Edgework

In Part Eight of A New Kind of Christianity, Brian McLaren speaks to the future question. In other words, if we follow through on what he has been postulating thus far in the book, what kind of a future should we be anticipating?

In the past, many evangelicals have considered it important to nail down the precise chronology of end-time events. With a clear image of the future order consisting only of heaven and hell, their main impulse was to proclaim a salvation that provided an escape from this world and ultimately hell itself. Of course such thinking was rooted in the linear, six-line Greco-Roman narrative that McLaren has rejected early on in the book.

McLaren proposes instead a three-dimensional model in which the biblical themes of creation, liberation and peace-making create a “… trajectory to history, a flow to creation, a moral arc to the universe that slowly but surely tends toward justice…” (194). “God holds out to us at every moment a brighter future; the issue is whether we are willing to receive it and work with God to help create it. We are participating in the creation of what the future will be” (196).

This approach provides, for McLaren, a solid anchor-point for a life of discipleship. He contends that the evangelical focus on offering a salvation from future catastrophe does not naturally lead to a life of faithfulness to Christ. It might be desirable but ultimately not essential to securing a place in heaven for all eternity. While admitting that some aspects of the future are shrouded in mystery, McLaren maintains that Jesus’ message to follow him in the present is unmistakable. The Kingdom has arrived! Get on board now!

This sense of immediacy also comes from McLaren’s view of the parousia, generally known as the second coming of Christ. He says that much of the New Testament makes more sense if we understand that this event happened at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. First, the gospel  hope centered around waiting for Christ’s resurrection. Second, it waited for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. Third, it focused on survival and rebirth while waiting for the coming catastrophe. Fourth, we enter a new stage in which the parousia has happened following the destruction of Jerusalem. In this light, according to McLaren, our call is not “…to wait passively for something that is not present, but to participate passionately with Christ in the context of the church” (199). The fact that Christ is fully present, although not recognized by all, calls for “wholehearted participation” (199), something that evangelicals have found difficult to tack onto an escapist theology.

There is much to commend an interpretation such as this. At the same time, it leaves a number of questions unanswered. For example, is McLaren’s view substantially different from the early 20th century social gospel movement that was largely discredited during and after the two world wars? I almost get the sense that McLaren is affirming the social gospel dream with his robust vision that, with the help of God, faithful discipleship will lead us into “…a widening space opening into an infinitely expanding goodness, like the air and sunlight into which a tree spreads its branches” (195). In other words, from here on in the Kingdom gradually grows as disciples are faithful to Christ. We should not be looking for any dramatic event on the horizon but get to work creating a better world with God’s help.

In this respect, I think McLaren would do well to lean a bit harder on two theologians he respects very highly, Tony Campolo and N. T. Wright. While affirming the idea that we must strive to realize God’s Kingdom here on earth, Campolo states in Adventures in Missing the Point that, “I also believe that we should not delude ourselves into thinking that whatever we can build of God’s kingdom now can come to fullness without Christ’s return” (52).

And in Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright contends that the parousia is clearly connected to the biblical teaching of the ultimate resurrection (I Corinthians 15:23-27), a topic McLaren seems to ignore in his end time scenario. While affirming that Christ’s disciples are active participants in bringing God’s kingdom to earth in ever increasing measure, Wright is also on the lookout for something more. “God will redeem the whole universe; Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of that new life, the fresh grass growing through the concrete of corruption and decay in the old world. That final redemption will be the moment when heaven and earth are joined together at last, in a burst of God’s creative energy for which Easter is the prototype and source” (123).

To his credit, McLaren does challenge the traditional notions of end time judgment as consisting mostly of condemnation; choosing instead to think of judgment as God “putting things right” (204). But I notice that McLaren does not speak specifically to the question of what happens to individuals after death. However, when following a footnote to his website, I noticed that he had written a section on this subject which was deleted from the book for lack of space. His basic premise is that God remains constantly present; in the past, present and future. Not only that, to be in the presence of Christ after death will mean that we will see with new eyes  “…the unimaginable light of God’s presence, a goodness so good, a richness so rich, a mercy and love so strong and true that all my evil, pride, lust, greed, resentment and fear will be instantly melted out of me.” More in-depth reflection on this subject can be found in N. T. Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope (135-145), and Sharon L. Baker’s book, Razing Hell (111-124).

While McLaren’s vision of the future leaves a good deal to mystery, from my perspective, it is more satisfying than a future that comes from straight-line certainty.

For On-Going Dialogue:

1. How important is it in your eyes to know a specific chronology of end-time events? Why?
2. Does it excite you to think that God is counting on you to help bring in the future of his dreams for the earth and its inhabitants? What difference does it make to you?
3. Are Campolo and Wright justified in looking for a specific resurrection event in the future in which Christ’s Kingdom will appear in all its fullness? Why or why not?
4. What do you imagine it will be like to be in Christ’s presence after death? Is it alright to use your imagination as McLaren does?