Archives for “Kingdom Living”
I think it’s safe to say that this is one post that most of my liberal Christian friends won’t be sharing with their friends.
I firmly believe that Christians should be preoccupied with the plight of the marginalized and the remediation of social injustice. I, too, have evolved considerably from my conservative Christian background and rejected the “Jesus is a Right Winger” presupposition characterizing the stereotypical American evangelical. However, time and again I am reminded that I am something of an anomaly among post-evangelical/liberal Christians (whatever you want to call me). My theological evolution did not result in some sort of flipped switch that automatically turned me into a Democrat-supporting left-winger. I do not assume that the ideal way of going about addressing social concerns is through the government or that those skeptical of the state’s ability or moral authority to do this are selfish cretins who hate the poor and destitute. In fact, I think that the use of force that the government depends upon is often responsible for creating and perpetuating their plight.
- The faith of a mustard seed and justice in the courts An amusing example of Christianese getting misappropriated in an inspirational context showed up in our office newsletter. One of these things is not like the other… What Makes a Dad...
- Creationism, education, and the state All right, here’s a rant for you. There’s a news story circulating about the well-known fact that homeschooling texts are ignoring or even (the audacity!) criticizing mainstream science in favor...
- Why Christian activism seems liberal Elsewhere I have blamed futurist eschatology for minimizing the Church’s call to focus on social issues and address the needs of the poor. But there are more causes than that...
All right, here’s a rant for you.
There’s a news story circulating about the well-known fact that homeschooling texts are ignoring or even (the audacity!) criticizing mainstream science in favor of creationism. The usual suspects have emerged to show their disgust of the benighted institution of homeschooling. There’s a poll up at MSNBC asking the question, “Is it OK for home-school textbooks to dismiss the theory of evolution?” Wait, what does “OK” mean here? Are they asking, “Do you think it’s good that home-school textbooks do this?” or “Is it healthy for society that they do this?” The ambiguity in the question itself implies that what they really want to know is, “Should the authorities allow parents to teach their kids this stuff?” The mantra among most secularists that I’ve heard on this issue is that homeschooling should be, preferably, illegal or, at very least, strictly regulated for content by the state. Thus, the following rant.
Related posts:- Homeschooling and agendas There is no bigger proponent of home education than yours truly. I myself was homeschooled from the fifth grade through graduation. Although a somewhat shy, awkward kid, I somehow turned...
- Why the debate over creationism matters Recently I have been involved in a couple conversations with folks who aren’t really “informed” (I use the term loosely) creationists but have been hounded enough by creationists/biblical literalists who...
- Quote of the day (12-6-2008) At the risk of inbreeding, I am compelled to submit this quote from a blogger who has twice linked to my post on why the debate over creationism matters. It...
A funny thing happened on my way through Paul’s epistles.
I read through all of Paul’s letters over the last couple days, trying to take note of the commonalities rather than the issues specific to to the churches, such as the Judaizer conflict in the Galatian church, the disorder in the Corinthian church, etc. I wanted to identify his consistent baseline concerns for those he was writing to. I even read the lot in presumed chronological order, just in case there was a shift in his emphasis throughout time; I made note of no dramatic changes (this certainly isn’t to say that I disbelieve there are such), or even any indisputable nuances or drifts. But I did see more than I expected.
Related posts:- Campbell: what did Paul mean by “justified”? Here’s an excerpt from the first part of a review of a book I’ve been interested in since I first heard about it. It’s from the New Perspective school of...
- Why Christian activism seems liberal Elsewhere I have blamed futurist eschatology for minimizing the Church’s call to focus on social issues and address the needs of the poor. But there are more causes than that...
- Herman who? Someone every Christian needs to know I come from a Christian tradition that downplays or contradicts basic principles of biblical interpretation (hermeneutics) on a regular basis. The starting assumption is that the Bible is God’s Word...
Early last year I had the pleasure of reading a book entitled Beyond the Firmament. The author’s site is on my blogroll, so you may have noticed it. Here’s my review on Amazon:
Related posts:
The whole conflict between faith and science has been trumped up. Does this surprise you? This book will convince you.
