I Know Exactly When Jesus Will Return

On this first glorious day after the Rapture of the Church, I'm sure some people, especially those who positioned themselves so certain of yesterday's Rapture, are re-evaluating their personal expectations.  (I wonder if they are re-evaluating their interpretive framework.)  Maybe they aren't.  Maybe they are simply trying to figure out the next outrageous attention-getting scheme, carefully calculated to bring in donations from the naive. Naaaah...no one would do that.

*However*

I for one am still packin' up.  I'm gettin ready to go.  Swing low, sweet chariot! 

Are you?  Maybe you are one of those who believes, like I do, in the "blessed hope," that is, one day when God will make all things right that have been wrong.  The 2002 Baptist Faith & Message says, "God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end.  According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness..."  This is more or less a pretty standard Protestant/Baptist/Evangelical statement of belief, also known as a confession of doctrine.

Well...since we've had yet another incident that received lots of lame reporting and occasioned lots of cheap laughs, I'm looking for something decent to come out of it. 

Back in 1988, I recall being slightly upset that many of my friends were expecting the Rapture in September.  Not that I was some intellectual superior who saw through the whole thing, but that I was inclined to expect it too.  Expecting it on a specific day and in a specific way proved to be psychologically wrenching, I'd say even damaging.  I was trying so hard, like I did quite a bit in those days, to virtually "wish" my expectations into existence. I didn't have the common sense to realize that "magical thinking" is not all that helpful for day to day spiritual living.

My response was to re-evaluate my personal expectations.  It was around this time that I discovered that the Rapture was a pretty late development in Christian thought (like, 1200 months ago), and that the scenarios I'd been adopting wholesale were pretty recent schemes, too.  Not that everything recent is bad, but I might have more respect for something with more historical and theological depth.  When I realized all this, I began to be more open-minded to other end-time scenarios.  (I realize here that I've lost lots of people, who don't believe at all in being open-minded, but only in being "absolutely correct" as quickly as possible.)

So, by few years later I was more widely read, a little more studied, and probably more relaxed.  Eventually, I became completely sober on April 10, 2003. Today I'd be categorized as a "Classic Pre-Millinialist" who thinks that Biblical prophecy is Biblical preaching.  I am well aware of both the overlapping of the ages and the now and the not yet. I am also aware of the delay of the second coming, and wish more people wondered about it. I also resist as best I can my quite natural (maybe sinful!) apocalyptic tendencies.  This means that I don't let my dogma run over my karma.

So, my challenge is for you to re-evaluate your own personal expectations.  Are you very certain of things about which the Bible is not?  Or are you agnostic, knowing absolutely nothing about "last things" because you think it is too complex?  What will you do next time someone makes a joke about Jesus' return?  How does your belief, or lack of it, in judgment day effect what you do today for others?

Here's to the second day after the Rapture.

Now That's Why We Have a Monarch!

It is easy to make the mistake of assuming that there are monarchs in the UK so the rest of us can enjoy big weddings every 30 years or so.  Yesterday we saw another real good reason for the English to keep them around.

The English-Irish conflict goes back a while.  It is hard to imagine the depths of the visceral hard feelings that entire generations of Irish and English have felt for each other.  (By English, I use a common collective term, however inexact!)  Countless thousands have died fighting for various versions of self-determination and tribal honor.  Families on both sides of the Irish Sea have been disrupted throughout modern history because of this mighty struggle between neighbors.  It is hard for us to realize the complexities of this negative relationship, which continued even after Irish Independence began in the 1920's.

A cool war continued until more recent times, when the world became smaller and settling scores from the middle ages seemed thankfully less important.  So cooperation, management of those Northern Counties and their conflicts, economics and modernization brought the Isles closer together.  But no Queen had come to visit.

Well, she arrived yesterday.  In Emerald Green, her Royal Presence pierced the hearts, probably, even of the protesters.  Without precedent, she reverently visited the Garden of Remembrance, and today will visit the site of Bloody Sunday.  Twenty years ago I would have thought such a vision impossible, but it will become a reality today. 

What we are seeing is reconciliation bearing fruit.  Much work and sacrifice has created this opportunity for healing.  There is no way to erase the past, but there is a way to shape a positive future in spite of the bloody past.  We all have a great Queen, one of those rare persons who can carry her office and her duties in a way that is larger than life, and that makes life better- rewarding those who do the hard work with the final healing ointment of acknowledged final reconciliation. 

