I recently had a conversation, over the internet, with a brother who lives on the other side of the globe ( 'Praise God for the internet!' ), and one of the subjects that we talked about was preterism. He asked me, in other words, when we would see this kind of covenantal thinking would begin to take hold in mainstream Christianity, in the church at large. I replied to the effect that God was moving in His Church, and that I thought that preterism ( in it's many forms and facets ) was one of these 'fingers'.
In my earlier days, as 'the wandering theologian'; I was often known to take passages like I Peter 4:17 ( 'For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?' ) out of context, and apply it to the Church today. I believe that it can and must be applied to the Body of Christ today, as it IS the eternal word of God, although it doesn't have quite the same ramifications as it did to those first-century Jews to who Peter wrote. When Peter wrote these words of warning to his fellow Israelites ( the Diaspora, or Dispersion ); he was referring to the Great Tribulation that was about to come on God's people in the first century, and although this judgment, as we know, was a final and decisive one, which had eternal consequences, ushering in the fullness of the New Covenant in Christ; the church today faces a judgment of sorts, a 'weeding out', if you will, a purification. Many people today, especially with the introduction of social networking ( most notably Facebook ) have turned to the internet for fellowship within the Body of Christ, either because of their 'paradigm shift' ( for which many have been ostracized ), or because there just isn't a body of believers anywhere near that they feel comfortable fellowshipping with. Some, for whatever reason, have even attacked the local, or institutional church, even religion ( Christianity ) itself, and in many cases; I don't really blame them!
The institutional church has, in many ( some would say most, if not all ) cases, become undeniably corrupt. I personally know of at least one church down in the next state below where I live ( and this was back in the mid-late 90s ) that paid their pastor almost a quarter of a million dollars, and this was over ten years ago! I'm sure we've all heard of churches, in the big cities especially, that are pay their pastors much better than that, and I'm sure we can all tell a personal story of ministers seeming to be more concerned with how much they're getting paid, than with actually ministering ( fully ) to God's people. We could probably use up reams of seemingly endless data, uncovering the seemingly endless corruption in the institutional church, but should we really be spending all that time doing that? The 'Middle Ages', especially towards 'the end', were a time of 'Great Upheaval', where men like John Knox John Huss, and even Martin Luther were great instigators ( of God ) of much of this 'trouble' that God's people faced. Not having read much history of that era for quite some time, and therefore not having an extensive knowledge of the whole situation; I believe that we can all agree that the institutional church, though by all accounts an integral part of the Body of Christ, has harbored a lot of corruption over the years, and quite a few shady characters, who some would argue, were not part of that Body.
As I said, and hinted at earlier; I believe that the principles of preterism, or 'realized ( fulfilled ) eschatology' is just one of the 'stepping stones' that God is using to effectually continue this 'Great Upheaval', but it cant stop with eschatology. There are so many implications of fulfilled eschatology, most that have not been fully explored, and most probably some that, for whatever reason, have not been explored at all. The grace of God is one of these subjects that are beginning, within the past ten years or so, to be more fully ( and freely ) explored. A good example of a certain doctrine that has been freshly looked at, and is still being explored, is that of 'soteriology', or the doctrine of salvation. Most churchmen ( and this is changing-thanks be to God ), because of their false assumptions concerning eschatology, have felt the need to posit that our salvation has not been fully realized yet, in order to be consistent with those assumptions. In all fairness; there are many in the church ( institutional ), both in the pulpit and the pews, that despite their 'false assumptions', are living and loving as they have been Loved, freely sharing ( though maybe ignorantly ) the fullness of the Gospel of Grace! This is very commendable, and as I hinted at; 'All praise and glory goes to God!'
Many, as I noted earlier; have seen the apparent corruption in the institutional church, and have made the ( difficult, usually, and heart-breaking ) choice to leave the institutional church altogether, leaving behind ( in many cases ) family, and those they thought were friends, while others have made the ( even more difficult ) choice to labor in the midst of oppression ( perceptively, of course ) , fellowshipping, encouraging, eve influencing, those that labor under those false assumptions. I've old several 'brothers' that I thought that Martin Luther had the right idea, not trying to leave the church, not breaking fellowship, but striving to change ( strongly and drastically ) it from within. Don't get me wrong; I'm no Martin Luther, nor am I claiming to be, but maybe, just maybe, by spreading this renewed Gospel of Grace and Love; we can help set things straight, and fulfill our destiny as 'healing leaves ( Revelation 22:2 )!
No comments:
Post a Comment