Sunday, March 1, 2015

Over Realized Eschatology

Many theologies today suffer from an over realized eschatology. That is to say that many promises of heaven are placed in the current day as fulfillable.

The bible of course has many promises which are fulfilled in heaven which the Christian already gets a taste of partially today. Many theologies miss the distinction between the ultimate reality in heaven and the foretaste in the Christian life.

In practicality it leads to confusion and disappointment. When we read future promises as fulfillable today we have an unrealistic outlook on life.

I have met many Christians in the church today who sound very much like Job's foolish friends. They believe in the real promises of God found in the bible, but completely misunderstand that many of those promises are far more future based than present based.

They cannot understand how people who suffer can be under God's will. If the twelve apostles were members in their current church they would look with great concern if these people truly followed God because they suffered!

You see the greatness of the error. If you follow Christ then you will suffer. It may not be large and it may simply be a few rolled eyes because of coworkers or a few people who think badly of you but you will suffer. If you do not suffer you are not following Christ! A servant is not greater than his master.

And the stark reality of life is that many Christians look so respectable to the world because they are so worldly. It may not seem that way, but they ultimately have no witness in the world which is why the world accepts them so quickly. If they truly followed Christ faith would be at least a bit uncomfortable once in a while.

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