Insomnia

I just can’t sleep when I most need to. I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember and it’s not helping me get any better. Here’s an insomniac’s prayer by St Augustine:

“Watch O Lord with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and give Your Angels and Saints charge over those who sleep. Tend Your sick ones, dear Lord, rest Your weary ones, bless Your dying ones, soothe Your suffering ones, pity Your afflicted ones, shield Your joyous ones, and all for Your Love’s sake. Amen.“

Tomorrow, there will be much blogging. Oh yes.

Night.

Around the blogs

OK, when I do posts like this you know that I’m not feeling particularly inspired. I’ve just spent the last 15 hours in bed so I have to do something that isn’t lying down feeling ill and worn out, I may as well sit at a computer and type and feel ill. Anyway, here’s what’s happening in the blogs this week.

The homies

Astrid continues to tell her untold stories about life in a supermarket in her humourous and happy way, Monkey Boy Matt and Derek are having a joint birthday party soon. Pete has posted a picture of my family on his blog and has posted about the organisation he used to work/slave for, and Jonny continues to correct ignorance everywhere. Chris ponders deep and meaningful things while other Chris has a variety of recipes, for food, eye-drops and various computer code that I cannot begin to fathom the meaning of.

The newly-renovated Culture Zap looks good and ponder whether or not ‘Lubbock’ would be good first name for a boy. Kieran stakes a claim as being one of the funniest people ever to touch a keyboard, and Ross continues to be exceedingly clever and funny. Despite constantly defending the greatness of their birthplace, there is no escaping the fact that Jonny, Kieran and Ross have only achieved greatness by moving very far away from Bradford. Coincidence? I say not.

Therese loves everyone and everything and secretly thinks everyone has a crush on her, and continues to cherish the naive narcissitic fantasy that she will one day rule the world. Krystle has managed to injure herself in a series of unfortunate ways and Valancy Jane continues her always-nice-to-read blog of MSN conversations, poetry, songs and engaging stories. Fellow Californian Michael Dufel also posts some deep thoughts on being a Christian.

Lozza has been publishing her teenage diaries and Lou is writing a multi-installment story on one blog and has written a good summary of the atonement on her other one. Sister #1 Gemma has a new boyfriend and lots of work to do and sister #3 Becky has redesigned her blog and got all excited about snow.

Theology blogs

Adrian continues the Simple Gospel discussion as well as one on infant baptism and Richard (technically a World of Sven homie, but generally a theology-blogger) has posted some stuff on limited atonement and the EA statement of faith. Rebecca posts some things on the Puritans and total depravity.

Jon continues his journey through lent and is also writing an essay on the Son of Man, which I think I’ll discuss next once I’ve finished on the atonement. I also want to discuss the idea of universal salvation though it’s a question of fitting it all in, though it’s not like blogs have deadlines. Mark at Word and Spirit is always worth a read and has some good info on commentaries and on how to preach on miracles. 21st Century Reformation is always worth a read, and Brian Maclaren has updated his page.

Sven News latest: South of England in chaos

Home counties in chaos, “weather” to blame.

SVEN-REUTERS NEWS – The Southeast of England and London were plunged into chaos yesterday when over 200 snowflakes fell on the nation’s capital. In an emergency session of Parliament, Tony Blair announced that the army would be recalled from Iraq to help organise the panicked and confused population. ‘The last thing we expected was for it to be cold in February,’ Mr Blair said, ‘and London is especially vulnerable because let’s face it, most southerners are a bunch of woofters. I am from Newcastle.’

Over 150 of the snowflakes were arrested immediately upon landing, though up to 50 are still unaccounted for. Home Secretary Charles Clarke announced plans to lock everyone up in a big cupboard ‘just in case it snows again’, while veteran weatherman Michael Fish was arrested for ‘leaking information about snowfall’ to a foreign news channel.

Everyone in London has been advised to stay indoors until July, when experts predict that it will not snow and conditions will be safe to venture outside once again. It will however take much longer for the memories of this terrible and certainly newsworthy event to heal, meaning that London’s 8 zillion journalists will still have plenty of mock-horror stories about snow to write for some weeks to come.

