We just did a series on the End of the World. I was afraid to touch this topic and there are some interesting ideas out there. I was also aware that I will never have read enough to feel ready to preach on this, but we decided to give it a go. Our Youth pastor did the introduction a Theological survey and then my associate and I preached through 4 Biblical passages. We started in Daniel and I discovered ‘the Bible Project’, they have got the best video graphic summary of Daniel. So we played that then I made some observations. I decided to take the approach of triple fulfilment, partly because I thought it would be inclusive of different people’s world views, but mainly because that’s what I believe. I believe that the prophets almost always had a contemporaneous situation in mind, I believe that often the Prophesies have an ongoing application and I believe that Jesus will come again – and coded in these Prophesies are some allusions to that. My associate (Cate Burton) preached about Jesus’ words and did a great job of challenging us about how our retirement funds are invested and how do we care for the earth amongst other things. I tackled 1 Thessalonians and talked about the Metaphors of “Rising from the dead” and “the Messiah returning” as up and down meeting in the middle. I talked about Jesus’ ascension as an enacted metaphor; God allowed Jesus to levitate to illustrate his going into heaven, although none of us think that Jesus is in low earth orbit. I found an article Mark Keown wrote on “Left Behind” very helpful. I have been using the phrase “I take the bible seriously but I don’t believe we need to adopt a first century world view to do so.” Last week I did a survey of John’s Revelation with all that is fraught about that. I feel that there was value in tackling a difficult topic, I hope that I gave people some biblical insights that might help them to reflect on this. I’m interested in my own hesitancy to provide a critique to some of the wild claims that are out there in Christian media. I’m also aware that I probably lost a number of people, we’re back to an ordinary series next!
