On Spending More Time in Jerusalem and Yet Less Time with Christians
28 June 2007
Haus Edelweiss
Heiligenkreuz, Austria
This morning I began my third session teaching Bulgarians and Russians on the subject of eschatology. For three days, I have been emphasizing that “eschatology” should be defined in both a narrow and a broad way. In a narrow way, it is understood as dealing with events preceding, accompanying, and following Christ’s final return, specifically subjects like death, the final judgment, the new heavens and new earth, and hell. In a broad way, the term encompasses life between the first and final coming of Jesus. I have stressed, as does the New Testament in such passages as Acts 2:17f. and Heb. 1:1-2, that we have been living in the last days for nearly two thousand years, and that the last days are leading up to the day, the end, the day of the Lord, the day of wrath, the end of the age, etc.
In the midst of our discussion we frequently pause and reflect on the implications eschatology has on Christian living now (e.g., eschatology and ethics, eschatology and the Lord’s Supper, etc.) Today we focused on the relationship between eschatology and the mission of the church and God’s call for us to be witnesses to Christ and the Gospel.
I confessed to the students that far too often we don’t strive to seek a balance in Acts 1:8, between being sensitive to Jerusalem as well as what it means to go to “the ends of the earth.” I shared with them that I have been guilty of going to “the ends of the earth” (namely, Eastern Europe) to make better disciples of Jesus when at times I have failed to make more and better disciples in my “Jerusalem,” namely, Lincoln, Illinois.
Perhaps many of us spend too much time with Christians.
At the end of the discussion, I reminded them that one of the first symbols used to describe the church is “lampstands.” It is a symbol reminding us of witness. And at the end of the book, we read “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him w ho hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirty let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”
Perhaps alongside of saying, “Come, Lord Jesus!” we should also be saying to those in our own Jerusalem as well as throughout the world “Come to Jesus!”
Technorati Tags: Bible, interpretation, eschatology, end times
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