Sw - Session 13 - Reference

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Will the Earth Be Destroyed? Conflicting Interpretations

Session 13 Reference

Not all evangelical theologians and Bible commentators would agree that the “new heaven and new earth” will be a total restoration of God’s creation, which now lies in groans awaiting the inauguration of God’s kingdom in its fullness. Some will contend, ‘What about the long passages in the Gospels that seem to be full of prognostications from the lips of Jesus himself – prognostications that seem to relate to the end of the world. What are we to make of these passages, such as Matthew 24?1 And what about passages like 2 Peter 3:10-13 that says the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the earth ‘laid bare’?’ e following article seeks to shed light on these two particular passages that seem to undermine the interpretation of total restoration of God’s creation.

2 peter 3:7-14: will the earth be burned up? 2 Peter 3:14 promises both a new heaven and a new earth. However, are we talking about a ‘brand-new’ earth and heaven or a ‘renewed’ earth and heaven? A thorough analysis of this passage will help shed light into this crucial question. Peter says that Jesus will return with the fire of judgment. . . . “the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. . . the day of the Lord will come like a thief. e heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare [i.e. found] . . . But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:7,10,13). is passage, which is meant to give a warning to the wicked and hope to the saints, has been read by many Christians in such a way that it takes away all hope for the social and physical world in history. But is such an interpretation truly warranted?2 We need to realize, first of all, that the background of Peter’s teaching here is the prophesy of Malachi:3 “en suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple . . .But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver” (Mal. 3:1-3). e fire this passage is talking about, then, is a refiner’s fire which burns up the dross and purifies the silver. e fire is for ‘the destruction of the ungodly men’ and ‘the elements’. e word elements does not refer to the elements of physical earth which are the building blocks of our planet. e Greek for elements that Peter uses here is stoicheia which is also used in Galatians 4:3,9 where it is translated as ‘basic principles of the world’ and ‘those weak and miserable principles,’ and in Colossians 2:8,20 where it is translated as ‘basic principles of the world’ which are ‘hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition’ and enslaves people. e word ‘elements’ thus refers not to the elements of modern chemistry but of Greek thought which also has a connotation of stars and The Integral Mission of the Church



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spirits of astrology that control men. us, according to Peter, the fire of the Lord will burn up the ‘ungodly men’ and their enslaving religious/ philosophical principles that result in wickedness and hostility to God.4 Some versions do translate 2 Peter 3:10 as “the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up.” Most modern translations of the Bible, however, correctly use the phrase ‘laid bare’ or the more literal translation, ‘found’ instead of burned up. Because ‘found’ is the literal meaning of the Greek word heuretesetai which is the word used by Peter, according to the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts of New Testament. e word found in the phrase ‘earth will be found’ is the same joyous word used in the parable of the prodigal son, ‘my son was lost but is now found’, or in the parable which says that the kingdom of God is like a man who found a pearl of great value. So what Peter is saying in 2 Peter 3:10 is not that the earth will be burnt up, but that the ungodly men and the basic teachings of the world that hold this world in captivity to sin and death, will be burnt up and the earth will be refined and restored to its original status.5 is translation of 2 Peter 3:10b, that the earth will be ‘found’, is also in harmony with verse 13 which says that we are looking forward to a new earth. e word new is not neos which means ‘brand new’ but Kainos which means ‘renewed’. All that was created as ‘good’ will be retained and restored.6 is interpretation of 2 Peter 3:10, then, is the consistent way of interpreting the text in its context. In chapters 2 and 3 Peter relates the coming judgment with fire to the previous judgment with fire, which was not destruction of the world, but judgment which purifies. Peter in concluding his teaching on this subject again uses the word ‘found’ in the sense of refined and found.7 “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?... since you are looking forward to this [as a positive hope], make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him’ (2 Pet. 3:11-14).” So unless we think that 2 Peter 3:10-13 contradicts other biblical texts which clearly foresee the transformation and restoration of this universe, we must think of the new earth and new heaven in terms of continuity as well as discontinuity. In that sense we can be confident that there is a connection between social action now and the wholeness that comes at Christ’s return.8 True, the Bible clearly does not teach that we will create better and better societies through brilliant political action until finally we construct utopia. Only the mighty intervention of God at Christ’s return will bring the cosmic salvation that the New Testament promises. Human effort cannot create the coming kingdom. Yet, human effort can align itself with God’s purposes and in this way help advance God’s kingdom.

