Post by Jeff Gerke on Jan 22, 2008 11:37:37 GMT -5
Lately I've been transfixed by the way the Old Testament era transitions to the New Testament era. (Don't worry: the SF story idea is coming after I set the stage.)
I've just finished reading Malachi and I couldn't help noticing that Jewish expectations were that things would pretty much continue as they were then, with the Jews and the Temple as the center of the world. Yet 400 years later, at the coming of Christianity, everything changes: the Jews are no longer at the center and the Temple will soon be destroyed.
So I've been reading about the so-called intertestimental period, that 400 year span between the Testaments, and revisiting Jewish history from the Exile. And it's fascinating, I tell you.
To sum in up, it seems to me that God has been moving toward Christianity-in-all-lands since at least the Babylonian Exile. Of course we know He's been doing so since before the foundation of the world, but bear with me as I trace this out. (Really, a SF idea is coming!)
Let's say that there are phases in God's ultimate plan (I won't use the word dispensations, but you get the idea). Let's say that the phases went something like this:
Then maybe He decided it was time to begin heading toward the church. (We're still at 1,000 B.C., by the way.) The next phase, then, would be to prepare things so that His name could go out to all the world.
With the rise of the superpowers, the advancement of technology, and the expansion of the world's population, the time of isolated kingdoms rising and falling pretty much out on their own was coming to a close. It was the beginning of a global awareness.
The time of any people existing out in its own corner of the world untouched by any other peoples was over.
It follows, then, that in one sense God no longer "needed" a people convinced of their own preeminence, dedicated to their own exclusivity, and focused on a single structure (the Temple) as the only place in which to encounter Him.
It was time to quit thinking inwardly, in other words (with emphases like purifying the people from outside influence), and start thinking about outward expansion.
But of course the Jews (or any people in their place) would not voluntarily leave their homes. Their entire culture was based on the inward focus toward the Temple and themselves as set apart. (Think Muslims praying toward Mecca.) If they were going to become an externally focused people, that would have to come from an outside force.
Enter the Assyrians and the Babylonians. In 722 B.C., the Northern Kingdom ("Israel") was conquered and carted off by the Assyrians. And in 587 B.C. the Babylonians conquered Judah, the Southern Kingdom, and took the people into Exile.
The Exile is the first major pivot point between the OT and NT, imo. Can you imagine the blow this must've been? "We are special and our Temple is the home of God. No one can defeat us, or else we'd have to say that God has gotten weak." Though the prophets warned them of their sin, nevertheless I believe the Exile had to come either way. The Jews had to be broken of their idea that to love God they had to be a people apart and worshiping in a physical building called the Temple.
The Exile disabused them of that notion. During the Exile they developed the idea of the synagogue (which is reflected in our churches today) and the study of Scripture by the people, at least in those synagogues (as opposed to only in the Temple).
These conquests of the Jews began what's called the diaspora (the dispersion). Jews were scattered throughout the known world. They took their Scriptures with them and built synagogues wherever they went.
In the early missionary journeys of the church, Paul and the others went first to synagogues. The Exile and the diaspora was the mechanism that created a built-in audience for the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. The diaspora became the vehicle or the medium God used to spread Christianity.
The Roman Empire, too, was used by God as He spread the church. I believe one of the reasons Jesus was born when He was is that the Roman Empire had finally made widespread travel possible, thus providing the fields for sowing and reaping.
The first "evolution" of the idea that it wasn't the Temple at the heart of worship was the development of the synagogue. The next evolution of that idea is contained in Jesus' words: "The Kingdom of God is within you." In other words, you are the Temple. The place where God meets with us is not one main building nor even smaller synagogues, but inside the believer. Now the place where God meets us is truly portable. Ready for further dispersal.
Now we're in the church period, when these portable temples spread God's message throughout the world.
And I'm finally to the SF part!
I think we're at the end of the church period. With a few notable exceptions, the entire earth has pretty much been permeated with the gospel message. These portable temples have done their/our job well. Not everyone accepts the message, of course, but the point is that nearly everyone on the planet has access to it.
God is therefore either near the end of His plan for mankind--or He's got a new Exile coming our way. And a new diaspora.
If God's plan is only for earth, then I'd have to say we're within a couple hundred years of the end, if not sooner.
But if God has created other sentient lifeforms throughout the galaxy or the universe, then it's about time for that phase of His plan to begin.
In a sense, He doesn't need Earth anymore. Just like He didn't need Israel as a sovereign nation anymore and thus brought that nation to an end, so the time to pervade Earth with the gospel is near its end, and He can move on to the next thing.
But of course most Earthlings won't leave their homes voluntarily. Just as the Jews were Temple- and Jew-specific and wouldn't voluntarily go out into the greater world, so we wouldn't choose to go into the stars. We're Earth- and human-specific.
But if God's plan is for us to take the gospel to all sentient species, then He's going to have to bring a new Exile.
An alien invasion is next.
He's going to bring hostile, conquering aliens who devastate our planet and relocate humans to their homeworlds. Humanity will be in not only physical but philosophical crisis--we always thought we were the center of it all and Earth was the only place where good things happened. Now what?
Now we'll have to invent interstellar synagogues and intergalactic Scriptures. We're going to have to take our faith with us and--now that we're truly portable temples--we can do so.
Unless the end of all things is near, I predict the only thing we're at the end of is Earth's singularity and usefulness to God. It's time to take this show on the road, people. But it probably won't be a voluntary move.
The end (finally!).
