"When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times." (Matthew 16:2-3)
What does the Bible have to say about signs from God? In this passage the Jewish religious leaders had asked Jesus for some kind of proof of his identity, but he went on to say that no sign would be given to them "except the sign of Jonah" (Matthew 16:4, referring to his impending days in the tomb as similar to Jonah's days in the belly of the big fish). The gospel of John is filled with references to Jesus' miracles as signs of his identity. There's the passage about the fleece and the dew from Judges 6, where Gideon hears from God but still asks for a sign to confirm that he heard him right.
What about signs that the end is coming? Well, the Bible talks about those, too. This fuels a great deal of speculation in certain circles, where people try to say that such-and-such an event corresponds with some sign of the end predicted in the Bible. Is this conclusion warranted? Let's take a look at some of the signs and find out...
"Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:5-14)
"There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. ... Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand." (Daniel 12:1, 10)
"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (1 Timothy 4:1)
"Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved." (Romans 11:25-26)
"Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." (2 Thessalonians 2:3-10)
"I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, 'Who is like the beast? Who can make war against it?' The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. It was given power to make war against God's people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. ... It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name." (Revelation 13:1-8, 16-17)
So where does that leave us? Let's make a list of signs we can expect. First, some negative signs:
--false Christs, false prophets, and false teachings
--an oppressive, blasphemous religious/military/economic leader
--counterfeit miracles and false worship
--wars, earthquakes, and famines
--persecution of Christians, including martyrdom
--apostasy (Christians leaving the faith)
All that being said, there are certainly some positive signs mentioned:
--the global spread of the gospel
--the salvation of many Jews
--many Christians remaining strong in the faith in spite of persecution
What do you think? Do you see these things happening in our world today? I do.
The thing is... they've been happening for two thousand years. Not one thing on this list wasn't taking place in some shape or form in the first century of the church. The signs we should expect to precede the end of the world are an intensification of things that have already been seen throughout church history. We are not looking for anything categorically different. Evil is on the rise, but so is good! This is just what the Bible would lead us to think.
I'm not making this up; it's in the biblical passages themselves. Notice, for example, how Paul shifts from talking about the future to talking about the present in 1 Timothy 4:1-3: "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (Sounds like the future.) "Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods." (Sounds like the present.)
In the same vein, consider 1 John 2:18: "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour." (emphasis added)
So, what should we see in the biblical teaching about the signs of the end, and what should we see as we look at the world around us? We should recognize that evil is on the rise. Satan is still active in many awful ways at this time on earth. There are great injustices, religious persecution, false teachings, violence, oppressive dictatorships, and many who reject Christ. We are called to resist this evil and persist in following the true Christ in the face of all obstacles that oppose goodness. God is also moving! The gospel has spread to every political nation-state on the planet. Jewish people continue to embrace Jesus as the true Messiah. Many persecuted believers are persevering in the faith. And alongside great injustices, there have been many strides for justice, human rights, and freedom of conscience. We should not be surprised by the increase of evil, we should praise God for the increase of good, and we should seek to be a part of the latter rather than the former.
Next post: the millennium.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Accessible Eschatology: THE END OF THE WORLD!!!...?
Okay, so far we've introduced the topic of eschatology, defined it, discussed the "already, but not yet" character of life after Jesus according to the Bible, and addressed one underemphasized theme on the topic of personal eschatology (see previous posts). Now we turn our attention to general eschatology, which addresses the question, "Where is world history going?"
So, let me be the first to tell you, "THE END OF ALL THINGS IS NEAR!!!" (1 Peter 4:7, ripped bleeding from its literary context)
Yes, the Bible does talk about the future, and we have good reason to believe that what it says about the future will genuinely come to pass. For starters, it's happened before - the Old Testament prophets foretold a great many events that came to pass, both in their own generations and in the person of Jesus. Jesus himself predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, an event that came to pass 40 years after his ascension. So, when the Bible talks about things that it claims are yet to come, we have good reason to believe they're coming.
How should we respond to that truth? In my first post in the series, I talked about the two most common responses - ignore it or sensationalize it. Let's talk a little about the sensationalistic tendency. It's a very understandable response. A person comes to see the Bible as an authoritative book; like all of us, they have a natural human curiosity about the future; they learn that the Bible has something to say about the future that can be trusted; they try to figure out the future based on the Bible. This is where it gets tricky - the passages that talk about the future seem clear as mud to the average 21st-century reader; someone (maybe the person themselves, maybe someone else) suggests a way to interpret these passages that makes them fit together in an understandable picture; the person accepts this picture and uses it as a lens through which to interpret any and all biblical passages that might be talking about the future, so that the Bible makes sense in a way it didn't before. The person feels satisfied now. And depending on that interpretive method they have bought into, the person might start to interpret CNN in light of the picture they think the Bible gives us of the future. "THE END OF ALL THINGS IS NEAR!!!"
On the other hand, let's think of some different people. These people were the original audiences of the biblical texts - Isaiah, Daniel, Matthew, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, etc. These people keenly felt the brokenness of their world. Some were in exile from their homeland, while others were suffering persecution for their faith. They needed hope. Along comes a new message - from a prophet, from Jesus, or from a trusted leader in the global Christian community. This message says, "yes, times are hard. But God is in control! The future is his! He has promised that he will one day set all things right! Take courage!" The audience receives just what they needed - hope.
And that's the idea. In the Bible, apocalyptic books - books like Daniel and Revelation, wherein God reveals mysteries like the future - were not written to satisfy the curiosity of those of us with some time on our hands to "crack the code." They were written to give hope to people living in desperate circumstances. God has plans for an unprecedented redemption in the future, and you are a part of his plans. What you're going through now will not last forever. Therefore, our primary response to language about the future in the Bible should not be to stimulate our curiosity, but to dare to hope in the midst of life's crap.
Next post: read the signs.
