In general, I have steered away from discussions of eschatology, primarily because it stirs great passion to little end.  However, I am afraid I will have to venture into that territory with this particular post, as the fruits of bad theology when combined with similar poorly-fueled eschatology are often terrible to behold.  In particular, deterministic/fatalistic theology (which is often part and parcel, though not limited to, of the Calvinist flavour) when combined with premillenial eschatology (especially of the dispensational variety) results in gnostic orthopraxy and a world view dominated by paranoia and fear.  Unfortunately, this combination also makes good news (though not Good News), and allows a rather vocal subset of Christians to paint the whole in a rather poor and (unintentional, I would agree) un-Christlike image.

Background

I do not intend this to be an all-encompassing description of eschatology, but only to highlight a few points. 

I tend to take a partial-preterist view of eschatology, summed up here with much more detail here.  This view tends to read a number of the prophecies in the Olivet Discourse, Daniel and Revelation (save the last few chapters) as being relevant to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. (rather than, or possibly in addition to, to the eschaton).

This is significantly different than most flavors of premillenial eschatology that is much more favorable to the Calvinist worldview (though not universally so), which sees the Bible as independent from its writers and the time in which it was written.  (Ironically, this pre-mil view of eschatology forces those who hold it to fudge the issue of inerrancy of the Bible when dealing with Daniel’s 70 weeks via a number of shell games, but that’s another long, sore subject, as well.)

What it boils down to, though, is this:

The worldview of fatalistic/deterministic theology paired with premillenial eschatology is one which posits that society will continue to degrade, and that nothing can be done about it.  Therefore, we should concentrate on the world to come.  This view interprets Jesus’ words to Pilate, “my kingdom is not of this world” to literally mean that his kingdom does not and can not exist in this world.  As such, the only thing of any importance in this world is preaching an individual gospel focused on the eternal salvation of individuals – the world, itself, is destined for destruction, so there is no need (from a Christian perspective) to concern ourselves with the temporal.

Where this worldview starts to fail is in that the world, itself, has not fallen to disrepair and steadily worsened to Apocalyptic conditions (though I would note that such conditions did occur in Asia Minor and Palestine under the reigns of both Nero and Domitian in the first century AD – a coincidence, I am sure).  Rather, it has fluctuated between periods of excess and revival, with more and more societal structure added to provide order and prevent doomsday conditions.  Next, couple this with a consistent belief in a number of Christian communities of each generation, even before John Darby, that they were living in the last days before the parousia.  With this dichotomy, many individuals with this worldview are forced to assume that the doomsday events are still proceeding apace, but are just not very visible, therefore pointing to some vast conspiracy which will bring about a one-world government and the ascendance of the antichrist.  Therefore, every current event must be viewed through this lens, with a paranoid eye toward conspiracy

Conspiracy Theorists

Most of us probably know at least one conspiracy theorist.  I know at least three (I myself would probably have counted as one during part of the Clinton administration and the death of Vince Foster…), and two of them seem to be nice, well-adjusted folks who just happen to think that our government isn’t above faking a moon landing or two.

Myself, when I view a number of conspiracies, I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Jonah Goldberg:

I distrust the government but as a realistic conservative I think government is staffed with mostly well-intentioned but incompetent people — not because they’re dumb, but because bureaucracies are dumb. These conspiracy theorists reverse this entirely. They think government is evil-intentioned but supremely, even divinely, competent. That’s crazy-talk, Count Chocula. [emphasis mine]

Unfortunately, Goldberg has hit upon why so many Christians of a particular bent fall for wild conspiracies and games of pin-the-tail-on-the-anti-christ: they ascribe near-divine omnipotence, omiscience and omnipresence to Satan, who is none of the three.  Some recently observed examples of Christian Chicken-Little behavior:

The North American Union (NAU): Just examining some of the comments here and here, this theory goes like this:

“Most Americans don’t know about the North American Union that is in the works with the building of the North American Highway to unite us with Mexico and Canada. Mexico will own the actual highway with complete jurisdiction. Kansas city will be the hub. Drugs, illegals and terrorists will be able to come into this country with ease. Texas land owners are fighting the battle to halt the Texas Corridor, but I’m sorry to say are losing. The government is claiming imminent domain and stealing farms and ranches from Texans whose land is where they want to build the highway, parallel to I35. I’m not making this up folks. This has been in our local news for the last 18 months. They are shooting for early construction by 2010. The government powers ultimate goal is to make Mexico, the U.S. and Canada all one country, the NAU with the Amero dollar.”

