The sky is falling???
| Posted On: 11/22/08 04:26:15 PM |
Age 27, WI |
"Mankind will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and holding only to a form of godliness. Don't you skeptics see all of these in the headlines daily?"
Since the coming of Jesus and the writing of the NT what generation HASN'T seen all of these things reflected in the society around them? And why should we be suprised? Mankind is fallen - the spirit is at war with the flesh. This is only to be expected. Furthermore, what generation hasn't seen someone (or several someone's) proclaiming that all the signs point to the nearness of the end? And since the first century AD, every few years have seen someone offer up a fanciful guess at the year (or even the exact day) that this end is to be expected. (Incidentally, none of these guesses have been correct thus far.) And in my own lifetime I've seen constant guesses as to who the anti-christ will be. Every time the socio-political landscape shifts someone is there with new evidence and biblical scriptures to assert that they are certain (this time) that they are correct.
Granted, we should be biblically literate. We should seek God relationally and seek to study and know his word. We should live like we have reached the end. We should understand the dire consequences that will result from not sharing the gospel with those we love. We should live every day in such a way that if it was the last we would have no regrets. Paul's words should summarize our lives - to live is Christ, to die is gain. But the urge to get caught up in unravelling biblical mysteries and assigning modern day nations and political figures to biblical imagery is no more meaningful than to get caught up in endless genealogies. Our focus should be on living a life that is worthy of teh calling to which we have been called, to pick up the cross, to become a disciple of Christ, and to live life as a new man that is directed by the spirit rather than the flesh. These should be our main concerns. And to the degree that we do these things and reflect the life and love of Christ we will draw many to the church. To the extent that we become angry and heated over political and social issues and get lost in conspiritorial theororizing over biblical prophecy we will be ineffective and Satan will have won the battle. We must remember the one thing that many articles on this site seem to forget - the kingdom of God and the Church of Christ are not of this world. Here we are to aliens and strangers in a foreign land - our true citezenship is not in Rome or the U.S. but in heaven.
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Eschatology
| Posted On: 11/21/08 10:21:35 PM |
Age 55, SC |
Yes, eschatology is important. And yes, in a real way the church has "replaced" Israel in the scheme of things. The message of the new testament - especially Galatians and Hebrews - is that the "Israel of God" is His church. Jews made up the bulk of the first generation even as Judaism was sliding into deeper apostasy. In AD 70, Jerusalem was completely destroyed and the temple-centered religion of the Jews along with it. What was left was the remnant, joined by a new majority of Gentiles that shaped the direction of God's economy from that point on. John wrote to churches that needed to fear the inroads being made by "those who called themselves Jews." Only by grace did they not slip back into their carnal way. And it is only through grace that we don't all fall away.
Jesus is eternal. The church is the body of Christ. So it follows that the church is eternal as well.
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