It is beautiful to see, wonderful to appreciate, soul-stirring to imagine what these acts of a monarch might mean for the children of those British Isles, and in other places in our world that seem beyond hope of reconciliation.

"How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long, how long?
Tonight, we can be as one,
Tonight..."       -U2: Sunday, Bloody Sunday

What happens in a great worship service 

in 2011?

• There is some keyboard based band, with live instruments
• There is a real loud organ
• There are music leaders, singers
• There are visual enticements and helps
• There is recitation of belief and focus
• There is strong congregational singing, reading, participation, praying, testimony
• There is a lot of prayer
• There is lots of Scripture, treated reverently
• There is a strong message, meaningful, intelligent and challenging
• There is a call to response and action and commitment

In summary, there is worship…

Darkness

Any slow and plodding contemplation of Jesus first seeing the face of Judas Iscariot places a cold heaviness upon the hearts of all good people.

May this sorrowful Savior on this immortal night of betrayal have mercy on us who share such feelings. 

Colossians 3:3 "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

maunday Thursday

Pastor Ronnie Floyd: Winning Is Everything

Last night, on UNC-TV I watched Frontline's story "Football High" about high school football.  During the program, a familiar face popped up on the screen. Someone in the room said, "He has a look like Kenneth Copeland!"  The face was that of Fundamentalist Ronnie Floyd, an SBC elite superstar.  Of course, my attention was riveted to learn what he might be doing on this program about High School Football!  After a few shocking minutes, the show raised for me some critical moral questions about the way clergy should treat people's children.

Pastor Floyd, leader of several Arkansas megachurches and past SBC executive, and sponsor of the Great Commission Resurgence adopted last year, is portrayed by Frontline's video as the hands-on number one cheerleader for his Baptist megachurch school's team, the Christian Saints. I was surprised to learn that Floyd's own son was the best head coach available to this well-financed football factory.  Reading between the lines, I saw a hyper-serious football program for children that is very heavily financed (more than your regular high school!) and exists for the gratification of alpha dog egos in a feedback loop closed society.  Why does a team with a roster of 30 need with 6 full time coaches?  Sanity please.

Let me just say that there are moral questions here about the exploitation of children by clergy.  In our times (why more than others?) clergy need to be very careful about how they allow the children under their influence to be treated.  We would expect clergy to have the highest concern, and to discourage coercion and manipulation of younger souls, and try and prevent abuses that cause long lasting harm.  In high school football individual choice and parental consent play major roles, but even these are likely muted voices in the echo chamber of Church-School-Football-Fundamentalism that I observed in the program. 

Are there not crucial moral questions here?  I think Pastor Floyd needs to re-think (using self-criticism) his quest for some ultimate football prize.  If he and others with his power and money want this kind of thrill, and pull out all the stops to get it, why say that it is a result of "God's favor?" (Yes, he said that.)  Is it more likely that it is the result of God's people's money, combined with a moral deafness to the best interests of school children? Perhaps they should buy a grown up football team, like other grown ups do.

Shouldn't we expect higher moral standards from our Baptist leaders? With this type of influence and financing comes higher responsibility!  Amen!
 
If childrens' football has the dangerous potential shown by Frontline, then a radical re-evaluation of the sport is in order.  Of course this raises other moral questions about freedom and government control, etc.  But, hey, even the NFL and NCAA have some rules! Apparently these types of renegade high school programs have freedoms they don't deserve, and children are paying the price.

Pastor Floyd, winning isn't everything.  For parents, our children almost are everything!  Football is a game!

Is the Bible Too Complicated for You?

I had a friend one time say, "Why can't I just believe it?"  Perhaps they were saying they wanted to have faith in God through the Bible.  I wish.  What they were most likely saying was "Why do I have to understand what is in a particular passage and struggle to apply it in a valid way?" 

We want to wear armbands and wave flags.  The Bible is one of them.  "I believe the Bible" has been a cover that enables unscrupulous people to shut down further inquiry from those who would make them accountable.

Christians have to be more responsible, more enlightened, and yes, less simplistic.  Many a Pastor has been matched with an unsuitable church by smiling real big and saying, "I have Jesus in my heart."  No further inquiry necessary.

I challenge people to remember that they aren't the first ones to read the Bible.  They aren't the first human in history to ask any particular question of the Bible.  And, they aren't the first one to answer the question arising from the reading.  Humility is in order, and lots of it. 

Below is a link to an article that may challenge your preconceived notions about interpreting Scripture. 

3 Wrong Ways to Read the Bible

Read for inspiration and embrace Truth!