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Americans today are fascinated by apocalyptic visions and predictions, as seen in the Left Behind series and various analyses of political conflict and natural disaster. Even political and theological moderates have noted a sense of things coming to an end. Biblical apocalyptic is often read as predicting violence, destruction, and an imminent end in which only a few chosen are saved. However, apocalyptic in Scripture presents a significantly different vision. In the book of Revelation and elsewhere, destruction is the playing-out of human misuse of creation and of power. The earth itself cries out in conjunction with the poor, the oppressed, and the silenced. God responds with healing and renewal. The vision Christians should foster is that of the New Jerusalem in which is set the Tree of Life, and in which God dwells with us in a world of beauty and justice.
An article in the October 2006 New York Magazine led off with the question "What do Christian Millenarians, Jihadists, Ivy League professors, and baby-boomers have in common? Answer: They're all hot for the Apocalypse."1
Hot for the Apocalypse: The whole notion of Apocalypse, of catastrophic future scenarios, and end-times is prominent on American cultural radar screens these days. A new Christian video game, "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," released just before Christmas, invites players to "Command your forces through intense battles across a breathtaking, authentic depiction of New York City. . . . Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices." An on-line ad for the game shows gun-wielding soldiers marching through New York City, helicopters exploding overhead, accompanied by the music of "Amazing Grace."2
So is this how God's unfinished future is about to end? Is this the Apocalypse? We must say "no" to the "Left Behind" fictional version.
We are faced with experiences of a sense of an "end" from all kinds of quarters-whether from global climate change caused by carbon dioxide levels higher than any time in the past 500 million years; or the prospect of Peak oil (the gradual or sudden depletion of the supply of the elixir that has fueled world expansion these past 100 years); or from escalating violence and the threat of nuclear weapons. We...