On Not Getting Stuck in the Present

Jason’s next chapter, on “The Destiny of the Species” was really quite good. This was the chapter in which he showed how eschatology drives everything else, which it really does. He, echoing Chesterton and Kreeft, shows how it is the future that defines us and gives us our identity. And the chapter was written with ultimate eschatology in mind — the eternal things, the permanent things — meaning it was the kind of thing that every orthodox Christian could say amen to.

But to keep this post from being unconscionably short, there was one short section that required a response.

“We of all people should recognize our provisional cocoonish condition, and yet the more we talk about redeeming the culture and reclaiming America for Christ the more we give the impression that if we were actually given wings and bidden to fly, we would be disappointed to leave our cocoon behind un-transformed. What does that say about where our true devotion lies” (p. 120)?

The first thing to say is that to get stuck in the present, however good that present might be, is a danger, and it is one that Christians face all the time. It is right that we be warned against, and equipped to face that temptation. And if not enough postmills are raising the warning (leaving aside for the moment that there are not enough postmills to do anything much), then God can certainly use our amill brothers to warn us about the dangers of getting idolatrously attached to what we are trying to do in the name of Jesus in the present. God always calls us further up and further in. It is His way.

But this is not a temptation that afflicts only those who want to “reclaim America for Christ.” It is the same temptation that confronts everyone who wants to build a successful dental practice, spend ten days in Europe, establish a church plant, or come in from out in the rain. God has placed all of us in history, and we are to labor here in the light of eternity — whatever that labor is. The temptation is to labor in history in the light of the next ten years or ten minutes of history. It is a very real temptation, and a large part of the Christian walk consists of dealing with it. We want to be like David, who was useful in his generation, but he did not forget where he was going. Nor did he forget where everything else was going.

But if we compare everything in human history to the light of eternity, doesn’t this flatten all earthly endeavors? Not at all. Jason needs to remember what he acknowledged about Hebrews 11, and those who subdued kingdoms and shut the mouths of lions by faith. When Jepthah and Daniel did this, it did not mean they had gotten too attached to the cocoon.