Evidence-Based Theology

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Today’s Epistle reading was from 2 Peter 3. It urges readers to ignore scoffers, and instead to continue waiting patiently, because Jesus would be returning Any Day Now.

I couldn’t help but think of Deut. 18.21–22. In that passage, Moses proclaimed an evidence-based theology:

You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?”

If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

The predictions of Jesus’s return have yet to pass this test.

(Link: Is Jesus Coming Again? The Predictors’ Track Record Doesn’t Inspire Confidence.)

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9 responses to “Evidence-Based Theology”

2005-12-05

jonny

And if Jesus WAS coming back again, would we want him to? I mean he must have lied too (well, ok, maybe only his followers did), when he forecasted the end of the world within one generation (Matt 24:34-35).

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2005-12-06

Michael Carey

Yes I would want Him to. I look forward to the day of seeing my Lord and Saviour.The generation that is being mentioned in Matt 24:34 is the generation that sees the things mentioned in Matt 24:24-31. Jesus is coming back. Also see Luke 21:5-32. Matt 24:36 says ” But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only”.

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2005-12-06

D. C.

Michael Carey writes:

The generation that is being mentioned in Matt 24:34 is the generation that sees the things mentioned in Matt 24:24-31.

Michael, the scriptural evidence is overwhelmingly contrary to your assertion. See the linked posting for a catalog of the evidence.

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2005-12-06

BobW

It is not so much time to put away thought of Jesus’ return as to ask ourselves what difference it makes in our everyday Christian walk whether He comes at 2:15 EST today or 23,582 years from then.
If he doesn’t come to me in my lifetime, I go to him at it’s end. The idea is that, in either situation, the meeting be a pleasant one.

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2005-12-06

Michael Carey

D.C. How are you reading my assertion? All I am saying is that Jesus will return and no one but His Father knows when.

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2005-12-07

Joseph

Doesn’t Peter’s opening statement about the “contradictory” nature of the perception of the measurement of time in the reading speak to this issue? And does it not also clarify for us how we should view the “any day now” theory?

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2005-12-08

D. C.

Peter’s opening statement is very defensive in tone. It’s hard to accept it as anything other than a desperate attempt to put a brave face on a failed prediction.

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2005-12-08

Joseph

Or a reinforcment of a general principle of Yahwist religion: “remember” , followed by a quote from the Hebrew tradition (in this case the Psalms) indicating the difference between human and divine ways of perceiving temporal experience. I would agree that Peter is at least in part propping up a sagging hope, but the key to the propping up is remembering one’s own “history” – reminding his (mainly Jewish-Christian) readers of how Yahweh has acted in the past, and drawing them back to consider the Psalmist’s message of the difference between the human and divine. I would suggest that Peter’s key to supporting the hope is not so much the return, but an awareness of what he & the Psalmist consider to be the difference between human & divine understandings of time – (side note: a point picked up well by Augustine in his discourse on the nature of time in the Confessions)
Interesting post.

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2009-02-07

B Kind

After some 50 years of study on both sides of the question it is my conviction that the Christian Bible in all its many, and differing versions is simply a work of human imagination.

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