After an outbreak of severe weather, series of earthquakes, threat of war or even a major defeat of our particular political party and/or political cause, it is human nature to entertain apocalyptic thoughts. Things like ; man has gone too far to be redeemable, it is the day of reckoning, the end of the world is at hand, all is lost and things can only get worse.... Catastrophe or political calamity can be an excuse to quit and run to the extremes, or simply a time to roll up our sleeves and try to work even harder to make this planet a better place to be until God sees fit to change it Himself.. Often the doomsday prophets no matter their politics or affiliation have the exact opposite impact on society they intend to. They try to motivate the masses with hyperbole and worse case scenarios. This approach more often then not creates apathy and fear more than it does productive change.
I posted a previous article for this blog titled, How Our Eschatology Effects Our Politics. In it I addressed how an overly pessimistic, non-Biblical view of eschatology can cause discouragement and even doubt about us even having a future. It causes fear an suspicion and rampant speculation in some people. Probably worst of all it causes apathy and a, "whats the use in trying to change things", attitude in all of us. The evening news can be discouraging, but believe me things have been worse. Consider that at one time, Hitler Stalin, Mao, Mussolini and Franco were all alive and were in power or ascending to power. Japan was a military dictatorship killing thousands in Asia. Central and south America were ruled by dictators while under crushing poverty. Most of the world was in the midst of a great depression. All of this in a short span of less than 20 years. Our problems pale in comparison.
Life went on and we made it out of the twentieth century and unless God intervenes it will go on for us as well. I believe there is always hope we can build a better tomorrow. The alternative is to sit on a hill and wait for the end. Or worse we could all stop caring and begin to live only for today, "eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die". The extremes that live on the lunatic fringes of political, religious and cultural reality thrive on ignorance, fear and apathy.
Not only does the world need knowledgeable people who still care and have a hope for tomorrow. The world needs a method to sort the wheat from the chaff. There is so much non-sense out there especially in the areas of politics and religion. There is also no shortage of the overly ambitious who want to be our messiah and/or dictator. Mankind does not have to be at their mercy without a resource to consistently discern truth. I found that resource around the age of 14.
I was an avid reader in high school, when I could find the time between sports and work. One thing I quickly learned; not all political or religious experts were offering the same thing, or taking the same path to get there. Most were at least in part well meaning. Many were out right demagogues. I needed a scale to weigh their arguments. I found it in the Holy Bible. I could use the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to learn to recognize worthwhile knowledge and acquire wisdom. I used the Psalms to learn how to worship God. I used the words of Jesus to understand how to conduct myself and treat others ( I still made most of the foolish teenage mistakes) but I had found a solid method in sorting truth from foolishness. The writings of the apostles helped me recognize false religious doctrines and false teachers. knowing the prophetic books of the Bible made the false prophets easily identifiable.
We do not need anymore charismatic leaders to lead us from one extreme to the other. We need solid individuals with a firm foundation in reality, and an informed electorate that will not change course every time someone screams the sky is falling. The Bible was the arbiter of truth and the definer of terms when this nation was founded. I know it can be used to sort through the half baked and self promoting ideas that have led us to our current state of national confusion. If we as a people do not find both a common starting point and a common foundation on which to build we will continue to be jerked from the far left to the far right every few years. If a few disasters are mixed with a few demagogues we could end up with a 1940s style dictatorship of our own. Or even a nation of competing extreme religious cults.
Wesley Jones
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