So, let me be the first to tell you, "THE END OF ALL THINGS IS NEAR!!!" (1 Peter 4:7, ripped bleeding from its literary context)
Yes, the Bible does talk about the future, and we have good reason to believe that what it says about the future will genuinely come to pass. For starters, it's happened before - the Old Testament prophets foretold a great many events that came to pass, both in their own generations and in the person of Jesus. Jesus himself predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, an event that came to pass 40 years after his ascension. So, when the Bible talks about things that it claims are yet to come, we have good reason to believe they're coming.
How should we respond to that truth? In my first post in the series, I talked about the two most common responses - ignore it or sensationalize it. Let's talk a little about the sensationalistic tendency. It's a very understandable response. A person comes to see the Bible as an authoritative book; like all of us, they have a natural human curiosity about the future; they learn that the Bible has something to say about the future that can be trusted; they try to figure out the future based on the Bible. This is where it gets tricky - the passages that talk about the future seem clear as mud to the average 21st-century reader; someone (maybe the person themselves, maybe someone else) suggests a way to interpret these passages that makes them fit together in an understandable picture; the person accepts this picture and uses it as a lens through which to interpret any and all biblical passages that might be talking about the future, so that the Bible makes sense in a way it didn't before. The person feels satisfied now. And depending on that interpretive method they have bought into, the person might start to interpret CNN in light of the picture they think the Bible gives us of the future. "THE END OF ALL THINGS IS NEAR!!!"
On the other hand, let's think of some different people. These people were the original audiences of the biblical texts - Isaiah, Daniel, Matthew, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, etc. These people keenly felt the brokenness of their world. Some were in exile from their homeland, while others were suffering persecution for their faith. They needed hope. Along comes a new message - from a prophet, from Jesus, or from a trusted leader in the global Christian community. This message says, "yes, times are hard. But God is in control! The future is his! He has promised that he will one day set all things right! Take courage!" The audience receives just what they needed - hope.
And that's the idea. In the Bible, apocalyptic books - books like Daniel and Revelation, wherein God reveals mysteries like the future - were not written to satisfy the curiosity of those of us with some time on our hands to "crack the code." They were written to give hope to people living in desperate circumstances. God has plans for an unprecedented redemption in the future, and you are a part of his plans. What you're going through now will not last forever. Therefore, our primary response to language about the future in the Bible should not be to stimulate our curiosity, but to dare to hope in the midst of life's crap.
Next post: read the signs.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Accessible Eschatology: life after the afterlife
And now that life is a little less day-to-day, back to our "accessible eschatology" series. Today I didn't even remember what I had already talked about, so I went back and read everything I've already said starting back in January. If you're new to the series, I encourage you to do the same, or else this will just float out there with no context for you.
We turn our attention now to personal eschatology, the study of the question, "what happens when a person dies?" Under the umbrella of eschatology, this is the arena that is most often talked about, because death happens. Sure, it's possible to ignore death or not think about it, especially in our culture where death is the realm of select health care professionals, but since "there are only two certainties in life - death and taxes," death is way more real to most people than the coming return of Jesus. ("What coming return?" Exactly.)
So, what does happen when a person dies? If I had to guess, I bet the three most common answers to that question in our culture would be as follows, in order:
1. "I don't know."
2. "You go to heaven."
3. "Nothing. You decompose."
Let's work with #2 - "You go to heaven." What do people mean by "heaven"? Well, it's rather common and even cool these days to use your imagination to craft a compelling vision of heaven (like in Mitch Albom's book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven). A lot of that is very meaningful to the person doing the imagining, whatever else other people (myself included) think of it. Some "you go to heaven" folks would alter that just a bit:
"Good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell."
Many evangelical Christians would tweak this to say:
"People who trusted in Jesus as their personal Savior in this life go to heaven, and those who never trusted in Jesus go to hell." (Sidebar - we could have a nuanced biblical conversation about who gets the "thumbs up" and who gets the "thumbs down," but that is another conversation for another day. In the meantime, if you're more curious about that than you are about the topic of this post, by all means close your browser and go read a good book like this one.)
Asked to describe heaven, the average Christian might say something like this: "There will be streets of gold, and we will worship God for eternity."
For a picture of the afterlife, this has some quality slices of the truth incorporated. However, there's something important missing, something that is rarely taught about in a great number of churches: The ultimate biblical hope for the future is not for the afterlife. It's for life after the afterlife.
What does this mean? Human beings were created as bodily creatures. We were meant to live a physical existence. Ever since the Hebrew prophets, the hope of the people of God has been for our resurrection from the dead. Among other things, the resurrection of Jesus was God's way of declaring his faithfulness to the promise of our resurrection. We will all be raised from the dead in bodily form; Jesus gives us evidence of this as the "firstfruits" of the resurrection (see I Corinthians 15; the firstfruits metaphor is drawn from agriculture).
The Bible teaches that paradise (what we commonly think of as "heaven"), our home in the afterlife, will be a splendid place. We will no longer struggle with sin there, and we will experience fellowship with Jesus. On the other hand, paradise is a holding tank where we will await the even more glorious resurrection from the dead. That... is our real hope. We will possess incorruptible bodies, engage in meaningful relationships, and pursue physical tasks - all without the frustration and futility that faces us today. It will be paradise-plus. The ideals of the kingdom of God will be lived out in a physical kingdom, not just a place where our souls float around. It will be more wonderful than paradise; it will be more wonderful than the garden of Eden; it will certainly be more wonderful than any utopia that can be imagined by the human mind.
We'll talk more about this place in coming posts. In the meantime, I probably have a good number of skeptics in the audience. Allow me to provide a few readings from the Bible for your consideration:
Isaiah 26:19
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Daniel 12
I Corinthians 15
I Thessalonians 4:13-18
Revelation 19-22
And if you don't believe me yet, consider what Anglican Bishop Tom Wright has to say - he has a whole book on the issue: Surprised by Hope. I don't agree with Wright on every count, but he knows the Bible very well, and he gets a lot right in this book. *UPDATE* (Saturday, March 14): I wrote this post yesterday, the same day a much more prominent blogger - evangelical Methodist scholar Ben Witherington III - posted this interview with Bishop Wright. Check it out.