John Prescott, King of the Northern Tribes, was asked for his views on the London weather crisis at a pie-eating competition in Bradford yesterday. He replied “Soft southern ********. Fifty-five years man and boy and I’ve never heard such a load of shite. Bloody fairies.” Several northern men stood nearby were overhead to mumble incoherently in agreement with one another about something.

Human tragedy

There is of course a real human element to the tragedy. The BBC’s Kate Adie managed to reach one of the worst hit areas in Buckinghamshire:

City banker John Lovegold escaped the carnage in London only to arrive back at his £4.8 trillion house in Buckinghamshire to see the damage the totally normal and expected weather had done to his home. Trying to choke back the tears, Mr Lovegold explained how he came in and found that one his patio chairs “had been blown over by some sort of wind.” (see picture above) “It was horrible”, he wailed, “we’d just added some extra decking to the patio, but then Mother Nature turned against us and now one of my patio chairs has been blown over. Now I know how Job felt – though at times like this I wonder if God is English after all.” Experts reckon it will take anywhere between 2-5 seconds to repair the damage to Mr Lovegold’s mansion.

Economic Chaos

The minor snowfall and almost-but-not-quite freezing temperatures affected local businesses too. Frank Pillow, CEO of London Shandy Brewing PLC spoke to reporters earlier: “Southerners are the biggest net consumers of warm shandy anywhere in the world. This cold weather is the last thing we need. If trade is damaged, I may be forced to make 1-2 people redundant.” When asked what he meant by ‘redundancy’, Mr Pillow replied: “I’m not entirely sure. I think it’s something they have in Yorkshire. I heard Arthur Scargill say it on television once in 1984.”

With the Pope’s failing health the only other significant news story, a whole week of media hysteria seems set to continue.

In other news

* President Sven declares today ‘Official First Day of Spring’ – Nature unresponsive – thousands of hibernating plants and animals shot.

* Conservative party ‘to be outlawed’ – Rich toffs complain – No one cares

* Middle aged couple ‘to get married’ – The Queen seemingly as interested as everyone else

* Home Secretary kindly awards himself the power to do whatever he wants

* Ian Paisley ‘to audition for role of Pope’

An evening prayer

I can’t sleep again despite feeling ill. This week is the most ill I’ve felt in the whole 6 weeks or so I’ve been ill and it’s not a whole lot of fun. The novelty of not having to work, study or do pretty much anything for 2 months is fast wearing off and I just want to get better but I can’t even sleep, but I’m kind of too tired to read or pray or whatever.

I got this evening prayer from an Orthodox Church web resource.

And now as we lay down to sleep, O Master, grant us repose both of body and of soul, and keep us from the dark passions of the night. Subdue Thou the assaults of passions. Quench the fiery darts of the Wicked One which are thrown insidiously at us; calm the commotions of our flesh and put away all thoughts about worldly and material things as we go to sleep. Grant us, O god, a watchful mind, chaste thoughts, a sober heart, and a gentle sleep, free from all the fantasies of Satan. And raise us up again at the hour of prayer, established in Thy commandments and holding steadfast within ourselves the remembrance of Thy judgments. Give us the words of Thy glorification all night long, that we may praise, bless, and glorify Thy most honorable and magnificent name, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

O eternal God! Ruler of all creation! Who hast vouchsafed that I should live even down to the present hour, forgive the sins I have committed this day by deed, word or thought. Cleanse, O Lord, my humble soul of all corporal and spiritual stain. And grant, O Lord, that I may during this night have a peaceful sleep, so that on rising from my humble bed, I should continue to praise Thy holy Name thoughout all the days of my life, and that I be victorious over all the physical and spiritual enemies battling against me. Deliver me, O Lord, from all vain thoughts that defile me, and from evil desires. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

O Lord our God, however I have sinned this day in word, deed or thought, forgive me, for Thou art gracious and lovest mankind. Grant me peaceful and undisturbed sleep. Send me Thy guardian angel to shield me and protect me from every evil; for Thou art the Guardian of our souls and bodies, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Into Thy hands, O Lord, Jesus Christ, my God, I commend my spirit. Bless me, save me and grant unto me everlasting life. Amen.

I hardly ever pray like that, far less use written prayers. It’s in old English too, but it really helped me when I prayed it. I kind of felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders and there were these little rays of peace inside.

