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On March 23, 2020 By In Culture, Politics, Theology

The Eschatology of Covid-19: End-Time Misinformation, Part 1

The end is near! Or at least it was when Jesus prophesied in the first-century. We, 21st-century citizens of heaven, live after the Great Tribulation. In fact, about 2,000 years after those events. These statements may seem a bit troubling to some, so let me make two caveats:

First, affirming the Great Tribulation was a past event does not mean we live in some utopian era. In fact, Covid-19 is a reminder that the repercussions of Genesis 3 will be with us until “he shall come to judge the living and the dead” at the end of history.

And second, affirming that the events in Matthew 24a is in the past does not negate our responsibility to understand the times in confusing days. In fact, we need more wisdom in these days.

We need a healthy dose of reverent fear in our day; not because we are at the end of history but because in such a time as this God calls us to be extra valiant and courageous to do his will.

Modern-Day Prophets

One of the things I don’t want to do is to give insanity more air-time than necessary. So, I am not going to link these folks and I won’t quote them. The evidence is abundant in any modern crisis. I refer to these prophetic isolationists as thrill-seekers because they remind me of storm chasers who travel around the country in caravans seeking the latest storm. They want to get close to the action. It’s not just twitterdom that offers you a buffet of such cases, but even in the published world, you will find such people.

Some took advantage of the year 1988, the year 2000 and now they left their hibernating stage to offer the world their new and clever view of the Bible. What’s more troubling is that many folks who “specialize” in prophecies reveal in a very brief time their incompetency to understand the most basic principles of biblical prophecy.

For instance, many asserting this is “the beginning of birth pains” (Mat. 24:8) have a history of cutting and pasting texts to whatever flavor of catastrophe consumes the news today. We want to avoid this attitude and embrace the language of the Bible vigorously, even when it may challenge our long-held beliefs. And I have found over the years, especially living in the South, that the belief that Jesus can come back at any moment is crucial to the identity of many evangelicals. In fact, one can have a faulty view of the Trinity, but as long as he espouses some variation of a futuristic end-time scenario, he’s considered safe and may even get a platform to opine about revelations.

Now, context matters. It matters in this Covid-19 era as information is disseminated. And it most certainly matters when we are reading giant portions of the Bible like the Olivet Discourse (Mat. 24). If I look at that passage and see that “famines” will happen in the end and conclude that due to our milk shortage at the local grocery we have ourselves a fulfillment of prophecy, I am hermeneutically blind. That is to say, you should return to your cave.

The Olivet Discourse

Matthew 24 is used for all sorts of events. In my 40 years of life, I have seen it use to support the supposed fulfillment of prophecy in the Gulf War, that Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama were the antichrists, that the Mayan prophecies were to be fulfilled at Y2K, and currently that Donald Trump is setting the stage for the new world order.

But what some fail to see is that Matthew 24 has a long-established tradition of interpretation; one that avoids such reckless distractions from the text. Now, the question of whether a position or an idea has a long-standing history doesn’t always solve the issue at hand. However, I think it’s important to say that the beliefs you hold grow more in legitimacy if other orthodox Christians have held them for the last two millennia. To be precise, the interpretation of Matthew 24 advocated here is held by most of the Puritans, both Anglicans and Presbyterians, well-known Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, and the Reformed.

What is at stake in this conversation is the ability to either think carefully about this Coronavirus scenario or be bogged down by endless speculation when the next virus comes along carried by a vagabond vermin. We need to see that Matthew 24 opens our eyes to see the Bible clearly without dependence on newspaper exegesisb.

Interpretational Keys

I cannot dissect the entirety of Matthew 24c in these two articles. But others like Gary Demar have already done a real service to the church in his classic work, Last Days Madness. The book must be in its 20th edition. What I can do is offer a couple of interpretive keys to guide the reader through Jesus’ words in Matthew 24.

The first interpretive key is that Matthew 24 demands context. Again, the temptation is to cut a verse and paste it into our preferred panic situation. But the prophecy of Jesus has something very specific in mind. In chapter 23, Jesus has a full-scale indictment of the Pharisees. When Jesus finished his warnings to the Pharisees, he was going out of the temple and the disciples were pointing out the buildings of the temple. And that is where Jesus makes this remarkable prediction in chapter 24, verse 2:

Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Early on, we begin to get some indications as to whether these prophecies were referring to the present first-century temple or some rebuilt temple in the distant future. The key is found in one little crucial word, and it is the word here. There will not be left one stone….where? Here. This is a crucial word that we should not overlook. The reason Matthew 24 is referring to that first-century temple and that temple only is because nowhere in the entire New Testament do the authors say one word about a rebuilt temple sometime in the future. Nowhere. The temple under discussion throughout the Olivet Discourse is the one that was standing during the time of Jesus’ ministry, the same temple that would be destroyed some 30 years later by the Roman Army.d

If the identity of the temple is clear, then any attempt to futurize the words of Jesus are in vain; any attempt to connect Covid-19 to Matthew 24 suffers a thousand deaths. What we are left with are words that apply to something very specific in the early church and ought to be understood only in that way.

