Last Days

During the current world-wide economic strife I have been relatively pleased that the Christian community has, for the most part, showed remarkable restraint in not proclaiming the end of days loudly and stridently from the rooftops of churches. The temptation must have been - and still is, I reckon - quite considerable.

But, the doomsayers have had their moments before and whether it was Hal Lindsay in his book "The Late Great Planet Earth" or Oral Roberts pleading for money to shore up his ministry or The World Wide Church of God determining a set of what ended up to be moving dates when the end would come (and these are only a few occurrences in my lifetime) we all know that the score stands thus: God - ∞ ; Predictors - 0.

Unfortunately the cracks are starting to show in Christendom and dire warnings of doom are beginning to leak out. I was very surprised to read such a post by David Wilkerson, the author of the autobiographical "The Cross and the Switichblade". His message is predictable, cryptic and supported (poorly) by Scripture as John Piper observes.

My personal reaction was dismay. I read "The Cross and the Switchblade" when I was a youngster. It frightened and fascinated me. I became aware of the reality that there are people in the world who will actually do what Christ would - put their lives on the line for others - and this was long before we started wearing WWJD bracelets. I admit I'm no David Wilkerson, but to now see him treading into fool's territory is disappointing.

All of this, and some recent personal encounters, have caused me to think about this and I am currently of the opinion that the church can gain no ground by taking the role of doomsayer for the following reasons:

1. We have a message to deliver already. Christ Lives! He died for all and was raised to life by the power of God. All can receive His free gifts of forgiveness, salvation, restoration and everlasting life. There is no other message we are called to deliver.

*NOTE* Generally the church as a whole does not engage much in doomsaying, despite the stereotypes the world holds of us - it is most often individuals. I suggest to those of you with such a message a very healthy contemplation of Ephesians 5:21 then don't deliver your message of destruction until there is unity within the body you are a part of concerning this.

2. The judgment of God upon the world is implicit in the Gospel. We do not do conviction - that is the work of the Holy Spirit. If in the hearing of God's Word people feel appropriate guilt (yes gentle reader there is such a thing) that is something they must address if they wish to be honest with themselves. We do not need to add unnecessary emphasis to this portion of the message.

3. We have cried "wolf" too often to be taken seriously. As an example, I suggest that the politically motivated eco-movement is currently falling under the effects of this. Recent revelations concerning "global warming" - now re-named "climate change" - questions and concerns about the adoption of policies purported to aid ecological agendas and the lack of civil debate in these matters has tainted the message of the ecologists and they are risking losing what credibility they still have. When it comes to the issue of "the end of days" I submit that the church has even less credibility, if any at all. And that sad truth alone could be the subject of an entire blog post.

4. Worrying about this inevitable event is useless. Trying to accelerate its inception, manage through its possible series of events, use it as a goad to prod people into acceptance of Christ or basing your life decisions on how you believe you understand it all will happen is, at the very least delusional and at worst violently arrogant. Especially in light of the truth that it is God's decision and we claim to accept His sovreignity. Even Christ Himself admitted that he doesn't know when all of this is going to happen. So when we say we do, who the heck do we think we are?

I heard a story recently that captures, I think, how we pilgrims should react in troubled times. This is my modified retelling of it:

At an evangelical seminary a group of earnest, fresh-faced students were engaged in a late night friendly game of Risk with one of the professors. One of them asked the group what they would do if they suddenly received the message that Christ's appearance was immanent and the end of all things was upon them. Answers ranged from "call my family and friends who don't believe and plead with them one last time" to "wake up everyone on campus so they can be ready" to "go to the chapel to confess and pray" to "call the radio and TV stations" to "put it on my blog/text it/twitter it". Finally the students turned to the professor and asked what he would do.

"Finish the game," he replied with a smile.

