Dispensationalism and the Cultural Mandate

Despite the influence of secularism and the increasing distaste for Christianity in our culture, eschatology is one area that still seems to be in vogue in popular culture. Perhaps it is because no matter how autonomous and self-sufficient we may be able to make ourselves feel with our advancements and our rigorous assaults against the bane of religion, all it takes is a bad diagnosis to make us deeply feel the frailty of our own existence. One need only look at the latest lineup of apocalyptic thrillers to get a sense of how ingrained our culture is with the idea of a catastrophic end of our existence. No matter how secularized we seem to become, mankind can never shake the feeling that this is all building up to something. The stories may become more elaborate and more secularized, but the theme remains the same.

Even within evangelicalism there seems to be a preoccupation with the when’s and how’s of the end time. After the first fifty or so books in the Left Behind series, many Christians feel like they have a pretty good idea of how this whole thing is going to end. Probably a one world government, an antichrist who tricks everyone into a world tyranny, and something about barcodes and being scanned like grocery items. And guillotines. Definitely guillotines. My fear is that the dominance of certain forms of dispensationalism may have had a detrimental effect on how we as Christians relate to culture, which I will try to summarize briefly.

A Hunker-down Mentality

The idea that many Christians have is that at the end of this world, God’s going to wipe out everyone, burn everything up, and just start over. He is going to create a new world and a new heaven and we’re just going to have a fresh start. So why worry about this world? It’s just going to burn one day. I think because of this mentality, many Christians have abandoned our responsibility to subdue the earth and to be good stewards of God’s creation. We often do not fight in fights for culture, we just abandon them. “It’s all going to burn anyway” is the idea behind it.

I believe that the Bible speaks very differently of how we are to think about the end of this world. And the picture that we are given is not one of abandonment, but one of renewal. So let’s take a look at what Paul says in Romans 8.

The Redemption of Creation

In Romans 8:20, Paul states:

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

So Paul starts out by saying that the creation was subjected to futility, that is being allowed to fall into disorder and slowly die, not of its own accord. It was not the will of creation, so to speak, to be subjected to futility. Someone subjected creation. The question then becomes “who was it?” Did Satan subject creation to futility? Was it man? Or was it someone else?

The answer is found in the end of the verse- “because of him who subjected it, in hope.” God is the only one who could subject the creation to futility in hope. It is part of God’s order to constantly overcome evil in this world. Sometimes evil seems as though it has free reign and acts wildly and unexplainably. We do not always see the plan and order behind it. So why did God subject the creation futility? We read on that it was in order that the creation will one day be set free from its bondage to corruption and will share in the freedom of the sons of God. Verse 22 explains it further for us:

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies.”

The parallel that Paul draws is one between the redemption of the creation and the redemption of the sons of God. We live in “these last days,” as the author of Hebrews states. We live in the “already/not yet” dimension of eschatology. Our redemption has been accomplished in Christ and it will be consummated at His return when the sons of God are revealed. That is what we are Christians are groaning for. We know that our bodies are dying. We groan for a glorified body, one that is renewed and redeemed through God’s eternal purpose. It is by use of this parallel that Paul describes the end of this world. It ends not in destruction, but in renewal and recreation. God does not throw away what has been marred by sin, but He redeems and restores it.

So What?

We are not called as God’s people to simply hide and wait for Jesus to come back and open a big can of whoop in the end. Too many Christians are preoccupied with the what’s and how’s of the end times to the diminishing of God’s purpose for their life. We are not called to sit around and wait for God to take us up and unleash all hell on the world. Unlike the ministry of Jesus, the hunker down mentality is not very incarnational. We are to work towards renewal and redemption of the world through the preaching of the Gospel, not to try to grab as many as we can out of the world to wait in the proverbial lifeboat. God’s purpose has always been to redeem and restore His creation, never to abandon it and start over. I think instead of worrying about all the details of it, maybe we should spend more time to see the big picture. As fascinating as it may be to decipher the precise implications of the number “666,” God’s purpose is far more important than our fascination.