During the season of Easter the usual epistle or letter reading for each Sunday is replaced by that often confounding and downright scary book at the end of the New Testament, the Revelation to John. This series of visions also encourages us to trust that no matter how gloomy and death-dealing our world may seem, Christ is with us.
At our bible study on Wednesday I reminded members that in the seventies a popular book on Revelation was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. No matter that Lindsey didn't have formal theological training or that he struggled to get his facts straight, the book was immensely popular. One of the study participants mentioned that here in Bowmanville a church distributed copies to every household in town, the pastor was so convinced that the final battle between the USA and the Soviet Union Lindsey described in considerable detail was imminent. Through the centuries some Christians have delighted in using Revelation as a cautionary blue print for the End Times, rather than as a vision of God's faithfulness in all things. Today the Left Behind series of novels is serving that negative role, unfortunately.
Think about it though. There is no longer a Soviet Union and this past week the United States and Russia signed a historic treaty to decrease the number of nuclear weapons in their arsenals. Neither country has reached dove status just yet, but they are headed in the right direction.
Have you ever read Revelation or joined in a study? What are your thoughts about End Times theology?
I try not to think about it!
ReplyDeleteI also mostly try to avoid it. I would like to grapple with it one year, but not this year.
ReplyDeleteDuring the 1980's I worked in an evangelical bookstore where we sold the very popular Lindsey's book and then the other big End Time was the book - 1988 - the world was to have ended on or before (August 8,1988). I have scanned the children's version of the End Time series of books - and it scares the heck out of me and I strongly protested spending church money and putting those books in our church library for the children to read. I have not done a group study or personal study on Revelations - I was never was very good at understanding the subtleties or hidden images within English prose. :) I hold fast to the biblical quote from Matthew - that not even the Son of Man knows when the world will end; therefore, if God hasn't informed Jesus then how could a mere mortal figure it out. :)
ReplyDeleteThe children's books that I scanned was the Left Behind series not the End Times series as previously written. There is an adult version of the Left Behind series of books as well as a children's version.
ReplyDelete