That God Might be Glorified Through Us
A Different Kind of Prophetic Voice
Nothing is Impossible with God
The Fulfillment of Worthy Work
The American Standard of Living
Only That Which Is Given From Heaven
Human Efforts -- Human Results
“And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”
The question you must ask is this: Does history have a purpose? Is the saga of human life moving toward some eventual goal or is it at best left for humans to determine or at worst random and chaotic? Throughout history, humankind has vacillated through many answers to that question. There are those who subscribe to a kind of naturalist view of history. According to this line of thought, life is essentially a process governed by the natural laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. According to this view, the story of humanity is an endless cycle of birth, life, aging, and decay which may continue indefinitely or may play itself out as all things eventually do. Even many religions view life the same way –as an endless cycle of natural events.
Some see history as an agent of the will of humans. We have the power to determine the future of the planet and species. People who subscribe to this of line of thinking in its purest form have taken it upon themselves to create the perfect state, usually by weeding out the weak and undesirable and making way for the strong and progressive. Hitler’s death camps and Pol Pot’s killing fields stand as the eventual end of that strategy. Even some Christians have tried to baptize this mentality by trying to create the ideal Christian community. These eventually implode or become cults. There are those who take a less radical but similarly optimistic view of human potential by maintaining confidence in the natural progression of humanity through our ability to eliminate disease and hunger and, through the use of knowledge and technology, create a more idyllic world. Such optimism reached its zenith in the early part of the twentieth century, only to come crashing down amidst two world wars and the events which have followed.
Our system of education simply deals out what are supposed to be the “facts” and leaves the idea of purpose and meaning to individuals. The result is that many people are confused and unsure of what to make of life. Many view human history as random and chaotic, without purpose or goal, finding themselves cast adrift in a sea of conflicted voices, grasping at any twig of hope and often inappropriately medicating their inner turmoil. Without belief in purposeful existence, men and women plunge into despair or selfish consumption. Leslie Newbigin writes in his brilliant work, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, “A society which believes in a worthwhile future saves in the present so as to invest in the future. Contemporary Western society spends in the present, piles up debts for the future, ravages the environment, and leaves its grandchildren to cope with the results as best they can. One searches contemporary European literature in vain for evidence of hope for the future; rather, in Jurgen Moltman’s words, it is characterized by despair, loss of vision, resignation, and cynicism.”
The essential proclamation of Christianity is that the world is not random and chaotic but was created by design and with purpose by a God who loves it and all the people in it. We make this claim not as a matter or personal opinion but by conviction of fact. The Bible is not simply a religions fable but is the chronicle of God’s action in all of human history past, present, and future. It is in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that the purpose of human history is revealed. Jesus did not simply come as one of many important historical figures who by their lives made a positive contribution to the world. The coming of Christ did more than to alter history; Christ defines history by disclosing and accomplishing its entire purpose. Christ made an effective and permanent change in the nature of humanity and our relationship with the One who created us. Jesus Christ physically entered human history at a particular point in time, took upon Himself the sins of the world and made a full and complete offering for it, and then was raised from the dead as the first of completely new species: the new humanity. Though the hand of God often seems hidden and difficult to fathom, and though we are assaulted by all manner of contrary “evidence” purported to be irrefutable facts, we know in advance how the story will end. God’s purposes for all creation will culminate in the restoration of all things – the entire created order – the full revelation of the Kingdom of God, and the unity of all things in Christ. Human history is consummated with the coming of Christ, not as a religious demagogue, but as the fulfillment of the loving purposes of God for all creation.
If we believe this, which requires faith in the witness of the Bible and of the believing community, then we will live and act hopefully. (We either place our faith in the Biblical claim to the purposes of God or we place our faith in the prevailing scientific and philosophical mindset of the day. Both are steps of faith.) The mission of the church is to proclaim that which is hidden by embodying the life of the Kingdom in advance of its being revealed to the whole world. Our task is not to hide ourselves from the world trying to hang on as best we can until Christ comes to redeem us from the current reality. Our task is to live out the new reality of the Kingdom of God, through our worship and community, and by fully engaging the world with the demonstration of Kingdom life through the miraculous power of God, inviting men and women everywhere to enter into this living hope.