Next post: THE END OF THE WORLD!!!...?
We turn our attention now to personal eschatology, the study of the question, "what happens when a person dies?" Under the umbrella of eschatology, this is the arena that is most often talked about, because death happens. Sure, it's possible to ignore death or not think about it, especially in our culture where death is the realm of select health care professionals, but since "there are only two certainties in life - death and taxes," death is way more real to most people than the coming return of Jesus. ("What coming return?" Exactly.)
So, what does happen when a person dies? If I had to guess, I bet the three most common answers to that question in our culture would be as follows, in order:
1. "I don't know."
2. "You go to heaven."
3. "Nothing. You decompose."
Let's work with #2 - "You go to heaven." What do people mean by "heaven"? Well, it's rather common and even cool these days to use your imagination to craft a compelling vision of heaven (like in Mitch Albom's book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven). A lot of that is very meaningful to the person doing the imagining, whatever else other people (myself included) think of it. Some "you go to heaven" folks would alter that just a bit:
"Good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell."
Many evangelical Christians would tweak this to say:
"People who trusted in Jesus as their personal Savior in this life go to heaven, and those who never trusted in Jesus go to hell." (Sidebar - we could have a nuanced biblical conversation about who gets the "thumbs up" and who gets the "thumbs down," but that is another conversation for another day. In the meantime, if you're more curious about that than you are about the topic of this post, by all means close your browser and go read a good book like this one.)
Asked to describe heaven, the average Christian might say something like this: "There will be streets of gold, and we will worship God for eternity."
For a picture of the afterlife, this has some quality slices of the truth incorporated. However, there's something important missing, something that is rarely taught about in a great number of churches: The ultimate biblical hope for the future is not for the afterlife. It's for life after the afterlife.
What does this mean? Human beings were created as bodily creatures. We were meant to live a physical existence. Ever since the Hebrew prophets, the hope of the people of God has been for our resurrection from the dead. Among other things, the resurrection of Jesus was God's way of declaring his faithfulness to the promise of our resurrection. We will all be raised from the dead in bodily form; Jesus gives us evidence of this as the "firstfruits" of the resurrection (see I Corinthians 15; the firstfruits metaphor is drawn from agriculture).
The Bible teaches that paradise (what we commonly think of as "heaven"), our home in the afterlife, will be a splendid place. We will no longer struggle with sin there, and we will experience fellowship with Jesus. On the other hand, paradise is a holding tank where we will await the even more glorious resurrection from the dead. That... is our real hope. We will possess incorruptible bodies, engage in meaningful relationships, and pursue physical tasks - all without the frustration and futility that faces us today. It will be paradise-plus. The ideals of the kingdom of God will be lived out in a physical kingdom, not just a place where our souls float around. It will be more wonderful than paradise; it will be more wonderful than the garden of Eden; it will certainly be more wonderful than any utopia that can be imagined by the human mind.
We'll talk more about this place in coming posts. In the meantime, I probably have a good number of skeptics in the audience. Allow me to provide a few readings from the Bible for your consideration:
Isaiah 26:19
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Daniel 12
I Corinthians 15
I Thessalonians 4:13-18
Revelation 19-22
And if you don't believe me yet, consider what Anglican Bishop Tom Wright has to say - he has a whole book on the issue: Surprised by Hope. I don't agree with Wright on every count, but he knows the Bible very well, and he gets a lot right in this book. *UPDATE* (Saturday, March 14): I wrote this post yesterday, the same day a much more prominent blogger - evangelical Methodist scholar Ben Witherington III - posted this interview with Bishop Wright. Check it out.
Next post: THE END OF THE WORLD!!!...?
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Personal odds & ends
Life's been a little hectic for me lately, hence, no "accessible eschatology" posts in the last couple weeks. So, what's been keeping us busy? Well, here's a brief respite from the series of theologizing for some random bits of "what's up?" in our lives...
Graduation is in sight! We're less than three months from the end of our time here at Denver Seminary. It's nice to be finishing up, but it's also bittersweet. This season of life here in Denver has been a blessed one for us, and we will dearly miss the people and communities that have made this time so special.
In order to graduate, we each have capstone projects that we're working on. Meggan implemented her course last October on incorporating dance into the corporate worship setting, and she's wrapping up her paperwork for that. My capstone project is a doctrinal paper outlining my personal views on a variety of issues in theology and ministry philosophy. I handed the paper in yesterday after a couple weeks of cRaZIneSs getting it ready. I will stand before a panel of two professors in mid-April for an oral defense of the paper. So, for both of us, one part down, one part to go.
Separate from her project, Meggan danced in church a couple weeks ago. (The picture is of the four gals who danced, along with some friends from Littleton Dance Academy who came to show their support.) I've started working with the high school youth at church, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I meet with a senior guy every other week or so. He wants to be a political science major, so we're reading this book together about how different Christians have chosen to engage politics in the past hundred years. Youth ministry is a privilege and a pleasure. I'm excited (and rather nervous) to engage youth in Spain.
We're moving along in the appointment process with WorldVenture. We have an interview scheduled for this Tuesday. We continue to consider it an honor to be working with such a quality organization.
In the meantime, there's next year! We're planning to move back to Wisconsin in July to raise our team of financial and prayer partners for our return to Spain. While we're in Madison, I hope to volunteer with my friend Lief, who's a high school pastor there. Meggan has a potential job lead that would be a really good fit, and we found an apartment while we were home over Christmas break. It's right across the street from Vitense Golfland, so we'll be mini-golf pros by the end of the year. :-)
Another honor - I've been chosen as one of the senior preachers here at the seminary, which means I'll get to speak in chapel. I'm very much looking forward to it. If you're in the Denver area and available, you're welcome to join us; it's Tuesday, March 10, at 11 AM. If my preaching doesn't interest you, come to hear Meggan sing!
