Living Journey

I have been reading some of Dr Calvin Smith’s book reviews on the ‘Midlands Bible College Blog‘… you can find his reviews Here as well. Anyway, as I was going through all the latest posts on the blog I came across one post called ‘Beware An Overly Dogmatic Interpretation of Luke 21:24′, which talks about Luke 21:24 which I found to be challenging. The verse says… They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Calvin writes…

Premillennialists rightly reject how postmillennialism seeks to usher in the kingdom of God by establishing and presenting it to Christ, thus hastening the Second Coming. Such an attempt to establish the Kingdom makes the parousia (Second Coming of Christ) an anthropocentric, rather than a theocentric event. It does so by employing a hermeneutical method whereby Christians read themselves key Bible texts. The technical term is to `actualise’, that is, read oneself into a pivotal role and/or interpretation of Scripture. Yet some premillennial Christian Zionists do precisely the same thing, feeling they must (through lobbying, political activity, financing, and so on) bring about the ultimate fulfilment of passages such as Luke 21:24, which in turn will hasten the return of Christ. Such a mindset is no less anthropocentric than postmillennialism’s approach. The short of it is, God will send Christ when He so chooses and there is little we can do to hasten that event. It is one thing to express political support for and lobby on behalf of Israel, which I believe Christians should do (incidentally, I also think that as her true friends we ought to speak to her when she gets it wrong). But it is quite another to feel our political activity has any bearing at all on God’s eschatological plans. If our motive for supporting Israel is on the basis that they are God’s chosen people, well and good, but if some Christians’ motive is to hasten the consummation of the age, theirs is an anthropocentrically-driven, erroneous motive.

The post is long, but well worth the read and any ideas and debate is most welcome.

There is also much discussion over at Midlands Bible College about the mix between Christianity and Politics, especially in regards to Israel. There needs to be a balance and the above quote talks about the anthroponcentric method and how one should be careful in not doing the same thing that one charges the other of doing.

I have just found an article that perhaps shows an example of this anthroponcentric approach within American politics…

POLITICAL ANALYSIS: What Does Mike Huckabee Have to do With the Apocalypse? by Valerie Saturen.

Christian Zionism stems from the belief that the catastrophic events depicted in the biblical Book of Revelation are humanity’s literal destiny, and that two-thirds of the Earth’s population will perish in an apocalyptic battle of good and evil while the “saved” are “raptured up” to heaven. For Christian Zionists, this catastrophe is a necessary precedent to the Second Coming.[...]

While those outside of evangelical circles may dismiss such beliefs, they have played a critical role in influencing U.S. foreign policy, and they will continue to affect policy as long as the United States remains under Republican leadership that relies upon evangelical support. Christian Zionism has implications for the U.S. role in Israeli-Palestinian relations, a potential confrontation with Iran, and relations with the Muslim world.

[...]Whether or not Christian Zionists can predict the future, the human potential to create self-fulfilling prophesies is undeniable, and this is why Americans should pay attention to this ideology.

Funny thing is, when I read the bible from beginning to end, one of the stories that amazed me was Balaam and how he was to curse Israel. And instead he blessed them, and cursed the king of the Moabites…three times he did this. I actually laughed out loud with tears running down my face as I pictured the king as he tore at his clothes saying why, why have you done this to me. I found myself wondering if there is anything we can do or not do that will change what is to be. Obviously not! That story actually made me question if there was any validity to man’s free will at all! Yeah ahahahah… Calvinism vs Arminianism and a new thing thrown in called Open Theism, been there done that, and I continue doing that! It’s all about the tension… see my last post.

As Calvin rightly points out… our motives should be right, and we should always be praying for guidance in these matters. The leaders of the free world should be upheld constantly in our prayers and so should the leaders of the evangelical right.

Related articles:

• Book Review of “Israel, God’s Servant”

• Review of Dan Cohn-Sherbok’s “The Politics of Apocalypse”