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matthew 24: was doomsday foretold by jesus? We can look at passages such as Matthew 24 in one of two ways, a literalist way and a contextualized way: We can interpret them as literal prognostications about the literal end of the world with stars falling from the sky etc., as most traditional Bible commentators have done. e problem with this approach is that it underestimates how words spoken two thousand years ago were situated within their particular environment – how deeply they were rooted in gritty contemporary problems and human social contexts. Proponents of this approach, then, underestimate the possibility of figures of speech, metaphors, and word pictures being used when those words were being uttered . Instead, they interpret them sharia-style, as if they were intended to serve as today’s annotated legal code, today’s how-to manual and prerecorded roadmap for the future.9 Or we can understand them against the backdrop of their situational context – in this case Jewish apocalyptic language. Since Jewish apocalyptic was a popular genre in Jesus’ day, we would expect him to be influenced by it and use its language and metaphors as he talks about the future. So, against this backdrop, we discover that phrases that sound like they’re about the destruction of the world – like ‘the moon will turn to blood’ or ‘the stars will fall from the sky’ – are actually rather typically stock phrases in Jewish apocalyptic. ey’re no more to be taken literally than phrases we might read in the paper today: “e election results were earth-shattering.” Or, “e president’s announcement sent shock waves through Congress.” Or, “On September 11, 2001, everything changed.”10 We can easily imagine someone two thousand years from now, armed with an English dictionary but without much experience reading newspapers, writing this interpretation: “People in the twenty-first century believed that natural phenomenon were caused by political events. For example, they believed that an election or presidential announcement could cause a shift in plate tectonics, resulting in earthquakes and tremors. Or they believed a terrorist attack could create an ontological shift that would alter the fundamental nature of matter and energy, space and time.” We may be stupid, but we’re not that stupid – and similarly, Jesus and his contemporaries should not be presumed to believe that the moon would literally be turned into a mixture of white blood cells, red blood cells, and plasma or that huge stars one hundred times the size of planet earth, defying gravity, would actually converge on our tiny earth.11 Jesus was simply using apocalyptic language to make a point to warn and exhort and encourage his disciples to run a good race. With this sensitivity in mind, how then can we interpret passages such as Matthew 24? We can interpret them as a) exhortations and encouragement to Jesus’ disciples to hold on to “the gospel of the The Integral Mission of the Church



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kingdom” in the long-run, even in light of opposition and failure and b) warnings about the immediate political future of the Jewish nation. By doing so we see how a very different picture of Jesus’ eschatological intentions emerges. Exhortations and Encouragement to Jesus’ Disciples First of all, we need to see Matthew 24 not as a stand-alone “eschatological discourse” that presents Matthew’s or Jesus’ doctrine and time-line of the end-times, but as an intrinsic part of Jesus’ final discourse addressed to insiders and potential followers recorded in chapters 23–25. A discourse, whose aim is to exhort, warn of upcoming judgment, and provide pastoral care and encouragement to his disciples.12 Rather than seeing this discourse as two speeches, then, one of which condemns outsiders and the other imparting instruction about the end-times, the whole discourse functions as warning to insiders to live an authentic life devoted to deeds of justice and mercy, in the light of the final victory of God and coming judgment on present unfaithfulness.13 Speaking of wars, famines, earthquakes, falling stars and a blood-turned moon, Jesus was simply using the stock-in-trade lingo of apocalyptic speculation. More concretely, these tragedies of history, according to Jesus, were not the signs that the end was to occur immediately, but they did signal the onset of the final period of history. is is the meaning of “birth pangs,” a metaphor often-used in apocalyptic thought: e world of politics and nature will go through a period of suffering before the Messiah comes.14 Closer to the end the future for God’s people will be characterized by persecution not only by Jewish opponents, as previously, but also by “all the nations” – a period traditionally called the “Great Tribulation”. “Because of my name” shows that it is the Christian confession that provokes the persecution.15 In the final period before “the end” troubles are no longer only from outsiders, but the church is plagued also by internal disputes, betrayals, and a cooling of original commitments. Notwithstanding, during the final eschatological woes, the church is not to turn in on itself in a mode of passive waiting. Instead it is its time of worldwide mission to all nations, proclaiming the message of the “gospel of the kingdom”, emphasizing once again the alternate vision represented by the message and life of Jesus over against the prevailing modus operandi of the world’s current imperial systems and structures.16 roughout this discourse, Matthew explicitly resists the temptation to draw a clear end-times table of events. While he realistically talks about the difficulties preceding the coming of the kingdom in its fullness through the return of Jesus, he doesn’t reach any premature conclusions regarding the day and hour of Jesus’ return. Instead, because we don’t know the day or the hour, we are always to be “ready”. In the context of

