Temptation Island and Eschatology

One of the errors for which evangelical theology should be most sorry is the way it has presented the Christian view of the end of history. I suppose we could debate the very idea of an ‘end’ of history, many of the world’s religions do not see history as a linear process but rather and endless cycle without meaning. But Christianity has always been infused with the idea that we are going somewhere, that history has a purpose and an ultimate destination.

As the church struggled through the Enlightenment it became very threatened by the secular notion of ‘progress’ and the way it had replaced traditional Christian eschatology. No longer was the hope of heaven central, instead Western culture became convinced that the emergence of a future utopia was only a matter of time as science and reason eradicated the many afflictions that we had to contend with. With the 20th century in the rearview mirror it seems fairly obvious that this utopia has not been realized. Much progress has occurred but in many ways it seems like for every step forward we have taken at least another in the opposite direction.

The basic questions facing the church and the larger culture were (and are), ‘Are we going anywhere? Does history have a purpose or a meaning? How is it all going to end?’ Since the church could not accept (and history seems to have disproved) the notion of a future paradise ushered in through human ingenuity and technology, the church had to look elsewhere. Over a period of time, especially within the evangelical wing of the church, the ‘hope of glory’ became an individual’s private residence in a future, other-wordly heaven. The ‘point’ became nothing more than getting into heaven after death and maybe (if fortune smiled) getting raptured and avoiding the process altogether.

Among the many problems with this view is that it means that human history and our participation in it are essentially meaningless apart from serving as a testing ground to see if we’ll believe the right things about Jesus. If we ‘pass the test’ then we get to the real ‘point’ which is life forever in heaven. God’s creation of the world is seen as a cosmic version of ‘Temptation Island,’ where participants exist in an unreal and impermanent setting in order to see whether or not they can make the right decision. There is surely more to our life on earth than this. As is frequently the case these days, Newbigin is helping to clarify this. He describes the typical evangelical view as follows:

“The destiny of the individual soul becomes the ultimate goal of the whole story; and the whole drama of human history, of politics, of war, of revolution, the whole story of world history, has no meaning and no ending. It is not a drama, it is the only thing that can properly be called a non-stop revue, providing the setting for a series of solo items after which each of the players goes off and received his bouquet privately in the wings. The whole meaning of life is exhausted in the quest for personal immortality. Ego is once more king, dressed out in spiritual garments.”

Newbigin (1961), A Faith For This One World?, pp. 97, 98.

I think we have to do better than this. I think the question of what we as Christians are good for is justifiable if we persist with a theology that basically says the world (and its history) is of no value and that our main aim is to endure it, enjoy it (maybe get fairly wealthy off of it) and then fly away to heaven. If this is what we believe then we shouldn’t be surprised when people accuse us of having little to offer in the here and now.

“Our individual lives are not separate solo items each of which is to receive its praise or blame off-stage afterwards. We are part of the whole, and the end to which Christ teaches us to look is not our own private and personal bliss but the victory of his love over the whole creation.”

Newbigin (1961), A Faith For This One World?, p. 105.

This world is not merely the ’setting for a series of solo performances’. God made the world, God loves the world, God will one day redeem the world. Our confidence in these statments ought to motivate us to contribute wherever we can to making that future a reality today.