Sarah Jane: And it’s Mrs. Wormwood?
Wormwood: That’s correct.
Sarah Jane: As a matter of fact, that’s in the
Bible, Wormwood – the book of Revelation. At the end of the world, it describes
a star falling to Earth and poisoning the waters – a star called Wormwood.
Wormwood: Fascinating. Shall we move on to business?
The Sarah Jane Adventures S1 E0, ‘Invasion of the Bane’ (2007)1
 |
| So the reason this picture works is because the SJA episode quoted above involved aliens trying to take over the world using a brand of orange fizzy pop, so combine that with the idea of something falling into the water, and there you go. |
I think middle-class
British evangelicals2 generally behave as if it doesn’t matter very
much what sort of view we take on eschatology. I think we’re kidding ourselves
to a dangerous degree.
Eschatology, in case
you’re not as much of a long-word nerd as I am, refers literally to the study
of the last things, and in Christian theology to the understanding one takes of
what’s going to happen at the consummation of the age (as the New Testament
calls it) or the day of the LORD (as the Old Testament calls it). In other
words, after now, then what? What’s the next stage in God’s plan for his
creation?
It’s a topic the
scriptures have plenty to say about, but the trouble is that there is profound disagreement over how the
passages in question ought to be interpreted. And I suspect it’s at least
partly for this reason that the specifics of eschatology aren’t talked about
much in church. I’ve been lucky in that my experience of church at least since
I came to university has been one where the fact that Jesus is going to come to
earth again is mentioned quite a lot; by contrast, numerous ladies now part of
the congregation in question have told me that when they were younger, they
barely heard anything to that effect from the pulpit. But still, that basic
doctrine itself is rarely accompanied by any actual detail, even when the passage being preached on seems keen to
supply some. Someone asks a question, So does such-and-such represent
such-and-such? only to be told, Well, the really
important thing to get out of this passage is [insert the most basic
doctrine you can think of; ‘God keeps his promises’ or something of that ilk].
And I’m not saying it’s never a good idea to emphasise an overarching point at
the expense of a more minor one, or that there’s no value in being reminding of
basic doctrine again and again and, indeed, again, but I'm thinking of scenarios
where everyone in the room was a mature Christian: there should surely have
been space to deal with the text in greater depth.
So why don’t we talk about
eschatology in church? Well, for one thing, as I already mentioned, because it
is so controversial, and we’re worried we’ll end up disagreeing with our
brothers and sisters - as if some degree of that weren’t necessary in order for
us all to progress to a fuller understanding of the gospel. Also because it’s weird, in that the day of the LORD
inherently represents the collision of a natural world with which we’re directly
familiar and a supernatural one with which we’re not, and we’d rather not have
to confront that - as if locking this jazz up in a box of taboo subjects didn’t
colour it as even weirder and more difficult to deal with than it was already.
It’s a vicious cycle: we don’t talk about it, and so it becomes something we
don’t talk about, if you catch my drift. The guy up the front won’t address it,
because he doesn’t want to force his own particular views on the folks in the
pews; but all that that achieves is that the folks in the pews never get any
teaching on it, and don’t have any tools to evaluate people’s particular views
when they come across them. (Another reason why church shouldn’t work like that
– but that’s a matter for another time.)
And an inevitable side
effect of all this - or equally, given the whole vicious-cycle thing, a
contributing factor - is this common understanding that it doesn't actually
matter very much what sort of view one takes on eschatology. If nobody in the
church is talking about it, it can’t be that big of a deal, right? And so why
bother wading into the controversy and the weirdness when you can just smooth
over those obscure passages filled with odd details about the day of the LORD
by saying, Well, the really important
thing to get out of this passage is…
But if we’re in that
mindset, we’re kidding ourselves. We’re disregarding truths that our Lord has
explicitly told us it is important to understand (more on that in just a
moment). We’re cheating ourselves out of a fuller and more awestruck grasp of
God’s character and purposes. And we’re also running the risk that we’ll end up
conducting ourselves foolishly in our everyday lives, because our view of the
endgame has a profound impact on what we think we ought to be doing now.
I was recently out for
dinner with a bunch of theologians,3 and the conversation somehow
wandered onto the topic of certain Christians somewhere in the world who are so
convinced that the day of the LORD is coming imminently that they neglect to
take care of their children, because they don’t see the point in bothering if
Jesus is going to show up any second now anyway. And yes, there’s a lot
else in scripture that one would have to be ignorant of (or choose to ignore)
in order to get from the doctrine to the behaviour, but the behaviour is still
a result of the doctrine. Or similarly, think of all the believers throughout
history who have tried to set up God’s kingdom on earth themselves - often with
violence - because they took an eschatological view according to which their
doing so constituted a necessary part of the proceedings for the ushering in of
Jesus’ return. Again, their eschatology had a massive impact on the way they
lived their lives.
Please note that the issue
in cases like these is not merely whether Jesus will return or not.
Granted, there are people who call themselves Christians and yet live their
lives and sometimes even explicitly talk as if the day of the LORD is never
going to arrive, but that’s a (more severe) problem all of its own, and it’s
not what I’m addressing here. Cases like the above demonstrate that what we
believe about the manner of Jesus’ return, and not only whether we
believe in the mere fact of it, does influence our present behaviour. They also
demonstrate that getting this stuff wrong can lead to a lot of harm to other
human beings, which is a totally rubbish witness of the love of Christ to the
unbelieving world, not to mention a deplorable sin in and of itself.
