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Doomsday Prophets:
The Difference between Prophetic and Apocalyptic Eschatology
Dennis Bratcher
We have all seen the “doomsday” predictions that
inevitably surround national or international crises or notable events.
The millennial-bug scare of 2000, which gave good fodder for many
end-of-the-world fans, is only one example. We have also heard of the
doomsday cults, such as David Koresh or the Heaven’s Gate community.
Such outlandish views, as well as incessant predictions about a dire
future that do not come true cause many to scoff at any talk of future
predictions. And that has even led some Christians to react against much
talk of the future.
In many ways, they are right. Much, if not most, of the popular
ideas about God’s work in the future, especially in apocalyptic
end-of-the-world scenarios, arise more from speculation, wishful
thinking, or fear than from any solid biblical teaching. Repeated
predictions of apocalyptic endings of human history in one cataclysm or
another, and the subsequent failures of those predictions to come about,
only serve to erode the credibility of Christians and confuse people
about Christian ideas (see The Millennium). With our popular misconception of prophets as
predictors of the future it is easy to misunderstand the biblical
message (see Prophecy and Prediction).
When we combine that with our own sometimes sinful preoccupation with
the future and the sensationalizing of so-called prophetic
interpretation of present history by poplar media personalities like
Perry Stone, John Hagee, Jack van Impe, and Hal Lindsey, many people in the church
are left with few resources either to understand the biblical prophetic
message of being the people of God or with any adequate means of using
biblical perspectives to deal with the present realities of history and
living as the people of God now.
And yet there is a
legitimate role for apocalyptic thinking and literature in Christian
theology. It is represented throughout Scripture, and therefore we need
to take it seriously as part of the biblical witness.
There is a legitimate role for apocalyptic thinking and literature in
Christian theology. It is represented throughout Scripture, and
therefore we need to take it seriously as part of the biblical witness.
And yet one of the most devastating mistakes we have made in looking at
apocalyptic thinking and literature is to assume that it is the “norm”
of the Christian faith. It is not. It serves a theological
purpose that we need to keep in mind. But it cannot be the only or even
primary way of viewing the Christian life or present history, simply
because it is not that in Scripture.
To bring some perspective into this and to help people deal not only
with the biblical material but with their response to present history,
we need to realize that there are two basic biblical ways of viewing
God’s work in the world. They are not mutually exclusive so that we have
to choose one or the other. They are simply different ways of
expressing our understanding of God and his work with human beings. Both
perspectives are eschatological, in the sense that there is the
expectation of a future in which God will be revealed to the
world and the faithful of God’s people will be vindicated (there are
more technical meanings of eschatology). Yet they are radically
different in how they conceptualize how that will unfold, and what its
implications are for present living. To distinguish them, I refer to “prophetic
eschatology” and “apocalyptic eschatology.” The details can
become complicated, but we can summarize the basic views.
In prophetic eschatology, the expectation is that God will
work within human history to accomplish his purposes for
humanity. The expectation of a messiah, a new king whom God would raise
up to lead his people in proper worship and service to God, is an
example of prophetic eschatology. God will work within the structures of
human history, perhaps transforming them and working in new ways, but
not going beyond them. This is the basic biblical position, and grows
from God’s own self-revelation in human history. It assumes that history
needs changing because of evil in the world, but that God can transform
the present as he works in the world.
The assumption in prophetic eschatology is that the evil in the world
lies internally among the people of God. That is, the main
problem impeding God’s work in the world is the unfaithfulness and sin
of God’s people in being his people. The main problems addressed are
idolatry and injustice, and on a broader scale the failure to do
torah in the world (see
Torah as Holiness: Old Testament "Law" as Response to Divine Grace).
The solution is for God’s people to repent and practice righteousness
and justice (see
Social Ethics in the Prophets). If they do not, there will be
unfolding consequences that may lead to a history altering crises
brought about or used by God as a means to call his people back to
himself (e.g., the exile). The emphasis in this perspective falls
on God’s people living out faithfully the principles of Torah, to live
in the world faithfully as God’s people.
In apocalyptic eschatology, the expectation is also that God
will work to accomplish his purposes for humanity. However, the view of
history is different. From this perspective, human existence and
therefore human history have become so contaminated and corrupted by sin
and evil that it is basically unredeemable, at least from any human
perspective. There is not enough in human history worth salvaging. So,
in order to accomplish his purposes in the world, and to vindicate the
faithful, God must destroy present history as we know it and begin again
with something totally different. The images of cleansing and
purification are often used, most often in the symbol of fire as a way
to talk about ridding the world of all evil influences.
