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

[More]