This book is divided up into four sections. “What do we know and how do we know it?” is a preliminary, basic overview of what is called “epistemology” in fancy terms, making distinctions between natural and special revelation that carry the next two sections. “What can the Bible tell us about nature?” is a look at the special revelation in the Bible and discusses the boundaries of what it can tell us and why we can’t just assume over-literalized interpretations when interpreting it. In the next section, “What can nature tell us about itself?”, Glover describes what science can tell us about the beginning of the universe and the origin our our solar sytem, and then describes why radiometric dating methodology is reliable. The last section, “What about evolution?” is a summary of evolutionary theory.
- Enemies united against an imaginary foe I’ve been quite vocal on this blog in pointing out my disagreements with the Christian critics of science (ID advocates and other creationists). Unfortunately, these special creationists have had quite...
- Lamoureux: links and labels Mike Beidler over at The Creation of an Evolutionist has a post up with a link to an overall excellent interview with the brilliant Denis Lamoureux, author of Evolutionary Creation,...
- Mohler on theistic evolution In a recent post on his popular blog, Al Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, presented a predictable take on the origins debate. He states, I have...
There is no bigger proponent of home education than yours truly. I myself was homeschooled from the fifth grade through graduation. Although a somewhat shy, awkward kid, I somehow turned out completely “socialized” (whatever the crap that means), was accepted to both an undergraduate and multiple graduate programs, and am well on my way to a PhD in an obscure academic field. Most reasons homeschooling is criticized are, in my opinion, absolutely groundless.
One particular critique is generally unfounded and misleading: Christians are sheltering their children from the real world, to the effect that those children will be swept away once they get out from under their parents’ protection. One should ask, “Isn’t sheltering (a.k.a protecting) my child part of my role as a loving parent?” Indeed. I want to shelter my child from playing in the street — doesn’t make me a bad parent. In fact, quite the opposite: it makes me a good parent. Where I would be letting my children down is if I were afraid to tell them the reason I wouldn’t let them play in the road, choosing only to scare them out of any desire to play in the street by saying things like, “The road is evil!” or “The cars are out to get you!” To be sure, for children of younger ages, warnings unaccompanied by a cogent rationale will be sufficient; but when they get older, it will be behoove them on many levels to know exactly why the road is a dangerous place to play, if for no other reason than such lessons might be adapted anywhere and result in children’s ability to plan for their own safety in analogous situations. The right kind of “sheltering” explains to the child what s/he is being sheltered from, why, and what to do about it once the protection is lifted. I am grateful that this is how my parents instructed me. My parents taught me to learn, think, analyze, and evaluate new information on my own. This is the kind of homeschooling I can get behind.
Related posts:- Creationism, education, and the state All right, here’s a rant for you. There’s a news story circulating about the well-known fact that homeschooling texts are ignoring or even (the audacity!) criticizing mainstream science in favor...
- Cracks in the YEC wall? Early last year I had the pleasure of reading a book entitled Beyond the Firmament. The author’s site is on my blogroll, so you may have noticed it. Here’s my...
- Quote of the day (12-6-2008) At the risk of inbreeding, I am compelled to submit this quote from a blogger who has twice linked to my post on why the debate over creationism matters. It...
