On How We Christians Got So Messed Up with Our Esckhatol…with Our End-Times Stuff

This post ties in with one I posted three days ago…

So I’m continuing to ponder this whole thing about Christians and the interpretation of end-time prophecy in the Bible, and how I’ve sort of relaxed about trying to know the “right” interpretation (since there are obviously so many to choose from).

I grew up on pre-tribulation rapture theology, but to some extent I’ve heard pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, kingdom now (i.e., no rapture at all), and just about everything in-between. (Thankfully, I wasn’t there for the one that went, “Hey, let’s just all go right now. Just drink this punch.”)

Extremes and caricatures aside…there are lots of well-meaning Christians who believe it’s critically important that we interpret the prophetic end-time Scriptures–and even more important that we interpret them correctly. But…which interpretation is correct? When so many people can use the same Scriptures to back up opposing conclusions, and give compelling arguments about them–how do we know which is right?

For that matter…if this was so critically important, why would God make it so ambiguous in the Bible that we could have such a wide range of interpretation? Or is it possible we missed the point somewhere along the way?

Some of the disconnect, I think, comes because we look at the Bible through the lens of a modern way of thinking (derived from the ancient Greco-Roman culture). We see things linearly; one plus one must always equal two, and everything has to “add up” for us to recognize the truth in something. But the Bible (while it is truth) isn’t written in such a cut-and-dried fashion. The Bible writers thought not like Greeks, but like Hebrews. Hebraic thinking is more integrated and mult-dimensional. Hebraic thinking realizes that something may look vastly different from a different angle, and so it more easily embraces mystery and apparent contradictions. (In this way, it is not so unlike postmodern thought.) And it is within this context that Bible prophecy is written.

Now, I’m not saying that thinking like a Jew rather than a Greek will automatically feed us the right interpretation. (Obviously, the Jews of Jesus’ day had misinterpreted His first coming by thinking they’d figured it out.) But what it will do is enable us to be okay with the stuff we don’t understand–to embrace the mystery.

Another thing I’m pondering is the nature of prophecy itself. Being raised in a charismatic environment, I have heard lots of prophecies, some given directly to me. And many prophetic words have come true in my life. But I will say this: almost always, my initial interpretation of any prophetic word has been inaccurate. It isn’t until later, when God fulfills what He said, that it dawns on me: “Oh, THAT’S what He meant.”

Why does this happen? Is God trying to mislead people? Not in the least. But context always plays a part in how we interpret. I’ve talked before about the importance of interpreting the Bible in the context of when it was written, rather than our own context. But with prophecy there is another complication: because prophecy is a “telling forth”, a “speaking ahead”–prophecy usually only makes perfect sense in the future context of when it is fulfilled! In other words, when we read or hear prophecy, we are hearing words, but we cannot yet see the context. So we try to interpret it in the light of our current environment, and that usually doesn’t work. That’s why the Jews got it wrong about Jesus’ first coming; and that’s why I put little stock in the wide range of our modern interpretations of end-time prophecy. I just don’t think we know all we think we know. (Say that five times fast…)

To illustrate my point about context…try imagining you grew up 150 years ago, that you live in the 19th century. If someone had transported through time from “now” to the last century to describe to you what things would be like in 100 years, most of what they said would be lost on you. There’s simply no way you could have a grid for the 21st century context if you had grown up in the 19th century; things have simply changed too much, and too quickly. As fast as things are changing, what makes us think we could possibly understand the context for when end-time prophecy is fulfilled?

My point is that I’m realizing that God usually doesn’t prophecy future events so we have perfect knowledge of what is going to happen and how it’s going to happen (and that’s where we’re missing the point). God is speaking mysteries because generally, that’s how He does things. (First He says it, then He does it.) It isn’t supposed to make sense to us in the here and now; our job is to trust Him with His own word to see it fulfilled in its own time, and then He will bring it to our remembrance. In the meantime, we trust Him in the mystery of it all.

After all…faith is more about the unknown than the known. Once we have it figured out, we don’t really need to trust anymore.

So that’s where I’m at with this–I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the end is going to be like, or whether microchips are the Mark of the Beast, or whether Obama is the Antichrist. Instead, I trust God with the mysteries of His word, and I try to live by the parts He has made clear about how we are to live in the present. I want to emulate Christ, to let His nature and character be formed in me, to partake in His mission. I want to live in the blessings He has provided here and now.

This doesn’t mean we should just act and think like His return is not imminent. The Scriptures are actually quite clear on that point–we should live in that anticipation, and watch and wait. This is part of being His disciple. But I don’t want to waste time speculating on things we couldn’t possibly understand yet, and I don’t want to live in fear of the unknown. I think when Jesus told us He wouldn’t leave us as orphans to figure this out on our own–He meant what He said.

The truth is, we don’t know what it’s going to look like, nor do we have the sequence of events all figured out, even if we think we do. Prophecy is a glass we see through darkly. But if we can admit what we do not know, we can trust God with what we do not know. If our heart is to follow Him, He will lead us, and navigate us through they mystery.

That’s what I think, anyway. 🙂