I’m off to bed, and maybe tomorrow I’ll post something that isn’t to do with religion

Night.

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Christian Carnival 58

The Christian Carnival is a weekly forum for people to submit blog posts on more or less any theme from a Christian perspective, be it politics, faith, current affairs or anything. All the rules are here at Wittenberg Gate. This week’s carnival was hosted by Wallo World, and there is a list and brief summaries of all the submitted articles for this week’s carnival here.

I submitted my rather hastily-written post on Jesus, the Future of History and the Church, though I wish I’d taken time to check grammar and spelling. Ah well.

Next week’s carnival is hosted by Crossroads.

Nahum 1 and the atonement

A very long time ago, Adrian challenged those of us who disagree with penal substitution to respond to Nahum 1. I intended to after I finished posting on Isaiah 53. I’ve still got one more section to do on Isaiah 53 but I’ll get Nahum 1 out of the way first.

At first I’m rather puzzled as to what this passage has to do with the atonement and the penal substitutionary model of the atonement in particular. It is an oracle against Nineveh whilst at the same time promising deliverance to Israel from their Assyrian oppressors. The only reason I can see for citing this passage is that it deals with the supposedly thorny issue of God’s wrath, justice and vengeance. I’d just like to state clearly and publicly that I affirm the reality of divine judgement, the reality of God’s wrath against sin and the reality of his vengeance. Where I differ from Adrian and Co. is in how I define these attributes of God in relation to the cross and our salvation, both on biblical and theological grounds. Ultimately I believe that retribution against Jesus in our place does not atone for disobedience, but that the only atonement for the disobedience of those ‘in Adam’ is the perfect obedience of Christ. Christ is not killed to satisfy the wrath of God or to put him in a good mood towards us (a la Stott), but rather Christ takes all our disobedience, sin, corruption and death on himself and dies to the power of sin once and for all, and in his resurrection he becomes the first fruit of a new humanity that is no longer transient and bound to decay, but is liberated from death and sin for ever. The resurrected Christ is the first fruit of what all those ‘in Christ’ will become, as God plans to consimate salvation-history by making all things new and liberated from decay and suffering.

That’s my Gospel, but on with Nahum 1. Nahum 1 (NRSV text. NIV is online here.)

1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies.

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, and the bloom of Lebanon fades.

5 The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who live in it.

6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.

7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him,

8 even in a rushing flood. He will make a full end of his adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

9 Why do you plot against the Lord? He will make an end; no adversary will rise up twice.

10 Like thorns they are entangled, like drunkards they are drunk; they are consumed like dry straw.

11 From you one has gone out who plots evil against the Lord, one who counsels wickedness. Good News for Judah

12 Thus says the Lord, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

13 And now I will break off his yoke from you and snap the bonds that bind you.”

14 The Lord has commanded concerning you: “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the cast image. I will make your grave, for you are worthless.”

15 Look! On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked invade you; they are utterly cut off.

The context

The other two chapters in Nahum continue in much the same vein, but before leaping headlong into a Christian doctrine of salvation (which this passage can certainly contribute to) I want to set out the context of the verses in their historical setting. The date of Nahum’s prophecy is estimated to be before 612 BC (when the destruction of Nineveh prophesied in this book took place) and after the destruction of Thebes in 663 BC, to which Nahum 3:8-10 refers. Essentially the book is addressed to two people groups; the Assyrians and the people of Judah. The Assyrians were the superpower of their day and had caused nothing but misery and suffering for the Jews. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, and it was against the city that Nahum’s prophecy is directed. The second group to which the prophecy is addressed are the Jews who have suffered at the hands of Assyria, in God’s judgement on Assyria, freedom will come to the Jews, while Nineveh is destroyed.

One judgement, two outcomes

My fundamental argument throughout this whole discussion on penal substitution has been over the nature of God’s judgement. I am arguing that judgement is not an eye for eye retribution inflicted by God on a guilty party (on Jesus’ case, an innocent party) to satisfy his honour, but rather judgement is exercised to bring an old order of things to an end and to inaugurate something new. Judgement establishes justice and brings about what is right and good, and so it is forward-looking, restorative and liberating.

