The USS Eschaton

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Please bear with a few juxtaposed quotes, followed up by a very brief observation.

“We have contrived that their very language should be all smudge and blur . . .” (C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Proposes a Toast).

“The gospel was not ‘believe in Jesus and you will have eternal life’. It was the public announcement that through the judgment and restoration of his own people the God of Israel was about to bring centuries of pagan domination to an end and annex the nations of the Greek-Roman for his own rule” (Andrew Perriman, here)

This really does change everything . . .
This really does change everything . . .

“And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” (Matt. 19:16).

“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28).

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48).

“To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life” (Rom. 2:7).

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (1 Tim. 6:12).

“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15).

Not to mention beaucoup more passages. One of the reasons that traditional evangelicals persist in their errors is that they have so darn many Bible verses that they keep tripping over.

The problem with Perriman’s statement above is not what he states positively. That is all very true, and was very much part of the gospel proclamation. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar isn’t. The problem is the false and inane and utterly anti-textual false alternative he presents. Either you grasp hold of the rope that will haul you off the burning ship into the helicopter, or you must believe that the helicopters fly off the USS Eschaton, currently on station about a half mile away. But you mustn’t believe both.

This is the kind of error that only a highly educated man could make.

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PerfectHold
PerfectHold
8 years ago

But his sentiment that God would “eventually become God of the nations” should kinda sit well with your dispensational postimillenialism, no?

Malachi
Malachi
8 years ago
Reply to  PerfectHold

Blind squirrels and broken clocks…

AeroBob
AeroBob
8 years ago
Reply to  PerfectHold

So often when dealing with Biblical error, it’s not what people affirm that puts them outside orthodoxy, it’s what they deny. Say ‘Jesus is a man’ –awesome. Say ‘Jesus is divine’ –great. Say ‘Jesus wasn’t divine’ or ‘Jesus wasn’t man’ and now we have a problem.

And that’s how Satan works to fool people is by actually saying SOME stuff that is actually true. Our enemy has been fighting this war a lot longer than we have, and he’s no fool.

Peter Jones
8 years ago

Well that is a mess no doubt, including his rejection of Hell, redefinition of justification by faith, rejection of Christ’s 2nd coming and heaven, saying that Scripture is right as far is the people who wrote it understood and on and on. Naturally, evangelical theology has gotten everything wrong.

St. Lee
8 years ago

My curiosity being piqued, I followed the link and read the article (painful as it was). That left me with the natural question; what foggy hollow in the theological wilderness did this guy emerge from? So, of course I took a look at his “about me” page, where this revealing statement was found: “My overriding theological interest at the moment is in how we retell the biblical story as we negotiate the difficult transition from the centre to the margins of our culture following the collapse of Western Christendom.” Pretty sure that was a misprint on his part using the… Read more »

ashv
ashv
8 years ago
Reply to  St. Lee

To paraphrase the old joke, “What do you mean by ‘our culture’, kemosabe?”

Jane Dunsworth
Jane Dunsworth
8 years ago
Reply to  St. Lee

It does get used that way, as in “Tangled is a retelling of the Rapunzel story.”

"A" dad
"A" dad
8 years ago
Reply to  St. Lee

“the collapse of Western Christendom.”?

Hmmmmm. I wonder if Andrew Perriman is the guy who will be reporting this “collapse” to The Lord?

Wonder if Mr. Perriman has some pointers for God as well? ; – )

Malachi
Malachi
8 years ago

I also find it amusing that Perriman chose the symbol for radioactivity in the column beside his blathering on the Trinity. Amusing in the same way that a car in a tree after a F5 tornado is amusing. Sometimes you just have to chuckle at the juxtaposition of two incongruent things in the aftermath of utter violence, whether to the landscape or to the text.

bethyada
8 years ago
Reply to  Malachi

A non-scientist I presume? No need to equate radioactivity with violence, just radio activity which can be used for good or ill. Though presumably he chose this symbol from his limited cache of cartoons which did not include this.

bethyada
8 years ago

Christianity is individual faith, everyone must choose or reject Christ for himself.

No Christianity is communal, God does his work through and with his people as a group.

Well yes and yes actually.

David Trounce
8 years ago

Be ye annexed, for the kingdom is moving to the margins.