The End and Why It Matters

Posted on Monday, April 13, 2009 in Scripture, Theology, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Before the Left Behind book series was consuming the nation, there was Thief in the Night, a sinister and frightening movie venture into the popular mythology of the ‘end times.’ Back in the 70’s, large churches used to fill up their gymnasiums for screenings of this film and its sequels, and Christians were encouraged to bring their unsaved friends in hopes of scaring the hell out of them. It’s hard to say if more people were scared into or out of the faith after seeing the movies, but they were certainly frightening.  For sheltered young children like me who had only seen a handful of ‘G’ rated movies, Thief in the Night was terrifying. My faith was intact, but my world view and my evangelistic methods were significantly warped.  I’m embarrassed to have all but bullied a friend of mine into saying the sinner’s prayer against her wishes because I was afraid that Jesus would return and she would burn in a literal lake of fire for all eternity.  It’s hard to imagine Jesus being that harsh with a seven year old, but at the time it was all I knew.
The rapture was a real concern for me as a child, though it mostly lingered in some obscure corner of my mind.  I think the rapture was for me what global warming is for a lot of kids today – a really scary, inevitable event of apocalyptic proportions, unavoidable no matter how much plastic we recycle. As a teenager I was around some people who were fairly obsessed with end-times prophecy.  They would scour Revelation, Daniel, and select passages from the prophets and gospels, trying to connect the dots into a clear picture of future events. It never made total sense, but it had the spooky effect of ghost stories told by firelight on dark summer nights at camp.  We would ponder serious theological questions like, “What happens to our clothes during the rapture?” and “Does Bush’s ‘New World Order’ mean he could be the Anti-Christ?”
One would think that getting educated would clear up the muddy waters of eschatology. But sadly, education has just provided more holey theories of how the world will end at which to raise my eyebrows. There are no interpretive theories that are able to make their case without raising more questions for me. They depend on apocalyptic literature that is loaded with bizarre imagery, strange events, and non-linear narratives, which are notoriously difficult to nail down. Any interpretive grid – Pretorist, Historist, Pre/Post/A-Millennial, Branch Davidian, etc. – seems to fall apart at some point when compared with the text. The Orthodox Church does not use the book of Revelation in public reading. They seem to regard it as something they can’t kick out of the canon, but as too dangerous for the general population to get their hands on.  Considering what some people have done with Revelation, they have a point.
However confusing, frightening, and elusive, eschatology remains an important element of Christian theology. The New Testament would be incomprehensible without it. How would we understand the Kingdom of God, the parousia, resurrection and even salvation apart from some understanding that this world as we know it is a temporary situation? Things are not as they should be. Sickness, war, hunger, oppression, sorrow, abuse, and evil remind us constantly of that fact. All of creation is broken and groans for its restoration and healing. Christian hope believes that there will be a time when justice rolls down and makes all things new.  There will be judgment.  There will be reconciliation. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the Tree of Life will bring healing to the nations. We live in the “now and not yet” season between realization and fulfillment. But fulfillment will come. Our very faith hangs on that hope.
I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the end of the world, but when asked recently to reflect on my eschatology, I realized how significant this piece of my faith really is.  I don’t know, and feel no need to know, the details of how and when THE END will all shake out.  But the vision of reconciliation and restoration spoken of by Christ and painted beautifully into the final chapters of Revelation are essential.  Paul said that if there is no resurrection, we believers are to be pitied above everyone. It isn’t likely to happen in my lifetime, which is barely a speck in the timeline of history, but I do believe in a restorative culmination of history when God rights all wrongs and fulfills the longing of anyone who has suffered from creation’s brokenness.
I am sure that it is clear by now that I am a bit cynical about the eschatology of my childhood. Being raised around The Late, Great Planet Earth can arouse some cynicism. But my greatest objection to this eschatology is that it breeds apathy in its followers.  If God is just going to torch this earth and take all the righteous people somewhere else, why bother caring for creation at all? Bad eschatology is dangerous because at its best it breeds apathy and at its worst it promotes the raping and pillaging of the earth with self-centered and short-sighted efficiency. Human beings are dependent on the earth for food, water, and our very existence.  It’s impossible to wreak destruction on the earth without causing great harm and suffering to human beings. The most vulnerable human beings – the ‘least of these’ – are the first to feel the impact. I am actually surprised that no connection has been made between ecological apocalypse and the Tribulation. Ironically, those whose eschatology emphasizes the Tribulation (and how the righteous will be spared from it), are often the same people who scoff at any environmental concern as unfounded nonsense.
My contentedness with an eschatology that is shrouded in mystery likely leaves other people unsatisfied, like only reading the first two Lord of the Rings books and never knowing if Frodo makes it to Mt. Doom to destroy the ring and break the power of Sauron. I understand why some people struggle with a desire to fully understand the biblical texts that appear to speak about the end of the world. In my own search for understanding I have come to approach the book of Revelation in the way I would approach an impressionist painting.  By standing back a bit, you can make out some clear themes – vivid, brilliant, and stunning.  But if you get too close and try to make out individual outlines and colors, it is easy to see things that are not there and to miss the beauty of the big picture.  Distorting eschatology into silly or dangerous dogma is one theological error. Ignoring or disregarding eschatology is another theological error robbing Christianity of much of its hope.

