Tuesday, November 06, 2018

Dark theology

Many professing Christians reject Calvinism because it has some sharp edges. And I agree with them that that makes Calvinism somewhat disturbing. However, that mirrors the kind of world we live in. Reality is disturbing. If the world is harsh, then that is, in some measure, a reflection of the God who made it. You can't logically say the world is harsh without saying God is harsh. 

Freewill theism is just as harsh as Calvinism. The difference is that freewill theism tries to camouflage the sharp edges. But even if you think God merely permits terrible things to happen for a morally sufficient reason, the fact that he allows things he could prevent tells you something about his character and priorities. A softer God would step in. The difference between Calvinism and freewill theism is illusory in that regard. Freewill theism drives a wedge between theology and reality, faith and experience. It projects a soft God onto a hard world. 

Having said all that, it's important not to exaggerate the sharp edges. What's most striking about life in a fallen world is the stark contrast between good and evil, beauty and ugliness. It's very two-sided. As such, it's simplistic to say God is harsh. But there's an undeniable element of severity to God's administration of the world. Many readers of the OT are taken aback by Yahweh's severity. Again, that's one-sided. Yahweh is often gracious, merciful, long-suffering. That's the other side. 

I have a darker theology than I used to–not because I'm a Calvinist, but because the longer you live the more you experience, and it gets darker. In a way, that contrast makes the light brighter by comparison. The chiaroscuro of weal and woe, blessing and bane. 

10 comments:

  1. You hit on a good point. God doesn't intervene for a reason, we just differ on the reason. Once I realized Paul got a Damascus Road experience and not everyone else does, my Arminian objections went away.

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  2. I agree, Steve.

    On a somewhat related point, the darkness of life and this world has always kept me from warming up to postmillenial optimism. It isn't just that I think the possibility of Christianity "taking over the world" (granting whatever postmillenials think that entails) is unlikely, given the depravity of mankind and the current course of history. But even if Christianity did, it would remove the pain and sadness of life. We'd still live among sinners, struggling with our own sin. Subject to the inevitability of death, in a world where Christ was still bodily absent. Even on the best day it would pale in comparison to the glory to come in the New Heavens and New Earth.

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    1. // It isn't just that I think the possibility of Christianity "taking over the world" (granting whatever postmillenials think that entails) is unlikely, given the depravity of mankind and the current course of history.//

      I like a quote from Ken Gentry that addresses this objection. "Postmillennialists do not believe in the inherent goodness of man. But non-Postmillennialists seem to believe in the inherent weakness of the Gospel." - Ken Gentry

      Postmillennialists don't necessarily believe that before the return of Christ that there will be a time when 100% of people will be saved on earth. But at least a majority of people groups, with the majority of nations "Christianized" in terms of society, laws, culture, economics etc. Maybe even a majority of individuals will be saved and not merely "Christianized". But this will occur from the bottom up through the power of the Gospel and people accepting it, not imposed from the top down upon an unwilling populace.


      //We'd still live among sinners, struggling with our own sin. Subject to the inevitability of death, in a world where Christ was still bodily absent. Even on the best day it would pale in comparison to the glory to come in the New Heavens and New Earth.//

      As you likely know, Postmillennialists don't believe that all the effects of the Fall will be eradicated before Christ's return. So, that objection has no force.

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    2. BTW, I've been a Christian for about 30 years. For the first 12 years a Premillennialist. Examining the case for Postmillennialism, I do think there might be something to it. Though I'm not fully convinced. Nevertheless, I've argued for why it's my default position in my blogpost: Why I'm Provisionally a Postmillennialist Succinctly Stated.

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    3. //....and the current course of history.//

      The world has been getting better and better for the past 2000 years. If one takes a wider view of history, Postmillennialism gains more plausibility than if one thinks only in terms of one's lifetime.

      The advances in science that have cured many diseases and produced enough food to potentially feed all of mankind is indirectly (and sometimes directly) due to the efforts of Christians. Starving populations are not due to there not being enough food, but for economic, political and transportation issues. Modern science is the product of a Christian worldview. The many liberal causes and the concept and promotion of compassion is indirectly due to Christianity via the incomplete sub-Christian "Social Gospel".

      Christianity is the largest world religion of more than 2.2 billion out of approx 7.5 billion. Many believe the world population will likely peak and eventually come back down to a sustainable number.

      Islam is crumbling from within. With many converting to Christianity. Sometimes via dreams and visions of Christ/angels. If these are really from God, why all of a sudden is this phenomena exploding? Maybe because now is the time for the Postmillennial purposes of God to start being fulfilled. The internet is disseminating the facts about Islam that demonstrate that it's a false religion. Imagine swaths of Muslims in the future converting to Christianity. Islam almost functions as a kind of preparation for Christianity despite its likely demonic origins.

      Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds in Asia, Central and South America, and Africa. Many consider that in a few decades China will be the #1 country in the world to have the greatest number of Christian citizens. Extreme Socialism and Communism is declining because they've been proven to be failures.

      The nations of the world are now understanding more and more that national and global cooperation is better for one's own nation than open war and hostilities. National competition is now mostly economic rather than military. China and Russia know that destroying America would negatively affect their own countries. They know a direct attack is contrary to self-interest, so their goals are to beat the US economically. Hence the well known multi-generational goals of China to kick the US off the Economic Hill.

      The Jewish and Christian emphasis on education has directly and indirectly lead to the world virtually being literate. "Western" values contains both good and bad elements. But many of the good have have affected nations non-Western nations. Compare the literacy rate of the 1st century when the majority of people weren't literate to the 21st century.

      The Scriptures have already been translated in the languages that would affect most people. There are only the many lesser languages that would reach fewer peoples. But with a global economy, most people are learning international languages like English, Spanish, Mandarian, Cantonese, Russian etc. All of which have translations of the Bible. Even then, radio and internet can broadcast the gospel in those native languages long before any official translation of the Scripture could be written out in script form.


      The "New Atheism" of the early 2000s may have been the last gasp of atheism. Christian Apologetics and Philosophy has exploded within the Church. No other time in Christian history has apologetics been emphasized, advanced, developed and promoted. Both at the top of the Church with actual professional apologists like W.L. Craig (et al) and at the grass roots/laymen level.

      Scientific evidence for a Creator that was lacking for the majority of Christian history has been exploding (pun intended) since the popularization of Big Bang cosmology. Think of the evidence from Intelligent Design and the works of Stephen Meyer, Michael Denton, William Dembski et al.

      More could be said. Nevertheless, we're literally poised for a possible global Great Awakening.

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    4. According to Kenneth Scott Latourette , that great Yale historian who wrote the History of Christianity, “We have had much to say about the effects of Christianity upon mankind as a whole, here has been the most potent force which mankind has known for the dispelling of illiteracy, for the creation of schools, for the emergence of new types of education, from Christianity have issued impulses for intellectual and geographic adventure, the universities were largely Christian creations, music, architecture, painting, poetry, philosophy, owe some of their greatest achievements to Christianity, democracy as it was known in the 19th and 20th century was in large part the outgrowth of Christian teaching, the abolition of slavery was chiefly due to Christianity, so were the measures taken to protect the Indians against the exploitation by the whites, the most helpful movements for the regulation of war, for the mitigation of suffering entailed by war, for the eventual abolition of war owe their inception to Christian faith, the nursing profession had the same origin, the extension of western methods of surgery was chiefly due to Christian missionary enterprise, and the elevation of the status of woman as a whole.”
      http://www.apologeticsinthechurch.com/more-arguments-against-christian-theism/first-post

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  3. I don't want to get too far afield here, but this is weak sauce:

    "Postmillennialists don't believe that all the effects of the Fall will be eradicated before Christ's return. So, that objection has no force"

    My argument didn't imply this. The problem is not that a postmillenial society wouldn't fully reverse the Fall, but that it would, at best, only be a marginal improvement. As if there was some glorious hope in that.

    In any case I won't live to see that day and neither will you, and even if I did, the threat of war, natural disasters, the burdens of paying the bills and mortgage, crime, mundane but vexing health problems, losing young children to cancer and incurable disease, divorce, corrupt and heretical churches, overbearing elders, church splits...all of it would still be present.

    And what would it look like? Constantinian Rome? Reformation-era Europe? Colonial America? Moscow, Idaho? Some options might be better than others, but its still all pretty lousy, isn't it?

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    1. // but that it would, at best, only be a marginal improvement.

      Marginal improvement to present conditions? Or conditions as they were at the birth of Christ? Things have greatly improved since the 1st century due to the influence of Christ's church. Even comparing it to the present, there's still much room for improvement. Some of which might actually come to pass.

      //In any case I won't live to see that day and neither will you//

      Postmillennialism isn't only an eschatology that considers the long term effects of the Gospel in the world spanning the 1st and 2nd Advents. Proponents also have a long term program with long term multi-generational goals and expectations. Unlike Premillennialists who tend to myopically plan and see things in terms of their own lifetime.

