I'm just going to copy this straight out of Brian McLaren's new book Everything Must Change. This book may be the most challenging one this guy has written yet. Very thought provoking:
"The phrase 'the second coming of Christ' never actually appears in the Bible. Whether or not the doctrine to which the phrase refers deserves rethinking, a popular abuse of it certainly needs to be named and rejected. If we believe that Jesus came in peace the first time, but that wasn't his 'real' and decisive coming ~ it was just a kind of warm-up for the real thing ~ then we envision a second coming that will be characterized by violence, killing, domination and eternal torture. This vision reflects a deconversion, a retrun to trust in the power of Pilate, refusing to fight. This eschatological understanding of a violent second coming leads us to believe (as we've said before) that in the end, even God finds it impossible to fix the world apart from violence and coercion; no one should be surprised when those shaped by this theology behave accordingly.......
".......This is why I believe that many of our current eschatologies, intoxicated by dubious interpretations of John's Apocalypse, are not only ignorant and wrong, but dangerous and immoral. By way of ignorance, they are oblivious to the conventions of Jewish apocalyptic literature in particular, and literature of the oppressed in general. As a result they wrongly ~ one might even say ridiculously ~ interpret obviously metaphorical language as literal."
Everything Must Change, pgs. 144-145.
McLaren is probably the most influential writer in what is called the "emergent" church, a term he says he hates. It is as if he has been given the task to define the direction of the post-modern church, or really the church in the now post-modern era.
Anyone entering into the emergent conversation is in for a wild ride. This whole thing is a real shaking for the universal church which is used to certain conventions of thinking or what McLaren would call "framing narratives." A framing narrative is just a story we go by: a particular way of viewing the scriptures that defines our lives.
I've been talking, in some of my blogs, about one of my favorite (no, obsessive) subjects,eschatology (the study of "last things" or the eschaton). I was spiritually raised in this version of Jesus he calls "ignorant and wrong." The view he is undboubtedly coming from is over in the zone we might call universalist / preterist. To Evangelical ears, this sounds radical, and to some devilish. For many it is tantamount to heresy.
Still, I don't just like this guy, I love him. I don't know of another writer out there that upends my safe little world so much. So we'll be looking at this new book in later blogs, I'm sure.
When I read words like those above from McLaren, I feel schizophrenic, like I have two personalities. One side of me resonates with what he's saying and the other is crying, "No, you can't take the second coming away from me." I have not a sufficient interpretational grid to process that with.
The apocalyptic framing story McLaren is referring to is the picture inspired by Revelation of Jesus returning to earth with ten thousands of his saints to finish up the Middle East battle of Armageddon and reclaim the earth for the future kingdom of God. McLaren's framing story is the very different preterist version that says Jesus' return symbology refers to a past event and was tied in with the first Advent and the end of the age of Judaism.
What intrigues me here is that he is saying, basically, our eschatology could use some tweaking and that we may be using these things irresponsibly. How do we then process all the biblical references to parousia, resurrection, harpazo, and the larger paradigm shift that Jesus inaugurated? Maybe we need another Nicene council: a meeting of diverse Christian minds to rethink the eschaton.
4 comments:
Its to bad the green guy keeps popping up. As far as the McLaren doctrine it just looks like another spin to me. One that is palatable for those who don't want to know God themselves. In other words, I'm going to follow like a sheep to the slaughter down this "new" path after all it is so much easier than actually seeking out God myself.You gotta serve somebody, I suppose. Books smouks Everybody has an angle but show those whom Jesus Christ is backing up what they say because its Him saying it and I will be impressed to listen to. Now this Guy maybe the most intellectual Christian out there but what does God have to say about his doctrine? Is he backing it up with Signs following? I am convinced more and more each day that we got that end of the world thing wrong. I am just not sure if God is going to save everybody or just those he has pre-ordained to eternal life. I do think like you said this Guy preaches that the message has to be one of Uplifting like Justin says. Not one of Gloom and despair. That kind of message comes from below where things are dark. I still think that God's people will wake up to who they are and start seeing Christ working though them in all kinds of manifestation. Don't you love when some fool like me can completly dismiss some big time preacher without even hearing the guy? Here is my new Book" Nothing has to Change but Change itself"
"Everybody has an angle but show those whom Jesus Christ is backing up what they say because its Him saying it and I will be impressed to listen to."
I look at it, these days, that as a believer in Christ I am part of His body, His community. Everything wasn't said in the Bible that had to be said, so I listen to other believers too, like you.
I assume when you say you will only listen to someone whom God "backs up", you mean in signs and wonders. Can you refer me to someone I should be listening to?
McLaren is not in that stream that is seeking signs and wonders. I have friends that are. "Vanderknowledge", who often comments here, is in that flow, looking for that. I am very familiar with the theology surrounding that. Tell me more about where you're coming from. I'll be visiting your blog.
"I am convinced more and more each day that we got that end of the world thing wrong. I am just not sure if God is going to save everybody or just those he has pre-ordained to eternal life."
These are interesting statements. How do you feel we have the end of the world thing wrong?
As for your second statement, I tended to believe God was only going to save some during most of my 39 years, and only recently came to the conviction that He is saving all long-term.
If you are really interested in this controversy, in getting some answers about it, read "Hope Beyond Hell." That book, by a missionary, pushed me over the line on the question. And, wow, what a relief!
"Don't you love when some fool like me can completly dismiss some big time preacher without even hearing the guy?"
Call no man a fool....even yourself. I like the title of your book. You sound skeptical that the church could really change for the better. Maybe you are too familiar with human nature. But we always have hope, eh?
That is me but I keep it under the radar so I can address the more controversial issues.
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