In other news,
for the first time in my life, I got glasses. Yup, the son of two parents who wore glasses from the age of six (Dad) and two (Mom) finally got some of his own. I'm 20/20 in my left eye, but too much time in front of books and computer screens for grad school got me a stigmatism in my right eye. The price of education. They're taking some getting used to, but the transition has been smoother than I would have guessed; no major headaches or anything.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...
Graduation is in sight! We're less than three months from the end of our time here at Denver Seminary. It's nice to be finishing up, but it's also bittersweet. This season of life here in Denver has been a blessed one for us, and we will dearly miss the people and communities that have made this time so special.
In order to graduate, we each have capstone projects that we're working on. Meggan implemented her course last October on incorporating dance into the corporate worship setting, and she's wrapping up her paperwork for that. My capstone project is a doctrinal paper outlining my personal views on a variety of issues in theology and ministry philosophy. I handed the paper in yesterday after a couple weeks of cRaZIneSs getting it ready. I will stand before a panel of two professors in mid-April for an oral defense of the paper. So, for both of us, one part down, one part to go.
Separate from her project, Meggan danced in church a couple weeks ago. (The picture is of the four gals who danced, along with some friends from Littleton Dance Academy who came to show their support.) I've started working with the high school youth at church, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I meet with a senior guy every other week or so. He wants to be a political science major, so we're reading this book together about how different Christians have chosen to engage politics in the past hundred years. Youth ministry is a privilege and a pleasure. I'm excited (and rather nervous) to engage youth in Spain.
We're moving along in the appointment process with WorldVenture. We have an interview scheduled for this Tuesday. We continue to consider it an honor to be working with such a quality organization.
In the meantime, there's next year! We're planning to move back to Wisconsin in July to raise our team of financial and prayer partners for our return to Spain. While we're in Madison, I hope to volunteer with my friend Lief, who's a high school pastor there. Meggan has a potential job lead that would be a really good fit, and we found an apartment while we were home over Christmas break. It's right across the street from Vitense Golfland, so we'll be mini-golf pros by the end of the year. :-)
Another honor - I've been chosen as one of the senior preachers here at the seminary, which means I'll get to speak in chapel. I'm very much looking forward to it. If you're in the Denver area and available, you're welcome to join us; it's Tuesday, March 10, at 11 AM. If my preaching doesn't interest you, come to hear Meggan sing!
In other news,
for the first time in my life, I got glasses. Yup, the son of two parents who wore glasses from the age of six (Dad) and two (Mom) finally got some of his own. I'm 20/20 in my left eye, but too much time in front of books and computer screens for grad school got me a stigmatism in my right eye. The price of education. They're taking some getting used to, but the transition has been smoother than I would have guessed; no major headaches or anything.And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Accessible Eschatology: the "already, but not yet" in spiritual formation
So, the "already, but not yet" of the Christian faith is an expression of the tension we experience as followers of Christ living between his first coming (in humility, service, and suffering) and his second coming (in power and glory, to rule with true justice over all the earth). I believe that understanding this tension can help us understand the ebbs and flows of our relationship with God. It can teach us about our seasons of life, others' seasons of life, self-esteem, and suffering.
Allow me to use my personal journey as an example. I first started taking my faith in Christ seriously as a college freshman. Each week I participated in a Bible study, went to church, and went to a large-group campus ministry meeting. I was reading my Bible and praying privately almost every day. I went to a fall conference and a winter conference with the campus ministry group, and I volunteered for random stuff here and there. My faith was growing like gangbusters - the Bible was speaking into my life in ways I didn't know it could, I was connecting with God as never before, and my thoughts and actions were being reshaped by my growing convictions. I spent that first summer doing what was called a "summer project" with the campus ministry group, and I came back my sophomore year on a huge high - continuing to grow individually, and also growing as a new leader of others in ministry. God was bearing fruit in me and in others' lives through me. It was an exciting time!
In retrospect, I see that I was experiencing the "already" of life in Christ. Everything was new, and the horizon of life was expanding before my eyes. My appetite for learning new things and experiencing new things regarding life in Christ was insatiable. It was wondrous and wonderful... and I couldn't understand how some other Christians were living anything but an abundant, victorious life.
Fast-forward a few years. I had been exposed to all of the "big truths" of the Christian faith on at least some level. I became resigned to the fact that I would very rarely learn anything truly new from a preacher (or even from the Bible!) ever again. I had experienced a wide variety of ministry opportunities, and I had learned that ministry wasn't as simple as I once thought it was. I was seeing the world through increasingly pessimistic lenses, recognizing that many people aren't just passively naïve of spiritual truth - they can be intentionally ignorant, avoidant, and unresponsive. I had learned that the church had more problems than I thought it did & way more than I thought it should. I had been through a rough patch in life, facing issues that did not have simple answers. I began to long for God's deeper redemption.
I was living in the "not yet" of our life in Christ. At the same time, this felt wrong. I had one category for what life in Christ should feel like, and that was the "already" category. In this place of "disequilibrium," where the old ways of thinking were no longer working, I could have become disenfranchised with the whole enterprise - church, trusting God, Bible, prayer, ministry... whatever. Disenfranchisement could have taken the face of enduring pessimism in these areas or outright rejection of all of them.
Fortunately, I took a better road: I allowed new categories to take shape in me. These weren't entirely new categories for the Christian life, but they were new to my life. I found that life in Christ is big enough for both "already" and "not yet." In fact, I found that this is the essence of what it means to live for Jesus in this age on earth - we need both.