I am aware that a few of my theological positions are considered by many of my evangelical readers to be "liberal" (e.g. my beliefs on origins and biblical inerrancy). But this post will (unfortunately and unintentionally) be likely to cause controversy due to its blatant conservatism. More conservative, it turns out, than most modern evangelicals. Anyone know right offhand the first directive God is recorded to have issued mankind? Hint: it’s not about which tree to eat from. This one reveals one of God’s chief purposes for the race He created as the crowning constituent of His world: “Have lots of babies. Raise them to take their place in the administration of My Kingdom.” This is obviously my own colloquialization of Genesis 1.28, but I’m sure you have guessed the wording of the original command: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” It has been said that this was “a blessing, not a command,” and indeed, the words quoted above were introduced as a blessing: “Then God blessed them and said…” Now I want you to try to imagine how being blessed is not also an act of commission: how like God would it be to make provision for something He doesn’t care one way or another about? I can’t think of anything in Scripture that sounds anything remotely like, “You know, you may never wish to take advantage of this blessing, but I just want you to know that if you ever want to [blank], I’ve got you covered.” God’s blessings express His heart; far from offering an option subject to be disregarded at our whim, His blessings communicate His plan and His commitment to seeing that plan through to fulfillment. Even in recent times, right up until and even after industrialization, the pattern God ordained was still maintained on a broad scale. Parents wanted to have children to help out in or around the home or contribute income from other employment as soon as they came of age; children were expected to help provide for their parents and siblings as time progressed. Family was a primary focus of everyone’s life; those for whom this was not the case were looked on as flighty, uncommitted, and frivolous. But things changed: it was as though humanity decided that its commission to subdue the earth was complete, and so reproduction was optional at best and too downright inconvenient at worst. Too often these days in which self-centeredness is the rule, Americans who start having children early (and by early I mean before their late twenties) are assumed to be either 1) clumsy in their birth control efforts or 2) quaint and old-fashioned. Usually in that order.* Actually, that first assumption is somewhat justifiable: since the advent of birth control, people have been able to enjoy sex with abandon simply for mutual or self-gratification. Christians with this mindset thank God for the gift of birth control. Birth control may in fact be a gift of God, but one arguably more beneficial to the Kingdom when unbelievers avail themselves of it. Consider the following points. Related posts:
- Homeschooling and agendas There is no bigger proponent of home education than yours truly. I myself was homeschooled from the fifth grade through graduation. Although a somewhat shy, awkward kid, I somehow turned...
This post is prompted by two recent comments, from two different commenters on two different issues. But their answer, it seems to me, is related.
I was asked, “Why wouldn’t Jesus say that evil would be forever dead instead of having this eternal fire to go to? Even if it was recognized as an exaggeration at the time, is not this caricature of a final death a scare tactic?”
Jesus’ words were not an exaggeration. Eternal fire is an apt metaphor for unquenchable, inexorable judgment. The eternal fire Jesus refers to emphasizes an irreversible judgment, a fire that doesn’t just last long enough to scorch or burn, but remains to consume completely and utterly.
Another important aspect to consider is that the judgment he’s referring to wasn’t to be the end of all things, either. It was tied to a specific event in history, now long past but with ongoing application. Anyone who’s read many of my eschatology posts will know where I’m going here. The Sheep and the Goats judgment was the start of something, not just the end of something. The fires haven’t stopped because there are still those who die at odds with God’s purpose for creation, but there are those who live to accomplish His will on the earth. Jesus was laying out a state of affairs that would begin with that judgment but, along with the world and its inhabitants, would continue for all time.
Related posts:- Peter speaks Preterists point to a panoply of time statements in Scripture regarding the eschaton. Twenty of the twenty-six books of the NT give such time statements, expectations of an imminent occurrence...
- Life in God’s Garden Summary of Part One God the Gardener created a son (Lk 3.38) to tend the garden. God, as a father, was training up his children Adam and Eve in the...
- The Sheep, the Goats, and the Judgment One of people’s hang-ups about full preterism is that they feel that the Great White Throne Judgment sounds too momentous to apply to less than the sum total of humanity...
As my regulars probably know, I like podcasts. One I listen to regularly (it comes out daily) is Renewing Your Mind with Dr. R.C. Sproul of Ligonier Ministries. He is well-known as a partial preterist, but, as you will see here soon, posits a future consummative coming of Christ. This is what he said in a recent podcast.
Related posts:After the Resurrection [Jesus] sojourns on the earth for a few weeks with His disciples until that moment comes where He ascends into heaven. And what’s the point of the Ascension? . . . [The] “ascension” here takes on a technical meaning, where it means not simply to go up, but . . . to go up to a specific place for a specific purpose. And the place to which He goes is the right hand of God and the purpose for His ascent is to go to His coronation, to His investiture, as the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, where God now crowns Him not just one more king in the line of Davidic kings, but He crowns Him the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and to Whom all the nations of the world are given beneath His authority and under His dominion. And His reign is announced by God in the New Covenant not to last for four hundred years like the dynasty of David but “He shall reign for ever and ever” and ever and ever to which the Church cries, “Hallelujah!”
