some questions and thoughts on eschatology
Roger mentioned the eschatology term here, so I thought I might post some questions and thoughts.
Firstly, I think you are right that eschatology is at the centre of the conversation. It's especially evident in the use of "Kingdom of God" (of "kingdom of heaven" if you are working with Matthew) terminology. Usually I think mission when I think kingdom, but kingdom of God is an absolute eschatological term.
Questions:
What's eschatology? As a kid of 3 years old or something I learned the traditional definition (my dad just started his Doctorate on development of Eschatology between two random dates long ago, so that is why I was a freak): "Eschatology is the teaching on end times".
Would you use that definition? Why,or why not?
If this is our definition, what will the influence be on an eschatological shaped mission? What will the influence be if we use other ways of thinking about eschatology?
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There was a time I would
There was a time I would have agreed with that definition. The content of eschatological discussions was normally about the rapture, tribulation, judgements, the beast and social upheaval. Something in me grew bored and cynical however and I lost almost all interest in a future oriented focus, in favour of the here and now.
Part of this apathy was my embarrassment with theologies of hell. I just didn't know how to deal with them. They just confused me and I ended up sweeping the whole shabang under the carpet.
But then I got my courage up about a year ago, and decided to get to the bottom of this issue. I have studied the scriptures like at no other time in 20 years, and now find that the general tenor points towards Gods ultimate restoration of all things. It's a big debate and I cannot claim to have a "system". There are numerous scriptures which support quite opposite points of view.
Back to eschatology. Why is this important?
You view of the future deeply affects you practice and attitudes, your mission. If you see a future divided between heaven and hell, you will live a life divided. If you see a future where all is restored, you can then hold a hope of eventual oneness between G-d and Creation.
There are 3 eschatological traditions which might be supported from Christian scripture
1. Endless Punitive Separation aka Hell.
2. Annihilation - the destuction of Evil.
3. Universal Restoration, Christ as the Savior of All.
My journey has brought me towards the 3rd view. By embracing Universal Restoration, I feel that a great weight has lifted, and I have been released to serve God wholly and unconditionally.
My take on Eschatology is - If many (if not most) are going to be "lost" for all time, I despair at the fractured nature of the cosmos. But if Christ is the ultimate victor via Love and Grace, I am free here and now to expeience this in its fullness. The great weight of "having to save" is not for me to bear. My burden is only to know and live from Grace.
Let's Keep Revelation Relevant
I wrote this on my personal blog a few days ago (http://ryanpeterblogs.wordpress.com) and thought it may be good to stick it here...
Well, it’s been a while since my last blog update. Bloem LTT, a week of being horribly sick, some scary times about my income and business, and a whole lot of things inbetween - finally, I get to write a blog entry. Yay! And, let’s hope it’s an interesting one.
Basically, last week when I was horribly sick I was watching TBN at home and listening to a ‘prophetic conference’ that happened somewhere (with some guy speaking who I can’t remember.) Medicine sometimes does that to you. It also makes you incredibly paranoid. After watching the guy talk about who he thinks the anti-christ is and all this information about an organisation called the Club of Rome (google them and check out their site), I kind of suffered from some minor paranoia and worry about what is going to happen next.
In fact, for many years now, I’ve been slowly trying to undoctrinate (if that’s a word) myself from all the conspiracy theories I had been taught at previous churches (didn’t you know the pulpit is a place to discuss conspiracy theories?) And try and find out what the different views of ‘eschatology’ (the doctrine of last things) were. To my surprise, I found the recent ‘pre-trib’ view (the one about a rapture and a 7 year period of the antichrist ruling… basically, the “Left Behind” novels) only came out in the last 100 years. Before that, Christians were either post-mils or a-mils (which, basically believe that the church is slowly becoming more and more victorious.) I obviously don’t have the space to discuss the differences here, only that I have really got a different view on the subject now. One where I’ve been trying to make the book of Revelation relevant to my life. All the books of the Bible have a practical application - something you need to ‘do’ or watch for, in order to continue in the race and receive the prize. Revelation is certainly no different. Only that, I’ve never been able to read it without trying to make predictions. I don’t think that’s the purpose of the book.
In truth, The Beast represents the world systems while the false prophet represents religiosity and false spirituality. The Anti-Christ almost seems to embody both, but represents man setting him/herself above God and claiming to be God. How much of this is in my own life? Do I trust The Beast - the world systems - more than I trust God? How much of my christianity is just religion? Just ceremony and lip service to God? How much of the anti-christ doctrine - that I am the center of the world, and the most important - is in my thinking? In my living? Do I wear the mark of the beast on my hands (what I do) and on my forehead (the way I think?)
Personally, I think Revelation is there to show us who our enemies are. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood - we wrestle against the Beast, the false prophet and the antichrist. We wrestle against these spirits in ourselves, our churches, and throughout world history - evidenced by things like communism, nazism, fanatical and fundamentalistic religion, economic ruling etc. etc. It’s all there - spread across history. But you know what? Every rebellion against God will be put down and defeated by Christ, until he puts everything under His feet. And we defeat these things - and ultimately Satan - through the preaching of the Word of God (see Rev 19 and Rev 20.) THAT’s exciting.
My problem with the idea of the rapture is that most people have this attitude that “the world can go to hell, cause we’re out of here.” It’s like the church has this silent attitude that if things get worse - the better. Because that means Christ is coming soon. No wonder we don’t have much influence in the world like we used to - there are christians that actually WANT things to get worse. This is not the attitude of Christ and the Kingdom. We should be influencing our world, working against poverty and the Beast, fighting AGAINST the spirit of the anti-christ, exposing the false prophet in religion. Not secretely hoping evil would grow so that we can high-tail it out of here!
And God’s promise is that we WILL succeed. Micah 4 tells about ALL the nations coming to God, wanting to follow His ways. And that they’ll beat their swords into plowshares, no longer learn war and war against each other anymore. This is supposed to be the kingdom dream. This is supposed to be what we’re working towards - peace, joy and love to and for the world. Only the Gospel can do this. We should be busy working, not sitting around watching prophetic conferences and marveling at organisations that are trying to make a one world government.
Well, I still have lots to say but we can leave it there for now
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