One other person commenting on these things said "I think brothers and sisters in countries all over the world are living through what looks like Armageddon to them right now." So why is this such a big deal to us all of a sudden? Oh yeah, right, I forgot - we all just lost a bunch of our gold. It must be the end of days, right? (sarcasm very much intended - forgive me if you can)

It is the end of days - right now.

It always has been since Jesus ascended to Heaven.

Live them for Him.

Peace

Indirect Affirmation

Thanks to my friend and brother in Christ, Rick, I have discovered that my thoughts on the issue of the legal redefinition of marriage are not mine alone. As this article states, even our brothers and sisters in the USA are beginning to see that the changes they were told not to fear coming to pass are now arriving at their doorsteps.

I may not be as eloquent, or as lucid, but it's nice to discover that I seem to have read my Bible correctly, and also understood the current culture reasonably well. What I have also deduced is that, in terms of social shifts and new cultural norms, Canada is ahead of the USA. The conventional wisdom when I was in my teens was that culturally, economically, socially and politically Canada was always a decade or so behind the USA.

Much has changed it seems, but it may be a dubious honor to be the winners in this current race towards the "brave new world".

Shalom

Of Rhetoric and Reaction

You just can't find sober, reasoned reporting in the media anymore. Well maybe you can, but it isn't coming from the major sources in English Canada anyway. The tragic story of the Parvez family of Mississauga is just the latest example. The news reports in all of the major media, as this example demonstrates, go way beyond "just the facts" to include speculation about how this sad event will become a major cultural "flash-point" issue. They hope. It would give them something to flog mercilessly to sell more papers and boost their viewer/listener share ratings.

My fundamental source for "what's goin' on" offers this short, but well reasoned opinion. Like a breath of fresh air it reminded me that at the root of this story is a human tragedy that has no real connection to social and cultural clashes. A certain number of white Anglo-Saxon protestant fathers, or Catholic Latino ones, or African atheist ones, or Asian Taoist ones have been, from time immemorial, and will continue to be, treating their daughters, wives and sons with violence for any number of perceived acts of disobedience. And every so often their anger will take one of them too far.

That the media should spin this story into a public debate over cultural and religious differences that cause social friction is the crime upon the crime. It should be viewed in the same way we view shouting "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre. I am a free speech advocate, but the opinions aren't being carefully kept on the Op-Ed page anymore. The "spin", the "opinion", the "agenda" and the (often way too narrow) "perspective" is everywhere in the media these days. And this constant barrage of sensational fear-mongering, speculation and rhetoric is having an effect.

I don't know about you, but I am encountering more and more people who view people of different cultures and races in stereotypical ways. I am hearing more and more broad-brush-stroke statements that begin with "those people", "they all" and "they believe". While I know the truth is that the uniformity of opinion, perspective, values and beliefs in any group in the world is the same as the uniformity in the tribe I belong to - which means not uniform at all.

If there was a common human experience in the Parvez story it began with the common human emotion of anger. We all know it. We all experience it. We all have hurt others and been hurt by it. Many of us fear it. Most of us respect it. We all try to control it. Almost all of us understand its destructive potential. Wisdom says, "In your anger do not sin." I don't care what god you believe in or what religion you practice or what culture you belong to or what tribe are your ancestors - these words are universally true. Because we all know what happens when we follow our selfish and dark impulses down a road fueled by anger. It NEVER ends well.

Too many will accept the rhetoric of the media in this story as reasonable and true. Too many will react to it and the results will be a further escalation of the cultural and social tensions we are already experiencing far to often. But I won't, and you don't have to either. We must remember that wisdom also says, "there, but for the grace of God, go I".

So if we're going to react to the rhetoric, let's go in the other direction. Let's agree that until each of us personally knows a person of another culture, race or religion we don't know anything about that group - and even then we only know one person. And one person, or one family, does not define a culture, a religion or a race. If you believe that then you better be ready to be the example to the entire world for whomever you represent - to be the one person the rest of the world measures everyone of your culture, race, religion and country by. Are you ready to accept that responsibility?

