visions of the future (from the "refresheverything" series)

8/9/2019 Visions of the Future (from the "refreshEVERYTHING" series)

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Visions of the Future
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Theres an old story the ancient Greeks told about two men. The first would walk out hisfront door in the morning and breakout with laughter. The world was such a funny place

that he just couldnt help it. The other man walked out in the morning and burst into tears.The world was so full of tragedy that he just couldnt help it.

Which one do you think was right?

Well, in a sense, both were right.

Comedy and tragedy, laughter and tears. Both are reactions that tell us something is out oforder, that something is not what we expected to happen, or that something is not what we

wanted to happen.

Comedy, however, doesnt bother us nearly so much as tragedy does. And yet on any given

day, in all sorts of ways, were surrounded by tragedy. If we are not feeling its weightdirectly, we can be certain that someone around us surely is.

Creation, as we know it, is out of order, and we experience the effects all-too-often:divorce, depression, disability, disease, drought, and death. These are the plagues of our

time, and sometimes the only proper response is to cry out with the Psalms, How long OGod?

We, as human beings, long for love, justice, wonder, and wholeness. But those things so

often slip right through our fingers. We think weve grasped them, and then we realize theyeluded us once more.

Isnt it odd that the same atmosphere that produces sunsets and ocean breezes can also

produce hurricanes and tsunamis?And isnt it odd that the same fire we can use to cook food and produce heat can also burn

down our houses?

And again, isnt it odd that relationships can bring us the greatest joys in life and they canalso cause us the most pain?

The same world produces both comedy andtragedy, both laughter andtears.

These are some of the tensions were all living with, and with this tension its logical to ask:

Is creation good or is creation bad?

How you answer that question, literally makes all the difference in the world. If you answerthat creation is surely good, then your vision of the future will be very different from the

vision of someone who answers that creation is surely not good.

So I put the question to you: Is creation good or is creation bad?

Based on their answer to this simple question, people have come up with three different

visions of what the future will look like:

The first vision is what well callPESSIMISM.

Those who hold this vision answer the question by saying, The world is not a good place,and therefore our goal is to escape from it.


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Historically, three different groups have held to this view in harder or softer forms:

The first group is known as Platonists.Platonists are followers of the teachings the ancient Greek philosopher named Plato. For

Plato, the present world as we know it with sight and sound, touch and taste is just anillusion.

In his mind, the goal of human life was to look past the touchable world that you live ineach day and discover what is real: that which is not physical at all. Everyone and

everything on earth, according to Plato, is physical and therefore lacking the perfection of

things that arent physical.

To be part of the creation, like we are, is to experience change and decay, so the best thingthat can happen to you is to leave behind your body and all traces of the physical, created

world.

The second group is called the Gnostics.Gnostics believed they had attained a special degree of knowledge that set them apart from

everyone else. Like Plato, they believed that the material world, which can be seen, was

inferior to the spiritual world which can never be seen.

In fact they went further than Plato and held a worldview known as absolute dualism,

which believes that there are two co-equal divine beings one who is good and anotherwho is evil. There is no evil in the one who is good, and there is no good in the one who is

evil. Bring this thinking down to level of creation and what do you get? You get the viewthat the body, and what you do with it, has no significance because what really matters is

your mind. In other words, the mind is good and the body is not.

Thats why this group is called Gnostics, because they said that once people realized theyhad a spark of the divine within themselves, that knowledge, which in Greek is gnosis,

would allow them to enter into a spiritual existence in which the material world would no

longer count. In fact, in this thinking, the physical creation, is actually the attempt of theevil divine being to trap the your inner divine light from getting back to its real home.

So for a Gnostic, this material world is notgood and it is notour home. We are trapped

here, imprisoned in these physical bodies, and we need to learn how to escape.

The last group that holds the view of pessimism is known as Dispensationalists.

Dispensationalists are a Christian version of this view, and I acknowledge that they hold thisview in a softer form than Platonists or Gnostics, but it would be disingenuous not to at

least mention what this Christian subgroup maintains as a vision of the future.

Dispensationalism is a system for interpreting the Bible that arrived on the scene in the1800s and was first taught by a frustrated minister from Plymouth, England named John

Nelson Darby. The highlight of this system was the introduction of a brand-new conceptcalled the rapture.

