To begin, I assure everyone that this is not meant to personally demean anyone who enjoys studying, discussing, or debating eschatology.
As a child and young teen, I was obsessed with eschatology, particularly Revelation from (subtitle) "The Throne in Heaven" onward.
For years I was a pre-trib/premillenialist focused on interpreting what I considered the "limited vocabulary of the time" to mean technology which had not been invented (ie, horses shooting fire and burning sulfur out of their mouths = tanks) and astronomical phenomena which had not been categorized or identified (ie, burning mountain = asteroid) at the time of writing.
Nowadays.....I don't really see the value.
Somewhere along the way, probably during my college theology classes, I realized my previous obsession doesn't matter in my day-to-day life, and arguing about it with people doesn't resolve any of my or my wife's or my friends' daily struggles.
So now I tend to chuckle or scoff when people sigh about bad things happening and claim "It's a good thing Jesus is coming back soon," or try to fit current events into their own or somebody else's apocalyptic framework, or try to pin the Antichrist merit badge on this or that public figure whom they dislike.
The field of eschatology doesn't seem to encourage anyone to more closely emulate Christ, it doesn't build relationships (I personally had two close friends in college split because one had gone from premillenial to postmillennial), it doesn't resolve spiritual, emotional, or interpersonal struggles, and it really doesn't seem to improve your life.
Worse, it has the potential to create a fatalistic attitude toward the here-and-now that gives church people all kinds of excuses to avoid improving conditions on this planet (ecological conservation, nuclear disarmament, stopping and avoiding war, bringing peace and understanding instead of swinging the truncheon, etc.) for their children and descendants, because they become convinced that they will outlive the planet.
Even though Paul warned against this very attitude with the Thessalonians.
The worst of which that I have witnessed personally is a Baby Boomer pastor describing an atrocity on the other side of the planet and praising God for it, because he honestly believes that any escalation of human atrocity will "force God's hand" and bring about the apocalypse faster.
So in the midst of all of this, why expend the effort?
What positive return do you receive from reading, discussing, and/or debating this field of theology?
As a child and young teen, I was obsessed with eschatology, particularly Revelation from (subtitle) "The Throne in Heaven" onward.
For years I was a pre-trib/premillenialist focused on interpreting what I considered the "limited vocabulary of the time" to mean technology which had not been invented (ie, horses shooting fire and burning sulfur out of their mouths = tanks) and astronomical phenomena which had not been categorized or identified (ie, burning mountain = asteroid) at the time of writing.
Nowadays.....I don't really see the value.
Somewhere along the way, probably during my college theology classes, I realized my previous obsession doesn't matter in my day-to-day life, and arguing about it with people doesn't resolve any of my or my wife's or my friends' daily struggles.
So now I tend to chuckle or scoff when people sigh about bad things happening and claim "It's a good thing Jesus is coming back soon," or try to fit current events into their own or somebody else's apocalyptic framework, or try to pin the Antichrist merit badge on this or that public figure whom they dislike.
The field of eschatology doesn't seem to encourage anyone to more closely emulate Christ, it doesn't build relationships (I personally had two close friends in college split because one had gone from premillenial to postmillennial), it doesn't resolve spiritual, emotional, or interpersonal struggles, and it really doesn't seem to improve your life.
Worse, it has the potential to create a fatalistic attitude toward the here-and-now that gives church people all kinds of excuses to avoid improving conditions on this planet (ecological conservation, nuclear disarmament, stopping and avoiding war, bringing peace and understanding instead of swinging the truncheon, etc.) for their children and descendants, because they become convinced that they will outlive the planet.
Even though Paul warned against this very attitude with the Thessalonians.
The worst of which that I have witnessed personally is a Baby Boomer pastor describing an atrocity on the other side of the planet and praising God for it, because he honestly believes that any escalation of human atrocity will "force God's hand" and bring about the apocalypse faster.
So in the midst of all of this, why expend the effort?
What positive return do you receive from reading, discussing, and/or debating this field of theology?
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