When I wrote “The Living Voice,” I noted that the way scripture and authority are presented implies that the Book of Revelation is useless.
One Roman Catholic is quick to admit that he thinks the book of Revelation is useless…
Citation: Douglas Beaumont, “Christianity and the Apostasy Narrative.”
…so why not just admit that the whole Bible is voiceless, difficult, unintelligible, and dead? Why even quote from it?
This is quite important. If the metaphysical belief is that the prophecies—of Daniel, John the Revelator, Jesus at the Olivet Discourse, and Paul in 2 Thesssalonians—are too confusing to be known, then it is admitting that these portions of scripture are effectively useless. Yes, they are acknowledged as predictions of future events, but no, you are not allowed to use them as predictions of future events.
Your periodic reminder: That guy who really, REALLY wants to teach a Sunday School class on eschatology? Do NOT allow him to teach a Sunday School class on eschatology.
My take is that a pastor should take care to have the leadership unified (broadly, not hair-splitting) in eschatology, and let it undergird the rest of their teaching, not as an end (pun intended) in itself.
Here is the problem. There are many different frameworks of eschatology. Historic premillenialism, dispentational premillenialism, amillenialism, postmillenialism, full preterism, partial preterism, futurism, and the historicist position. A standard teaching—like in a formal college setting or a church mini-course—would involve learning about the various positions and comparing and contrasting them. In short, it would be educational.
But, an educational approach does not get around the problem. Indeed, it exacerbates it. By covering the various views, it implies that they each have merits. This approach is not trying to find out how to understand biblical prophecy, it’s trying to find out how others try to explain biblical prophesy. These are not the same.
There are no less than 8 or 9 different eschatological systems, all of them mutually exclusive. One reason you wouldn’t want to have a random person teaching a Sunday School class on eschatology is that, by definition, most persons are going to be wrong before they even open their mouths. If they had, hypothetically, picked their favorite eschatological scheme at random, they’d have a greater than 80% chance of being wrong at the start.
Before you decide who should or shouldn’t teach, you have to know what the truth of the matter is. But that’s the one thing that is denied! So effectively what Church Curmudgeon is arguing for is that no one should teach on eschatology unless it is pre-sanitized and pre-approved by those who believe that no one can know what biblical prophecy is. He’s arguing not for a particular eschatological view on its own merits, but for the application of authority.
People like to say that Daniel, Revelation, and the Olivet Discourse are confusing and difficult. But, it is the fallacious Arguments from Authority that are a major reason why the theology of eschatology has no clarity. Theological teachings are structured so as to avoid clarity!
Even when I was not a Believer, I heard people say on Sunday morning “televangelism” and when I would occasionally watch “The 700 Club” or speak to a “christian”
They would go on and on about how we are “in the end times” and Jesus is coming back by 1983, 1992, 2022, 2000, 1999…….
and the Book of Revelation “says so” and its proven.
New Age folks would tell me about how all the “predictions” of Nostradamus have so far come true
While in India, and reading “the Upanishads” there are writings about “the end of this cycle” and its all coming true evidently.
Since the beginning, people have been writing, speaking, predicting “the end” and the return of man to a “natural” or “real” undefiled state
In 1347-1349 with the “Black Death” which wiped out a huge portion of the worlds’ population (not just Europe, in China and India too) there are writings, letters about a “scourge upon the land, people speaking of ill luck, bad fates and corrupt rulers and emperors who have caused this”
In the Christian world, it was blamed on sin, and evil, and the wickedness of man, Gods wrath, and “revaltion” in the Bible predicted this.
I smirk to myself.
The war to end all wars, WW II…..in a time when “everyone” was evidently devout, holy, Christian, and followed “every word” of The Bible and went to church weekly, got married at age 18……
That war caused so much carnage and death worldwide. Some were saying at that time “In The Bible, if you read it properly, John predicted this in Revelation”
Nonsense.
Jesus told us to be “ready”
None know the hour, second, day or minute. Not the Son. Not the Saints, not “the elect” not Red Pill, not the angels. Only The Father knows. Not some “bold n biblical” preacher in a country church in The South. No one knows. Not The Pope.
End times predictions or what “thinkers” have written over the centuries…….be it through a vision, dream, spoke with God……..
It gives us something to ponder. But to say “this means this, and if you are smart like me, you will know this is what it means”
We are told “the Christian faith is clarity and not confusion” and only “satan / ol scratch brings confusion”
And again and again……….all these thinkers, pastors, priests are making this true faith INTO confusion.
Besides, if we are indeed a Believer of the humble carpenter, the man of sorrows, the man from Galilee, the Son of God….and we live a life worthy of His favor, and trust, Believe, and follow Him
We really dont have anything to worry about.
If the predictions in the Bible are useless, what do you think their purpose is then? Why would Jesus warn people to flee to the mountains when they saw the signs if he wasn’t really talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans? We know from the historical account that many Jews did, in actuality, flee to the mountains prior to the fall of Jerusalem. But many who did not perished.
It seems to me that the solution to the lack of specificity is built in through the series of signs and warnings and Old Testament references. After all, Jesus said to flee when they saw the signs, because they couldn’t know precisely when the catastrophe would take place. He assumed that the signs would be evident, and they were.
However, if you think, as Catholic Cardinal (and now Saint) John Henry Newman, that Jesus was wrong about the Olivet Discourse, then you will believe that doctrine can change and develop. You’ll be able to believe anything. It will be the chaos you describe above.
The confusion you describe above is, logically, because the vast majority of those you describe chose the same basic explanation from among the 8 to 9 possible options. The extremely popular American-centric evangelical option they chose is obviously wrong, what with it repeatedly failing to predict (even in retrospect!).