Theology as Prophecy
As Western Society becomes increasingly secular, any knowledge of scripture in society is mostly reduced to phrases we use in ordinary speech not necessarily knowing they originate from the Bible. Phrases like ‘a drop in the bucket’, or ‘the root of the matter’, or ‘a little bird told me’, or ‘by the sweat of your brow’, or ‘eat drink and be merry’, or ‘pride goes before a fall’ are all derived from scripture and are all used in our everyday conversation.
A common attitude toward scripture now, is that the Bible is an antiquated, irrelevant book that a group of people called Christians base their dated faith on. Not at all dissimilar from the mocking attitude faced by the Early Church. The Bible consists of 66 books. That library contains the codification and summary of a very significant part of the history of our faith, but let’s not argue over minutiae.
As the people of God, we are rooted in scripture – in those 66 books.
In a post-Christian age, a cynical attitude toward the Bible is to be expected, and it doesn’t bother me too much. Because of my own wild rugby club past, many of my friends are not followers of Jesus. I have friends who openly tell me they don’t agree with much of what I have done in my life and I try not to let that get to me. Cynicism is part of what followers of the way live with.
What disturbs me more than society’s attitude toward us, is bad theology in the Church. And that would seem to be at an all-time high. I’m with Paul when he uses the repeated phrase, ‘but as for you’ (2 Ti 3:14, 2 Ti 4:5). Paul, in talking about what things will look like in the world moving ahead, calls the Church at Ephesus to a different true North than the culture surrounding.
Society must go where society goes. The culture will go where the culture goes, ‘but as for you’ looking again to Timothy, ‘as for you.’ “All Scripture is God- breathed and useful for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Ti 3:16,17 NIV).
I have an unashamedly high view of scripture and a thoroughly low view of certain readings and interpretations of scripture that have damaged the Church significantly. My life’s call has been dedicated to the Church of Jesus Christ. In all things precedence has been for my family (a microcosm of the Church) and for the local and universal Church. As a practitioner and generalist rather than a scholar and theoriser, my concern is summarised by a word borrowed from Greek philosophy – telos. For our purposes, outcome. Practical theology with scholarly inclination rather than a career scholar. Our concerns ought to be practical.
For more than two decades a few acquaintances in the Church, acquaintances without any theology or even any significant biblical training, have quite freely criticized that inclination toward all things theological. I used to give that kind of critique a hearing. Just in case they were onto something I might have missed. No longer. The level of bad theology in the Church, is alarmingly high and it inevitably includes those who criticize the need for good theology.
As my friend David Ruis says in his foreword to Bigger Things, ‘theology matters, full stop.’ That is somewhat of a prophetic statement…a prophetic statement to those who hold themselves out as prophets with a capital P and who would appear to have little value for theological things. My sense is that those who hold themselves out in the ‘office’ of capital P, ‘Prophet’ need, perhaps to reflect some humility in this season. A little less self-assurance. A quieter, more listening posture. Perhaps consider re-reading Jeremiah and asking whether it might not be time for us all to relearn hearing and seeing more clearly before offering with such certainty where we are headed and whose side God might be on?
Our own voices - if they are not expressly aligned with God’s voice – are bound to lead us astray, or into idolatry, as Jeremiah reminds us. It is a complex time in world history. Humility in line with 1 Co 12:13 is required from us all. ‘For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.’ Maybe Paul, for the sake of the arrogant, should have said ‘For now we – prophets too btw – see only a reflection…’
Theology matters. Good theology is prophetic. It speaks into the present. Theology matters for those of us who find our home in a Spirit movement, as much as it matters to anyone else. Bad theology simply put, leads to bad practice. And everyone in the faith is a theologian of some sort. If, as Anselm has said, ‘theology is faith seeking understanding,’ then anyone seeking more depth to their faith is a theologian.
A certain kind of theology – a very bad one – sits beneath the belief that for example, we are obliged to support Israel whatever their actions. It’s called dispensational premillennialism.