And maybe this is another
reason why we don’t talk about eschatology – because we’re aware of the kind of
damage that can result from people being keenly subscribed to certain
eschatological views, and it seems safer just not to situate ourselves in any
particular camp. It seems safer to brush aside the issue by saying, Well, the really
important thing to get from this passage is ...
But it isn’t safer,
not by any means. In which other area of doctrine would we ever cherish and
uphold that kind of uncertainty and ignorance? Do we not place enough
importance on the revelation of himself and his purposes that God has given us
to try to understand what it is saying about the coming day of the LORD? And I
do think that a reluctance to try to figure out what’s going on with
eschatology reveals a certain disdain for scripture, because scripture is about
as blooming clear as it could possibly be that it really matters that we
understand this stuff.
As he sat on the Mount
of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will
these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of
the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray …
when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel,
standing in the holy place” – let the reader understand … - Matthew 24:3-4, 15
But we do not want
you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep … for
the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice
of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will
always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 16-18
Now concerning the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask
you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a
spirit or by a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect
that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way.
For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of
lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction … 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3
The revelation of Jesus
Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon
take place … Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and
blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the
time is near. – from Revelation
1:3
I’m not saying that having
a correct understanding of eschatology is a necessary condition for being a
born-again believer or anything – that would be ridiculous given that we can
only begin to understand this stuff once we’ve already been granted the Holy
Spirit – but I do think, as I say, that an awful lot of British middle-class
evangelicals are kidding ourselves to a dangerous degree by behaving as if,
provided we agree that Jesus is going to be returning at some point, it doesn’t
matter what sort of view we take on the particulars. Eschatology may be a ‘secondary
issue’, but so are an awful lot of the issues that we do talk about in
church; just because they’re secondary to the fundamental tenets of salvation,
doesn’t mean they aren’t still issues. And on top of that, I think you’ll
struggle to find another secondary issue about which the Bible so emphatically
urges its readers not to be uninformed or deceived.
All right, so let’s
imagine for a moment that I’ve persuaded you, O Obliging Reader, and you’re
keen to start figuring out this eschatology jazz, but you’re not sure where to
start given that nobody talks about it in church. To you I offer a couple of
fairly obvious pointers, which apply not only to this issue, but any other
question of spiritual importance about which you feel underinformed:
1) Read your Bible. And read it again. And assume that it means what it
says. And make connections: I honestly think that if we knew our Old Testaments
properly, we wouldn’t have very much trouble with the complex imagery in
Revelation. And, of course, ask that God would grant you understanding. And don’t
be disheartened if obscure passages in obscure minor prophets don’t suddenly
spring into total clarity: the better you know the Bible, the more connections
you’ll see, and the fuller a picture you’ll begin to understand.
2) Get opinions. Ask your good Christian friends what they think. Raise
this stuff in small-group Bible studies of relevant passages (and there are a lot
of relevant passages, so you shouldn’t have to wait too long; praying for
opportunities is also legit). Read commentaries.4 Look up
terminology those commentaries use that you don’t understand. You’d be amazed how much you can
learn even from random strangers on the Internet. And if you’re raising an
eyebrow at that last possibility – well, that hardly seems a reliable source
– then allow me to clarify: don’t mindlessly believe every opinion you
gather, which you won’t be able to do anyway, because they’re bound to
contradict each other. Rather, test everything against scripture: when you look
at the passage in question, can you actually see what so-and-so claims is in
there? Does this idea align with the fundamental tenets of salvation? Does it
fit into the broader picture of God’s purposes that you’ve been busy striving to
discern in ever greater detail, as per my previous point? Are you convinced?
And if you’re not, keep digging and thinking and wrestling. It is not going to
be a quick and easy process, but it is going to be a God-glorifying one,
because you will be testifying that you think what he says is important enough
to be worth your time and effort, your fascination and your frustration; and
because, in striving to make sure that no one will be able to lead you astray
concerning these things, you will be obeying what he has asked of you.
I pray that God would
grant us all a fuller understanding of these things of which he has said we are
blessed if we read, hear, and keep them; that as we understand more, so might we
be more awestruck at and adoring of who he is; and that we would consequently
conduct ourselves in a manner that both befits the coming of his kingdom and
proclaims it to the world.
Footnotes
1 The whole run of SJA is currently available
on iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006qgb3?suggid=b006qgb3.
You’re welcome. Oh, and thanks as usual to Chrissie’s Transcript Site and
NowMyWingsFit.
2 This is my best stab at defining the distinct
church subsection of which I have had the most experience in the past few years.
Other subsections may be similarly afflicted, but I can’t really speak for
them.
3 We were at Oddfellow’s: https://theoddfellowsbar.co.uk/. It
was very yummy – on the pricy side, but that’s probably at least partly a
result of their commendable commitment to buying local.
4 Oh, were you expecting a footnote recommending a
commentary or two? Nope, sorry, I just wanted to mention that the Babylon
Bee’s take on different views about the thousand years described in
Revelation 20 is very funny: http://babylonbee.com/news/bee-explains-different-viewpoints-end-times/.
Like, maybe don’t start there, but I actually found it surprisingly useful for
making sense of some of the stereotypes and pitfalls associated with each
position.
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