Jeff
I've just finished reading Malachi and I couldn't help noticing that Jewish expectations were that things would pretty much continue as they were then, with the Jews and the Temple as the center of the world. Yet 400 years later, at the coming of Christianity, everything changes: the Jews are no longer at the center and the Temple will soon be destroyed.
So I've been reading about the so-called intertestimental period, that 400 year span between the Testaments, and revisiting Jewish history from the Exile. And it's fascinating, I tell you.
To sum in up, it seems to me that God has been moving toward Christianity-in-all-lands since at least the Babylonian Exile. Of course we know He's been doing so since before the foundation of the world, but bear with me as I trace this out. (Really, a SF idea is coming!)
Let's say that there are phases in God's ultimate plan (I won't use the word dispensations, but you get the idea). Let's say that the phases went something like this:
- Establish awareness of the true God on the earth (Abraham)
- Create a people dedicated to that God (Joseph, Moses, Judges)
- Plant that people as a power among the nations (Conquest, David)
- Maintain and uphold that nation through the rise of early superpowers (Temple, idea of Israel as the center of God's concern)
Then maybe He decided it was time to begin heading toward the church. (We're still at 1,000 B.C., by the way.) The next phase, then, would be to prepare things so that His name could go out to all the world.
With the rise of the superpowers, the advancement of technology, and the expansion of the world's population, the time of isolated kingdoms rising and falling pretty much out on their own was coming to a close. It was the beginning of a global awareness.
The time of any people existing out in its own corner of the world untouched by any other peoples was over.
It follows, then, that in one sense God no longer "needed" a people convinced of their own preeminence, dedicated to their own exclusivity, and focused on a single structure (the Temple) as the only place in which to encounter Him.
It was time to quit thinking inwardly, in other words (with emphases like purifying the people from outside influence), and start thinking about outward expansion.
But of course the Jews (or any people in their place) would not voluntarily leave their homes. Their entire culture was based on the inward focus toward the Temple and themselves as set apart. (Think Muslims praying toward Mecca.) If they were going to become an externally focused people, that would have to come from an outside force.
Enter the Assyrians and the Babylonians. In 722 B.C., the Northern Kingdom ("Israel") was conquered and carted off by the Assyrians. And in 587 B.C. the Babylonians conquered Judah, the Southern Kingdom, and took the people into Exile.
The Exile is the first major pivot point between the OT and NT, imo. Can you imagine the blow this must've been? "We are special and our Temple is the home of God. No one can defeat us, or else we'd have to say that God has gotten weak." Though the prophets warned them of their sin, nevertheless I believe the Exile had to come either way. The Jews had to be broken of their idea that to love God they had to be a people apart and worshiping in a physical building called the Temple.
The Exile disabused them of that notion. During the Exile they developed the idea of the synagogue (which is reflected in our churches today) and the study of Scripture by the people, at least in those synagogues (as opposed to only in the Temple).
These conquests of the Jews began what's called the diaspora (the dispersion). Jews were scattered throughout the known world. They took their Scriptures with them and built synagogues wherever they went.
In the early missionary journeys of the church, Paul and the others went first to synagogues. The Exile and the diaspora was the mechanism that created a built-in audience for the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. The diaspora became the vehicle or the medium God used to spread Christianity.
The Roman Empire, too, was used by God as He spread the church. I believe one of the reasons Jesus was born when He was is that the Roman Empire had finally made widespread travel possible, thus providing the fields for sowing and reaping.
The first "evolution" of the idea that it wasn't the Temple at the heart of worship was the development of the synagogue. The next evolution of that idea is contained in Jesus' words: "The Kingdom of God is within you." In other words, you are the Temple. The place where God meets with us is not one main building nor even smaller synagogues, but inside the believer. Now the place where God meets us is truly portable. Ready for further dispersal.
Now we're in the church period, when these portable temples spread God's message throughout the world.
And I'm finally to the SF part!
I think we're at the end of the church period. With a few notable exceptions, the entire earth has pretty much been permeated with the gospel message. These portable temples have done their/our job well. Not everyone accepts the message, of course, but the point is that nearly everyone on the planet has access to it.
God is therefore either near the end of His plan for mankind--or He's got a new Exile coming our way. And a new diaspora.
If God's plan is only for earth, then I'd have to say we're within a couple hundred years of the end, if not sooner.
But if God has created other sentient lifeforms throughout the galaxy or the universe, then it's about time for that phase of His plan to begin.
In a sense, He doesn't need Earth anymore. Just like He didn't need Israel as a sovereign nation anymore and thus brought that nation to an end, so the time to pervade Earth with the gospel is near its end, and He can move on to the next thing.
But of course most Earthlings won't leave their homes voluntarily. Just as the Jews were Temple- and Jew-specific and wouldn't voluntarily go out into the greater world, so we wouldn't choose to go into the stars. We're Earth- and human-specific.
But if God's plan is for us to take the gospel to all sentient species, then He's going to have to bring a new Exile.
An alien invasion is next.
He's going to bring hostile, conquering aliens who devastate our planet and relocate humans to their homeworlds. Humanity will be in not only physical but philosophical crisis--we always thought we were the center of it all and Earth was the only place where good things happened. Now what?
Now we'll have to invent interstellar synagogues and intergalactic Scriptures. We're going to have to take our faith with us and--now that we're truly portable temples--we can do so.
Unless the end of all things is near, I predict the only thing we're at the end of is Earth's singularity and usefulness to God. It's time to take this show on the road, people. But it probably won't be a voluntary move.
The end (finally!).
Jeff