Dispensational premillennialism contains key concepts that lead away from any possibility of a symbolic interpretation of Scripture when Scripture is clearly speaking symbolically! Apocalyptic literature (The Revelation) is not intended to be interpreted in a linear / logical / sequential way. Instead of interpreting the book of Revelation as any Jewish scholar reading any other apocalyptic writing would interpret it, Revelation is read as a blueprint to predicting the end of the age, and the core message of the book is lost in translation. Key concepts of the dispensational interpretive framework include 1. An always literal interpretation of Scripture, aside from the things of the Holy Spirit, when it contorts all its supposed literality into the most contrived dismissal of its own stated methodology of interpretation. 2. A sharp distinction between Israel and the Church as two separate ‘peoples’ of God. 3. The existence of ‘dispensations’ or distinct eras of arrangement in Gods plans. Different rules and responsibilities apply in these eras. The reality is that the Scriptures know nothing of such ‘eras’. There are only two ages known of in Scripture: ‘This age, and the age to come.’ 4. A futurist eschatology linked to the renewed Nation of Israel and pre-tribulation rapture.
It is just bad theology. To be clear, I am not anti-Israel, and I am certainly not pro-Palestine. I am pro-peace. I support the right of Israel to defend herself, but what we are seeing now, cannot in any way, shape or form, be called defence. I am ‘pro’ trying to find a solution that works for all parties. Dispensational theology does not help us to find a peaceful solution to anything. Quite the opposite really. It pushes us toward war.
In what amounts here to strong critique of dispensationalism let me say that it is not a judgment on the people who read scripture in that way. It is a critique of the weakness of the theological schema. I have friends who are dispensationalists. Many of them love Jesus, way more than me. I don’t even doubt it.
For those reading who might be inclined toward Zionism, please do bear in mind that there are approximately 50,000 Christians living in Palestine. We need to hear their voices. It is worth listening to their pastors over their politicians. The Israel / Palestine conflict is only one illustration of how bad theology inevitably leads to bad praxis. Dispensationalism is a relatively new phenomenon, which alone should indicate its unimportance. The collective witness of the Church over 1900 years records no such interpretive schema for Scripture. Nothing like it existed prior to the 1900’s.
Dispensationalism gained a foothold in the early to mid 1900’s through the Plymouth Brethren and Jonathan Darby when it claimed to be the only correct reading of scripture. It elevated its system of interpretation over all other views by declaring all other views a rejection of biblical authority. Apparently, according to its advocates, the whole Church had been rejecting biblical authority for 1900 years? Imagine that! For 1900 years God had no people for His name. Everyone preceding the Plymouth Brethren had been a heretic. Enough said.
Beth Felker Jones summarises the influence of dispensationalism.
It [Dispensationalism] drew more power by preying on desires and fears endemic to Western society. Throw in capitalism and some bestselling [half-penny-horrible] novels, and dispensationalism got into churches where it wouldn’t have shown up otherwise. [Brackets mine].
The system of dispensationalism wants to make certain events happen in Israel before Jesus can [apparently] return. In a very real way, the system teaches Christians to push politicians towards war so that these events can happen. For those of you old enough to remember, think DAWN 2000. 7000 000 New churches to be planted by the year 2000 so that Jesus could return.
Jesus will return when the Triune God decides the hour and day, of which no one knows, not even the Son of Man (Mt 24:36). It is not yours or mine to try to force the events of the Kingdom. To ‘force the hand of God.’ It is ours to seek the Kingdom wherever we find it. It is ours to be ushering in that same Kingdom by making all things new with Jesus before He comes to make all things new. In any event, I would prefer that he ‘stay His hand’ before returning, so that multitudes more can hear of his wonderful saving grace.
God loves the people of Israel. The Jews are God’s elect. How that relates to the modern Nation State of Israel might be a little more complex, but we are the ingrafted wild olive branch. The Jews are God’s original elect. But God also loves the people of Palestine. I mean we’ve all memorized John 3:16, right? ‘For God so loved the world…’
It is my firm conviction too that God hates all violence, and tanks and bombs, wherever they may be pointed or wherever they are dropped. Any interpretation of scripture that would attempt to bend the arm of God toward war cannot be reconciled with that Prince of Peace who we call master, Lord, friend and saviour.