour out his Spirit. And then, after that, before the day of the Lord he will do the crazy fire and blood stuff. In other words, the prose passage describes what will happen after the Spirit is poured out, right before the tribulation. Interestingly, poetry is often used in the OT for prophecy, and prose for history. Whether or not this has any literal bearing on interpretation, it's almost as if to say that the end times were already history even before they happened! I won't get dogmatic on that point because my understanding of Hebrew grammar is minimal if not non-existent.

Regardless of that point, the rest of this study proves (at least for me) partial fulfillment in Acts 2, which I guess is undoubted considering the blood and fire stuff clearly didn't happen yet. However, what this does is give me an idea where the partial fulfillment ends, which is the always the big debate. I see it as ending at verse 29, the end of the poetry, which means that modern Christians can prophesy, dream dreams, and see visions; remember that this is "all flesh," all believers, all Christians. Also, realize it says will not just are able to. This means that we should be doing these things. Something to ponder, eh?

Finally, for those of you that have read this far and care, here is the passage from East Coker I was talking about. It's the second half of section II:

… There is, it seems to us,
At best, only a limited value

In the knowledge derived from experience.

The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies,

For the pattern is new in every moment

And every moment is a new and shocking

Valuation of all we have been. We are only undeceived

Of that which, deceiving, could no longer harm.

In the middle, not only in the middle of the way
But all the way, in a dark wood, in a bramble,

On the edge of a grimpen, where is no secure foothold,

And menaced by monsters, fancy lights,

Risking enchantment. Do not let me hear

Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,

Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession,

Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God.

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire

Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.

The houses are all gone under the sea.

The dancers are all gone under the hill.