Bunker Blog: 4 Time

Is time flat or cyclical?

Did time begin at a definite point and does it have a definite end?

Or is time a series of cycles? Should time be pictured as a revolving wheel?

How you answer these questions will define the perspective that you take toward eschatology. If you think of time as linear, then you believe that time had a beginning and it has an eventual end. If you think of time as cyclical, then the beginning is just a beginning.

Humans originally answered these questions by looking around them. They looked around and saw clear evidence that time was cyclical. The sun goes down, and comes back up. The rains of spring follow the snows of winter. The phases of the moon are predictably repetitive. That which is happening now, has happened before and will happen again.

So, it was easy for them to assume that time was a cycle - a series of infinite recurrences. Most people believed this way until a special group of people came along. The apocalyptic prophets. They were preachers with visions of the future. They spoke of doom and judgement, but also of restoration and justice.

Prophets  of the Apocalypse were from many different faiths. Prognosticators arose when people began to see the world from a cosmic perspective. They looked to the stars and saw doom or hope. They saw deities manipulating the gears of time. They wondered what lay ahead for their children, their children's children. What machinations did these gods and stars have in mind?

The history of Jewish people is full of sadness and tragedy. After the Golden age of King Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was constantly harried by troubles: civil war, invasion, and enslavement. This sadness and the longing for a brighter future gave us the Prophets.

At first, the Prophets warned the Hebrew people that their behavior would get them in trouble. The prophet Amos gave up farming to preach and warn the nation of the consequences of their bad behavior - judgement day was coming. Nobody listened. So, he went back to farming. Judgement Day came. The Northern Israelite were conquered by the Assyrian Empire. The region was depopulated and carried off to exile in Nineveh.

Jeremiah warned the leaders of  the Southern Kingdom. He wept and foretold their destruction. He pleaded with the leaders to not ally themselves with Egypt. They didn't listen.  The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar rolled in, sacked Jerusalem, and took the population back to Babylon. Jeremiah was left to mourn over the ruins of the city.

Exile brought a whole new kind of prophesying. The Jewish people received a heavy dose of Persian influence while in captivity. They learned about the ardent monotheism of Zoroaster. The prophet Daniel was trained in Chaldean astrology. They learned concepts like paradise, hell, and a savior coming in the future. They incorporated these concepts into their faith. This caused them to see the stories of their origins in totally different ways.

They Hebrew people were exposed to the creation myths. Zoroastrianism's version of creation is that God created the known world in seven steps. He also created humanity, at first as an original couple. This couple were plagued by an powerful evil character attempting to mess up all that the God character had created.

Sound familiar?

The Book of Genesis specifically locates the Garden of Eden in Babylon.

The Jewish exiles had to re-interpret scripture. The End had already come. Their nation- the promised land - was gone. Their temple was gone. They now had to understand their circumstances from beyond their borders. Now, the prophets spoke of a supreme God that was not just the ruler of the Jewish people, but of all people. And this God would use the mighty rulers to restore Israel and dole out judgement upon the oppressors of the Jewish people.

The Prophets did not use clear or explicit language. Far from it. Instead, they used bizarre word pictures and metaphors. Their writings are chock full of symbology and coded references. Some of the passages border on nonsensical.  

The prophets now spoke about a future "End of Days" when God would put an end to all of the suffering and anguish that had befallen the oppressed. God would destroy the wicked and edify the wronged. Whoa to those who were on the wrong end of that continuum.

No longer was time a cycle (ashes to ashes, dust to dust). Time now had a definite beginning - God created the world in seven days. Time now had a definite end - the End of Days. Time was now linear.

The prophets became rabbis and the faith of the Jewish people continued to persist. The faith evolved under extraordinary circumstances. Through the many changes, they looked toward the future. They anticipated the arrival of the future savior - the Messiah. They looked forward to the End of Days and the restoration of the Promised Land.  Next Year, in Jerusalem.

Apocalyptic prophets followed, certainly. Eventually, the End of Days found its way into the theology of Christians. Oppressed and struggling with Roman persecution, early Christian writers identified Jesus as the Messiah. Like, the Hebrew prophets, they knew that God was the God of all nations and that history was pointed toward an edification of the Oppressed at the End of Days.

The new Christian prophets wrote in a style similar to the apocalyptic exiles. They used symbology, coded references, and strange word pictures. They openly mimicked the Prophets of exile and linked their message with the message of their predecessors. For them, time was absolutely linear and the end was near. It was very near.

Their message is clear. Get ready. the End could occur at any moment. The Messiah will return. The earth will burn. The dead will rise. Horrors will spread throughout the Earth as God renders judgement upon the sinful and unjust. Get ready. It is going to happen very very soon.

Over two millenia after the Apocalyptic Christian prophets, we're still waiting. Why? How do Christians explain that delay?