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the Gospel of Matthew, that means doing the deeds of mercy, forgiveness, and peace that characterize kingdom people.17 True, throughout church history, there have always been groups that, convinced they knew when the world would end, would quit their jobs and wait with eager anticipation for Christ’s appearance. In Matthew’s understanding of the Christian faith, however, the second coming shouldn’t cause us to quit the job of being the church in the world; rather, it calls us to take it up with even more urgency.18 e hope that drives us to keep on keeping on is that the final appearance of the Messiah will be so obvious that there will be no question about it. Jesus’ return will not be that of a “hidden Messiah” who must be sought out, but will be a universally observable event and as unambiguous as lightning!19 us Matthew’s point is that there will be no sign in the sense of preliminary warnings in the form of a calendar of events: e first clear sign will be the end itself with its cosmic disruption and the indisputable appearance of the Son of Man. In verse 30 the disciples’ question in verse 3 receives its definitive Matthean answer: e sign of his appearing will be the Son of Man himself.20 Warnings about the Immediate Future of the Jewish Nation. Aspects of Matthew 24 could also be interpreted on the backdrop of Palestine’s political landscape and understanding of the Jews’ possible political futures as an occupied nation. As we know from previous sessions, seething under the surface in the Jewish community was the question of how to respond to the Roman occupation, and two main kinds of answers arose. First, there was a conventional future with the status quo continuing on uninterrupted. is future of collaboration, capitulation, and compromise was preferred by those enjoying and profiting from it: Sadducees and Herodians. Second, there were various counterfutures imagined by various groups for whom the status quo was not so profitable or satisfying. ere was the fight response of the Zealots (fight, rebel, terrorize), the flight response of the Essenes (isolate, evacuate, escape), and the blame response of the Pharisees (condemn, shame, avoid). Jesus entered with a creative future. He said, “Do not believe any of these people or follow them either in capitulation or in fight, flight, or blame. It is time to live in a radically new way – the way of the kingdom of God. Learn of me how to take this path – it’s the only way to avoid destruction.”21 What was the destruction that needed to be avoided in his time – if it was not the literal end of the world? Jesus apparently foresaw a scenario something like this: “Tensions will continue to rise, and eventually the Zealots will lead the people into a violent rebellion. When they rebel, God will not intervene as they hope, because God does not want to continue to bless violence. Instead, they will be crushed brutally by the

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Romans. e temple will be destroyed. Jerusalem will fall. Jewish life as we know it will end.”22 Yes, Jesus uses apocalyptic language that sounds like he’s talking about the literal end of the world. But when we understand the way the apocalyptic genre works – when we interpret science fiction as science fiction and not as historical documentary – we realize that Jesus is speaking pointedly, and in a way his contemporaries would understand, about concrete political realities.23 As anyone who knows history will realize, the scenario Jesus describes did in fact occur. His countrymen did not trust him or follow him. ey rejected both his promises and his warnings. ey did not accept his radical alternative to violence, accommodation, or isolation. Jesus himself realizes this will be the case as he descends to Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday, and he begins to weep and says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! If only you knew what makes for peace!” Because they rejected his way, tensions did rise. e Zealots did stage a revolt in AD 67. e Romans did come in and crush Jerusalem and destroy the temple and wipe out the historic temple system of sacrifice. For the Jews of that day, the moon did turn to blood and the stars did fall from the sky – these events were truly (but not literally) ‘earth-shattering’.24 Yet, these events did not yet precipitate “the end”. More still was to come, and in the meantime, the church was continuously called to proclaim the “good news of the kingdom”; to posit an alternative to the various stories and worldviews that framed the lives of untold numbers of Jesus’ disciples’ contemporaries. In summary, then, passages like Matthew 24 don’t need to be interpreted in a way that contradicts the view of a total restoration of creation. In fact, if you read Matthew 24 in the ways presented above, I believe you will agree that Jesus’ warnings, exhortations and encouragements come together in a coherent and satisfying way – far more coherent and satisfying than the conventional approaches.25

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endnotes 1

Brian McLaren, e Secret Message of Jesus, 177 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 131 3 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 131 4 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 132 5 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 132 6 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 133 7 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 133 8 Ronald Sider, One-Sided Christianity, 92 9 Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change, 119 10 Brian McLaren, e Secret Message of Jesus, 178 11 Brian McLaren, e Secret Message of Jesus, 178 12 e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 457 13 e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 429 14 e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 442 15 e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 442 16 e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 442 17 e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 448 18 e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 448 19 e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 443 20 e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 444 e remainder of the judgment discourse in Matthew 24-25 is composed of seven parables and monitory pictures that call the Matthean community to a life of active expectation of the parousia of the Son of Man. e first three and the fifth sections function as warnings to be alert, while sections 4 and 6 explicate the meaning of “being alert”—not mere passive waiting but responsible action that corresponds to the nature of the coming kingdom. e seventh and concluding scene portrays the criterion of the coming judgment, serving as an indirect admonition to practice the deeds of love and mercy that will count in the judgment and completing the picture of the coming of the Son of Man begun at 24:29-31 (e New Interpreter’s Bible CDROM, Volume 8, 444) 21 Brian McLaren, e Secret Message of Jesus, 179 22 Brian McLaren, e Secret Message of Jesus, 179 23 Brian McLaren, e Secret Message of Jesus, 180 24 Brian McLaren, e Secret Message of Jesus, 180 25 Brian McLaren, e Secret Message of Jesus, 179 2

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