Probably stunned from Jesus’ statement, the disciples ask Jesus a series of questions about the present temple and Jesus will take the rest of the Olivet Discourse to answer those questions.e But what is imperative to learn is that Jesus’ answers to those questions are guided by the principle of context which is very much dependent on the present structures of the first-century.

The second interpretive key is that Matthew 24 depends on its own language. In short, when we hear something strange in the Scriptures, we should compare it with other texts where similar language is used.

We must read the Bible as it is intended to be read. The Bible possesses its own language; its own interpretive guide. We should not allow our feeds to dictate how the Bible should be interpreted. We seek to understand the Bible in its own terms. As we read through Matthew 24 you will quickly discover that the language Jesus uses in his prophecies is not anything new, but it’s the way prophets have been speaking for hundreds of years. Jesus is continuing that prophetic tradition by using the language of the prophets. His words were not meant to be fodder for prophetic thrill-seekers but understood in its own context and its own language.

Closing Words

Matthew 24 is a difficult text. It requires us to look at the bigger picture of redemption to see why Matthew wrote Jesus’ words as he did. The end result is a beautiful picture of the righteous. God has not forsaken his people. His purposes shall prevail. His kingdom shall prevail, even if it means destroying the most sacred space of the Jewish people. God will make all things new.

Jesus was not predicting the end of times for the 21st-century world, but the end of times for the 1st-century religious system that prevailed in the day. Our Lord was not predicting the consequences of a virus coming into the world, but the destruction of the pervasive and venomous religiosity of a system that needed to end. Indeed, that generation suffered the Great Tribulation just as Jesus predicted.

  1. we could also add Mark 13 and Luke 21 and a few scattered texts  (back)
  2. I believe Greg Bahnsen was the first to use this expression  (back)
  3. though I have preached through it; leave a comment with your email if you would like a link to those sermons  (back)
  4. Demar, Gary. Last Days Madness, 68.   (back)
  5. Again, I deal with them in my sermon series, but an even more academic work is found in Gary Demar’s book  (back)

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On March 13, 2020 By In Culture, Politics, Theology, Wisdom

Social Distancing and the Real Danger in an Age of the Corona Virus

It was a typical morning for my tribe. When I returned from the gym, it was still early. But my boys are ready to take on the day with zeal. We went for a walk around our peaceful neighborhood. The young warriors carried their sticks as a precautionary measure against wild creatures. As we leisurely strolled, we began singing through the Lord’s Prayer. “Deliver us from evil…” we roared. It’s a piece we sing every Lord’s Day and often at the dinner table, but this morning it took on a special significance.

Which Evil?

In our day, the natural evil in our minds is the Covid-19 with its aggressive demeanor towards the elderly and sometimes its fatal blow towards unexpected recipients. It’s all over ESPN at the gym, and it’s the featured article in any major newspaper. Its ubiquitous nature is obnoxious but expected. We live in an interconnected state of the human era. We may debate the hype or the unorthodox enthusiasm of the media, but the reality is we do not know what next week will look like for any community.

But is that truly the only evil of our day we sang against this morning in our casual adventure? I believe there is something more subtle than what this pandemic brings. It may take different shapes, but its root is the oft obligatory “social distancing” experts are encouraging. That’s a significant threat in this Corona Virus age. In the 14th century, there was a plague outbreak in Florence, Italy. Renaissance author Giovanni Boccaccio noted:

Florentines “dropped dead in open streets, both by day and by night, whilst a great many others, though dying in their own houses, drew their neighbours’ attention to the fact more by the smell of their rotting corpses.”a

We can safely say it was a deeper plague than anything we are currently experiencing and probably will experience. But the results of such destructive forces led to another epidemic, the one of isolation. Boccaccio goes on to argue for the importance of preserving social forces and traditions even when the higher forces wish to de-activate our social practices, or we might say, those things which make us human.

Social Distancing vs. Scriptural Sociology

At this moment, people of all evangelical persuasions are likely downplaying the self-quarantine incentive viewing it as a necessary step towards the eradication of this virus and self-preservation. There is a clear sense that in times of societal upheaval, we must do whatever it takes. But this shouldn’t close our eyes to the consequences of isolating ourselves from one another and our communities.