Helpfully, this one has already been well-debunked. 

Diaprax: Did you know that the emergent/emerging church movement (ECM) is attempting to brainwash an entire generation of Christian believers via diapraxis?  If not, well now you do.  What is this oddly-named beast?  Basically, it is one of the two basic methods of persuasion: rhetoric and dialectic.  Rhetoric is a method of persuasion developed prior to Socrates by the Sophists, designed for the purpose of persuasion via public expository speaking.  Dialectic, on the other hand, is considered to be fathered by Socrates, and is an exchange of ideas and hypothesis to come to a conclusion.   So, where rhetoric seeks to persuade through giving answers, dialectic seeks to persuade through asking questions.

If you follow this particular conspiracy theory’s logic, the ECM is trying to redefine the meaning of the words used to describe Christian living in such a way that will lead a person into heretical orthopraxy (or result in defaming those they disagree with).  While I would agree that some Christians do this, it doesn’t seem to be limited to any one type.  In reality, this fear of ‘brainwashing’ is really just a reaction to a culture which is no longer set in the 1950’s.  The modernist church was effective at using rhetorical tools in conveying the message of the gospel and (to a much lesser extent) the kingdom of God to a modernist world.  Postmodernism, similarly to other worldviews, is much less influenced as rhetoric as a means of conveying truth and moreso by means of dialectic – particularly that of the Socratic method.

Ironically, when we view Jesus in the gospels, we are introduced into a culture which is partially influenced by Greek thought (in which rhetoric is key), but heavily Hebrew (in which dialectic is the primary tool of persuasion).  In fact, we have a number of instances where Jesus’ effective use of dialectic questions was quite useful – even at the age of 12.

So, in the end, the “conspiracy” is nothing more than a change in method of sharing the gospel – via dialectic debate rather than rhetorical argument.

Others: There is the perennial “The Pope is the Anti-Christ” (recently referenced in a discussion on Catholicism) theory, “the government is going to ban religious broadcasting“, “California is introducing the Koran and prayers to Allah into its schools“, and others.  And these don’t include the really weird or nasty ones.

The Result

While it might be easy to just ignore such folks as mere kooks, their witness to the world (despite the continuing non-ending of said world, per their predictions) gives an impression of all Christians as off-kilter wacko’s, as well.  Additionally, I suspect that there will be certain covert actions taken against the church from time to time, and that the warnings will go unheeded because of all of the stableboys crying ‘wolf’ for decades and centuries prior to the real thing.

Modern Gnostacism

In addition to the conspiracy theorists, this particular theological/escatalogical mentality has subtly led a large portion of the Christian population into a gnostic orthopraxy which ignores or openly mocks half of Jesus’ and Paul’s message, negating the message of the Kingdom of God as it pertains to this world, in favor of a gutless exposition of the gospel which focuses only on the world to come.  While they might deny it, they are doing little more than trying to sell a fire insurance policy, which is also probably why such folks tend to be stereotyped in similar ways to insurance salesmen (with my apologies to the good men and women who sell insurance – some related to me – for such a comparison).  But that’s another topic for another day.

Meanwhile, I will just sum up my thoughts with this one: It is one thing to live like this is your last day and to be prepared (which is a well-established mindset encouraged through Jesus’ teaching and parables), but it is an entirely different one to live in a state of paranoia and fear (or to attempt to create such a state) by trying to ‘read the signs of the end of the age’ for everyone to see.  Not only does it destroy credibility of the Christian church, but it leads us into uncharitable and unloving orthopraxy.