The assumption in apocalyptic thinking is that evil in the world is
external to the people of God. That is, the main problem impeding
God’s work in the world is the evil and wickedness of empires and rulers
and systems that control human history. The main problems addressed are
arrogance, pride, abuse of power, and on a broader scale lawlessness and
tyranny. The solution is for God to destroy the evil empires, bring down
the wicked rulers and tyrants so that God’s people can live out being
his people free of such oppression. The emphasis in this perspective
falls on God overthrowing that wickedness in the world so that God’s
people can live faithfully in the world as his people.
Each of these perspectives arises from a particular historical and
social context. Prophetic eschatology is the perspective used
when God’s people are basically free from external oppression and have
the capability of making choices in how they live as God’s people. It
arises from times of relative stability in which God can be easily
marginalized because there is no real pressing need for him to defend
the people. Injustice and internal oppression of the weak as well as
religious syncretism are the most obvious symptoms of this context.
Throughout Scripture, throughout most of Israel’s history, prophets cry
out against these abuses.
On the other hand, apocalyptic eschatology arises from times
of crises, when larger powers and forces dominate God’s people and so
remove much of the capability of making choices about how to live. It
arises from times of great uncertainty about the future, times in which
there is no indication that things will ever get any better. It arises
from a mood of pessimism about the future, even a sense of fatalism in
terms of what can be accomplished in the world. Rather than God being
marginalized, it is the people who are marginalized, and that
often leads to deeper piety as they cry out to God for deliverance from
oppression.
Apocalyptic eschatology arose in the Old Testament as a theological
response to Israel’s oppression by world powers, perhaps as early as the
Assyrian dominance in the eighth century BC but certainly by the
time of the
Babylonian exile in the sixth century BC. It flourished and came
into full flower in the Greek wars of the second century BC, and had
become a staple way of thinking with a corresponding literary form by
the time of the Roman occupation in the middle first century BC. By the
time of Jesus, it was a dominant way of expressing hope in God.
Part of the uniqueness of Jesus’ message was to counter the
apocalyptic thinking that was pervasive in his day. Even with the
occupation and oppression by the Romans, a scenario that fit perfectly
with everything that had developed in apocalyptic thinking, Jesus
largely returned to the perspective of prophetic eschatology. While the
people expected Messiah to fulfill the apocalyptic expectations of the
total destruction of the oppressive world order, Jesus talked most about
justice and righteousness, about fulfilling the essential requirements
of torah expressed as loving God and neighbor (see
Torah as Holiness). He advocated no wholesale slaughter of
Romans to help God in his destruction of the evil empire. Instead he
talked of loving enemies and turning the other cheek, of carrying a
soldier’s pack two miles instead of one, of giving to Caesar what is his
while also giving to God what belongs to him. He even healed the servant
of a Roman Centurion and commended him for his faith (Matt 8:2-13).
In other words, amid all the apocalyptic expectation of the times,
Jesus returned to an emphasis on prophetic eschatology in which God’s
people were to be faithful to torah even amid the crises of Roman
dominance and the prevailing evil in the world around them. Even the
book of Revelation, while it picks up many apocalyptic themes, differs
from previous apocalyptic writings. It incorporates into the
apocalyptic images of vindication and judgment on evil the figure of the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the redemptive element of
innocent suffering (see
Interpreting the Book of Revelation).
That is a new element in apocalyptic thought that serves to modify the
harsh perspectives of judgment on evil in light of Jesus’ own teachings
and life. There is still the idea of accountability for sin and the
vindication of the righteous, but it is set in the context of Jesus and
the principles of faithfulness to God as the governing concept.
Still, while apocalyptic theology is not the norm for the Christian
faith as many assume, there is a place for apocalyptic expressions of
the faith. One example from recent history that provides a very graphic
example is the uprising in China that climaxed in the Tiananmen Square
massacre in 1989. To a Chinese Christian living under the oppression of
a communist system of government in which freedom and religion are
systematically controlled by a godless state, apocalyptic faith may be a
valid expression of the Christian hope. They can see no way that God can
work beyond the present structures of oppression and evil. The lone
figure of the man who stood before the column of tanks may inspire us
with his courage. But a better picture of the actual situation, and a
video not shown nearly as often, is the man who was killed by a convoy
truck as it swerved deliberately to hit the man as he stood at the edge
of a group of protestors.
In that kind of world in which hope for a different future is
systematically and ruthlessly crushed by tyrants and despots, in which
God is not a factor in the thinking of those who assume they control
human destiny, there needs to be some hope that God is God beyond the
hopelessness of present history. There needs to be some way to express a
faith in God that the world will someday reflect his purposes for his
creation, that someday human beings will be able to live as his people
free of the oppression and tyranny of evil. That is the power of genuine
apocalyptic. It is that purpose that biblical apocalyptic serves,
whether the evil in the world is the tyrant Antiochis IV Epiphanes, the
Emperor Nero, or Stalin.
