apocalypse

I have been thinking about the apocalypse lately, mostly about how I don't believe that God is going to destroy the world. This is, I think, the common belief in Christianity, especially with the idea that there will be a new heaven, a new earth. Even so, I don't think this means the destruction of the world.

To be fair, I haven't come to this conclusion by looking at the Bible, I've come to it by realizing that it doesn't fit with the God I know, and the way that I've seen and experienced redemption in my life, it doesn't fit any sort of model for redemption that's seen in the individual. Here's what I mean: the Bible says a lot about being reborn, about being new creations, about believers dying in/with Christ and being something new. Significantly, this isn't the same as physical death or a change in their physical being. In my understanding, then, a new heaven and a new earth doesn't mean a physically different one that has replaced the old one, just the same one that has been changed to the point that it's new.

I was also thinking lately about Jesus' parables, the parables about being ready for the return of the Lord, for the coming of the Lord. I wondered if perhaps we have misinterpreted these, to mean something that is happening at the end of the world, when really they should be understood as something that happens everyday, that we should be watching and waiting for the Lord to come in our lives. Once again, I haven't really gone back to look at a lot of the context of the parables.

But, in some ways the context doesn't determine the meaning. I'm open to the idea that Jesus didn't know what he was talking about, in the sense that he didn't fully comprehend what he was saying, even if it was true, it may not have been true in the way that he thought it was. Actually, I've just been fascinated by some theories that I've heard (hints of) that Jesus didn't really know who he was, that he was the son of God, was God, but wasn't completely aware of this. In the same way, I think that Jesus may not have been fully aware of what he himself meant by the son of man/the Lord/the son of God returning. He said he didn't know when he was coming, and his followers believed that he was returning in their lifetimes, maybe Jesus himself believed that he would return that soon. But anyway, maybe the return that we are waiting for is already taking place, and maybe the "end times" have been taking place ever since he left.

Anyway, despite saying all that, I do believe that there is a time when all things will be made right, fixed, healed, put back together, made new, that there will be heaven of some sort. I just dont believe right now that that means the total destruction and replacement of the world. God is more creative than destruction, I hope.

That is what I've been thinking about for the last week or two.

In other news, I realized today that I'm really skeptical and uncomfortable with theology and pop-psychology that claims to know what makes men happy and what they need, and what makes women happy and what they need. I guess it seems to me about as useless as trying to figure out what makes Brazilians happy, or what makes black people happy, that there's something more offensive about it than anything, something that is disrespectful of individual people. Good thing that the world is about to be destroyed and none of that matters, anyway.