Embracing an Incorrect Eschatological Hermeneutic Part 1

This post has been difficult to put together. The subject of eschatology is a hot topic for many in the Church today. My prayer is that this post will allow for you to think through some of the things you've been taught. The house of the Lord is being built in this day and it's crucial that the foundation is accurate. I'm not suggesting that I have all the answers to the questions being asked in this post. Regardless the questions need to be asked. My goal is for us as the Church to think through this together. Some of the things that I say here may not be what you've always heard. If you don't agree with me I won't be offended. Our relationship is more valuable than this short post. Because this is a hot topic I'm going to try my best to refrain from certain theological terms that will get you the reader sidetracked. One thing I have observed is that many say they hold to a certain eschatological position yet in practice its almost never the case. The majority of my formal training came from an author whose eschatological position was the opposite of the school I attended. The material was forced to fit into a position that it wasn't meant to fit in. I find this to be the case in much of the Church. That being said its okay to let the Lord redefine/change your position. Reformation, transition, shifting, and more are more than just prophetic buzz words in our day. Clearly things are changing. This post is not meant to attack anyone's position but rather to cause you to think things through with the help of the local Church. Wisdom is what builds the house and He will finish it. Kingdom blessings!

“From first to last, and not merely in the epilogue, Christianity is eschatology, is hope, forward looking and forward moving, and therefore also revolutionising and transforming the present…" - Jürgen Moltmann

What we believe determines how we live. Eschatology is important to the body of Christ today is because it affects how we live in the present. The question that lead me to write this post was, "What happens when we embrace an incorrect eschatological hermeneutic?" Eschatology for those who don't know simply refers to the study of the end of things (end of the age, world, etc). Hermeneutics has to do with the study of how we interpret the Scriptures. Simply put what happens when we interpret the word of God incorrectly in the area of eschatology?

In our day the Gospel is advancing faster than ever before. Nations that were once closed now have thriving Churches. God is restoring His Church and pouring out His Spirit in marvelous ways. These are truly exciting times to be alive. Unfortunately good news doesn't sell. Christian magazines, authors, television, and the like are proclaiming that this move of God will not last much longer. Dark days are on the horizon they say and soon our enemy will have free reign to do as he pleases. Victory and hope are cashed in for fear and despair. As Hal Lindsay once said, "The future is big business." The problem is that we are living with the tension of light and darkness growing at the same time. There are wheat and tares in the field and they are both going on to maturity. However when the Son of man comes its the tares that will be removed and not the wheat. We are sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not nor will we ever belong to the night or to the darkness (1 Thess 5:5). Our light shines brighter and brighter until the final day (Prov 4:18). The kingdom of darkness is not increasing, ours is!

Much of the Church today is in a place like Israel was when Jesus came. They had a way they thought everything would go down. The Messiah was going to come and set up his throne, vindicate His people, and send the Romans packing. Today we have a timeline as to how everything is to go down eschatologically. We've created an unalterable script and when fresh revelation comes if it doesn't fit we send it packing. As we all know the Lord is in a process of reformation in His Church going all the way back to Martin Luther. Things like water baptism, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, ascension gift ministries, and more have been restored to the Church to prepare the way for the return of the Lord. Make room for the Lord to do things outside of your timeline. If your theology and understanding of the character and nature of God has never changed it begs the question, "are you growing?" At one time I was resistant to the move of the Holy Spirit. It wasn't until someone gave me Jack Deere's book Surprised by the Power of the Holy Spirit that I encountered God in a new and fresh way. We proclaim and prophesy that we are in the greatest reformation the Church has seen but again the question is, "what is being reformed?" This reformation is not just for our wing of the Church. It's for every nation (denomination). The trumpet is sounding. The Church is coming together to pray and to send out laborers as we are entering the greatest harvest the Church has ever seen.

If victory and hope are not the two pillars of your eschatological foundation it's time to rethink your eschatology. Fear, despair, and the like have no place in our future. Our mandate is to populate earth with heaven. In the Lord's prayer we pray your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer gives us the revelation of the Kingdom coming on earth. What is this revelation? The kingdom of heaven is like a small mustard seed which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds when it grows it is the largest plant in the garden and becomes a tree. The small stone cut out of the rock without hands becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth. The question today is, "Is the seed stillborn or will it complete the work it was sent to do?" I am confident that He who has begun a good work in you (plural) will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns (Phil 1:6). The seed will grow, mature, and finally take over! Nothing can hinder its progress!

