Basis For Hope

The Light at the End of the Spiral by Stacy Reaoch (at Desiring God):

This past month my newsfeed has been filled with posts lamenting the downward spiral of secular culture. The hottest topics in Christian circles seem to be the U.S. presidential candidates and the turmoil over transgender bathrooms. And the entire country is lamenting the tragedy in Orlando. Certainly there is much to be dismayed over. And it’s good to think through and process the implications of various laws and policy decisions. But as believers in Christ, do we differ in any significant ways from our culturally conservative, but unbelieving neighbors?

It’s easy to join in the conservative complaint-fest over how society is disintegrating around us. It’s easy to idealize 1950s middle-class America and imagine that everything would be better “if only we could go back to the nation we once were.” But Christians are called to be salt and light. We are called to stand for truth and make war against sin. So aren’t we also called to a perspective larger than this world, a vision more glorious than an imaginary 1950s, and a hope deeper than the reversal of ungodly laws?

One Day All Will Be New

I recently finished an eight-month study of the book of Revelation. By the end, I had thought I might have my eschatology nailed down, but I don’t. Instead, God has helped me grasp a bigger picture of life, a picture that rises above the trials and temptations of the everyday and focuses on the eternal. I was reminded that I am only a sojourner on this earth. In our sin-filled world, there will be suffering and pain and heartache, but I don’t need to be focused on those temporal realities. This is not the end. Jesus is coming back! And there is a home prepared for us that is free from the evil and sadness of this world.

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:3–4)

One day he will make all things new. The gunshots will cease and we’ll only ever hear the sweet song of peace. We will never have to choose between disappointing presidential candidates, because the King of kings will reign forever from his throne. There will be no confusion over gender identity. There will be no discontentment or unmet needs. There will be no tears or anger or grief as families mourn over loved ones who seem to have lost their lives much too early.

A Faith Built on Trust

So how should this impact how we live today? I have pondered that question often this year, especially in the midst of my own trials. Because of the eternal hope we have, we don’t need to constantly bemoan the state of the world or our own circumstances. We don’t need to complain to family and friends about ridiculous government decisions or why we’re (possibly) not even casting a presidential ballot in November’s election. Is God surprised by any of the wickedness in the world? Is he not sovereign over evil, purposing for it to even serve the good of his people and the glory of his name?

God’s plans are to be trusted, even when they don’t make sense to us. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9).

Because of our hope in the eternal, we should be the most joy-filled people on earth, even as we weep with those who weep. We should pray earnestly for our leaders and the state of our nation, and seek to make wise and informed decisions in regards to our own families. We should be willing to serve and to sacrifice, knowing that one day we will have no unmet needs. We will be perfectly content, perfectly rested, full of the Lord’s peace, joy, and hope.

As Peter reminds us, we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3). We are commanded to rejoice, even though, for a little while, we are grieved by various trials. For we are not without hope. We have an imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance kept in heaven for us by God’s power (1 Peter 1:4–6).

These beautiful promises of Scripture should make us different than the unbelievers around us who are dismayed at many of the same things going on in our world. We have a hope that is unseen. A hope that should transform the way we think, speak, post, and act. In the midst of the chaos of this world, there is a light at the end of the downward spiral. May we shine like stars in the universe among the grumblings of this world, trusting in a risen Savior who has promised to return and make everything right.

Occupy

HT Lance Wallnau

Avoiding the Hysteria

I fully and enthusiastically agree with this post from J. Lee Grady - Don’t Get Caught Up in Last Days Hysteria 

Everywhere I go today I meet Christians who are wringing their hands and fretting about how dark the world has become. Some are conspiracy theorists who say the world's economy is controlled by dark forces. Others are convinced that recent astronomical phenomena signal the end of the world, and they are stocking their garages with food to prepare for Armageddon. If I suggest that Jesus might want to pour out the Holy Spirit in a fresh way on this generation, some people get angry. They want God to hurry up and judge America!