- The timing of the Millennium I have recently been dialoguing with a new full preterist friend, Patrick Stone, about the timing of the millennium. Early on in the conversation, the possibility was raised that the...
- The Millennium and the Resurrection of the Dead I am firmly indebted to Don Preston for his presentation on the Millennium at the 2004 Preterist Research Institute Conference for much of the layout and content of the following....
- Creation as God’s temple John Walton points out that often in the Ancient Near East, a temple dedication ceremony would take place over seven days’ time; for six days, the temple would be furnished...
Elsewhere I have blamed futurist eschatology for minimizing the Church’s call to focus on social issues and address the needs of the poor. But there are more causes than that alone; for instance, Derek Webb of Caedmon’s Call.
Josh Horne at the Smoak House has posted a dissent from Webb’s solo album, Mockingbird, which he finds enjoyable overall. Webb, whose schtick is to point out errors he sees in American evangelical Christianity, is the type who gives Christian activism its stereotype as indicative of liberal Christianity. It seems like anytime I hear of a Christian activist, he overshoots mainstream evangelical ideology to the point that his good points are marginalized and he is identified with the social gospel. For instance, as Josh points out, Webb makes some inane comments in his lyrics about war being an absolute evil. This has caused a little discussion in the comments that leads to discussion of the death penalty. Check it out and weigh in!
Related posts:- Christian responsibility according to St. Paul .!. A funny thing happened on my way through Paul’s epistles. I read through all of Paul’s letters over the last couple days, trying to take note of the commonalities...
- A spectrum of Christian dispositions I have recently been asked what I would consider a “liberal” Christian. Well, for one thing, although I buck at calling myself as a liberal Christian, I recognize that I...
- Herman who? Someone every Christian needs to know I come from a Christian tradition that downplays or contradicts basic principles of biblical interpretation (hermeneutics) on a regular basis. The starting assumption is that the Bible is God’s Word...
Mick found a great quote from N.T. Wright’s book, Evil and the Justice of God (pp. 138-139). Wright, a highly esteemed Anglican bishop, is not a full preterist, but what he says is very much in line with stuff I have written. One of the many books I’m going to eventually get around to reading is his The Coming of the Son of Man: New Testament Eschatology for an Emerging Church.
Hope you don’t mind, Mick, but because of its covalence with a recent topic of mine, I’m going to reproduce your quote here on my blog, too. Enjoy!
Related posts:The four living creatures are singing “Holy, holy, holy” and the elders are casting their crowns before the throne; but the one who sits on the throne holds a scroll…sealed with seven seals, and nobody can be found worthy to open it and break its seals. The way to God’s unfolding purposes to put the world to rights, to complete the whole project of creation, appears to be blocked, since God made a world in such a way that it must be looked after by human stewards, and no human being is capable of taking God’s plan forward. This is Revelation’s statement of the problem of evil: God has a plan for the world; but unless He is to unmake creation itself, which is designed to function through the stewardship of God’s image-bearing creatures-the human race-it looks as though the plan cannot come to fruition. And that is Revelation’s statement of the answer: the lamb has conquered, has defeated the powers of evil. And now (Revelation5:9-10) the Lamb has ransomed people from every nation in order to make them a royal priesthood, serving God and reigning on the earth.
This theme, so frequent in the New Testament and so widely ignored in Christian theology, is part of the solution to the problem (of evil). It isn’t that the cross won the victory, so there’s nothing more to be done. Rather, the cross has won the victory as a result of which there are now redeemed human beings getting ready to act as God’s wise agents, His stewards, constantly worshiping their Creator and constantly being equipped to reflect His image into the his creation, to bring his wise and healing order to the world, putting the world to rights under His just and gentle rule. A truly biblical ecclesiology…the church is the community of those who, being redeemed through the cross, are now to be a kingdom and priests to serve God and to reign on the earth. Our fear of triumphalism on the one hand and on the other hand our flattening out our final destiny into talk merely of “going to heaven,” have combined to rob us of this central biblical theme.
