Overrealized eschatology is poison. I recently found myself in a couple of conversations about the way in which “pessimistic” premillennial eschatology is said to create people who don’t care about the material conditions in which their neighbors live, because fixing this world is “polishing the brass on a sinking ship.” That kind of premillennialism is trash, and I say that as a premil guy.
I’d love to say that description is a caricature, a straw man. It’s not, quite. Evangelists for other eschatological positions certainly overplay it (and they’ll answer to their Maker for slandering their brethren when the time comes), but these people really do exist. The antidote to that sort of nonsense is simple and biblical. Here are four key pieces:
1) The Dominion Mandate was given to Adam and Eve, repeated to Noah and his descendants, and is still in force for Noah’s descendants today. So live fruitfully in every direction; fill the earth and subdue it. Exercise godly dominion over whatever God has placed within your reach. This is God’s will for your life, and no eschatological position relieves you of your duty.
2) Seek first the kingdom of God, *and His righteousness.* The consummated kingdom may be future, but God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel in this age, and realized every time we obey Him. Premillennialism does not give anyone in government an excuse for promoting policies that Jesus doesn’t like. If you’re a voter, that applies to you. Dealing in reality means making trade-offs, and that’s fine, but you should be aiming for God’s righteousness.
3) Psalm 2. When the headlines tell us that the kings of the earth are taking counsel against the Lord and His Anointed, God thinks it’s hilarious. We can do our best Chicken Little imitation, or we can join Him in laughter. We should, and the psalms give us the vocabulary for that. Sing them, pray them, read them, get them deep into you.
4) Love your neighbor. If you love your neighbor, then you can’t be indifferent about a war that kills a bunch of your neighbors. If you love your neighbor, then you want his sewers to keep working. And so on — yes, the elements will melt with a fervent heat, but until they do, love your neighbor already!
It’s not really that hard. However you think this all ends, you don’t get to ignore how God told you to live today. That’s true for the impatient postmillennials who are smuggling crates of AKs for the theocracy they’re hoping to usher in next Tuesday, and it’s true for impatient premillennials who want to ignore the Dominion Mandate and the Greatest Commandment because God chose to make the world out of flammable ingredients. People like that are idiots, and we shouldn’t pick either our ethics or our eschatology based on idiots.
Full Contact Christianity 