God’s judgement on Nineveh means destruction for Nineveh and the end of Assyrian power, but at the same time it means salvation and liberation for God’s people. God’s judgement means peace and good news (1:15) and the restoration of Israel (2:1). There is one judgement with two outcomes, but the final intention of God in judgement is not to satisfy his anger, but to save his people from their oppressors and to restore them to himself.

Nahum’s judgement and the Torah

Of course, none of the Old Testament prophets would have exercised their ministry without the Torah and the covenant. That God had a people to whom the prophets ministered presupposes the existence of the covenant to which they are supposed to be faithful. In my previous post on Isaiah I went through the curses of Leviticus 26, and how God would judge Israel for breaking the covenant – but always with the aim of making them listen to him and to end the hostility between God and his people, not with the aim of destroying them, for this would deny his faithfulness.

One of the sanctions for disobedience was to be oppressed and dominated by a violent foreign power (Lev 26:23-35, also Deuteronomy 28:36,49-52), and this is precisely what had happened in Nahum’s time. Assyria had brought the sword and oppression to God’s disobedient people, but the aim was the same on expressed centuries before in the Torah – to turn God’s people back to himself. Viewed in its canonical and historical context, and not as an abstract treatise on justice and retribution, Nahum is an excellent example of God’s judgement and wrath being exercised with a view to restoration and redemption.

Nahum and Jesus

It’s difficult (if not impossible) to try and build a systematic theology on the atonement from Nahum 1, because that just isn’t the subject of the book, though there are perhaps some principles we can apply to the atonement and judgement in general.
1. Penal substitution teaches that Christ’s death was him taking a retributive penalty in our place, so that God’s wrath against sin is satisfied and those who accept Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice are forgiven their sins etc. This presupposes that God’s judgement executed on Christ is retributive.

2. I’m arguing that Christ does indeed bear our sin, our judgement and our death in the atonement – but not to satisfy God’s anger or to pay a debt of honour. Christ’s death is a death to sin. Everything that was wrong, sinful, and corrupt about humanity was borne by Christ. By dying he himself submits to the judgement of God and his death is a vicarious death – it is the end of man as a sinner.

3. But the judgement is transformative and designed to bring life and justice. Here is Paul in Romans 6:10:

“The death he [Jesus] died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.”

Jesus takes upon himself all the sin, guilt, godlessness and corruption that estranges humanity from God and places us under wrath. He takes it to the grave with him, but he is raised to life. He has died to sin, and in his resurrection he becomes the first-fruit of what God plans for all who are ‘in Christ’, and indeed the resurrection prefigures the liberation of all creation from its bondage to decay.

4. This is the planned end of God’s judgement. There can be nothing new until the old has passed away. There can be no liberation whilst the oppression remains, there can be no forgiveness and reconciliation where guilt and wrath are, there is no hope for Judah until Nineveh is overthrown. There is no new humanity and no new creation without the end of the old and a dying to sin. This is what Jesus does in his death and resurrection. As far as I can see, the penal substitutionary model does not even require a resurrection, hence the lack of emphasis on ‘Jesus Risen’ and the hope for eschatological renewal of all things, against the New Testament hope.

John Piper repeats Phillip’s mistake

Technically speaking, this has nothing much to do with Nahum but this is as good a place to put it as any. Adrian quotes John Piper’s defence of penal substitution thusly:
“God’s righteousness is at stake. His name or reputation or honor must be vindicated. Before the cross can be for our sake, it must be for God’s sake.”
The reasoning being that God’s honour is so damaged by sin that Christ has to be punished to clear God’s loss of face and to vindicate his hatred of sin. I think that by saying this, Piper actually creates more problems than he solves.

There is no dualism with God. There is not some Otherly, mysterious Father hiding behind the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ disciples made the same mistake. They saw Jesus and begged with them to let them see God:

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”
(John 14:9-10)

There is not another kind of God or hidden attribute of God behind Jesus. He makes clear that to see Jesus is to see the Father. Jesus is in the Father, and the Father is in Jesus. The Father is working in and through Jesus. So how does this fit into the cross? Has the Father suddenly switched tactics and now inflicts pain and suffering upon Jesus to satisfy his anger and righteous demands? No. God is on the cross. To say otherwise is to evacuate the cross of divinity and to deny the Sonship of Christ. The cross does not reveal God’s retribution on sin, but reveals the awesome cost of forgiveness – God chooses to bear the cost of our sin and iniquity himself, but in doing so will finally destroy its power.

