Michele Bachmann: proof that end-times theology will poison your worldview
October 8, 2013 By
One
of my faithful readers has pointed me to a great piece in the
Huffington Post that was published yesterday (complete article can be
found here), where Michele Bachmann helps to demonstrate the utter dangerousness of believing in the end-times theology so many of us grew up with.
One of the key problems with
dispensational eschatology as popularized by John Nelson Darby, is that
it breaks with the historically optimistic view of the future which was
largely held by Christians prior to his teachings. As I’ve noted before,
prior to Darby evangelicalism was actually a beautiful movement which
focused on personal conversion followed by social usefulness (as
preached revivalist by Charles Grandison Finney). Evangelicalism was
something which held both orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the same hand,
causing an entire movement of Christians who were actually socially
useful. Instead of simply speaking the good news of Jesus in word, a
movement spread across the globe which aimed to address cultural
injustices, such as slavery, poverty, and other issues of the time,
which hindered the forward progress of good.
However, all that changed after Darby,
and Michele Bachmann is a great example of the impact this theology can
have on your worldview.
In a lecture Darby gave in Geneva in 1840, he publicly stated:
“What we are about to consider will tend to show that, instead of permitting ourselves to hope for a continued progress of good, we must expect a progress of evil; and that the hope of the earth being filled with the knowledge of the Lord before the exercise of His judgment, and the consummation of his judgment on the earth, is delusive. We are to expect evil, until it becomes so flagrant that it will be necessary for the Lord to judge it…”
Unfortunately, the adoption of a
worldview through the eyes of Darby, instead of the eyes of Jesus,
causes us to rejoice over all the wrong stuff.
When we embrace fundamentalist end-times
theology, we’re forced to celebrate bloodshed and violence, instead of
celebrating the events which remind us that we serve the “Prince of
Peace”. Every bomb that gets dropped in the middle east, every
earthquake which kills thousands in Pakistan, every tsunami that wipes
out countless lives in Asia, becomes a beautiful sign of the end–
something Bachmann says we should “rejoice” over.
In
reference to conflict in Syria, and an accusation that the President is
now arming terrorists, Bachmann states in her interview with the
program Understanding the Times:
“Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand…”
War and terrorism, according to Bachmann, ought to be something we celebrate.
Call me a heretic, but as a follower of
Jesus– the nonviolent lover of enemies– I’d think that war and terrorism
should be something our hearts lament over. I’d like to think that as
people commanded to be peacemakers, we’d say, “this is horrible, we must
find a path to peace.”
However, when we embrace end-times
theology, the evil aspects of humanity and the devastation caused by
natural disasters, become something that is a good sign– something we
welcome, and celebrate. While Bachmann has often been painted as being a
crazy lady who is out of touch with reality (which is true), the most
tragic aspect of her worldview is that she’s actually not alone.
In recent research conducted by Lifeway,
we see that one in three Americans view the conflict in Syria as part
of the biblical plan for the end times, showing that Bachmann is not
alone in her worldview.
“Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice…” becomes a view that far too many people in our tribe have and hold.
While I do believe that it takes
serious, advanced degrees to actually understand what the Bible teaches
on many matters, this one should be a no-brainer. If Jesus said that we
can tell if a tree is good by looking at the fruit it produces, we can
hands down declare as settled fact, that dispensational end-times
theology produces bad, bad fruit.
The Bible teaches that Jesus came to
save humanity, not to judge humanity and that he came to reconcile the
world, not to destroy it. Yet, because of some new theology which has
taken deep root in the last 150 years, we reject the optimistic view of
the future taught by scripture and instead, we view war and violence as
something we should rejoice over.
I
have a hard time imagining Jesus jumping up off his throne and handing
out high-fives every time a child gets her limbs blown off, or every
time thousands are crushed by falling buildings during an earthquake.
I’m quite sure that he doesn’t sit back and watch tsunamis wipe out
entire communities, and yell out: “hey guys– don’t see this as negative,
you should rejoice!”
If you’re still struggling with letting
go of the end-times nonsense you grew up with, let me encourage you to
let go of it– if for no other reason– than it will poison your worldview
and lead you to celebrate war, death, and destruction. Instead of
rejoicing over these things, our hearts should lament, spurring us onto
the call to be peacemakers and agents of reconciliation.
Rejoicing over conflict in the world?
That’s not what peacemakers do. As followers of the Prince of Peace,
it’s not what we should do either.
I’m thinking that when Jesus said “blessed are the peacemakers”, Michele must have heard him incorrectly:
No comments:
Post a Comment