The End is Nigh? I think not!

It has just gone 6pm on May 21st 2011 and the world did not end! What on earth was that all that about? Loads of people were talking about a ridiculous prediction of a Christian broadcaster whom some would claim is really a cult leader.

Apparently Harold Camping who may or may not have some affiliation with the Latter Rain movement, who also quote this date, calculated that the end of the world would happen today, yes today 21st May 2011 at 6pm. Well, not actually the end of the world as such, but something called ‘the rapture’. All the Christians would disappear and the rest of the world goes through a really bad time called the tribulation, so he claimed.

Like most Christians, I do believe in the doctrine of the second coming – that somehow in the future Jesus returns to earth and everything changes. But I don't claim to fully understand what this means or how it is going to happen. And I wouldn’t say it’s something that could happen anytime soon. As I understand it, before Jesus returns there is a lot that has to happen. Basically God’s kingdom has to fill the earth. Ordinary Christians have to live for God so much that our cultures are transformed into God’s ideal.

A lot of the ideas associated with the rapture have been popularised in the Left Behind series of novels. The basic idea does come from the Bible. 1 Thessalonians 4 that says that when he comes we will be ‘caught up to meet him the air’. But those who believe premillennialism – especially those of a dispensationalist leaning - have added a detailed timetable to this. A number hold to the idea that this timetable may be kick-started at any moment. They even point to events in the world such as natural disasters and wars as indications that this moment is just around the corner. If you care to examine history you'll find it's an idea that only became popular a century or two ago.

The big problem I have with much of rapture theology is that it breeds an escape mentality. Instead of working for a better world today it implies that we should look forward to being taken of it. Any notion of improving our world by for example campaigning for social justice or the environment is undermined if we believe that it is all going to burn. Is it really worth transforming our culture if it will all be irrelevant soon anyway? All we can hope to do is to preach to people and convert them to our way of thinking before it is too late.

Of course most premillenialists don’t believe that they can predict the date of the rapture. Though some would say that it is likely to happen at any moment soon. It’s just one extremist that some how has gained the attention of the media that has stuck his neck out predicted the date. In fact I would suspect that most pre-millenialists would seek to distance themselves from this loan voice. No-one for one minute should begin to think that Harold Camping’s view was ever a legitimate interpretation of scripture.

If Harold Camping continues his ministry beyond today and his followers continue then they will need to work out some way of resolving the cognitive dissonance that will inevitably occur. Will he discover some miscalculation, as apparently he did after predicting the rapture as 1994? Or perhaps he will say that the end did happen in someway or that God has had mercy because of the efforts of the faithful and so extended the period. Who knows!

In the meantime I suggest that we carry on in our attempts to make the world a better place – as it is most definitely not going to end any time soon.

The End of Time

Callie manged to watch her first full grown up Doctor Who story over Christmas. She joined ten million in the now regularly Christmas tradition. But this was not just another Christmas special. It was David Tennant's final story as the Doctor and featured a show down between the Doctor and the Master.

I felt it was pitched about right for Callie's introduction to Doctor Who. It wasn't too scary and there were some exciting and moving moments. As usual there were a number of moral and spiritual themes. The Doctor reluctantly takes a gun to face the Master. The Doctor's pacifist beliefs win out in the end as he doesn't end up using the gun on anyone. The returning Time Lords plan to ascend into an etheral state and destroy the universe in the process. But of course the Doctor stops them.

It is interesting that the writer R.T.Davies continually plays not just with morality but also with ideas about the afterlife.

The Church That Is Left Behind

My wife, Nettes, brought this book back from a leaders’ weekend with our network of churches. I was very interested as I’m in the process of reading Perriman’s the Coming of the Son of Man. Perriman’s book is such a tight argument that I can’t skim it without losing the plot. So I may be wrong, but from our conversations the two books appear to be converging on similar conclusions. Kobus’s book looks lighter and spends more time outlining and debunking pre-millennial theology especially extreme dispensationalism. The title is of course a reference to the best selling series of novels based on pre-millennial theology.

Having leaned towards an amillenial or postmillenial stance for many years, and more recently been interested in the transmillenial viewpoint, I tend to forget that many Christians either haven’t thought about this or, particularly in the States, have pretty much swallowed the whole pre-mill/dispensationalist argument. So I was amazed to see this hidden camera stunt on Aaron Rathburn’s blog back in September. You could only do this in America :)



I guess in some quarters these ideas are still going strong. Hopefully Kobus’s book will provide a much needed antidote to some in our circles who have picked up some of these thoughts from the God Channel or maybe from the Left Behind novels themselves.

Book Preview: Everything Must Change

From reading reviews about Brian McLaren’s new book ‘Everything Must Change’ it appears to basically look at how Christians can engage in our culture to change the world. Brian sees Jesus message as one that is revolutionary to the world and has implications both sociologically and politically. It’s a great step forward for an American Christian to talk about fair trade and to attack the fast food industry. Where I hear caution about this book in the free use of ideas from Latin American Liberation Theology. I think he might be in danger of being dismissed by American fundamentalists as going liberal. I understand that his view of the end-times is what is called a transmillenial position so that he thinks that even the second coming and resurrection have already happened. I struggle with the implications of this for our individual eternal life. Perhaps he is merely redirecting the focus to a 'Kingdom Now' viewpoint. If so he's saying nothing more than many of us have said for a long time. Elsewhere Brian says that he does believe in the need for hope beyond death but as far as I can see he does not take this to be what salvation is all about. Perhaps he overstating the point but nevertheless this book does appear to be a very interesting landmark in Christian publishing that really does suggest ways of bringing in the kingdom at an international level addressing such areas as our damage to the environment, lack of peace in the world and the growing problem of proverty.