- N.T. Wright on “unfaithful”, “flat” readings of Genesis The BioLogos Foundation hits another home run by soliciting and sharing this gem: Bishop of Durham Tom Wright, while no fundie, is generally regarded among scholars and many evangelicals as...
- And the Lord spake, saying, “What was I thinking?!” Preterists who deny a physical Resurrection of the Dead have been accused of being gnostic (because we supposedly believe that only spiritual reality matters and that the physical world is...
Preterists who deny a physical Resurrection of the Dead have been accused of being gnostic (because we supposedly believe that only spiritual reality matters and that the physical world is evil). Yet those who demand a destruction of the physical universe and the replacement with a spiritual new heavens and new earth are surely closer to this belief than are full preterists. We don’t see a reason to believe that the earth and the physical universe will not sustain us into virtual perpetuity. Our strictly spiritual Kingdom is more likely to take over the realm of the physical as we apply the mandate for dominion in every area of our lives. Those looking forward to a restoration of the physical universe need look no further than the preterist’s Kingdom of God made manifest in us, the sons of God, the co-heirs with Jesus.
Related posts:- Peter speaks Preterists point to a panoply of time statements in Scripture regarding the eschaton. Twenty of the twenty-six books of the NT give such time statements, expectations of an imminent occurrence...
- Putting our money where their mouths are What would it take to wipe out hunger and give all poor nations a chance at development? Better yet, why aren’t more Christians asking this question? This is something that’s...
- Election and Adoption Part 3: God’s Purpose in Election As I stated in Part 2, I reject the notion that foreknowledge is prescriptive. I hold to the conviction that there is an interplay between man’s choice and God’s choice....
The heavens and the earth have passed
The new has dawned, the night complete,
The day of judgment come. At last
The rule of Death dies in defeat.
The fear, the tears our fathers knew
Awaiting the Redeemer’s call
Have dried, has fled. The Life broke through;
Death’s victory was snatched withal.
All hope fulfilled and joy made whole
By overflowing life within,
Those purchased with His blood extol
With lips and lives purged from all sin
The mighty arm of Him Whose name
Renowned from depths to utmost height
Has justly earned its glorious fame
By forging endless day from night.
Thus every proud dominion must
Assuredly return to dust
While we, the ransomed, with our birth
Possess new heavens and new earth.
Related posts:- And the Lord spake, saying, “What was I thinking?!” Preterists who deny a physical Resurrection of the Dead have been accused of being gnostic (because we supposedly believe that only spiritual reality matters and that the physical world is...
- Caution: not for the close-minded It having recently come to my attention that a surprising number of my intimate acquaintances are uninformed of the specifics of my eschatological beliefs, and owing to my conviction that...
- The Millennium and the Resurrection of the Dead I am firmly indebted to Don Preston for his presentation on the Millennium at the 2004 Preterist Research Institute Conference for much of the layout and content of the following....
When the Church of Jesus
When the church of Jesus shuts its outer door,
Lest the roar of traffic drown the voice of prayer:
May our prayers, Lord, make us ten times more aware
That the world we banish is our Christian care.
If our hearts are lifted where devotion soars
High above this hungry suff’ring world of ours:
Lest our hymns should drug us to forget its needs,
Forge our Christian worship into Christian deeds.
Lest the gifts we offer, money, talents, time,
Serve to salve our conscience to our secret shame:
Lord, reprove, inspire us by the way you give;
Teach us, dying Savior, how true Christians live.
- F. Pratt Green (#319, Baptist Hymnal)
Related posts:- Losing the plot This story is certainly making the rounds around the blogosphere, but I can’t pass it up, particularly because I have some things to say about it I haven’t read elsewhere....
- Brian McLaren on worship music The (sometimes bewilderingly) controversial theologian Brian McLaren wrote an article in a newsletter (I think) in which he enunciates his take on where we are and where we should go...