I thought not.

'Nuff said!

In Search of the Free Lunch

At my friend Lee Distad's blog was a recent comment to an article he published that got my gears turning. You can read the article and the comments, including mine here.

I urge you to do your own investigation into the claims this company is making, if you want to be informed when the media "reports" on this subject. Sadly, you won't be getting useful information from most mass media outlets.

As promised, I am going to spend a few electrons in explaining the Biblical theological truth as to why we can't find an energy "free lunch" in the universe. As I do, remember that people have understood this truth for 5000 years or more, so this ain't news, folks.

In Genesis 3 we find the story of the fall. Humans mysteriously reject God's authority, in spite of having a relationship with Him and fully understanding their position in creation. Both men and women fail, there is no gender bias here unless you want to read it in. Both knew what they were doing was wrong.

God's response is gracious. Instead of wiping the slate clean and starting over, or not starting at all, He allows for hope, but there are immediate consequences. In Genesis 2 God made humans the "stewards" of the created earth. It was ours to care for in partnership with God, and it was easy work because our relationship with God was righteous, and thus our relationship with creation was righteous, too.

The fall and the introduction of sin created a series of events that changed all of that, resulting in humanity's relationship with God and the natural created order being broken. Nature is no longer our partner in life. We are at odds with the universe. But we are still the stewards of earth, though our job has become much, much harder.

In Genesis 2 we are in the garden with a purpose for the garden - "to work it and take care of it". After the fall only "painful toil" will garner us what we need to survive.

Unlike the media image of the "stereotypical evangelical", I'm not an anti-ecology guy. I am deeply concerned for the earth and I am upset by what we do to it. My family met and exceeded the "one ton challenge" and we still seek ways to do better. But I also have no illusions as to whether or not we can come to some Utopian point where we are in complete harmony with nature. Nature isn't even in complete harmony with itself. If there were no humans on the face of the Earth natural pathogens would wipe out massive populations of plant and animal life all on their own. Weather patterns, huge storms, forest and grassland fires, volcanic activity and other geological and climate events would shatter vast eco-systems and destroy natural habitats. Imbalances in animal, plant, bird, fish, reptile and microbe populations would spell doom for thousands of species. In truth, natural processes have brought many, many more species of plants and animals to extinction than humans have in our entire history.

Before we hear the argument that "natural processes" work and that "death" is part of life I must remind you that the Christian, and the more ancient Jewish understanding is that death is bad. That death can serve any purpose that appears to be good is a miracle of God.

Now all of this is no justification for the squandering of natural resources nor the raping of the earth's riches. And humanity will have to answer for that, of that I am most sure. But the path to shalom (which means essentially the "perfectly balanced life" or "true peace") goes directly through our relationships, firstly with God, then one another then the rest of the world. As long as our sinful greed, fear, violence and mistrust are prevalent, any attempts to heal our broken relationship with nature are doomed to ultimate failure.

The truth is that if we were to choose to live in a world where the one rule was to love others - to make a conscious choice of the will to choose the true good for others, all others - our ecological problems would be few.

My hope for the ecology and for humanity rests in Christ. The Bible says "God so loved the world". My faith is in the One who loves everything, crabs and cheetahs, sagebrush and sycamores, turtles and tigers, dolphins and dung beetles - and us. I know that when we live our lives in love with Jesus we will love what He loves - and the more of us who do, the more of us there will be to change the way we relate to the world and it's natural beauty and resources.

We won't find an energy "free lunch" that will allow us to continue to live self-indulgent lives of leisure and indifference. If you really think about it, such a discovery would spell our ultimate doom as the only possible destination for humanity at the end of such a road would be a world so decadent and corrupt that it would implode.

The irony is that Jesus is the "free lunch" we all need and are looking for. And He is free. But don't take my word for it. Read it for yourself.