Should this pandemic force us into these isolated environments, we need to be thoughtful about this new sociological phase of history. The Scriptures are unwavering about the necessity of community and social gatherings. Social distancing is the antithesis of the Scriptural imperative. Even if necessary, we should grieve over it. Some appear to praise social distancing as a noble gesture in an enlightened culture. Church cancellations, colleges moving to on-line venues, sports events, and concerts are now entering into unchartered territory with indefinite postponements. Again, all good and necessary, but have we counted the cost of such actions?

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  1. https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/03/coronavirus-survive-italy-wellbeing-stories-decameron   (back)

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On January 27, 2020 By In Family and Children, Politics

Men on the Edge: The Inevitability of Male Leadership

Guest post by Aaron Siver

Our present circumstances under the cultural sway have brought a radically egalitarian influence to bear upon all sectors of society, including the church. Much of the efficacy of egalitarianism comes not so much from any conscious effort on the part of ideologically possessed individuals or interest groups—though there is that—but from systemically deforming tendencies inherent in our culture for a variety of reasons. These have a propensity to neutralize or obscure the significance of constitutive differences between males and females as demographic groups.

It would be grievous negligence, a failure to faithfully shepherd and oversee the flock if elders were to refrain from declaring the whole counsel of God. Particular attention should be given to this point. The watchmen ought to possess the competence to see the threat unambiguously and the courage to blow the trumpet resoundingly.

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On January 7, 2020 By In Politics

How to Mock Leftists Better than Ricky Gervais

The Ricky Gervais monologue at the Golden Globes has caught a lot of attention. Gervais earned 300K new followers on twitter the same night after the comedian’s bombastic roast. I don’t want to go over his jokes. Most of them were rated R and I am sure by now most of you have at least heard or watched his 8-minute diatribe against the liberal elites sitting elegantly and sipping luxuriously. The ire was almost immediate from the leftists. How dare someone criticize our way of being? Our lifestyle choices? Our wokeness? Our promiscuity? Our friendships?

Notably, Gervais found himself in the unlikely company of conservatives who stood up and cheered not for the nominees in that building, but the ability to ferociously attack evil in their very den.

It is a remarkable thing that atheists like Stephen Fry and Ricky Gervais and Bill Maher can speak truthfully to their fellow liberals. What gives them this ability is their loyalty to no god and no party. Now, their atheism will condemn them to an eternity of hell, but in the meanwhile, their atheism gives them the ability to condemn the hell out of shallow ideologies that pervade Hollywood.

Remember that Hollywood worships all sorts of gods, which is why they dread those who worship no god. Hollywood has a commitment to the gods of perversion and money and sex so they need to be cautious with their speech; they need to outwoke one another daily; they need to offer their petitions carefully, kneel before their gods consistently and watch out to not offend their fellow superstars whose gods may share identical agents.

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On November 26, 2019 By In Politics

God’s Divided People: Biblical Lessons for the Church

The recent observance of the 502nd anniversary of the Protestant Reformation should once again prompt us to reflect on the unity of God’s church amidst so many divisions. Christians everywhere can point to Jesus’ high priestly prayer recorded in John’s gospel: “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” (John 17:21), yet wonder why this cannot be a present reality. It’s not just that churches are organizationally distinct but that they do not enjoy full communion with each other, erecting barriers preventing their members from recognizing outsiders as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Of course, some church bodies deny that God’s church is divided at all. The Roman Catholic Church claims to be the one holy catholic and apostolic church founded by Jesus nearly 2,000 years ago. Other communions are officially in schism from this one true church, and their members constitute at most separated brethren in imperfect communion with Rome. The Orthodox Churches, while organizationally more pluriform, return the favour, claiming that Rome, along with every other ecclesiastical body, is outside the one true church, embodied in global Orthodoxy.

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On November 20, 2019 By In Podcast, Politics

KC Podcast, Episode 69, Proverbs as a Manual to Train Young Men

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Once again, Mark Horne joins the KC Podcast to talk about a new project near completion which is a guide for young men through Proverbs called Solomon Says. We discuss a host of issues related to the temptation of young men, their formation, and the responsibilities necessary to form a royal servant. As Horne notes:

Proverbs is about a royal father raising a royal heir…it is about how to properly leave your father’s house and that is called finding wisdom.

This is an instructive conversation; one which would be fruitful for fathers and their sons to listen to.