Those of us who find ourselves in a season where the "already" dominates must not look down on those currently soaking in the "not yet" (as I had in my early walk of faith). Those of us abiding in the "not yet" should not look on "already" folks with snorts of sarcasm and a "just wait and see, buddy" attitude. We need each other - "already" folks need to be reminded that life with God isn't always roses, and "not yet" people need to recognize that God really does bless his people and transform their lives in many ways in this life.
Marinating at one end of the spectrum while ignoring the other is unhealthy and unwise. A "not yet" life with no theology of the "already" wrongly resigns itself to the thought that spiritual growth and freedom from patterns of sin can't happen; the "not yet" self-esteem is too low. An "already" life with no theology of the "not yet" wrongly labels everything that isn't going right in another person's life as the result of that person's sin; the "already" self-esteem is too proud. A mature spiritual life is a blend of the "already, but not yet," allowing for certain seasons of life to ebb and flow between being deeply satisfying and truly painful. The "already, but not yet" self-esteem is on the high side, because we know that we have been created in God's image and even re-created to become like Christ, but we are not unrealistic about personal limitations and ongoing struggles with sin.
God is there in the midst of all seasons. The risen Christ celebrates with us when his reign is evident in our lives. The crucified Christ suffers with us when life sucks. We praise God for his blessings on this side of Christ's first coming, and we praise God for the coming end to our frustrations when Christ will come again.
Next post: life after the afterlife.
Allow me to use my personal journey as an example. I first started taking my faith in Christ seriously as a college freshman. Each week I participated in a Bible study, went to church, and went to a large-group campus ministry meeting. I was reading my Bible and praying privately almost every day. I went to a fall conference and a winter conference with the campus ministry group, and I volunteered for random stuff here and there. My faith was growing like gangbusters - the Bible was speaking into my life in ways I didn't know it could, I was connecting with God as never before, and my thoughts and actions were being reshaped by my growing convictions. I spent that first summer doing what was called a "summer project" with the campus ministry group, and I came back my sophomore year on a huge high - continuing to grow individually, and also growing as a new leader of others in ministry. God was bearing fruit in me and in others' lives through me. It was an exciting time!
In retrospect, I see that I was experiencing the "already" of life in Christ. Everything was new, and the horizon of life was expanding before my eyes. My appetite for learning new things and experiencing new things regarding life in Christ was insatiable. It was wondrous and wonderful... and I couldn't understand how some other Christians were living anything but an abundant, victorious life.
Fast-forward a few years. I had been exposed to all of the "big truths" of the Christian faith on at least some level. I became resigned to the fact that I would very rarely learn anything truly new from a preacher (or even from the Bible!) ever again. I had experienced a wide variety of ministry opportunities, and I had learned that ministry wasn't as simple as I once thought it was. I was seeing the world through increasingly pessimistic lenses, recognizing that many people aren't just passively naïve of spiritual truth - they can be intentionally ignorant, avoidant, and unresponsive. I had learned that the church had more problems than I thought it did & way more than I thought it should. I had been through a rough patch in life, facing issues that did not have simple answers. I began to long for God's deeper redemption.
I was living in the "not yet" of our life in Christ. At the same time, this felt wrong. I had one category for what life in Christ should feel like, and that was the "already" category. In this place of "disequilibrium," where the old ways of thinking were no longer working, I could have become disenfranchised with the whole enterprise - church, trusting God, Bible, prayer, ministry... whatever. Disenfranchisement could have taken the face of enduring pessimism in these areas or outright rejection of all of them.
Fortunately, I took a better road: I allowed new categories to take shape in me. These weren't entirely new categories for the Christian life, but they were new to my life. I found that life in Christ is big enough for both "already" and "not yet." In fact, I found that this is the essence of what it means to live for Jesus in this age on earth - we need both.
Those of us who find ourselves in a season where the "already" dominates must not look down on those currently soaking in the "not yet" (as I had in my early walk of faith). Those of us abiding in the "not yet" should not look on "already" folks with snorts of sarcasm and a "just wait and see, buddy" attitude. We need each other - "already" folks need to be reminded that life with God isn't always roses, and "not yet" people need to recognize that God really does bless his people and transform their lives in many ways in this life.
Marinating at one end of the spectrum while ignoring the other is unhealthy and unwise. A "not yet" life with no theology of the "already" wrongly resigns itself to the thought that spiritual growth and freedom from patterns of sin can't happen; the "not yet" self-esteem is too low. An "already" life with no theology of the "not yet" wrongly labels everything that isn't going right in another person's life as the result of that person's sin; the "already" self-esteem is too proud. A mature spiritual life is a blend of the "already, but not yet," allowing for certain seasons of life to ebb and flow between being deeply satisfying and truly painful. The "already, but not yet" self-esteem is on the high side, because we know that we have been created in God's image and even re-created to become like Christ, but we are not unrealistic about personal limitations and ongoing struggles with sin.
God is there in the midst of all seasons. The risen Christ celebrates with us when his reign is evident in our lives. The crucified Christ suffers with us when life sucks. We praise God for his blessings on this side of Christ's first coming, and we praise God for the coming end to our frustrations when Christ will come again.
Next post: life after the afterlife.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Accessible Eschatology: already, but not yet
The central thrust of New Testament eschatology can be summed up in one phrase: already, but not yet.
At the end of my last post, I said this idea has the power to serve as a holistic framework for the way a Christian looks at life. That sounds a little over the top, doesn't it? Do I really mean that? Well, yes. When I first heard a professor focus on the already-but-not-yet character of our life in Christ, it gave me a row of hooks to hang all my hats on. It fits the biblical evidence so well, I would be so bold as to say it's the second-most important Christian idea that is only indirectly taught in the Bible, right behind the doctrine of the Trinity.