- The heart of worship I’ve been musing about this for years and have finally decided to put it down in electronic pen and paper. It concerns something I’m afraid is taken for granted by...
Josh’s blog has something important to say on this.
‘Nuff said.
Related posts:- Jesus’ eschatology and me A reader wrote in recently and asked some really good questions about my eschatology, which I have described on this blog as preteristic. Preterism is the belief that all (or...
- And the Lord spake, saying, “What was I thinking?!” Preterists who deny a physical Resurrection of the Dead have been accused of being gnostic (because we supposedly believe that only spiritual reality matters and that the physical world is...
- Putting our money where their mouths are What would it take to wipe out hunger and give all poor nations a chance at development? Better yet, why aren’t more Christians asking this question? This is something that’s...
I’ve always rolled my eyes when I encountered the “Revelation” nuts in the church: obsession with the day’s headlines, thinking that they elucidate the details of the fulfillment of end-times prophecy, this bugs the ever-loving stew out of me.
I realize I’ve been talking a lot of eschatology lately. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m a one-trick pony or that I’m unhealthily devoted to discussion of this particular doctrine. I thought I’d dedicate a post explaining why I’ve been talking about this, and why I am not likely to completely stop posting about eschatology in the future (although I’m sure it will slack off here and there).
I never could stomach codswallop, and especially widely celebrated codswallop. It’s always been natural for me to be critical of things handed to me to believe, even when I understand that the majority believes it. And then sometimes I discover that I have unquestioned, inaccurate presuppositions on a subject. Now, when I realize that I have been eating food with a hair in it, I make absolutely sure that I have purged my mouth by rinsing it with drink and stuffing it with a prodigious amount of uncontaminated food. So it was with my eschatology. Having long since rinsed my mouth out and cleared away the bunk I believed before, for the last few years I have been on the mission of preparing and chewing up the replacement meal. I am using this blog as a way of probing everything and getting my own ducks in a row, but also of answering the questions of some friends who have lately been asking questions.
Related posts:- You contribute: is Jesus coming back? I’ve had a poll running for a couple months asking Undeception readers what topics they’re interested in seeing me address. I decided to give it a while and see if...
- Iambic tetrameter The heavens and the earth have passed The new has dawned, the night complete, The day of judgment come. At last The rule of Death dies in defeat. The fear,...
- Caution: not for the close-minded It having recently come to my attention that a surprising number of my intimate acquaintances are uninformed of the specifics of my eschatological beliefs, and owing to my conviction that...
What would it take to wipe out hunger and give all poor nations a chance at development?
Better yet, why aren’t more Christians asking this question?
This is something that’s been in my mind of late. Thoughts of children suffering and dying and their parents helpless to prevent it are so burdensome that only my strong defense mechanism (called “ignoring it”) keeps me from being constantly disturbed. But I ask myself – if you knew that your sibling(s) and/or parents were somewhere far away suffering the same way unaided, would you be content to put it out of your mind? Where’s the love for “the least of these”?
The U.N. tells us that 24,000 people die from starvation/malnutrition every single day. This figure is one of the lower I’ve read, so don’t think the U.N. is making it look worse than it is. Nor does this data even take into account the number of deaths that happen because of untreated, though easily treatable, medical problems.
Does any of that shock you? Or are they just statistics?
I have been disturbed to hear committed evangelical Christians shrug their shoulders at the insurmountable tasks I pointed out above. Three common responses:
1) If they’d just get off their lazy butts, they’d be able to do something about it.
It’s not the well who need a doctor, but the sick. Jesus came to seek and save the lost: even given occasional accuracy of the “laziness” accusation, those who are lost in self-destructive habits are prime examples of those who need our Savior’s administration in their lives.
2) All we can hope is to spread the gospel to as many places as possible so that Jesus can come back and end poverty once and for all.
This is a load of garbage (since I try to use more than four letters for all of my descriptive words, I will leave it at that). This is a perfect example of why futurist eschatology is dysfunctional and dangerous. That aside, this mindset makes the gospel look irrelevant: it ignores the example of Jesus who customarily treated the physical need before (or as a way of) ministering to the heart.