Our mistake is to assume that this way of thinking is the dominant
theme of Scripture. In some ways, the New Testament reflects such a
world situation of hopelessness under the cruelty of tyrants. Yet,
understanding that context as well as the diversity of how biblical
faith is expressed raises questions as to whether that apocalyptic
eschatology should be the main way we express our faith as Christians.
Even more incongruous, and more dangerous to us as the people of God,
is an approach to the world that confuses the contexts in which either
prophetic eschatology or apocalyptic eschatology can be validly
expressed. Today, in most of the world, we live in an era of
unprecedented prosperity and stability. We enjoy freedoms and
opportunities that have been rare in the course of human history. So the
question we must seriously ask ourselves is whether this is the time to
articulate our Christian hope in terms of apocalyptic. Should we, who
have the freedom and opportunity to shape our world by how we live,
really resort to an apocalyptic mode of thinking that assumes pessimism
about the possibility of influencing history? Or should we hear the
prophetic message that challenges us to practice justice and
righteousness and be the people of God in the world in order to be a
light to the nations? Should we despair of God working in our present
history and long for him to come and destroy all the bad people? Or
should we take seriously the prophetic message of Amos that warns us
that our longing for the day of the Lord when we will be vindicated is
only an expression of our own arrogance and self-centeredness?
I suspect that we like apocalyptic thinking so much simply because it
is easier to accept than the prophetic message that calls us to justice
and righteousness. And perhaps that is why we have tended to pervert the
prophetic message to prediction of the future, often in an apocalyptic
mode (see Prophecy and Prediction).
Apocalyptic thinking is about all the evil people “out there” beyond
what we can control. It is easier to long for God to intervene to make
us even more comfortable, than it is to hear the prophetic message that
the problem lies in our own failure to do justice, to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with our God! It somehow never occurs to us that while we
wait for God to vindicate us, we might be failing to live as the people
of God, and might in fact be the oppressors of others as we wait for God
to deliver us from what we see as oppression against us. And in so
doing, in confusing the contexts in which we live, we fail to be His
people!
There may come a time when we need to express our faith in an
apocalyptic mode. Many people in the world do that today, simply because
that is the kind of world in which they live. If I were a Chinese
Christian today, or in the Sudan, or Iraq, I think I would be crying out
for God to bring an apocalyptic deliverance! Many in the past decade did
that in places like Russia or Eastern Europe. There are times and
circumstances for that. Done properly, it can become a powerful witness
to our faith, and hope. And God does come, even when the people want an
ahistorical apocalyptic ending, and works in the course of human
history to bring deliverance. It seems that even apocalyptic
expressions of our faith most often end up in a prophetic mode. Even
after the Israelites cried out for deliverance from the Egyptians and
God delivered them, they had to learn to listen to the prophetic message
of how to live in the world as God’s people after the deliverance!
But to claim apocalyptic eschatology as our view of the world in
contexts that call for a prophetic perspective becomes an exercise in
self-delusion, and an expression of our own self-importance and
arrogance. If there is anything that most people, especially in the
Western world need to hear today, it is the prophetic message. It is
not the “word of prophecy” hyped by popular books and TV preachers who
try to divine events that will unfold in the future to fulfill our
insatiable human curiosity. It is the core message of the Old Testament
prophets, reiterated even more strongly by Jesus: live as God’s people
in the world! Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Visit the sick and
those in prison. Preach the Gospel to the poor. Bind up the broken
hearted. Give cups of cold water in Jesus’ name. Proclaim the Good News
of reconciliation to God. Love God with all your hearts, and others as
dearly as your own life.
To have the capability as empowered by God to change the world by
being faithful to his call through the prophetic word that sees God at
work in human history, and yet retreat to an apocalyptic mode of
thinking that denies our and God’s ability to redeem even the darkest
history is to squander a precious treasure. I think God expects more of
his people!
-Dennis Bratcher, Copyright ©
2018, Dennis
Bratcher, All Rights Reserved
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Related pages The Rapture: Truth or Speculation?
The Second Coming
Various Interpretations of the Kingdom of God
The Millennium: Revelation 20:1-10
Christians and Urban Legends
Interpreting the Book of Revelation
See also: The Book of Revelation
The Jonah Syndrome: Reflections on Modern Attitudes in the Church
New Testament
Biblical Interpretation
Bible in the Church |
