Let Me Tell You

A few nights ago I attended the Women’s Guild meeting at church. It was my annual appearance to put on a “program” lasting around 45 minutes. There were about 20 women present and my guess would be that 18 of them were over the age of 70. With women of that age there is a “been there – done that” quality that grants them the status of survivors.

What I’ve noticed about Scottish women of a certain age is that they love to complain about the weather. Last night, the woman facilitating the meeting was Francis. Francis has a sunny demeanour and a cheery outlook. She was commenting on what a glorious day it had been. And it had. A bright and sunny day in which the warmth of sun could actually be detected.

In response to Francis’ observations, one woman offered, “The gritters are out tonight.” Gritters are the trucks that spew grit on the roads in preparation for inclement weather. “Aye,” said another, “we’re supposed to get a hard frost tonight.”

I could not help but to chuckle and the rest of them seemed to get the joke as well. No matter how sunny the day gets, there’s always more rain to come. For some folks there is always a storm cloud behind every silver lining. Even a glorious day can provoke complaints about the weather that has been and that which is surely yet to come. It won’t last, it never does.

Let’s not get our hopes up. It will only lead to disappointment. Look for the storm clouds. When they come we can then say, “I told you so.”

David Wilkerson says there is a terrible calamity coming. He says God showed him a vision of burning cities, New York in particular, as well as a general conflagration that will consume much of the eastern seaboard. A vision of riots, food shortages and wide-spread calamity. He claims that God is angry with America and that wrath is coming and when it rains it will pour.

One wonders if there is a not so subtle message of, “that’s what we (you) get” for electing Barack Obama as President. Let’s go up to the vantage point, like Jonah on the outskirts of Nineveh to wait in gleeful anticipation of the coming calamity. God’s calamity. Then we can all say, “Ha! I told you so.”

Somewhere along the road to the end times Mr. Wilkerson seems to have missed the part about God’s wrath being subjected to the comedy of the cross. The cross was not the end result tragedy of a requirement for wrath. Even if it was, then it would follow that it should have been sufficient. If wrath is coming, then the death of Jesus was not sufficient and therefore a complete waste. Rather, the cross was the Divine Comedy of God taking the fall. God stepped on the ultimate banana peel, got up and dusted himself (Jesus) off and said, “There now.”

If David Wilkerson’s interpretation of Christian religion were the only show in town, then I would be an atheist. Then again, by his calculation, I am one anyway. I refuse to believe in his petty-minded, tribally exclusive, vindictive and violent god. I refuse to believe in anyone’s violent god.

Anyone who is waiting in anticipation of God’s wrath in order to be able to say, “I told you so,” should recall the words of the children’s hymn – “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so.”

Take Care – John Mann

Comments

[michael hardin]

John:

I agree totally with your assessment of Wilkerson's diatribe and the problem of associating the breakdown of culture with an angry God.

But, and this would be where I see things differently, I, like Wilkerson, sense that we as a species are on an apocalyptic edge of our own making. Like the Apostle Paul, I interpret the 'wrath of God' as God giving us over to the consequences of our mimetic conflicts (Rom 1:18-32).

As you know I am no dispensationalist, nor do I believe that we have a ready made theological escape pod in the Rapture. But I do think that times are going to get much more difficult from here on out for several reasons:

1. A fast growing population expected to double by 2020
2. Dwindling food and fresh water supplies, not to mention oil reserves.
3. Global climate change (caused in part by our own greed and consumption).
4. Escalating regional conflicts of long held hatred, particularly in India-Pakistan and Israel and certain Arab countries with nuclear capacity.
5. Diseases that are resistant to modern medicines.
6. Problems of discrimination of all sorts (the aspect of differentiation that leads to scapegoating).

All of these, I sense, are converging to produce the mother of all human storms. For me it is a question of the role of the church as things begin to move violently out of control. (which is why I wrote the piece on "Is the Apocalypse Inevitable?: Native American Prophecy and the Mimetic Theory" on the Occasional Articles page).

I feel called to be there when the "Rapture' does not materialize for many fundamentalists will lose their faith and slip into the darkness of the impreccatory psalms; I also feel called to be a healer as the s**t hits the fan and folks desperately seek solutions other than Jesus.

On the other hand even though I may have what appears to be a negative assessment of the project of human history, nevertheless, I am eschatologically hopeful that the reign of God will manifest itself clearly and bring humanity to a salvation far greater than we can imagine or think.

Thanks for your post today.

[John Mann]

Thanks Michael,

I also agree with you and your points, totally. We are on a course of 'reaping the whirlwind' of our own sowing in so many facets of life. My primary point in this blog is that the consequences are not by the hand of God. We are the ones who have lit the fuse.
Here in Glasgow, a 'Clockwork Orange'society is our daily reality, as if the birthpangs of the Apocolypse have started. But what a time to be alive and preaching a gospel of grace.

[michael hardin]

Indeed!!, what a great and wondrous time to be sharing the gospel and it's healing power!