Related posts:3) We do send missionaries to help where they can. We’re helping out little by little.
- And the Lord spake, saying, “What was I thinking?!” Preterists who deny a physical Resurrection of the Dead have been accused of being gnostic (because we supposedly believe that only spiritual reality matters and that the physical world is...
- Why eschatology matters Josh’s blog has something important to say on this. ‘Nuff said. ...
- Peter speaks Preterists point to a panoply of time statements in Scripture regarding the eschaton. Twenty of the twenty-six books of the NT give such time statements, expectations of an imminent occurrence...
It having recently come to my attention that a surprising number of my intimate acquaintances are uninformed of the specifics of my eschatological beliefs, and owing to my conviction that the opposing views most frequently encountered are deficient both in their ability to be supported Scripturally and in their effect on various doctrines, both abstract and practical, which by natural progression contribute to unsatisfactory Christian behavior, and seeing that there is little chance that anyone of you would come aware of this view apart from my divulgence and explication of it, I have decided that an attempt at presenting the essentials of my view, insofar as I have them strictly formulated, in a fashion as clear and concise as possible and hence wholly unlike the current paragraph, is a goal worth pursuing in the form of a blog post.
I like trying to talk like that! Ok, I’ll cut it out now.
My view on eschatology (the Scriptural doctrine of end times) is called “preterism” or “covenant eschatology”. Both are descriptive for different reasons: the first reveals the distinctive belief that the bulk or entirety of New Testament prophecy (including the Olivet Discourse and the book of Revelation) has already been fulfilled (praeter- being Latin for “past”) and requires no further, futurized fulfillment; the second term partially addresses the “huh?!?!?!” factor common to futurists when they first hear this interpretation. Let me explain.
Related posts:- The Millennium and the Resurrection of the Dead I am firmly indebted to Don Preston for his presentation on the Millennium at the 2004 Preterist Research Institute Conference for much of the layout and content of the following....
- Iambic tetrameter The heavens and the earth have passed The new has dawned, the night complete, The day of judgment come. At last The rule of Death dies in defeat. The fear,...
- Covenant Theology I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Covenant Radio, today and feeling rather baffled. The hosts, both Presbyterians, were interviewing a Reformed Baptist, Dr. Thomas Schreiner. They were...
King Alfred the Great of England (r. 871-899) was truly one of the most remarkable men in history. The fifth son of the previous king of England, he was a man of deep Christian faith, a man of learning, and a great warrior king, the first king of an England he united and rescued from the onslaught of the “Danes” (those worrisome Vikings). He became the prototype of the ideal king, and was thus probably a major historical referent for the character of King Arthur in the later medieval legends. A man of letters, he personally translated both a verse and prose version of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy (the original was in verse). He exhibited his concern for spiritual leadership by translating Gregory I’s Cura Pastoralis (Pastoral Care). The following is a preface he attached to the latter, an extremely important historical document that sets forth his desire to educate the people of England; he describes his intention to make England literate, to translate the Bible and other religious works, all concerns well before their time in Europe. The period after England’s Christianization was a time of learning that declined, among other things, because of the incursion of the Vikings. Alfred blames this calamity on the people of England being poor stewards of the virtues and doctrines of Christianity and of the education that passes it on. The following is my translation from the Anglo-Saxon “sometimes word for word, sometimes meaning for meaning,” just as I learned from my professor William Provost, and my professor Jonathan Evans.
Related posts:- Herman who? Someone every Christian needs to know I come from a Christian tradition that downplays or contradicts basic principles of biblical interpretation (hermeneutics) on a regular basis. The starting assumption is that the Bible is God’s Word...
- Christian responsibility according to St. Paul .!. A funny thing happened on my way through Paul’s epistles. I read through all of Paul’s letters over the last couple days, trying to take note of the commonalities...
- Why Christian activism seems liberal Elsewhere I have blamed futurist eschatology for minimizing the Church’s call to focus on social issues and address the needs of the poor. But there are more causes than that...