An Curious Trend

Having spent years at a certain Canadian Seminary and having been exposed to neo-postmillenialism, the more I read certain theologians, the more I see a movement towards what I am calling Christian Nihilism. This movement ties its cart to social and community issues that read more like political advertisements than theological issues. The danger is the untying of faith from the parousia, Christ's triumphant return. Indeed, reading one theologian, it seems he makes the connection that the Church on Earth is the Second Coming of Jesus. He doesn't outright do so, but in his section on eschatology, he so deflates parousia that one is left wondering if there is anything more than the hear and now. This is what I mean by Nihilism.

While I don't dismiss the concerns of social and community issues, I do reject the USA=Rome analogy that is pervasive in this form of theologizing. I also chafe at boiling Jesus down to only "empire opposer" and his cross to a nonviolent opposition of imperial oppression. All of this narrowing-of-definition tends to make Jesus in our image and arrogantly poo-poos the 2000 year history of theology. Selective application of history and scripture was one of the (many) things with which my seminary cohorts harangued the so-called 'religious right'.

But, I digress. Focusing too much attention on the importance of their ministries of 'opposition', the stink of hubris starts to raise in the nostrils. To those whose britches seem to be rather snug: return to a wholistic ministry and understand that you are but one of millions of communities of faith around the world and throughout history that has been given the undeserved honor of preparing the way for the Lord's return. Remember God's word to the Jews in exile, live peaceably among your captors, build houses and plant gardens. Your ministry is not the second coming. Don't throw a tantrum when you don't get your own way. Be thankful you don't live in one of the many oppressive regimes where hundreds of millions of people were murdered over the last century (ironically, many of which you fail to criticize with the vigor you aim at the USA). Jesus will return in power to put an end to the ongoing rebellion, which includes America as well (if it still exists when He returns).