The "already" is about the fact that the kingdom of God has already come to earth. Jesus came as God in the flesh, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. He lived a perfect life, empowered by the Holy Spirit, saying and doing exactly what God the Father wanted him to say and do. He healed the sick, embraced the outcast, challenged corrupt authorities, and taught broken people about eternal life. He died for all people, making it possible for us to be reconciled with a holy God, corrupt though we are. As a result, those who embrace Christ are current participants in the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit, who was only given to special individuals under special circumstances in the Old Testament, is now available to the entire community of people who follow Christ, just as the prophet Joel had promised.
The "not yet" is about the fact that the kingdom of God has not yet reached its ultimate fulfillment on earth. Jesus did not bring final judgment on the wickedness of this earth, so the good stuff remains mingled with the bad stuff. Everything is in shades of gray, the worthless so frustratingly intertwined with the worthwhile. The Old Testament expectation of the Messiah had included complete restoration and redemption - socially, politically, economically, spiritually, physically, vocationally... you name it. It had included Judgment Day, because that had to be part of the equation; if God were to usher in a golden age, he would have had to cleanse Israel from all evil. Christians continue to embrace this Old Testament hope for the consummation of the kingdom of God on earth, which we expect to occur when Jesus returns to earth (cf. Acts 1:1-11).
One way to put this is that we are currently living in an era that is an overlap of the old era (earth before the Messiah) and the new era (earth under the Messiah's rule). A visual representation of this is helpful (this is from our professor/boss/friend Craig Blomberg's Jesus and the Gospels, p. 385 - click the image for a larger view):
Thus our life in Christ is replete with the tension between the already and the not-yet. We experience it in our struggle with sin: we have the power of the Spirit living within us to make us conquerors over sin, yet we still struggle almost constantly with our enduring sinful tendencies (see Romans 7-8). We experience it in our worship and knowledge of God: "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12) We experience it in our churches: the church is sometimes the most beautiful example of community the world has ever seen, yet it has known all the interpersonal ugliness one can find anywhere else in the world. We experience it in our mission in the world: the gospel continues to spread in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; William Wilberforce successfully argued for the end of the slave trade in England; the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement here in the U.S. brought an end to institutionalized racism, and we now have a biracial president... YET, the gospel has eroded in lands once populated with Christians through forces such as Islam in the 7th century and the Enlightenment in the 18th; though no longer sanctioned by our governments, there is more slavery on our globe today than at any point in human history; much of the Western world has decided it's okay to kill the most vulnerable persons in our societies for the sake of convenience. We experience it in our work: we often find satisfaction in our efforts and toils, particularly when we get to do something we enjoy or when the fruits of our labors are evident, yet we all too often find work to be a frustrating, futile endeavor, or our job brings us very little joy, or demand drops and we lose our income.
There's plenty more to say on this topic, but there's already plenty of food for thought in this post, so we'll draw the line here and save some for the next post, where we'll talk about the "already, but not yet" in spiritual formation.
At the end of my last post, I said this idea has the power to serve as a holistic framework for the way a Christian looks at life. That sounds a little over the top, doesn't it? Do I really mean that? Well, yes. When I first heard a professor focus on the already-but-not-yet character of our life in Christ, it gave me a row of hooks to hang all my hats on. It fits the biblical evidence so well, I would be so bold as to say it's the second-most important Christian idea that is only indirectly taught in the Bible, right behind the doctrine of the Trinity.
The "already" is about the fact that the kingdom of God has already come to earth. Jesus came as God in the flesh, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. He lived a perfect life, empowered by the Holy Spirit, saying and doing exactly what God the Father wanted him to say and do. He healed the sick, embraced the outcast, challenged corrupt authorities, and taught broken people about eternal life. He died for all people, making it possible for us to be reconciled with a holy God, corrupt though we are. As a result, those who embrace Christ are current participants in the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit, who was only given to special individuals under special circumstances in the Old Testament, is now available to the entire community of people who follow Christ, just as the prophet Joel had promised.
The "not yet" is about the fact that the kingdom of God has not yet reached its ultimate fulfillment on earth. Jesus did not bring final judgment on the wickedness of this earth, so the good stuff remains mingled with the bad stuff. Everything is in shades of gray, the worthless so frustratingly intertwined with the worthwhile. The Old Testament expectation of the Messiah had included complete restoration and redemption - socially, politically, economically, spiritually, physically, vocationally... you name it. It had included Judgment Day, because that had to be part of the equation; if God were to usher in a golden age, he would have had to cleanse Israel from all evil. Christians continue to embrace this Old Testament hope for the consummation of the kingdom of God on earth, which we expect to occur when Jesus returns to earth (cf. Acts 1:1-11).
One way to put this is that we are currently living in an era that is an overlap of the old era (earth before the Messiah) and the new era (earth under the Messiah's rule). A visual representation of this is helpful (this is from our professor/boss/friend Craig Blomberg's Jesus and the Gospels, p. 385 - click the image for a larger view):
Thus our life in Christ is replete with the tension between the already and the not-yet. We experience it in our struggle with sin: we have the power of the Spirit living within us to make us conquerors over sin, yet we still struggle almost constantly with our enduring sinful tendencies (see Romans 7-8). We experience it in our worship and knowledge of God: "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12) We experience it in our churches: the church is sometimes the most beautiful example of community the world has ever seen, yet it has known all the interpersonal ugliness one can find anywhere else in the world. We experience it in our mission in the world: the gospel continues to spread in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; William Wilberforce successfully argued for the end of the slave trade in England; the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement here in the U.S. brought an end to institutionalized racism, and we now have a biracial president... YET, the gospel has eroded in lands once populated with Christians through forces such as Islam in the 7th century and the Enlightenment in the 18th; though no longer sanctioned by our governments, there is more slavery on our globe today than at any point in human history; much of the Western world has decided it's okay to kill the most vulnerable persons in our societies for the sake of convenience. We experience it in our work: we often find satisfaction in our efforts and toils, particularly when we get to do something we enjoy or when the fruits of our labors are evident, yet we all too often find work to be a frustrating, futile endeavor, or our job brings us very little joy, or demand drops and we lose our income.