Why so much pessimism? It's partly because many people have exchanged their passion for God for a misguided fascination with doomsday eschatology. They latch onto Bible prophecy "experts" who make a living speculating about things nobody knows for sure. And this sky-is-falling mindset never produces good fruit. Here are four reasons we should avoid an unhealthy overemphasis on the end times:

1. It's distracting. Nowhere does the Bible give us permission to speculate about when Jesus will return or when the world will end. He gave us one major focus: To reach everybody with the gospel. Evangelism should be our obsession. The healthiest churches I know are those that are winning the lost, discipling new converts and investing their people and money in reaching nations.

Churches that become consumed with eschatology drift into weirdness, and they eventually lose sight of the Great Commission. Jesus' last words to His followers were clear: "You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Yet when He ascended into heaven, the angels rebuked the disciples because they were staring into the clouds. They said: "Why do you stand looking into the sky?" (Acts 1:11). In essence they were saying: "Don't sit around and wait for Jesus to return. Get busy doing what He told you to do."

2. It's depressing. I don't go to church to hear one person's opinions about Islamic terrorists, why weather patterns are changing, or how European bankers plan to manipulate the world economy. Why focus on the negative? Do we believe in the lordship of Christ, or not? I have read the book of Revelation, and it ends with Jesus on the throne! He is the victor—no matter what men conspire to do or how hard they fight against His authority.

Churches that only talk about blood moons, wars in the Middle East, the Antichrist or the date for America's demise leave no room for the joy of the Lord or the hope of His ultimate triumph. My Bible says we have a future and a hope. We have the promise that, as the gospel is preached, "all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord" (Num. 14:21). Why should we be pessimistic about the future when we know Christ will overcome all His enemies? People who focus on doomsday theology are killjoys who derive morbid pleasure from spreading fear and anxiety. A gospel without hope is not the gospel!

3. It's deceptive. A group known as the Adventists predicted that Jesus would return to earth in 1874. When this didn't happen, the group's leaders covered their error by suggesting that Jesus appeared "invisibly" on that date. A theology developed around these ideas that is still accepted by Seventh-day Adventists. In the 1970s, when Americans were so worried about gas shortages and war in Israel, author Hal Lindsey sold millions of copies of his book The Late, Great Planet Earth—and he predicted the world would end in a few years. Many other Christians have made similar predictions—such as the Y2K scare in 1999 or Harold Camping's infamous warning that the world would end on May 21, 2011.

We have no business setting dates for the end of the world. God alone sets His timetable.
Jesus said of His return: "Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only" (Matt. 24:36). If anyone claims to know when the world will end, you can be sure he is a false prophet. What we should be telling people is that Jesus died for them, and that they have been given a chance to receive His forgiveness while they are on this side of eternity.

4. It's divisive. Christians have different views of the end times. Some are post-millenialists while others emphasize the Rapture. This is not something we should be arguing about because no one has the full revelation of the future. I tell people I am a "pan-millenialist." I believe it will all "pan out" in the end! I am not as concerned about how the last days will unfold as I am about how many people I can take to heaven with me. We should all be united in our desire to share Christ with others.

I know Jesus will return one day, and it gives me great comfort to know that all heaven will say of Him: "The kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever" (Rev. 11:15). Let's live our lives as if He were coming back today, but let's work as if He weren't coming for 100 years. Let's stop hoping for judgment and instead pray for mercy for our wayward country. Let's stop being so negative and instead show people the supernatural joy that only Jesus gives.

Revelation in Five Minutes

Can the Book of Revelation be summarized in five minutes or less? This video by Rick Chromey is actually pretty good. I recommend it as worth a view.






Hat Tip: Thinking Out Loud

Zombie Eschatology

From The Sacred Sandwich

When to Shut Up

I like this!

we wrangle about the end of the world
and its beginning too
but when YHWH comes in the whirlwind
shut up, we haven’t a clue

From "Chaplain Mike" at Internet Monk

Not only do I like it, but I also think it's a pretty good summation of the message of the Book of Job.

The Next Bourne Movie

To be followed by "The Bourne Eschatology"?

Hat Tip:  Tall Skinny Kiwi

From Eternity to the Eschaton

"From eternity to the eschaton, it is all about Christ."

"Scripture everywhere teaches about Christ. His life, death, and resurrection are the hinge on which the drama of Scripture turns."