Shalom

One is the Loneliest Number

On my friend Lee Distad's blog site is an article about the imminent closure of the iconic Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street in Toronto. The current management of the store comment that they are forced to accept that the day of the recorded music retailer is drawing to a close as alternative forms of distribution, primarily based in the internet, are taking over.

While consumerism is a issue with deep, difficult and wide ranging implications for people of faith, commerce in and of itself is not sinful - only out attitudes and actions stemming from those attitudes can make our shopping choices sinful. I see the loss of Sam's as a cultural loss that goes beyond the music world as it sends us signals about what may draw us into the public marketplace, or what may make us decide to remain cloistered within our private spaces. As I opine in the comments section on Lee's blog, portions of our culture and society are becoming less and less communal pursuits and more and more individual pursuits. This raises troubling questions regarding what sort of society and culture we may be moving towards.

I am ambivalent about what the power of the internet is doing in regard to our communal/individual experience. I watch my son regularly communing with his peer group from his desk as he simultaneously chats with anywhere up to half a dozen friends. I can keep in touch with my sons in Edmonton, friends all over the place, missionaries in other countries and forge new relationships through the power of email, blogs, text messaging and even voice and video. But at the same time the same forces are beginning to limit some of my interactions on other levels.

The physical marketplace has served a vital social and cultural function for all of recorded human history and we may be on the doorstep of the first generation we know of that will live without this physical presence as a dominant force in their lives. As more and more business can be transacted online, as more and more relationships can be engaged in online, people will face a life with increasingly less need for direct physical human contact. If, as some modern era historians suggest, the television drove those in Western developed countries (and eventually everybody else as the technology became available) into their private homes, killing some forms of communal interaction and recreation, what then might the internet do in this regard to further our isolation?

A story in today's news reports about the tragic deaths of an east cost mother with MS and her disabled daughter, who both died unnoticed in their own home, may be a disturbing symptom of what is emerging as the "new culture" of personal physical isolation. I have to deal with this issue personally as someone I care for deeply, living in another city, is experiencing loneliness and some isolation. Do my interactions over the internet with this person help or hinder their ability and desire to go out and have face to face relationships with other people? Is the telephone better because it engages another sense besides sight, or is it merely the precursor to our internet chat interactions? Do my online relationships interfere with my "meatspace" ones. What does a word like "meatspace" and its creation say about emerging attitudes towards physical interaction?

There is a deep spiritual significance to physical presence in relationship as well as Scriptural exhortation to maintain such relationships. Christ came physically. Being God there were much more efficient and effective options available to Him to bring the message of the Gospel to the world, including individual, personal revelation transmitted directly to each living person. But efficiency and expediency were not the point of the revelation of God through Jesus. The point is more closely wrapped up in our created nature and God's ultimate intention for us. We are "Created for Community" as the title of the book by late Stanley J. Grenz proclaims.

We will be able to find new ways to experience and enhance community through the potential of the internet because I believe Christ will grant us the wisdom to do so. He wants the internet to be redeemed as He wants all of creation to be redeemed, but the potential of our sinful nature will also mean that we must be on guard against allowing damage to happen to our relationships through this same medium. There will also be forces that will harness the influence of the internet to twist its potential for good into something that will damage our humanity. The more obvious uses in this vein are already well established (pornography, gambling, rampant consumerism, fraud, theft, infidelity, etc.). We are now beginning to face more subtle issues and challenges that are just as, if not more dangerous. The influence of the internet is shaping our common cultural experiences - the public marketplace for one - and we do not seem to have the power to control such shifts.

That being the case, we must then decide how we will respond. We cannot seek a path through anachronistic entrenchment of bygone church customs and practices. We need new and creative approaches that recognize and reflect the reality of our lives today. This will take more brain power and prayer than any of us can muster individually - again we see the power of the community becoming more important.

If the very foundation of community is at risk, then we who are "created for community" have interesting and challenging days ahead.

Shalom.