Many these days read the Bible as either a book of magic spells or as a crystal ball from which we can see the future.
On the one hand, it is felt that if we only adhere strictly to various Biblical precepts, we can avoid disease (faith theology), we can follow the scriptural road to worldly riches (prosperity theology), we can have the perfect husband or wife (a form of thought that is both wishful and bound to interfere with personal growth), we can protect our children from the evils of the world simply by asking God to cast a protective wall around them. And so on.
On the other hand, many people, and many churches (and TV shows, and radio shows, and doomsday books and thrillers) devote themselves to peering through the crystal ball at the hazy and elusive hints contained in prophesy, imagining present-day fulfillments, creating a manipulated narrative for matters that were and are in fact focused on the Middle East, most particularly on Jerusalem, the Holy Land and the Chosen People. Into these Biblical stories concerning the ultimate fate of Israel and of the earth, they inject the nation of America, the person of Donald Trump, the European Union, the Pope, and so on and so forth. The narrative is wonderfully elastic, as it is able to stretch and transform over time as needed. Bill Clinton the antichrist had to become George W. Bush the antichrist who had to become Barack Obama the antichrist. The shape of world alliances and unions and characteristics change over time, and so the end time narrative must change and apply its particulars in a new way to a new world. It has gone on forever.
Is this a waste of time and effort? Yes. Moreover, it is a misapplication of Christ and of the new mission he birthed in every follower--to love God, to love one another, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. "Avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law", the Apostle Paul wrote in the Book of Titus, "for they are unprofitable and worthless." Paul might just as well have added 'endless predictions and prophesies'. And again in 1 Timothy, (nor devote yourselves) "to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God's work--which is by faith."
Christianity is not a magic formula for health, wealth and happiness, nor it is a fantasy narrative for our conjecture and amusement. It is the bread of life, a way of living. It is body and blood, integration into Christ. It is the insistence on the application of love and mercy. It is about living in awareness, in light, every day. It is not about looking for light somewhere at the end of the tunnel. It is about being light.
That's a pretty big job. An all-consuming job. And there is no time to waste.
On the one hand, it is felt that if we only adhere strictly to various Biblical precepts, we can avoid disease (faith theology), we can follow the scriptural road to worldly riches (prosperity theology), we can have the perfect husband or wife (a form of thought that is both wishful and bound to interfere with personal growth), we can protect our children from the evils of the world simply by asking God to cast a protective wall around them. And so on.
On the other hand, many people, and many churches (and TV shows, and radio shows, and doomsday books and thrillers) devote themselves to peering through the crystal ball at the hazy and elusive hints contained in prophesy, imagining present-day fulfillments, creating a manipulated narrative for matters that were and are in fact focused on the Middle East, most particularly on Jerusalem, the Holy Land and the Chosen People. Into these Biblical stories concerning the ultimate fate of Israel and of the earth, they inject the nation of America, the person of Donald Trump, the European Union, the Pope, and so on and so forth. The narrative is wonderfully elastic, as it is able to stretch and transform over time as needed. Bill Clinton the antichrist had to become George W. Bush the antichrist who had to become Barack Obama the antichrist. The shape of world alliances and unions and characteristics change over time, and so the end time narrative must change and apply its particulars in a new way to a new world. It has gone on forever.
Is this a waste of time and effort? Yes. Moreover, it is a misapplication of Christ and of the new mission he birthed in every follower--to love God, to love one another, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. "Avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law", the Apostle Paul wrote in the Book of Titus, "for they are unprofitable and worthless." Paul might just as well have added 'endless predictions and prophesies'. And again in 1 Timothy, (nor devote yourselves) "to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God's work--which is by faith."
Christianity is not a magic formula for health, wealth and happiness, nor it is a fantasy narrative for our conjecture and amusement. It is the bread of life, a way of living. It is body and blood, integration into Christ. It is the insistence on the application of love and mercy. It is about living in awareness, in light, every day. It is not about looking for light somewhere at the end of the tunnel. It is about being light.
That's a pretty big job. An all-consuming job. And there is no time to waste.
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