 | Rev. Patrick Notley is the Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church located at 525 N. Broadway in downtown Wichita. Reverend Notley received an MA in Divinity at San Francisco Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, VA. Born in Denver, CO and raised on the East Coast, Reverend Notley along with his wife, relocated to Wichita in 1997 to join the church, where he is responsible for Evangelism Educational programs. You can reach Reverend Notley at (316) 263-0248 ext. 22 or by email at pwnotley@firstpresbywichita.org |
Religion
2004-04-01 13:46:00
Are Middle East happenings signals to the end of time?
: I believe our Lord said that no one knows the day or the hour of the end of the world but God, His Father. Why then do so many religions make so much of what is currently happening in the Middle East as 'signals' to the end of time?
ANSWER: A very good question… But first, let's deal with a couple of issues before going onto the question posed in the second sentence. From the wording of the first sentence, I will assume that the writer of this question is a Christian. However, I will not assume that every person who will read this question and the responses to it are all Christians. In fact by using simple statistical data on the percentage of the U. S. population that is Christian verses other religions it would be fair to assume that possibly as little as one third of the readership of Q & A Times is Christian. Therefore a more accurate first sentence would be either "I believe that my Lord said…" or "I believe that Jesus, the Christ, said…" As for the second sentence and the question asked… Again, I am not sure that it is so much religions - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. - but, denominations of Christianity that are most interested in trying to figure out how all of the events of the Middle East might somehow predict the end of time. In any case the simple answer to why so many people of faith, whatever expression their faith might take, are so interested in trying to predict the end of time is that they wish to control God.The Gospel of Mark records Jesus as saying, "Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, Keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come." (Mark 13:31-33, NRSV) Similar words are recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, all of which is to suggest that the clear message from Jesus is that the knowledge of when, where and how the end of time will occur is not ours to have. That knowledge rests only with God and we are not privy to the mind of God. To therefore spend time making predictions about when it will occur based upon current events and ongoing strife in the Middle East is to attempt to claim for ourselves that which is not ours to know. The final part of the quoted text from Mark is the key for how we should be spending our time. We have been counseled to keep alert, to be prepared. Often this has taken the shape of poring over the newspapers and watching CNN in an attempt to divine God's mind through what is happening in our world, be it events of human making such as war in the Middle East or the natural occurrences of earthquakes, floods and fires instead of paying attention to how we live our lives, how we treat ourselves and our neighbors and how we relate to our God. Keeping alert has to do with living a life that is open to God's living in us. It has to do with being aware enough of ourselves and our lives that we are ready and able to respond to God's call. It does not have to do with being so preoccupied with wanting to know God's mind or worse yet wanting to be God ourselves that we miss God's invitation to live in us and for us to live in God.