When we hold the ten commandments as the foundation for the kingdom, rather than the beatitudes we are on a shaky foundation eschatologically. The old covenant was never meant to interpret the new. Rather the old covenant is properly understood through the lens of the new. In the field of eschatology we must have on the lens of the finished work. If your eschatology does not reflect the character and nature of God as revealed in His son Jesus it needs to be done away with. God in Christ teaches us to love and pray for our enemies not call down judgement on them. Much eschatology today does not reflect this attitude. Rather than holding to hope for places like the Middle East we have scapegoated these people as the enemies of Christ and His people. This has to change. The words, "you have heard it said, but I say unto you" are being said to the Church again.

Another trend in much of today's eschatology is the comparison of America with the Church/Kingdom and the Church with America. This attitude reeks of arrogance when compared to places like North Korea, China, Iran and more where Christians live under constant threat of persecution. This belief resembles the British Israelism movement which believes that those of Western European descent are the ten lost tribes of Israel. Much of our Gospel preaching today is America centered. God never entered into a covenant with any nation other than Israel before Christ. The only holy chosen nation God recognizes today is his Church (1 Peter 2:9). No nation can ever claim the status of Christian as long as Caesar is in power. America is not the Church, nor is the Church America. This is not to say that God does not have great things in store for the Western world, He does. But a nation can only be considered righteous insomuch as the Lord governs the hearts of the individuals in that nation. We are nation builders. We invade culture. We don't wield the power of Caesar or fight in the "us vs them" game. The Kingdom of Heaven in America and the nations is like the little leaven mixed with flour that permeates every part of the dough (Matt 13:33). While things may look dark in America and much of today's world we can rest assured that all nations will remember and turn to the Lord (Psalm 22:27).

Unfortunately many today have accused the Apostolic Prophetic movement of gnosticism claiming that those involved claim special revelation only known among themselves. That would be like saying that Jesus was a gnostic because he said, "he who has ears to hear, let him hear." Jesus is still hiding things from the wise and revealing them to babes. Gnosticism has however been more subtle. Much eschatology today reeks of it and it doesn't just belong to one stream of the Church. Teaching that we need to leave this present evil earth to live as disembodied spirits in another world called Heaven is more gnostic than Christian. An escape from the created order, rather than the redemption of it is an unbiblical view of the Kingdom. The kingdom comes, it does not go. Heaven is not the goal. Life after life after death (NT Wright) in the new creation where Heaven and Earth are joined together is our destination.

We've confused the earth and the world for one another. The earth has always been the Lord's (Psalm 24:1). Satan however is the prince and god of this world (John 12:31, 2 Cor 4:4). The word for world in the Greek is kosmos meaning adornment (think cosmetic). This world system is temporary and passing away. A great Christian statesman once said, "Satan may be the god of this world, but he's not the god of my world." Creation declares the glory of God. When God saw all that He made He declared that it was "very good!" In this seventh day of rest we are getting a revelation of the "very good." The earth is the Lord's!

"The rule in theology is: When you've got two truths which you can't hold in harmony, you don't solve the problem by letting one of them go. You hang on tight and hold them both in paradox. At least that way you don't end up sweeping jewelry under the rug in the name of compulsive neatness." - Robert Capon

Lastly much prophecy is cyclical meaning one verse/passage may have multiple fulfillments. Some passages may speak of Israel, Christ, and his Church all in one. I have found that in the wisdom of God he can be speaking what to us seems like two totally different things yet somehow they are the same things. That being said much eschatology is not necessarily wrong but rather incomplete. When studying Scripture we don't need a Hebrew or Greek mindset but rather heavenly one. We have been given the mind of Christ. Kingdom people set their affections on things above. What matters is that we are teachable. Maturity does not imply that we know it all, but rather that we are teachable.

This post serves as an intro to part 2 which will be up Thursday. I've been reading a lot of NT Wright lately and his intros are 100 pages long so count yourself lucky! :) Blessings!