Deeper understandings End-times
Scripture a witness to ways Christians can ignore fear-mongering
Editor’s note: This series is intended to be a public conversa- tion among teaching theologians of the ELCA on various themes of our faith and the challenging issues of our day. It invites readers to engage in dialogue by posting comments online at the end of each article at
www.thelutheran.org. The series is edited by Philip
D.W. Krey, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadel- phia, on behalf of the presidents of the eight ELCA seminaries.
By Sarah S. Henrich and Dirk G. Lange
Sarah Henrich: The Bible is full of images and predictions about the coming of a time when God’s mercy and justice would be all in all—when life would be blessed with abun- dance and peace, the quieter joys of a modest life, and the exuberant joys implied by weddings, banquets and feasts of love. For people who believe God loves them and God’s whole cre- ation, it makes so much sense to long for the blessings of God’s reign.
God is the creator who promises over and over again to redeem God’s people from the fear of enemies, from wretched servitude, poverty, captivity and the tyranny of diseases, and from the suffering inherent in life. Since God promises to do justice and promises blessings, those who trust in God’s power and love but live in the real world are forced to think about the end-times. After all, things can’t just come to an end as they are now, can they?
In the real world we catch glimpses of the joy of living a godly life, but the glimpses only sharpen our longing for God to make this creation right or to usher us into some new and wonderful place in another dimension or time.
It has certainly struck me, as we’ve thought about this topic, that our speculations about the end-times may become more sophisticated, but the wonder or hope or fear or what- ever it is never goes away.
In the popular movies out this past Henrich Lange
Henrich is professor of New Testament and Lange is associate professor of worship, both at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.
summer, Spiderman and The Dark Knight Rises (Batman), fears about who controls the end-times and what destruction will happen fill audiences with dread. The “superhero” must do battle for the sake of the continu- ation of human life and hope for its improvement. And these movies aren’t unusual. Falling Skies is a great TV example of the end of life on earth as we know it. We even hope our political candi- dates will be perfect enough to create change for the better that we can all enjoy, even though we know better about human perfection. And there are a lot of websites out there still trying to
18 The Lutheran •
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prophesy when the “end” will be. In the New Testament, Jesus’ res- urrection intensified expectation for quite some time that God’s “new cre- ation” or God’s “reign” was at hand for all creation. Jesus was first fruits of a general resurrection of human- kind, a belief that had risen among many Jews. There are different takes on what is ahead for all earthly crea- tures, including earth itself, but there is always an underlying expectation that life here and elsewhere in God’s cosmos will become radically better for believers.
What I find most valuable in the
New Testament, though, is the very unified witness to the confident ways Christians can ignore the specula- tions, the fear-mongering, even the high drama about “great” changes to come. Paul, who seems to expect that Christ’s second coming to usher in the new age will be soon, told the Thessalonians to live quietly and work to care for themselves, while encouraging each other and building each other up. And in Luke’s Gospel, as in the others, the proper calling in life is to remain faithful to God and care for the neighbor. There are too many pas- sages to cite.
Dirk Lange: Martin Luther picks up on this scriptural approach to the end-times. He was keenly aware that end-times could be upon his society at any given moment or, in fact, were upon it (for example, he saw the sell- ing of indulgences as a sign of the last days, as well as the threat of invasion from the Turks who were at the gates of Vienna in 1529 or the simple fact
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