Is it the "End of Days"? Reading the Bible faithfully in the digital age (Part 1)
July 24, 2024
In a year of many elections in countries all over the globe, I’ve noticed a resurgence of the “look how the Bible is being fulfilled” posts on Facebook. It reminded me of a few years ago when I was in Houston there was an eclipse and a couple of other events which resulted in someone I know posting about this was the end of days because, among other things, “the sun and moon are not giving their light”! This way of (mis-)reading the Bible and applying it to today is the interpretative equivalent of taking 2 + 2 and making 5932.
Let’s keep it simple and consider just these few thoughts:
- If you want to talk end times, you must start here: we’ve been in them for 2,000 years. It started with Jesus: the new age has already begun. Jesus has been raised. It seems to me people often focus on a future “end of days” because they haven’t really grasped the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus which has already happened (and that's not even mentioning Pentecost).
- There have been eclipses throughout history. It’s quite presumptuous (and more than a little self-centred, generationally speaking) to conclude that what was written in a text 2,000 years ago is being fulfilled right now.
- This kind of approach to the Bible is based on taking a verse and applying it wildly. Or taking multiple, different verses and working them together into some kind of theological monstrosity. Imagine taking your favourite novel and choosing 6 sentences from various chapters, combining them and then using them to make a claim about what the author meant by the sum of the parts. To be blunt: it says far more about the person doing the choosing than anything the book (or indeed author) might be saying. So why do we do it with the Bible? [If you want an example of this kind of hermeneutical mistake see here. Or observe that Jeremiah 29:11 is given to a people in the middle of facing the ravages of conquest and displacement which God said was punishment for their pathological wrongdoing and idolatry. It makes it a little stranger and incongruent that such a verse should appear on greetings cards!]
- Proclaiming that the culmination of God's purposes is happening right here in the present age is nothing new: Christians have been doing this throughout history in one way or another. Take the European Reformation, where there were Christians in Germany who hailed the city of Münster as the “New Jerusalem.” It is a perennial temptation for Christians to take the Bible, with its promises and hope, and distort them to fulfil our hopes and (often political) dreams, putting us bang in the centre. But if the testimony of the saints is anything to go by, doing God’s will usually involves sacrifice, denial of self, and willingness to do things and go places we’d rather not. It's on this basis that I raise an eyebrow when someone proclaims the fulfilment of some dream that happens to coincide with their natural proclivities. We are human and we are tempted all too often to try and turn God into a god of our convenience and a god who ratifies our idols.
- More often than not, when I see a “look how the Bible is being fulfilled” post it is in relation to the political arena. A particular political candidate, sometimes in support of a particular nation over and against another. The question I want to ask, and address in a follow-up post is this: what does the Bible really say about political powers and empires in particular? What do passages like Genesis 4-11, Isaiah 13, 34, Daniel 7, Ezekiel 29, 32, Mark 13, Revelation 12-13 and so on, have to say? What does Jesus say? The answer to all this could last a lifetime, so my next post will be like taking a tour bus through a historic city – we’ll see some of the key buildings but there won’t be much opportunity to get off the bus and look inside. I hope that this will prove useful and give some hints and direction as to what a faithful story and understanding of political power in the Bible might look like. In turn, my hope is that this might help you filter through and discern the information that comes our way on the digital Wild West that is Facebook, Instagram, YouTube etc.
If you have any particular questions in regards to this, feel free to drop me a note (you can submit questions through this website or email me).
More soon!
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Photo by Pop & Zebra on Unsplash
A few weeks ago, I got to sit down via the wonders of the internet and have a catch-up with my friend and former colleague, Wayne Watson. We talked God, life, and the universe. And Winnie the Pooh! In Wayne's own words " What begins as lighthearted conversation between old friends quickly unfolds into a thoughtful and wide-ranging exploration of culture and the pursuit of God's truth. " It was fun. If you fancy a listen, check out the podcast (and the entire series) by clicking here ! ******
***** I’ve long noticed that the Bible that gets preached from the Sunday pulpit can be, well, a bit picky. Some bits are kept in and preached. Others are studiously ignored. The result? Different churches can give quite a different sense of what the Bible's message is than if you actually read it through cover to cover. Now I don't mean to accuse any one wing of the church: whether your tradition uses the lectionary (usually a three-year cycle of curated readings) or jumps around the canon to whichever biblical book or theme is of interest, certain parts of the Scriptures are often ignored. Some passages are cut off halfway through; others are omitted entirely. I remember preaching on Independence Day in the US (the irony of doing so as a Brit was not lost on me). The reading for the day began in Deuteronomy 10:17: “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the stranger, providing them food and clothing…” Sounds lovely, right? Well, yes—but Deuteronomy 10:17 starts in the middle of a paragraph. In the middle of divine instruction that God gives through Moses. We can see this in how it begins: for the LORD your God.. . It could also be translated because the LORD your God … This passage is the explanation for something. It is a why to a biblical command, not a standalone theological statement. So what’s the actual command? What’s the main message God wants the people to hear? The verse before (v.16) says this: “Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer.” The purpose of this speech? To call God’s people to repentance. To change. The ‘heart’ in biblical texts usually refers to one’s innermost self. The seat of who you are in the deepest places of your will and desire. God has said he wants their obedience (v.12), he has reminded them of his extraordinary generosity in choosing them as his people (vv.13–15), but here God lands a punch: The centremost part of who you are, God says, needs to be clipped. Reading vv.17–22 feels quite different in light of the whole text. It’s not a statement of a good God whom we should simply ‘fear’ and ‘hold fast to’ (v.20). It’s far more rooted and real than that. In reading through all ten verses, we get a sense of a people who have become too big for their boots. Who have forgotten that it’s not because they have anything to offer that God chose them, but rather because of the graciousness of God. And we get a clear call from God that such people need to, in essence, sort themselves out. Be humbled. Circumcise their hearts. I don’t believe the Sunday lectionary was formed with a conspiratorial agenda to omit the hard stuff (the whole thing would largely be read through in the daily lectionary for the Daily Office). But I do believe it’s spiritually dangerous for us to ignore the material that is left on the cutting room floor in our preaching. The people of God are called to grow into the fullness of the gospel—to become mature Christians. If we only ever swim in the protected waters of the lectionary, we will not be confronted by the reality of a God who regularly and reliably calls his people to humble themselves, care for those in need, and live lives of sacrificial love. Who makes space within their communities for the vulnerable. Who looks out for the marginalised among us. Who deals with the darkest and ugliest of human evil. Who redeems out of family lines and dynasties most of us would give up on. In recent years, there has been increasing focus on the importance of the gut–brain connection. How what you eat shapes who you are, and how you function mentally, emotionally, and physically. What we fuel ourselves with matters. The same is true spiritually. The Bible is the spiritual equivalent of a Whole30. Or a wholemeal, organic, seed-infused sourdough loaf. It’s nutritious and gritty. It requires some chewing. It’s not always easy to digest. But it provides the minerals and nutrients we need. It may take some adjustment, but it may also be just what the doctor ordered. Not for our physical sicknesses, but rather our more pernicious spiritual malaise. ******