So how does Piper’s notion that the suffering Christ is acting ‘for God’s sake’ to vindicate God’s person and reputation? Jesus is God, and the cross is supremely humiliating for him. The cross reveals the cost of sin to God – but also makes a statement about humanity in that it embodies our wilful and total rejection of God. Jesus is not vindicated on the cross, he is vindicated in the resurrection and his triumph over sin, death and hell. In Christ, God is not trying to recover lost face and re-establish his honour, he in fact makes himself nothing, empties himself, and becomes obedient to death on a cross (see Phillippians 2:5-11). He is exalted and vindicated afterwards in the resurrection.

God of course does take sin seriously, and I’ve never argued otherwise – but one does not have to accept penal substitution to believe this. God hatred of sin means that he deals with it and puts it to death and breaks its hold over his creation, he does not deal with it by violent retribution against his own Son by way of compensation.

More to come in the next few days, but I’ll pause there for now.

Thomas Hardy character of the week

Jude the Obscure

Little is known about him

Saint of the Week

St. Theophan the Recluse

Little is known about him.

Jesus, the future of history, and the Church

The location of Christian Hope

This isn’t the time or place to write about Jesus and hell and heaven etc, but talking to someone today set me to thinking on the idea of Jesus and the afterlife. I’m not sure how we have somehow managed to turn everything Jesus said and did into either a timeless and contextless systematic theology or a simple set of teachings about where we go when we die.

In the fifteenth century, Thomas Aquinas debated with an italian monk by the name of Joachim of Fiore as to the nature of time, history and the focus of Christian hope. Joachim of Fiore argued that scripturally, God’s promises were not to lead his people to abandon this world and this life, but that God’s promises were to be fulfilled within history, and so by obedience to and faith in God, history would be transformed. Joachim argued that the goal of history was God’s kingdom and that history thus had a messianic thrust. There would be a new age to come where God’s Kingdom would be established and completed within history, thus radically transforming and renewing creation and humanity.

Thomas Aquinas on the other hand held that Christian hope was essentially for an realm of existence that transcended history, in a place of eternal bliss. The return of Christ will bring history to a close and believers will enjoy an eternity of bliss in the presence of God outside of the time-space world. Aquinas won the debate and his influence has remained ever since, first in Roman Catholic theology and then into Protestant theology.

I think that on reflection however, Joachim of Fiore was much closer to the Biblical viewpoint of the relation between history, messianism and the consumation of God’s kingdom in that he believed scripture was not anticipating the annihilation of all things and the Great Escape from history. Rather, the Kingdom of God will come on earth and all things will be made new.

This has really serious implications for the way Christians think about the way in which they engage with the world. If we believe that our ultimate hope lies in the ‘next life’ or somehow becomes other-wordly, we will focus only on that which we perceive to be of eternal importance (by which we mean that which belongs to the otherly, transcendent realm, as opposed to current history).

The retreat from transformation into private piety

Helped by the Enlightenment’s preference for the separation of faith from other walks of life and the growth of individualism, faith lost its messianic thrust and the hope for the triumph of the Kingdom of God over darkness and evil and instead Christianity became about the management of one’s own private piety. The proclamation of the Gospel became about ’soul-winning’, the forgiveness of sins became a private blessing and salvation became solely identifiable with whether or not one had accepted Jesus as a ‘personal Lord and Saviour’ (How individualistic is that?)

In this retreat from a holistic salvation for the entire Cosmos and the eschatological hope of all things being united in Christ, the Church largely ceased to engage with the world in for anything except for the conversion of souls and abandoned the social and political nature of the Kingdom of God. To strip Christianity of its political aspect is to strip Jesus of his Messiahship, and to deny the triumph of his Kingdom and rule over wordly powers. The term ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is not a justification for a disengagement from the world in favour of pursuing a higher, transcendent spirituality, but instead refers to the source, origin and quality of God’s Kingdom, not its location outside of time and history.