There's plenty more to say on this topic, but there's already plenty of food for thought in this post, so we'll draw the line here and save some for the next post, where we'll talk about the "already, but not yet" in spiritual formation.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Accessible Eschatology: what is eschatology?
In order to embark on a series of posts about eschatology, it will be helpful for us to define the term. Short answer: Eschatology refers to biblical teaching about the future. It is concerned with two big questions - "What happens when a person dies?" and "Where is world history going?"
Of course, if that were all I had to say, there wouldn't be much point in putting together a whole blog post, now would there? So let's unpack that a bit. Eschatology comes from the Greek words eschatos (last things) and logos (word/study/doctrine). Thus, Bible-believing theologians use the term eschatology to refer to biblical teaching about last things. (Profound. This is why you pay me the big bucks, to tell you that 2+2=4.) Of course, we haven't really gotten anywhere yet - what are "last things"? We don't use that kind of language in everyday conversation. So, let's build a definition that makes sense.
Starting from the bottom up, we can say that "last things" equals the future. But it's not quite that simple, because "last things" includes elements that are present and even past. Why? Well, some of the things the biblical authors spoke about as future are now present or past for us, many centuries down the road, while others still have not yet come to pass. So, let's tweak our definition - "last things" equals things that were future to the biblical authors writing about them. One natural consequence of this is that Old Testament eschatology is different than New Testament eschatology. This is because certain things that were future for Old Testament authors came to be fulfilled in the life of Christ and the birth of the Church. So, another tweaking is in order - "last things" equals things that were future relative to the OT authors and things that were both present and future relative to the New Testament authors. If we put ourselves in the equation, we find that "last things" equals things that were future relative to the OT authors; that were both present and future relative to the NT authors; and that are past, present, and future relative to us today. I trust you can remember the second and third parts of that by hearing the first and thinking back to this conversation, so we will pare it down for brevity's sake: Eschatology refers to biblical teaching about things that were future relative to the OT authors.
Eschatology is commonly broken into two related fields of study - personal eschatology and general eschatology. These two correspond to the two big questions mentioned above - personal eschatology is related to what happens when a person dies, and general eschatology is related to the direction of world history. Personal eschatology is considered a subset of eschatology because, hey, anytime you're on this earth writing a book about death, it's a future subject for you.
In the next post, we will talk about the central thrust of New Testament eschatology, an idea that has the power to serve as a holistic framework for the way a Christian looks at life: already, but not yet.
Of course, if that were all I had to say, there wouldn't be much point in putting together a whole blog post, now would there? So let's unpack that a bit. Eschatology comes from the Greek words eschatos (last things) and logos (word/study/doctrine). Thus, Bible-believing theologians use the term eschatology to refer to biblical teaching about last things. (Profound. This is why you pay me the big bucks, to tell you that 2+2=4.) Of course, we haven't really gotten anywhere yet - what are "last things"? We don't use that kind of language in everyday conversation. So, let's build a definition that makes sense.
Starting from the bottom up, we can say that "last things" equals the future. But it's not quite that simple, because "last things" includes elements that are present and even past. Why? Well, some of the things the biblical authors spoke about as future are now present or past for us, many centuries down the road, while others still have not yet come to pass. So, let's tweak our definition - "last things" equals things that were future to the biblical authors writing about them. One natural consequence of this is that Old Testament eschatology is different than New Testament eschatology. This is because certain things that were future for Old Testament authors came to be fulfilled in the life of Christ and the birth of the Church. So, another tweaking is in order - "last things" equals things that were future relative to the OT authors and things that were both present and future relative to the New Testament authors. If we put ourselves in the equation, we find that "last things" equals things that were future relative to the OT authors; that were both present and future relative to the NT authors; and that are past, present, and future relative to us today. I trust you can remember the second and third parts of that by hearing the first and thinking back to this conversation, so we will pare it down for brevity's sake: Eschatology refers to biblical teaching about things that were future relative to the OT authors.
Eschatology is commonly broken into two related fields of study - personal eschatology and general eschatology. These two correspond to the two big questions mentioned above - personal eschatology is related to what happens when a person dies, and general eschatology is related to the direction of world history. Personal eschatology is considered a subset of eschatology because, hey, anytime you're on this earth writing a book about death, it's a future subject for you.
In the next post, we will talk about the central thrust of New Testament eschatology, an idea that has the power to serve as a holistic framework for the way a Christian looks at life: already, but not yet.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Accessible Eschatology: making sense of the present and the future in light of the past
What comes to your mind when you think of "eschatology" (the study of "last things")? Maybe your mind is a blank slate - you've never heard the word before, and the idea seems strange. Maybe you think of the Left Behind series of novels, or so-called "prophecy conferences" that many churches and ministries promote, teaching how current events in the newspaper correspond with events predicted in the Bible. That association could lead you to become fixated with these predictions: "Did you hear what happened between Russia and Iran? Read Ezekiel 38-39 - the end is near! I'd be surprised if the rapture didn't occur by 2012, at the latest." Or you might have a different reaction: "Why do people bother talking about this stuff? It's impractical and obsessive, and I don't buy it. I don't even try to read Revelation - it's hard enough understanding other parts of the Bible. Besides, what does the future have to do with my life now?"
I've sketched what are probably the three most common approaches to eschatology among Christians today: unintentional ignorance, intentional ignorance, and sensationalistic newspaper-Bible analysis. I hope many of you reading this will recognize that none of these three is particularly admirable (though one usually can't be held responsible for unintentional ignorance). So, it's my intention that this post will be the kick-off to a blog mini-series on eschatology. I'm calling it accessible eschatology, because my heart is that the average Christian reader could read these posts and be able to understand eschatology and understand its importance. This doesn't mean I will avoid all technical theological vocabulary, but I wholeheartedly intend to explain that vocabulary so its meaning is clear. If I ever offer too little explanation of a certain term, please leave a comment asking me to explain it better - you're probably not the only one wondering what the heck I'm talking about! (I'm also expecting that these posts might start a conversation here and there on a more technical level among my seminary-trained friends; don't let that scare you off - I promise, we don't bite, and it's perfectly normal to engage this subject at various levels.)
