This is nuts

The last Zoom that was on Eschatology: Here not There I found quite encouraging and illustrated that what we think on such supposed ‘academic’ questions really affects the practical… indeed the questions are not so academic, this one was simple ‘is it all about us going there, or is it about there coming here?’ The problem is the subject has been hijacked and we have been taught what the answer is, and by taught I suppose I mean brainwashed with no small amount of money and resources behind the onslaught on our thinking.

After the Zoom I was sent this page to look at (not from someone thinking the page was good but illustrating the ‘nuttiness’ of so much that goes on). It might be extreme and on the edge but here it is:

Check it out if you have time. Basically through a series of indexes (currently numbered at 45) it becomes clear how close we are to the rapture. More ‘bad things’ the higher the score, so examples are floods, drug abuse, wild weather, Satanism, globalism. As each one gets worse that score goes up and the aggregate score of the 45 indices give us a total – so as of right now we are at a score of 181 and we are informed that a score above 160 indicates we are to ‘fasten our seat belts’. The rapture was actually closer in 2016 with a score of 189. Maybe it was so secret that even the creators of the system that gives us the inside information missed the sound of the trumpet and the shout of the archangel! (Not going to be so secret then? Other than Paul is making NO reference to said event in passage quoted.)

The craziness of all this is we should actually be rejoicing when disasters, ‘natural’ or ‘moral’ take place for they are hastening the time of our escape. A perversion of eschatology and a total debilitater to prayer and action.

Thankfully there is such a move away from that kind of eschatology but I suspect there still is a ‘well it is all going to burn up in the end anyway’ leaning that remains. We will be OK – palace in the sky is where I am headed, and at the same time the oligarchs of the West figure out that they will be OK with their palace in some safe place, even if that safe place is somewhere in space where they have planted their flag (thank you Naomi Klein for making the connection). Meanwhile we do not take in the words of Scripture concerning the destruction of those who destroy the earth.

I have come across from many angles the four way relationship / reconciliation: Godward, otherward, selfward and planetward. Wherever we start we cannot end there. Simply being reconciled to self can end up with a perversion if we do not go beyond that to ‘love our neighbour as ourselves’ for example. And I cannot truly love God (I am reconciled to God) and there not to be a ‘before and an after’ on every other area. Reconciliation is a work in progress. And let me repeat… wherever we start we cannot end there – and yes that does have implication for soteriology, and has to, as the biblical examples of the use of the word cannot be reduced to one-dimension. It is all a process, and theologically all four aspects flow from the cross and resurrection. That is an eschatology that is deeply practical as it flows from you + me + ‘others’ (every tribe) with God present with ‘us’ in a creational context so that shalom is tangible – no more weeping, suffering, death.

A theology, for example, that quickly jumps to God gave the land to Israel so maybe this idea of moving the Palestinians out could just be OK… well maybe I jump quickly to the parallel exodus of the Philistines and that they need their land restored, and who might be in that today? (Thanks Amos for that insight. It’s a good book to read so I won’t simply give a one verse reference.) When can we get an eschatological vision (a true vision for the globe) such as Paul, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, advanced in the Torah beyond his peers… who simply said that Israel was not promised the land. I appreciate I am trampling on toes and giving little substance to back up what I am writing, but I am doing that to push back against ‘what a mess, but it is all prophesied and we will be OK’. And certainly pushing back against the ‘and if there is yet more mess we simply add it to the total score to tell us where we are’.

There is a book ‘I’m OK You’re OK’. There is a God who said ‘You’re not OK I’m not OK’. The God who followed us out of Eden is the God who is worthy to be followed.

Good deeds

I am grateful to those who came along to the Zoom a couple of nights back and thanks for the feedback then and subsequently. I made a statement that I thought might be worth expanding on in a post. I said something along the lines that I am not sure that God is too concerned about the exactness of what we believe but is focused on how we live out our convictions as we serve others. To use language that we will remember from school (surely allowed as Paul used all sorts of illustrations borrowed from his world) at that final day what will be on the exam paper? What did you believe about the millennium? How did you understand the answer to the question of the disciples about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel? I know there will not be a question on the secret rapture as God knows how much money, time and effort has been given to convince people of its reality… I think s/he will have much grace for those who have believed that!

No, the questions will not be about ‘beliefs’ and I think God will be happier if I have some errors in my beliefs (and that is not a confession that I have any errors!) but have acted in a way that represents the kingdom of God and the heart of heaven.

Brings me to a not so popular biblical theme – not so popular with those who hold to ‘you must be born again and all righteousness is as filthy rags’. That is a strong wing and look I have quoted a couple of verses right there to back them up. The not-so popular theme is being judged, wait for it… by works.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books (Rev.20:12).
If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Cor. 3:15).
He will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life, while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but injustice, there will be wrath and fury (Rom. 2:6-8).