— Peter J. Leithart, Athanasius, (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Academic, 2011), xvii

Hat Tip: Of First Importance

A Gospel Diagram

Fascinating diagram of the gospel message by Brian LaPorte at Near Emmaus.

One More Round with Harold Camping

Uh oh, here we go again.  Remember this back in May, and this as its result? This week it is Harold Camping, Round 2 

I predict the same result.

"He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority." (Acts 1:7 ESV)

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.   (Mark 13:32 ESV)

Meeting Potential Kings & Queens of the Cosmos

"If the kingdom is what Jesus says it is, then that means what matters isn't just what we neatly classify as spiritual. The natural world around us isn't just a temporary environment. It's part of our future inheritance in Christ. The underemployed hotel maids we walk past silently in the hallway aren't just potential objects of our charity; they are potential queens of the cosmos (James 2:5). Our jobs--whatever they might be--aren't accidental. The things we do to serve in our local churches aren't random. God is designing our lives--individually and congregationally--as internships for the eschaton. We're learning in little things how to be put in charge of great things (Matt. 25:14-23)."

--Russell Moore, 'Kingdom: Heaven after Earth, on Earth, or Something Else? in Don't Call it a Comeback (ed. Kevin DeYoung; Crossway, 2011), 125

Hat tip:  Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology: Internships for the Eschaton:

Amateur End Game

From: The Sacred Sandwich:
  
BTW, Harold Camping now says the end is October 21, 2011.  Wish he would just return to "The End is Near."

The New Corrected Billboard

May 22, 2011: The Pastoral Challenge and Opportunity

It is past 6 pm in my time zone, and we're all still here. 'Nuff said about  that

It is easy to make fun of Mr. Camping, but we must also remember compassion on those who fell for his deluded teachings, and the Pastoral Challenge and Opportunity When the Rapture Doesn't Happen.  Here are some kind and wise words from Eric Landry (via Justin Taylor):

We must be very careful about how we respond. Will we join our friends at the “Rapture Parties” that are planned for pubs and living rooms around the nation? Will we laugh at those who have spent the last several months of their lives dedicated to a true but untimely belief? What will we say on Saturday night or Sunday morning?

History teaches us that previous generations caught up in eschatological fervor often fell away from Christ when their deeply held beliefs about the end of the world didn’t pan out. While Camping must answer for his false teaching at the end of the age, Reformational Christians are facing a pastoral problem come Sunday morning: how can we apply the salve of the Gospel to the wounded sheep who will be wandering aimlessly, having discovered that what they thought was true (so true they were willing to upend their lives over it) was not? If this isn’t true, they might reason, then what other deeply held beliefs and convictions and doctrines and hopes might not be true?

It’s at this point that we need to be ready to provide a reasonable defense of our reasonable faith. Christianity is not founded upon some complex Bible code that needs years of analysis to reveal its secret. Christianity is about a man who claimed to be God, who died in full public view as a criminal, and was inexplicably raised from the dead three days later appearing to a multitude of witnesses. When his followers, who witnessed his resurrection, began speaking of it publicly, they connected the prophecies of the Old Testament to the life and death and resurrection of this man who claimed the power to forgive sins. This is the heart of the Christian faith, the message that deserves to be featured on billboards, sides of buses, and pamphlets all over the world. It is also the message that needs to be reinvested into the hearts and lives of those who found hope and meaning in Harold Camping’s latest bad idea.

 Amen to that!

End of the World Humor

Today is May 21, 2011.  If I am still around after 6 pm today, thus proving Harold Camping to be wrong once again, I'll be sure to let ya'll know!

Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy the day.

To the Followers of Harold Camping

Unfortunately, there are a lot of deluded people that are going to need to hear this come Sunday, May 22. From Walking Together Ministries comes a very wise Open Letter to the Followers of Harold Camping:

To The Followers of Harold Camping,

I am not writing this letter to offer you more of the condemnation you no doubt are already receiving from many quarters. I am writing instead to plead with you to think clearly in what will soon be the aftermath of the failed prophecy that you have embraced. I do so not to rub salt in the wound, but because you will soon find yourselves at an interesting crossroads in life at which you will be faced with many options. I am writing to encourage you to reject the bad options and embrace the wise ones.

