 | The Reverend Doctor Cathy Northrup was born in Ft. Meade, MD, and was raised in a variety of places in the United State and Germany, as her father was in Counter Intelligence with the Army. She graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN, with a double major in English and Religion. She graduated from Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC, and practiced law with the Federal Reserve Board for a number of years before attending Union Theological Seminaryin Richmond, VA. She graduated from Union, and served several churches in North and South Carolina, at the same time obtaining her Doctor of Ministry from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Northrup is currently the Pastor/Head of Staff of First Presbyterian Church, Wichita, KS. She is married and has two black Labrador dogs who were rescued from abusive situations. You can contact Dr. Northrup at cnorthrup@firstpresbywichita.org or by phone at (316) 263-0248, ext. 26. |
Religion
2007-10-01 11:09:00
End of the world...how’s it going to happen?
: I enjoy reading this column very much. Most of the time you are all pretty much in sync with your answers. Maybe it is coincidental, but it seems as though most of the things I have been taught all my life, about how the world will end, are happening now. In accordance with your interpretation of the Bible, can you state in relatively brief, layman’s terms, how you see the end of the world happening?
As Donald McKim notes in his helpful little book:Presbyterian Questions- Presbyterian Answers: Exploring Christian Faith, “Presbyterians have varying beliefs about the end of the world. This is because the Bible says a number of things about the future that have been variously interpreted. If you go into a bookstore and see a whole shelf of books that claim to present the ‘biblical’ view of the end of the world, you’ll find that each one construes what will happen and when a little differently. These writers should realize the Bible does not intend to give us a detailed blueprint about when the world will end, or a sequence of events that will follow one after another. Instead, the Bible wants to convey theological convictions to give us with all we need for facing the future.” As McKim goes on to note, the main theological conviction conveyed by the Bible is that when the world ends, and Jesus comes again, this will initiate the beginning of God’s ultimate victory and reign, and the accomplishment of God’s purposes. There will be a new heaven and a new earth.
In the meantime, God stands with God’s people through all that occurs, and we are to focus on living the Christian life as Jesus taught. As we live that life, we cannot predict when the world will end, as it will come like a thief in the night; we can only be alert to it. We also cannot say exactly what will happen and how, but as stated in the Bible and the Apostles’ Creed, a creed Christians share, we do believe that Jesus will come again, there will be a judgment, and there will be a resurrection of the body and a life everlasting.