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On November 19, 2019 By In Politics

Five Basic Kuyperian Propositions

It has to be Kuyper’s fault. I have been pondering his words ever since 2003. Someone gave me a copy of his Lectures on Calvinism and it hit me with electrifying power. Now, mind you, I was already versed in Rushdoony, North, Van Til, Bahnsen, and Sproul, but Kuyper was from the past; an ancient past. At least that’s how I viewed him as a novice in Church History. And what is it that brought me to my theological knees when I first read him? It was his non-exhausting claim of the exhaustive Lordship of King Jesus. Here are five propositions that makes him such a superb apologist for the kingdom of Jesus:

a) Kuyper was Trinitarian. In his Pro Rege: Living Under Christ’s Kingship (Volume 1),a he notes that “There can be no separation or contrast between the authority of God and the authority of Christ.” For Kuyper, the dominion power is not inherent in fallen humanity but comes from the divine power of the Son who creates all things. Kuyper does not separate the power of the Son from the Father, but he harmonizes the Triune work. As the Catechism states, “…and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” Kuyper operates from beginning to end as a Trinitarian Christian. Dominion can only occur in a Trinitarian universe and the Father and the Son work together to ensure it.

b) Kuyper believed in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Though Kuyper did not use the theological categories of Postmillennialism in his writings, his vision harmonizes quite well with that of his fellow theologian B.B. Warfield who invited Kuyper for the Princeton lectures in 1898. Kuyper notes in profoundly optimistic categories:

Christianity [is] being carried forth into the world, coming into contact with the elements and laws of human life and through that contact modifying and changing life entirely.

Jesus’ Commission was not a mere hope, but the promise that the nations would fall under Christ’s authority. Everything Christianity touches, Kuyper notes, changes for the good.

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  1. The other quotations come from the same source  (back)

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On November 10, 2019 By In Politics

Masks and the Armor of God

The Mask and the Person

Our English word for “person” comes from the Latin word “Persona” or the Greek equivalent πρόσωπα (prosopon). a This Greek version of person should conjure in the mind of the reader the idea of ancient Greek theaters and the various “masks” they would use to express emotions and communicate identity. Today phrases like “be my own person” reveal that we share this Hellenistic inclination to use person as an expression of who we are as an individual. Or perhaps, like the Greek actors, we use masks to contrive an identity as to alter how we are seen by others.

The Greek theatre modeled itself after the Greek god Dionysus. Dionysus is famous for his bodily transformations and for appearing to mortals as a variety of creatures, as a male or female, and as the patron of wine and various ceremonial meals. Professor Thanos Vovolis of the American University of Greece describes a connection between the mask and the Dionysus. “This contradictory, polymorphous, paradoxical god [Dionysus], was most often depicted as a mask.” b

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  1. A word also worthy of study for its Christological implications in the work of Theodore of Mopsuestia.  (back)
  2. The Acoustical Mask in Greek Tragedy and in Contemporary Theatre by Thanos Vovolis  (back)

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On November 10, 2019 By In Politics

Don’t Believe Your Eyes

Peter, James, and John had no idea what was coming when Jesus took them up to the mountain top to pray. In what seems to be a common occurrence, the men are sleeping while Jesus is praying. They awaken to find Jesus transfigured, radiating glory in his face and clothes, and Moses and Elijah speaking to him about the exodus he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem (Lk 9.31). Peter, speaking for the other two, suggests that they should erect three tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.

Peter’s response was wrong, but it wasn’t wrong in the way that many people think. Peter was working out a Scriptural theology of glory and applying it to what he saw at the moment. When glory appears, you build a house for it. This was true for the Tabernacle, the Temple, and was involved in the Feast of Booths every year. Peter wasn’t wrong to want to house glory. He was wrong in his timing.

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On November 5, 2019 By In Books, Culture, Politics, Theology

Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism: Calvinism and the Future

This is the sixth part of a six part article series on Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. He gave these lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary over a series of days in October 1898. Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

Here is an overview of Kuyper’s other lectures on Calvinism: Life-system, Religion, Politics, Science, and Art.

In this final lecture, Kuyper begins by summarizing his past lectures with these words: “[Calvinism] raised our Christian religion to its highest spiritual splendor; it created a church order, which became the preformation of state confederation; it proved to be the guardian angel of science; it emancipated art; it propagated a political scheme, which gave birth to constitutional government, both in Europe and America; it fostered agriculture and industry, commerce and navigation; it put a thorough Christian stamp upon home-life and family-ties; it promoted through its high moral standard purity in our social circles; and to this manifold effect it placed beneath Church and State, beneath society and home-circle, a fundamental philosophic conception strictly derived from its dominating principle, and therefore all its own” (p 171).

Kuyper then moves on to look at his current time and suggests where Calvinism can help in shaping and building for the future. He suggests that the topic of his final lecture is “A new Calvinistic development needed by the wants of the future” (p 171). 

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