Victory and Harmony

So I just finished reading Victorious Eschatology.  I was lying in bed with my heart racing and my head swimming, so what better opportunity to grab some raw thoughts and feelings and write them down!

First, a little back story.  I actually had my first encounter with God through the Left Behind book series.  In a nutshell it's a series of fiction books based on the futurist understanding of the "end times."  Basically that all the christians on earth will be taken to heaven at the beginning of a seven year period of tribulation leading up to the final judgement day, when everyone gives an account of their life before God.  Since then, I've read David Sliker's book on revelation, read/listened to some of Mike Bickle's stuff, read all of Marv Rosenthal's teachings on it in the Zion's Fire magazines and his letters, and picked up bits and pieces here and there from Joel Rosenberg and many others.  I felt like I had a pretty good futurist understanding of the book of Revelation and the "end times."  Things were going to continually get worse, there were going to be earthquakes, wars, famines, and a great falling away from christianity before that seven year period began.  Satan through the antichrist was going to take over the world and for seven years it was going to be hell on earth.  Obviously, there's a lot more intricacy to that worldview, but that's the nuts and bolts.

But now, after reading books like Heavy Rain and Victorious Eschatology, my worldview has completely shifted.  It's hard to hold to the world going to hell in a handbasket when you actually look at the cold, hard facts that the state of the world is actually improving.  Remember, most of our information about the world around us is fed to us by large newsmedia conglomerates interested primarily in profit.  Drama and sensationalism drive ratings, and slight exaggerations or highly opinionated personalities add flavor to drama and sensationalism.  It's a result of our fascination with entertainment, and it's further perpetuated by the masses growing access to influence the content of the mass media, thanks to social networking.  Good or bad, it doesn't matter, it's just how it is.

But now take that into consideration.  Bad news sells way better than good news, so that's what gets broadcasted, which perpetuates our view of a world in chaos.  But if you take a good look at world-wide social statistics, things are getting better.  There's more access to food, water, shelter.  More access to education and opportunity.  More shelter and protection from oppressive people/groups.  Just look at the middle east in turmoil.  The violence is terrible, no mistake, but these people want to be out from under oppressive regimes, and they are succeeding.  The middle east will be a completely different place in 10 years.  Now, I'm not naive.  We still have a long ways to go, but I'm not seeing a downward spiral.

Back to the book.  Here's my disclaimer: I'm still chewing on a lot of this.  It hasn't completely settled into solid conviction in my heart yet, but it is quickly getting there.  Victorious Eschatology presents the partial preterist view, which is basically that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father after He rose from the dead, and has been ruling from heaven while the Father makes all His enemies a footstool for His feet.  Most of the "end times" discussions in the new testament related to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.  Jesus will return to earth on the last judgement day, but there's no seven year tribulation period, and evil is continuously being subdued under His rule.  This viewpoint strives to interpret every verse in it's biblical and historical context, period.

So I keep reading this, and I feel my heart come alive.  Everything is lining up.  Some things are a complete paradigm shift, as I've been taught for many years now the futurist view.  But after doing all kinds of research this is the worldview that honestly makes the most sense to me.  Nothing has to be bent or stretched to fit.  And it lines up with what I know to be true of my Father and with what I see around me.  It's so incredibly freeing.

Because now I'm empowered to change the world.

You see, if the destiny of the world is to degrade until Jesus comes back, all my efforts to make the world a better place are futile.  There's no point.  It becomes survive and teach my kids how to survive.  Earthquakes hit and I say "yup, just a sign of the times.  Praise God, Jesus is coming soon!"  As a side note, if natural disasters are always a judgement from God, why did no one die or get seriously injured when the tornadoes ripped through St. Louis?  CNN called it a "blessing," shouldn't the church?  Moving on.

But if I understand that the destiny of the world is to be continually made better through the church working in unity and power, because the King is returning for a kingdom and a bride made ready, then I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty.  It's more than just spreading the gospel of salvation, it's spreading the gospel of the kingdom.  We begin to disciple nations and see their GNP soar because they do kingdom business.  People get saved, healed, and delivered left and right, and that's the starting point.  The promises in Isaiah 61 and the second part of Isaiah 65 come within reach.  Nations turn to the church for counsel like Egypt turned to Joseph.  Jesus' prayer for all believers in John gets fulfilled.