This view envisions a world that becomes more and more degenerate until Jesus finally

removes the true Christians from the world, leaving nonbelievers behind to endure a seven-year period of horrible tribulations which make the earth, in effect, a cosmic war-zone

destined for destruction.

Even though this view is held by some Christians, it doesnt lend itself to the acts of creative


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goodness to which Christians are called to perform throughout the Scriptures. TonyCampolo is a sociology professor at Eastern College who says (and I quote), The

implication of dispensationalism is that there is no point to working toward peace, socialjustice, the end of poverty, and the like, on the basis that such projects are ultimately

futile (Letters to a Young Evangelical, 112).

In the pessimists vision of the future, Gods announcement in Genesis that creation isgood, never really happened. Or, if it did happen, Well, this thinking goes, that wasthen and this is now.

This brings us to the second vision of future, which well call OPTIMISM.

When asked the question, Is creation good or is creation bad? those who hold this visionanswer by saying, Of course the creation is good, were getting better and better with each

generation!

Those who answer the question this way are harder to pin down in clear-cut groups,because this view is widely held, and even assumed, since the period known as the

Enlightenment in the late 1700s. The primary characteristic of this vision is a total buy-in to

the Idea of Progress. This idea of progress says that history and the world are on a happy,steady incline toward Utopia when everythings going to be great for everyone.

For the last two centuries we have been fed variations of this idea: Elect this governmentofficial and things will change. Use this new device and life will be easier. Spread democracy

and we can solve the worlds issues. Teach kids right from wrong and they wont break thelaw.

Optimism insists that well become what we have the potential to become through our own

efforts at education and tolerance. Instead of creation and new creation, which come fromGod, optimism and the idea of progress insist that science and technology will turn the stuff

of this world into the stuff of heaven.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, everyone from politicians to schoolteachers and

celebrities have told us to believe the world is getting better and better. But try telling thatto a sister whose brother died fighting in Iraq, a parent whose child committed suicide, a

farmer enduring the winter in Romania with no shoes, or a malnourished child in Ethiopia.

To think that we can solve all the worlds problems in our own strength, when we can barely

solve our own personal problems, must surely be called out as arrogance in its highestform. That is what the current cultural shift into whats called Post-Modernity is really all

about calling out the arrogance of optimism.

But if you really want to know what the biggest problem with this vision of the future is, Illtell you. The strictly optimistic view cant actually address the severe problems of evil in the

world. This vision of the future caused people to explain away in the presence of World WarI, the Holocaust, the Great Depression, and World War II and that was just the first half of

the 20th century!

Remember what I told you: your vision of the future makes all the difference in the world.Those are prime examples that prove the point. And if you add to those events todays drug

crime, gang violence, slave trade, and child pornography, then you really have to try hardto be optimistic enough to keep believing in the idea of progress.


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So that brings us to the third vision of the future, which well call REALISM.

This is a distinctly Christian vision of the future. When asked, Is creation good or iscreation bad? those who hold this vision answer by saying that creation is good, but human

sin and rebellion toward God has infected it down to its core, leaving nothing untouched.But their answer doesnt end there, as if they held the vision of pessimism.

They continue their answer by pointing out that because of Gods love and grace, he isworking patiently, faithfully, and thoroughly to release the whole creation from its present

bondage to decay and death.

The early Christians didnt believe in progress as so many of us today are taught to do.

They didnt think the world was getting better and better under its own power.

But neither did they believe that they would escape while the world got worse and worse.

The early Christians believed that God was at work through history, guiding and calling theworld toward healing, beauty, hope, and love. But that transition from the present era to

the new one would not be a matter of the destruction of the present world as we know it,

but of its radical renewal through the power of God.

They knew that if everything was going to be refreshed, and all wrongs were to be made

right, and all things were to be put back into proper order, then God had to do somethingnew, something as revolutionary as the first creation. But they went further and said the

something new that was needed, came in micro-form when Jesus was resurrected fromthe dead. The implication, then, was that the something new that was needed, would

come in macro-form when Jesus is revealed from heaven in the future.

