If you walk into many Christian bookstores around the country you will see countless books about the 'end times'. Some of these books like the Left Behind series are intended primarily to entertain people. Other more serious works examine in great detail how to connect passages in Revelation and Daniel with present-day events. These kinds of works have permeated Christian pop culture. This poses the question: Is this a good thing for Christianity?
Unfortunately I do not think these works are in the best interest of the Christian faith. My first problem with these works is that they often have the effect of converting people to Christianity out of fear. I agree that it is our mission as Christians to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I do not think this is a good way to go about doing it. Jesus spent a lot more time talking about the love of God and loving one's neighbor than talking about judgment. This does not mean we should gloss over man's fallen nature or the consequences of sin, but instead we need to integrate these ideas into a coherent whole that incorporates all aspects of Jesus' teachings.
My second problem is that most of these works are founded on a newer form of eschatology that is less than 200 years old. The historic Church interpreted the book of Revelation in an entirely different way. Revelation had been understood as a deeply symbolic book that predicted the eventual triumph of Christianity over the Roman Empire. The new eschatology movement discarded the proper understanding of apocalyptic literature and replaced it with a literalist interpretation where every passage is mapped to modern-day events. This brand of eschatology is primarily oriented around the final battle between good and evil -- Armageddon.
This leads me to my final point. Under this new system of eschatology it does not matter if we live in peace with each other or be good stewards of the earth since it teaches that the entire universe will be replaced anyway. In fact it is arguable that this theology has had a subliminal negative influence on foreign policy. There is this feeling among some that by stirring up problems in the Middle East that we will help usher in Armageddon and therefore trigger the Second Coming.
This is a very presumptuous idea and totally contradicts what Jesus said in Matthew 24:36. Jesus said, "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (NRSV). We need to focus more on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and less on things that are outside our control.
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5 comments:
While I tend to agree with you that the way some evangelicals treat eschatology is problematic, I don't think this is a subject we can simply dismiss as, say, a second-tier or back-burner concern. Quite apart from the books of Revelation and Daniel (and, if you are following the daily lectionary these days, the first part of Ezekiel), Jesus spent a fair amount of time in the synoptic gospels talking about end times. In addition, the term, fiery hell, ("Gehanna") is used in the Gospels more than in all the rest of Scriptures combined. And, finally, I don't think you can really separate "love" and "judgment."
For example, on the last night he was alive before being crucified, Jesus told his disciples, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus makes it clear that we ultimately will judge ourselves, which I take to mean that the choices we make in this life will lead us through doorways that have consequences.
Jesus certainly preached that we should love our neighbors and love one another as Christians. And he did often hang out with the outcasts of society, tax collectors and prostitutes, notably. But he was clear that he did so in order to call them to repentance, and not because he approved of what they were doing. He seemed to find them more open to his message of the importance of spiritual poverty than the average Pharisee or scribe.
Jesus also warned us that the gate to salvation is a narrow one. If that is true, it is a certainly loving act to let us know.
This is a fine blog, and I pray that it may ever result in honor and glory to God.
Thanks for your comments Rick! I certainly agree with you that all Christians are called to repentance. I think that the biggest impact of postmodernism on the Church has been the loss of a sense of sin (and its consequences), so I agree with your concerns.
Thanks for visiting!
TOTALY DISAGREE!daniel and revelations has been opened,and can be understood by all believers.JESUS CHRIST clearly wants his people to know his prophecy an the signs of his return...if your church chooses to silence and be ignorant to GODS truth then so be it...but clearly we are in the last days...YES and that is a litteral event which is from literal bible reading.
No offense, but the claim that Rapture doctrine is a recent invention is completely wrong and betrays very bad scholarship. It's based on a timing system God tracks annually from Genesis 5 forward, which the Jews all know but today count incorrectly, which they call the 'Ages' (Greek aiwn, Hebrew olam), i.e., in Psalm 90:8, which lays out God's timeline in Hebrew meter.
The so-called Church fathers REJECTED what the Jews knew, because they were Jews, and so lost the doctrine. It was recovered but not corrected, beginning in the 19th century, but was known by some, prior. Since 2004 I've been documenting this doctrine in the Bible, replete with timeline from Adam's fall forward, to show how anyone can prove it in Bible. Header webpage on that (with many videos showing Hebrew meter in Psalm 90 and Isaiah 53) is here: http://www.brainout.net/Mirroring.htm . A quicker summary of it is in http://www.brainout.net/brainoutFAQ.htm#6 . The latter has a faster Bible-verse reference and faster way to see how God accounts time on a SOLAR basis using BIRTHDAYS.
So frankly those who claim preterism and a late-date 'invention' of 'Dispensationalism' are just bad scholars, sorry.
Granted, the Left Behind people are likewise bad scholars, but the pre-Trib Rapture has a legal precedence in How God Constructs Time itself. Which, anyone can prove in Bible. That no one has done this, amazes me.
To see the Lord`s word hit not accurately but perfectly the anticipated event, well I can tell you there`s very little else that really makes you stop and rethink your position with him! Daniel 9 is perhaps the very finest example of this. Ezekiel 4 (using the 7x punishment multiplyer from Leviticus) is another. Why the church doesn`t at least teach these things (maybe not as doctrine) is remarkable!
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