What Others Have Said...

  1. Herb 04/15/09 10:27 PM |

    Having been an “official” Christian now for a dozen or so years, (having said the sinners prayer), I still don’t know what to make of eschatology. I have gone to a Sunday School class on Revelation. Fascinating. It’s too bad it didn’t come out on a 33 1/3 LP and we could play it backwards or slow it down to figure it out. What you say Karlene is interesting from my perspective. In the seventies I was in my twenties, trying to eek out a musical living, a million miles, figuratively, from Christianity, never thinking about the end times from a theological point of view. I’ve never heard of that movie and didn’t know that kind of scare was going on amongst believers. It is amazing still to hear people raised in the evangelical church and to hear their experiences. It’s like another world. Were there evangelicals in the fifties and early sixties? I wonder what they were thinking then because all of us were scared shitless. I recall being a young boy feeling so fortunate because we had a basement in our house. A basement that would make a satisfactory bomb shelter because some people didn’t have one. We watched the mandatory monthly films in grade school, beginning always with Kruschev’s quote “we will bury you” and then getting it straight on what to do when when we see the blinding flash of light. We knew it would happen. I remember in one of those films hearing that drinking the water out of the toilet tank would be the safest and all of us kids laughing because that seemed gross. Global warming? We were getting ready for instant global toasting. So it is a matter of perspective to hear that the north pole is raising a half degree every five years or whatever it is. Anyway, my Christian hope is that we Christians share Christ’s words and love for the here and now for people who suffer and have much less. Take stewardship of God’s creation and treat it as what it is, God’s beautiful gift. To live so that if it doesn’t happen in my lifetime that I will experience the unleashing of my burdens and feel the freedom that Christ promises when I leave this physical world.

  2. Sue Van Stelle 04/20/09 12:19 PM |

    Hey, Karlene,

    Have you read N. T. Wright’s book “Surprised by Hope”? I believe he addresses a number of your concerns. Those of us in the Reformed/Presbyterian stream approach Revelation from a very different angle than the “Left Behind” folks. I wonder if you’ve ever looked at things from that perspective.

  3. Brad Shantz 06/8/09 9:44 PM |

    N.T. Wright’s “Surprised by Hope” is a GREAT book.

    We subscribe to a little magazine called, “Does God Exist”, and the guy who writes it did a fantastic essay on why Dispensationalism is “bunk” (which is where all the Left Behind/Thief in the Night stuff comes from…from a theological/doctrinal perspective, at least). I’ll see if I can find the article. It was actually really good.

  4. Eric Kossian 03/7/10 2:42 AM |

    Karlene, I am afraid you have missed the entire gospel with your quote: “But my greatest objection to this eschatology is that it breeds apathy in its followers. If God is just going to torch this earth and take all the righteous people somewhere else, why bother caring for creation at all? Bad eschatology is dangerous because at its best it breeds apathy and at its worst it promotes the raping and pillaging of the earth with self-centered and short-sighted efficiency.”

    God did not send his Son into the world to save creation, he came to save humanity. God’s end goal. A good understanding of dispensational theology, that the majority of evangelical Christians believe in, makes Christians care about people (not the earth) coming into relationship with Jesus Christ so they may be saved and escape not just the tribulation but Hell itself.

    Denominations and individuals that do not search the Scripture to learn God’s heart and plan end up replacing His plan of salvation for people with their own plan with the end result always being evangelism gets almost completely ignored. While God says He will create a new heavens and a new earth (and yes we are to take care of this own even if Scripture says it is wearing out like a garment)He does not say He will create new people to inhabit the new realms with. Jesus said Go and make Disciples not go and save the earth; that is a new religion created within the last 50 years that seek. The early Church evangelized they did not try to right all the injustices of the world. The injustices of the world are solved when peoples relationships with Chirst are established. The Bible is clear that the only just world will be the the one Christ rules, 1st on earth for a thousand years, after the 7 year tribulation and then in the new Heaven and earth. Ultimatley if you care about social injustice you will want as many people to join you as possible in the new Kingdom, therefore you will be motivated to evangelize. The love of Christ constrains us not for the planet but the souls of women and men. May God guide you into all truth as you search His Word.

Add Your Comments...