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Why is the History of Redemption series so frequently supplemented with new contents?
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글쓴이 :
관리자
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The revised and supplemented editions of the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth book of the History of Redemption series have been published. There have been frequent, separate revisions made to each book until now, but such major transformation in their overall content is never seen before. This is by far the most extensive revision since the pub-lication of the first book in 2007. Detailed genealogies, maps, dates, and days of the week have been updated considerably, and content of each book have been extensively integrated and modified. For instance, the forth book, The Mysterious and Profound Providence of God in the Eternal Covenant, is said to be a totally new book, except for the cover.
Avid readers of the History of Redemption series may raise a question at this point: “Why have the History of Redemption series been changed this frequently and continuously?” This is particularly so with the second book, The Covenant of the Torch, which recently underwent the most revisions in its content. The readers ask, “Why can’t the book include the charts and contents all at once, requiring revisions and supplements all the time?” That may be because the author is waiting for his readers. He may have been keeping pace with his readers until they can adjust to the scale and the level of the series, which is getting
deeper and broader every day.
Since the History of Redemption series has been presenting?from its inception?the contents that are “the first in the world history,” most readers have found it hard to keep up with them. It took a long time to understand which contents are the first in the world history and why they are so, or why genealogies and chronologies are important, or even why we have to know them. It was overwhelming to calculate the 70-80 years of the con-struction of Noah’s Ark, 56 contemporaneous years between Adam and Lamech, and the 58 contemporaneous years between Noah and Abraham. It was also difficult to trace back the 42 campsites in the wilderness journey presented in the second book.
Furthermore, understanding the even more wondrous and profound mystery of the history of re-demption, such as the dates and days of the week, must be a daunting challenge for the readers. Hence, only after leading the readers all the way to his eighth book, The Fulfillment of the Covenant of the Torch: the Ten Plagues, the Exodus, and the Entry into Canaan, the author enriched the significance of the covenant of the torch and revealed the mystery in the dates and the days of the week.
In that sense, these large-scale revisions can be seen as a preliminary measure to prepare for the con-current publishing of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth book (expected this year). As the author has ini-tially begun writing the series with an aim to complete twelve books, the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth books are highly likely to be the final books of the series. Concerning these books, the editorial staffs have commented, “We don’t know what other tremendous contents these books will bring; right now, we cannot even estimate their breadth or width.” A staff of Huisun said, “I will be involved in editing the tenth through the twelfth books just as I have done previously, but even then, I don’t think I will be able to fully comprehend the books.”
On the other hand, such changes in each book’s contents may be asking the readers not to leave these books stuck in the bookshelf. Any avid reader of the series must have learned that the significance and the lesson of a single event in the history of redemption depend on the amount of knowledge that the reader has on other events.
That is because the significance and the lesson of each event in the history of redemption are not confined to that single event. Rather, it is interlocked with other events and influences their interpre-tations and comprehensions, thereby elucidating each event more clearly. Hence, as new discoveries are made in the history of redemption, every reader needs to take those discoveries as a tool to revisit and reinterpret the events that are already established. This may be what the new editions of the His-tory of Redemption series are emphasizing to their readers. They may be urging the readers to find answers through breathing the theme of the redemptive history, as well as to ask themselves whether they have connected with the biblical figures through the theme.
Only the author knows what amazing things will be in the upcoming tenth, eleventh, and twelfth books. He may even be foreseeing where his readers?who have been following thus far wanting to understand the mystery of the redemptive history?may get lost and stray. Ever since the release of his first book, the author lamentably repeated, “If you cannot understand this now, you won’t be able to understand what comes next.” He is perhaps telling us to go back to the “now” of each book through the revised and supplemented editions.
By reporter Lee Ji-woon |
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