It's interesting, there's several pages in Kris Vallaton's book Heavy Rain that are quotes by leading "experts" in various fields in the past making statements about how certain things were impossible.  At that time, it was taken as truth, but looking back on these statements we think of these people as morons.  If our books weren't packed away, I'd write some, but they were along the lines of leading surgeons saying that we will never be able to operate anywhere in the torso, or scientists saying we'd never go faster than the speed of sound, or go to the moon, etc.  Now shift that perspective to gas prices.  Right now, gas is like $4.14 a gallon or so.  What if a breakthrough is right around the corner that will drop prices down to $1.50?  Food for thought.

The more I read and the more I learn about my Father the more I see His heart in all this.  It's all making more sense, and it's all becoming more simple.  Learning about organic food production and natural childbirth, I'm seeing in God's heart a desire for harmony.  Getting close to the earth, paying attention to it, paying attention to my body, I'm seeing a rhythm in creation.  The way ecosystems work and how to develop them to their full potential.  The way a women's body gives birth and takes care of all the little details.  One doctor described that when a woman gives birth naturally, no interventions, and the baby and the mother share skin to skin contact for a period afterwards, that hormones are released that act similar to morphine.  We try to improve on the wonder in creation, but taken outside of co-laboring with God, it doesn't work.  I'm seeing all this and all I can do is just gaze in wonder.  It's amazing, and it's His heart for the world to operate in harmony, both with Him and each other.  That's how He made it.  The final pieces will be put into place when Jesus returns and brings heaven with Him, but there's a lot for us to do right here, right now.  We're expanding the influence of His kingdom now, creation is groaning for us to step into our rightful place as the heirs of heaven and the bride of Christ.

Anywho, I feel like I can sleep now.  Please, tell me your thoughts!  Let's get this conversation started!

PB

The Good Life

I've been learning a lot about family lately.  How once you have kids, life drastically changes.  It's kind of unnoticeable at first, after the first few weeks.  Once babies are out of the brand-new stage and they're only waking up once or twice a night, they are pretty low-maintenance.  Eat, sleep, poop, look around, repeat.  You're still able to do pretty much everything you did before, you're just hauling around some more equipment.  You say to yourself "I don't know what all those older people are talking about.  This isn't so bad.  I'd rather have my kids brought into all the ministry I'm doing, and let them grow up in it."  And this works for a while.  It's a little tougher when they start to crawl...and then walk...and run/scream/play.  Now it takes a lot more effort to keep up with them and keep them entertained.  You find yourself saying "no, I can't make it" more often, due to nap times and bed times, meals, and whether the place is kid-friendly or not.  And then kid number 2 shows up and everything doubles.  Ours is on the way, but I'm assuming that everything more than doubles, as it's no longer the parents trading off who's on "kid duty," but now both of you are needed all the time.

You feel like you kind of fade from the scene, as you're not in the pulsing "ministry" artery anymore.  Church services seem like a blur, because half of the time you are trying to wrangle the insatiable curiosity of a toddler.

And yet, at the same time, you find yourself saying "man, I never knew it could be this good."  Watching your child put the crayons back in the box, dump them out of the box, put them back in the box, dump them... brings a ton of joy.  Spending afternoons working on gardening layouts, while your wife sews and your child plays bring an amount of satisfaction and fullness you didn't know existed.

Man, I didn't know it could be this good.

Ziggy Marley wrote a song called Family Time that captures this really well.  We listen to it on Saturday mornings, because that's our family time.  We eat waffles, skype with grandpa and grandma, and goof off.  Most of our evenings consist of: dinner, cleaning up, passion projects, goofing around, and bed.  That's it, and that's all it needs to be in this season.  Not too long from now there will be plays, sports, and random school/community functions.  But that's next season, this is this season.

We still get to pour into others, too.  It's having a friend over for lunch and encouraging them.  It's giving a fellow parent some advice.  It's investing heavily into the community around us.  We've been welcomed into all different kinds of circles that others aren't in yet, and we get to be leaven that's kneaded into these places until it's transformed into something that's completely new.

This is life abundant.  This is the tiniest sprout of Acts 2 - type living that's beginning to take shape, in a totally different way than I had thought.  It looks more like 1 Thess 4:11.  Why?  Because Family and Kingdom are synonymous.  We're called sons and daughters of the eternal Father.  Jesus came to reveal the Father.  That's the over-arching goal of the whole thing.  Family.  The governmental structure of the Kingdom is family, and everything from a relational standpoint flows from that one truth.

Family.

Man I didn't know it could be this good.