The entry of the Kingdom of God into history

The Kingdom of God will not enter history on Air Force One, and neither can it be inaugurated by voting. It does not live in the White House or Downing Street and cannot be allied with the political agenda of any nation. The Kingdom of God has already entered into history through the person and work of Jesus Christ. It does not come to the rich and the violent, it enters in through the poor and downtrodden, it exalts the humble over the proud, it brings satisfaction to the hungry and liberation to the captives. It judges against the rich, the violent, the oppressor and the cruel and announces the rule of God over and against the wickedness of the world.

The mediation of God’s Kingdom into the present age is the mission of the Church. We are not to wait for our escape from history either when we die or when we are raptured into Eternal Bliss. Neither are we to spiritualise what Jesus taught – and practiced – at the expense of real, concrete, and decisive action. To do so is to repeat in practice the exchange of historical messianism for theology of transcendentalism and where-we-go-when-we-die escapism.

Being a Christian

To be a Christian then is to stand in contradiction to everything that is wrong with the world. If we belong to the Kingdom of God, we cannot ally ourselves with the world systems that stand in contradiction in Christ. God has already announced that his eschatological Kingdom will be a place where:

“…the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

(Revelation 21:3-4)

and so the announcement of the Kingdom of God means that we are wholeheartedly engaged in God’s work of liberating captives, feeding the hungry, comforting those who mourn and anticipating the liberation of creation from its bondage to decay. There is no need or room for a private piety that gives up the world for lost and only looks upward in anticipation of an escape to eternal bliss in heaven. Such an idea is decidedly un-Christian, the Kingdom of God is not a hidden and private affair of the soul. It is holistic, it is social, it is political and it is eschatological. Following Jesus is not an moral calling to not-drink, not-smoke, not-go-shopping-on-a-Sunday or not-vote-Democrat. It is an eschatological calling that takes up its cross and recognises the sin, suffering, godlessness and injustice that enslaves and afflicts humanity, but it also has one eye on the One who went from the Cross to his Resurrection, and so became the prototype of the New Creation to come, where Death, suffering, sin and grief are no more and we are made the people that we are created to be. This is our proclamation, and it is also our Hope. Indeed, Jesus himself is our hope (Col 1:27) and walking in Hope means walking where he walked in the power of his Spirit.

The focus of eschatology is not then the Great Day of Decision where pious souls are admitted to eternal bliss and those who have rejected or indeed never heard of Christ are cast into the lake of fire. The Bible does speak about these things, but the Great Judgement is not the End of history as we know it, it is the transformation of history as we know it. Jesus told this story:

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
“ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ” (Luke 16:19-31)

Much has been made of this story as a profound warning about the perils of eternal hell, of dying outside a state of grace, of rejecting the Gospel and the undying agony of the afterlife for the unrepentant. All of these lessons drawn have missed the fundamental point about what Jesus is saying. Jesus is not giving a systematic lecture on the ontology of the afterlife, he is using an illustration to highlight the consequences of injustice, selfishness and greed that is taking place now. He is not trying to draw attention to what life is like beyond the grave for the sake of the curious, he is directing people to the real, current and historical issues that take place now, in the world, and within history.

Christianity is not simply social action and doing good to the poor – or else it would be in danger of descending into a Christ-less activism. In prayer, worship and contemplation we face God and perceive him, and then open-eyed we turn to face the world as we anticipate God’s Coming and the establishment of his Kingdom. Thanks to Augustine, when we pray we now bow our heads and look down and inward. This body language reflects a theological belief that prayer is dealing simply with the matters of the soul, and is a grave and serious business. However, both the Jews and the early church (according to the earliest mosaics of praying Christians in the Roman catacombs) prayed stood up, with their eyes open and with their arms outstretched – this is the body language of someone who prays with expectation, with hope and can pray ‘your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.’

Amen!

Jared at the Thinklings Weblog has been discussing some N T Wright on the themes of Jesus and Eschatology. He doesn’t agree with Wright on everything, though as a theology undergraduate I have found it useful to agree with Wright on everything and humbly concede that everything you know is wrong. NTW likewise see escahtology as fulfilling the space-time world, not ending it. Just as an aside: Daniel 7 = NOT a Second Coming passage.