      //the threat of war, natural disasters, the burdens of paying the bills and mortgage, crime, mundane but vexing health problems, losing young children to cancer and incurable disease, divorce, corrupt and heretical churches, overbearing elders, church splits...all of it would still be present.//

      ALL of it? How can you make such predictions? In recent generations diseases like tuberculosis, polio, smallpox, measles, tetanus, rabies, yellow fever, whooping cough, have become preventable and/or curable. Something that couldn't have been dreamed of even just 300 years ago. You don't fear TB/consumption because it ceased being on people's radar after the cure had been found. Who knows what other diseases my go the way of polio? Some are predicting that cancer might be cured in our lifetime. Water purification and/or filtration and drilling techniques has progressed since the 1st century. Regarding wars, the global interconnectedness of national economies will certainly lessen the need or desire for war in a progressive way, as I argued above. Crime rates naturally decline as 3rd world countries slowly become 2nd world and (hopefully) 1st world countries. The Apostle James states:

      1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
      2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
      3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.- James 4:1-3

      As economies grow and standards of living rise, wars/quarrels tend to diminish (even among the unregenerate). How much more if great awakenings and revivals sweep the world because of the power of the Gospel and of the Holy Spirit to change the hearts of people from selfish to loving? The 16th century Reformation was unthinkable before it happened because previous reformers like Wyclif, Huss and Jerome of Prague (et al.) all had limited impact. Partly because of the Catholic persecution. But by the Spirit of God they planted seeds which that same Spirit later used to bring about a spiritual harvest.

      As one website states, "At the beginning of the 20th century, worldwide life expectancy was less than 40 years of age. Today the world average stands at around 70. " Some predict that in the future human life expectancy might average 120 years because of various discoveries and developing technologies. Regarding divorce, anti-Christian views of marriage, sexuality, masculinity and femininity have been tried in the West and shown to be detrimental to human flourishing. It's being documented more and more. People are waking up to the toxicity of 3rd Wave Feminism.

      CONTINUED

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    2. Regarding the church, things were much worse 1000 years ago. The Reformation has had a postive influence on the church worldwide. The 21st century Catholic Church itself might be crumbling from within in terms of doctrine, policy and morality. Just a few weeks ago the Orthodox Church had a major historic split. Such decentralization is good for the church. I already mentioned the explosion in apologetics (which naturally entails an emphasis on doctrinal clarity and purity). You're not appreciating or recognizing how things have improved in the church (cf. past scandals like the Saeculum obscurum/Pornocracy, Inquisition, the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, etc.).

      //And what would it look like? Constantinian Rome? Reformation-era Europe? Colonial America? Moscow, Idaho? Some options might be better than others, but its still all pretty lousy, isn't it?//

      For all we know we're still living in the early history of the church. Christ might not return for another 12,000 years. For all we know, 10,000 years from now our very own Steve Hays will be compared to and/or confused with saints like Aquinas and Justin Martyr. Just as modern Christians confuse the names and dates of Irenaeus with Ignatius of Antioch and Ignatius of Loyola. Or Clement of Rome with Clement of Alexandria.

      Why assume the future church won't learn from past mistakes? We've learned from our past, why assume the future church won't learn from its past? From their vantage point things will have been tried, mixed and matched and they may come up with several alternatives that take from the best of the various attempts to perfect the church. In fact, Scripture suggests the purification of the church in doctrine, practice and unity. Catholics rightly emphasize Christ's prayer for unity (John 17). They're just wrong in their conception of how it ought to be achieved. The Gospel that records the Lord's prayer for unity (John 17:11, 21-23) is the same Gospel that has the Lord saying that the Father always hears His prayer (John 11:42). Which implies that the prayer will be answered. Even Paul seems to predicts such future sanctification in the church.

      13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
      14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
      15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
      16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.- Eph. 4:13:16

      26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
      27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.- Eph. 5:26-27

      For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.- 1 Cor. 11:19 KJV

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    3. When I was a Premillennialist it never occurred to me that the Great Commission could be fulfilled in a Postmillennialist way. That's because it seemed obvious to me that the NT was clearly pessimistic regarding the end of the world and of the world in general up until Christ returned. But then I realized that Partial Preterism could explain those pessimistic passages in such a way that it leaves room for a Postmillennial triumph of the Church in history.

      Now when I read the Great Commission, it reads like a blueprint and prophecy of a Postmillennial eschatology. It takes about making disciples of all nations. There's no hint that it's merely an ideal to aim for or that it's an impossible task. Now when I read it, it appears to be a promise of the success of the Gospel in reaching all nations.

      18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
      19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
      20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."- Matt. 28:18-20

      As I wrote in another comment:

      //It's interesting that the last chapter of the last book of the Torah [i.e. Deuteronomy 34] ends with Moses on mount Nebo surveying the Promised Land and then dying. With Joshua ready to succeed and conquer the Promised Land. Matthew ends with Jesus (the anti-type of both Moses the Lawgiver [cf. the Sermon on the Mount] and Joshua who shares the same name) who died (like Moses) but rose again standing on a mountain in Galilee to give His last instructions. On the mountain Jesus, like Joshua, goes out to conquer the world via His church/congregation promising to be with them always in their victories in discipling the Gentile nations/goyim. Whereas Joshua enters Palestine to phyisically kill the goyim who oppose him, Jesus commissions his spiritual army to exit outward from Jerusalem to share life to the outside goyim. //

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