We are wise leave behind the other two visions of the future, pessimism and optimism, andplant our feet here in this one called realism. Thats because the vision of the future that

realism puts forward is rooted in the Bible.

THE STORY

In the Bible we discover that were living in a great story, a drama, in which we are neitherthe producer nor the main character. This story has a long history of people, places, and

actions - some are positive, some are negative, and some are somewhere in between.

But living within this story, as supporting characters, has brought great hope to people in

the midst of their pain. And I believe it can do the same for us today in the 21st century aswe wrestle with tension of a world that is filled with both laughter and tragedy.

This is the story the Bible is telling. Its the story of God, of the heavens and the earth that

God has made, of his image that he placed in the creation, and into whom he breathed life.Its the story of redeeming that which God once called good, but now seems so bad. Its

the story of blessing and curse, of sin and grace, of justice and evil, of death andresurrection. And the theme that runs right down the middle of the whole grand story is the

unstoppable faithfulness of God.

As with any great story, this one has a main character. And so youre not thinkingotherwise, the main character in the Bible is God. We meet this God in the very beginning

creating with power, speaking with authority, caring with wisdom, and empowering withlove.


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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1 NLT).

But with all of the ways people use the word God today, its important at the outset to saythat the story for Christians is about this God and not another.

It is this God we find liberating his people from slavery in the Exodus, covenanting with his

people in the Law of Moses, living among his people in the Tabernacle and then in theTemple. It is this God who drives his stubborn and hard-hearted people away in exile, but itis also this God who reaches out in tenderness and compassion to draw them back once

more. It is this God whom Jesus calls Father, and whom the Apostle Paul declares will

rightly judge all the peoples of the earth. And finally, it is this God we see joining his peopleagain, at the end of the book of Revelation, to dwell in unbroken and faithful union forever

and ever.

Hear these words:I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, Look, Gods home is now among his people!

He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He willwipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or

pain. All these things are gone forever (Revelation 21:3-4 NLT).

WRAP IT UP

The Bible holds out for us a vision of the future in which God intends to refresh everythingin creation beginning with human beings and extending all the way to foreign relations,

weather patterns, and the animal kingdom.

In the next 2 weeks well be exploring more about what God is doing to make that happen,until his mercy, peace, justice, and love fill the whole creation as the waters cover the sea.

So is the creation good or is the creation bad?

Creation is good. And Gods plan is not to abandon it or destroy it, but to refresheverything through the faithful acts of creative goodness performed by his people. There

will certainly come a day when creation is fully transformed and the people of God areresurrected following the pattern of Jesus to live in the presence of our God.

That is the Christian hope offered to each of us in the Christian message.


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refreshEVERYTHINGVisions of the Future

Creation as we know it is ______________________.

The same world produces _____________ comedy __________ tragedy.

Key Question: Is creation good or is creation bad?

3 Different Visions of the Future

1) ______________________ the world is not a good place

a) ___________________________ (hard form)

b) ___________________________ (hardest form)

c) ___________________________ (softer form)

2) _________________________ the world is a great place

3) _________________________ the world is good, but needs to be refreshed

Story

The main character in the Bible is ________________.

Genesis 1:1 (NLT) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Revelation 21:3-4 (NLT) I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, Look, Godshome is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God

himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no

more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.

Gods plan is to ____________________ ______________________.


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OUT OF ORDER

BOTH AND

PESSIMISM

PLATONISM

GNOSTICISM

DISPENSATIONALISM

OPTIMISM

REALISM

GOD

REFRESH EVERYTHING


refreshEVERYTHINGVisions of the Future

Creation as we know it is ___________________.

The same world produces _______ comedy ________ tragedy.

Key Question: Is creation good or is creation bad?

3 Different Visions of the Future

1) ______________________ the world is not a good place

a) ___________________________ (hard form)

b) ___________________________ (hardest form)

c) ___________________________ (softer form)

2) _________________________ the world is a great place

3) _________________________ the world is good, but needs to be refreshed

Story

The main character in the Bible is ________________.

Genesis 1:1 (NLT) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Revelation 21:3-4 (NLT) I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, Look, Godshome is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. Godhimself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no

more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.

Gods plan is to __________________ ______________________.


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visions of the future (from the "refresheverything" series)

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