So, for my first trick, I have to try to convince you to keep reading the next few posts as they come. "Why should I care?" "What's wrong with where I'm at?" To the sensationalist, I pose a few questions: Does your current engagement of eschatology make you more like Jesus? Does it intersect with your day-to-day life? My guess is, the answer's no. Plus, I want to save you from looking and feeling stupid, like Edgar Whisenant and many others of the same ilk. To those who just don't know anything about eschatology, hear me from the top of my lungs: ESCHATOLOGY MATTERS! The Christian study of eschatology is intimately linked with a variety of topics that intersect with your daily life and relationship with God:
--hope
--the significance of your vocation
--the meaning of suffering
--your self-image
--international politics
--optimism, pessimism, and realism
--the tension between "life is good" and "life is hard"
... and more. Are you interested now? I hope so!
Next post: what is eschatology?
I've sketched what are probably the three most common approaches to eschatology among Christians today: unintentional ignorance, intentional ignorance, and sensationalistic newspaper-Bible analysis. I hope many of you reading this will recognize that none of these three is particularly admirable (though one usually can't be held responsible for unintentional ignorance). So, it's my intention that this post will be the kick-off to a blog mini-series on eschatology. I'm calling it accessible eschatology, because my heart is that the average Christian reader could read these posts and be able to understand eschatology and understand its importance. This doesn't mean I will avoid all technical theological vocabulary, but I wholeheartedly intend to explain that vocabulary so its meaning is clear. If I ever offer too little explanation of a certain term, please leave a comment asking me to explain it better - you're probably not the only one wondering what the heck I'm talking about! (I'm also expecting that these posts might start a conversation here and there on a more technical level among my seminary-trained friends; don't let that scare you off - I promise, we don't bite, and it's perfectly normal to engage this subject at various levels.)
So, for my first trick, I have to try to convince you to keep reading the next few posts as they come. "Why should I care?" "What's wrong with where I'm at?" To the sensationalist, I pose a few questions: Does your current engagement of eschatology make you more like Jesus? Does it intersect with your day-to-day life? My guess is, the answer's no. Plus, I want to save you from looking and feeling stupid, like Edgar Whisenant and many others of the same ilk. To those who just don't know anything about eschatology, hear me from the top of my lungs: ESCHATOLOGY MATTERS! The Christian study of eschatology is intimately linked with a variety of topics that intersect with your daily life and relationship with God:
--hope
--the significance of your vocation
--the meaning of suffering
--your self-image
--international politics
--optimism, pessimism, and realism
--the tension between "life is good" and "life is hard"
... and more. Are you interested now? I hope so!
Next post: what is eschatology?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Kudos to Rick Warren
I was skeptical of Warren's acceptance of Obama's invitation to pray at his inauguration. An inaugural invocation can easily be perceived as an endorsement. However, after watching the prayer, I think he did many things well...
--He quoted the Shema and the Lord's Prayer, both appropriate ecumenical picks, and invoked a wide swath of biblical imagery about the nature of God.
--His prayer was decidedly Christian, not statist (in either a conservative or a liberal direction).
--He acknowledged differences of opinion.
--He called for biblical character qualities like humility, servanthood, integrity, compassion, generosity, responsibility, and civility.
--He asked for forgiveness of sins, including for "when we fail to treat our fellow human beings ... with the respect that they deserve," which sounded to me like an appropriately veiled reference to abortion.
--He acknowledged that "one day, all nations and all people will stand accountable before you."
--He called on "the name of the one who changed my life -- Yeshua, Isa, Jesús, Jesus." Missiologically awesome! For those who don't know, that's Jesus in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, and English.
--By saying nothing about "traditional values," he effectively turned the other cheek to gay rights activists who had been passionately calling for his removal from the ceremony.
In short, he was ecumenical yet evangelical, biblical, missiological, deferent, appropriate, and even mildly prophetic. May God answer this prayer and use it for his glory in the lives of its hearers.
(The full text of the prayer is available here.)
--He quoted the Shema and the Lord's Prayer, both appropriate ecumenical picks, and invoked a wide swath of biblical imagery about the nature of God.
--His prayer was decidedly Christian, not statist (in either a conservative or a liberal direction).
--He acknowledged differences of opinion.
--He called for biblical character qualities like humility, servanthood, integrity, compassion, generosity, responsibility, and civility.
--He asked for forgiveness of sins, including for "when we fail to treat our fellow human beings ... with the respect that they deserve," which sounded to me like an appropriately veiled reference to abortion.
--He acknowledged that "one day, all nations and all people will stand accountable before you."
--He called on "the name of the one who changed my life -- Yeshua, Isa, Jesús, Jesus." Missiologically awesome! For those who don't know, that's Jesus in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, and English.
--By saying nothing about "traditional values," he effectively turned the other cheek to gay rights activists who had been passionately calling for his removal from the ceremony.
In short, he was ecumenical yet evangelical, biblical, missiological, deferent, appropriate, and even mildly prophetic. May God answer this prayer and use it for his glory in the lives of its hearers.
(The full text of the prayer is available here.)
Friday, December 5, 2008
Cultural analysis - Spain
Tonight I wrote a paper for one of my classes, the topic of which I bet you can guess from the title of this post. I wanted to share it, but it would have been disgustingly long for a blog post, so I gave it its own Google site. Curious parties can find it here.
(Wow, three posts in a day after a month off. What gives, Knox?)
(Wow, three posts in a day after a month off. What gives, Knox?)
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