We could add a few other verses such as: Ps. 62:12; Prov. 24:12; Jer. 17:10; 32:19; Matt. 16:27; Rom. 14:12; Rev. 2:23. My point being that the ‘exam paper’ will not be over beliefs but over behaviour.

A couple of points that we need to hold in tension: it is not saying ‘saved by good deeds’ but judged by our deeds. And yet it is not categorically saying ‘damned in spite of good deeds’. Oh my… if only God made everything so clear that I understood it all; I just don’t think things are as tied up as I would wish them to be, and it means two things… I leave things in the hands of God who will ‘do all things right’ and I need to make sure that I respond with the huge big good work that will get me a sweet reward… other than it is not about doing things for a sweet big reward, but acting as God would, and that acting as God would is not the big good work but the giving of a cup of cold water when required.

Eschatology is a big word, with all kinds of complex ideas within it… but as per all theology it is deeply practical. There is a huge day coming and I need to live in the light of that. Always practical.

Not a good guy

Leadership is male when it comes to the predictions of the big bad antiChrist…

Some of you will join me tonight on a Zoom as we push into what (I think) is the final area of foundations – getting the direction right and losing the Hellenistic obsession with going somewhere when I die. Although I lean heavily toward I do go somewhere, the hope of Scripture is of the completion of this world – creation reaching an eschaton.

I am not sure what I will pick up next – maybe I will switch from eschatology to something else or maybe I will have a go at what do we understand about the big bad antiChrist. Anyway a few thoughts here to push in that direction.

Surprise, surprise there is so little in the Bible about antiChrist – four verses in total and all in two books that we assume are from the same pen (1 John 2:18, 22, 4:3, and 2 John 7). Verses can be added (forced to fit) that draw in other aspects – one of the beasts of Revelation for example (beasts in biblical literature and particularly in apocalyptic literature speak of powers such as nations that are untameable). I think we have to look at Revelation separately and let it be the awesome exposure of Imperial power – Rome in that context… and for us?

There is the ‘man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2, but there we have a Pauline warning about what was to come… and for me it has already come – in the Jewish Wars of 66-70. Future for the original readers, past for us.

The Johannine Scriptures then are the core.

Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong to us, for if they had belonged to us they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us (1 John 2:18-19).

Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also (1 John 2:22-23). 

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world (1 John 4:2,3).

Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist! (2 John 7).

John seems to be writing in the main about people who have been associated / around these Christian communities, those who went out from them. [A little aside… the Reformers put forward that the pope was the antiChrist… Catholics have just a little issue with that – there view is that the Reformers / Protestants went out from them, thus the likes of you and me are more likely to be suspects!!!!] Those John wrote to had heard that antiChrist was to come, and it could well be that he held that belief also, though it is possible he is correcting what they believed with ‘You have heard… but…’ And in his second letter we read that John identifies any person who denies the humanity of Jesus as the deceiver and the antiChrist.

Not so clear… so of course once I come to write on it I will make all things so clear (or not) but here for now is my conclusions.

John, in line with the rest of Scripture, pushes us away from speculation and warns us that we need to place Jesus central (anti- can carry the meaning of ‘against / opposed to’ or ‘replacing’). I do not believe the Bible predicts a final one-world ruler… could there be one? The way we are going, quite likely, but not inevitable. Eschatology is not about a series of events, this + that, but about the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly some eschatology when pushed too far pushes Jesus off the map… that is pretty much anti-Christ!

I just do not see our Scriptures as being history set out in advance so that we know future events. The centre of all of Scripture is Jesus… let’s not replace Jesus with knowledge nor with speculation,

Open Zoom – tomorrow

Of course if you are reading this tomorrow then it becomes today… so to be clear:

Tuesday 4th February, 19:30UK time.

If you plan to join us either please read the pdf (around 10,000 words) or watch the short video. Much of ‘popular’ eschatology is summed up in the words of the song (that was sung in an oppressive context): ‘This world is not my home I am just a passing through’. I am proposing that the movement that we pray for is for heaven to enter our sphere i.e. here not there as the fulfilment.

All theology is practical and so I hope we can throw around what difference we think should / could come about with an understanding that ‘we are not looking to go to heaven’ but ‘for heaven to manifest here’.

Here is the Zoom link for the evening:

NB I had to change the link for the evening the one below is the correct one

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5728039267?pwd=NEozVVM0Z1NJSDFKKzNwdG9KUDc5dz09

ID: 572 803 9267
Passcode: 5GkMTA

And the link to the pdf:

And to the video:

Look forward to seeing those who can make it.

Perspectives