I believe that you are sincere people. I believe that many of you sincerely believe in the Lord Jesus and I believe that many of you sincerely trust in the scriptures. Unfortunately, in embracing the prophecies of Harold Camping, you have sincerely believed in a false prophecy and a false prophet.

On Sunday, May 22nd, many of you are going to face feelings of confusion, loneliness, isolation, and even shame. Many of you will likely become objects of derision and punchlines in jokes made at your expense. You will reach a point where you will begin to wonder how what you previously believed in with such certainty could have been so very untrue. In light of this fact, let me offer you some words of perspective and encouragement for the future:

Much more at the link. I agree with all of it.

May 21: Harold Camping's Folly

Have you seen one of these billboards? There are different versions appearing throughout the USA, including a couple of them in my vicinity - I pass one going to church each Sunday.

Harold Camping of Family Radio ministries has "calculated" that the rapture will occur on May 21, 2001. He and his followers are paying for these billboards and traveling the country warning folks to get ready. Brother Camping apparently believes that Matthew 24:36 does not apply to him. He has made a career out of trying to predict the date of Christ's second coming, most notably previously predicting a return in 1994 (I certainly don't remember it happening, so I guess he was WRONG!)

W. Robert Godfrey at the Ligonier Ministries website has done us all a service by digging into and explaining the background of our misguided brother, Harold Camping. You can read it at:

The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 1)
The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 2)
The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 3)
The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 4)

The Lord could come back whenever He so chooses, although I'm pretty sure it will not be May 21, 2011 (but He is certainly free to prove me wrong!). We need to pray for these confused and deluded people when we all wake up on May 22nd.  And I hope no one ever pays any serious attention to Camping again.

Addendum:  Chaplain Mike at IMonk comments here.

Update on 4/26/11- It's worse than I thought.  See Part 5

The Kingdom Message of Christmas

Here's a good reminder from Chuck Colson to remember "the earth-shaking, kingdom-sized message of Christmas" - A Cosmic Culmination

Sometime this Christmas season, you are sure to hear those rousing words of Handel's Messiah, taken from Revelation 11:15: "The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ" (ESV). Tradition has it that the music so moved King George II that he stood to his feet out of respect for an even greater King. The rest of the audience followed, as have audiences for generations since. The Hallelujah Chorus is the culmination of our Messiah's story, a story that Handel rightly showed was foretold by the Prophets, heralded in the Annunciation, and has at its heart a message about a king and a kingdom....

...This Christmas, remind yourself and others of the significance of the Incarnation: that one day God will usher in the fullness of his kingdom. The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. God will bring about that cosmic culmination. And the chorus of hallelujahs will ring not just for a few stanzas at Christmastime but forevermore.

This also ties in well with yesterday's post about the river of history.  What a glorious season is Christmas, because what a glorious hope is ours in Christ!

Advent Eschatology

Now this is a cool thought worth some more thinking through! From Theological Scribbles:

"Christian theology traditionally sees 'eschatology' as a subdivision of systematics dealing with the return of Jesus, judgement, heaven, and hell. It is typically set aside in a box of its own, separate from the theology concerned with the story of Jesus' first coming.

Advent, by bringing the first and second advents into doxological communion, warns us against hermetically sealing off eschatology in such a way. I think that Greg Beale was spot-on in his essay 'The Eschatological Conception of New Testament Theology' (1997) when he observed that the whole of NT theology is eschatology.

Advent alerts us to what I yesterday called the two-phase eschatology of the NT (in fact, I think that this is over simplistic as the place of AD 70 also need factoring in along with the fall of Rome, etc.). It makes us recognize that the coming of God-in-Christ is an eschatological event from first to last. It teaches us that we need to see Christmas as an end-time event in the story of God's engagement with creation.

Christmas-as-eschatology.

I wonder what light that might shed?"

An Imperfect Preview

“The gospel creates the kind of community that is even now an imperfect preview of the kingdom’s marriage feast that awaits us. The church originates, flourishes, and fulfills its mission as that part of God’s world that has been redeemed and redefined by this strange announcement that seems foolish and powerless to the rest of the world.”

—Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life (Grand Rapids, MI; Baker Books, 2009), 11

Hat Tip: Of First Importance