MARCH 18 2017
PROPHETS: AN IGNORED BREED
In many ways we still have a lot of 2500 year old Greek thinking in our system. Take Christianity: it is deeply influenced by Greek Pagan philosophy, the nature/grace syndrome, the Good Heaven versus Bad Earth heresy now more powerful than ever, witness US politics.
I have been called a “Cassandra”, another Greek concept, which my dictionary defines as “a person who prophesies doom or disaster.” Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy, was given the gift of prophesy by Apollo, but when she spurned his advances, he ordained that her prophecies would not be believed. That’s me. Today we live in Cassandra times, when the many warnings are simply shrugged off, making prophets an ignored breed.
WE IGNORE EXPLICIT SIGNS OF LOOMING DISASTERS.
Already in 1896, more than 120 years ago, a Swedish Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Svante Arrhenius, predicted that burning coal, oil and firewood, injects millions of tons of CO2 in the atmosphere, causing Climate Change. An early prophet, now totally ignored by the Trump appointed head of the EPA (ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY!!), who denies that CO2 causes Climate Change.
On June 23 1988 an illustrious panel of scientists, Dr. James Hansen of NASA among them, assembled on Capitol Hill in Washington. They warned a gathering of US senators that “We have only one planet. If we screw it up, we have no place to go”. Of course Al Gore’s documentary and book THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH were well received by the public, but since implementing its recommendations involved measures inconveniencing peoples’ life styles, they were and still are not taken seriously.
Another ignored prophet is Joseph Tainter. In his book “THE COLLAPSE OF COMPLEX SOCIETIES” he wrote that “The complex bureaucratic mechanisms that are created by all civilizations will ultimately doom them…… No longer can any individual nation collapse. Collapse when it comes again, will this time be global. World civilization will disintegrate as a whole.” Here’s a line applicable to Trump. He continued, ”Civilizations in decline, despite the palpable signs of decay around them, remain fixated on restoring their “greatness”. (This was, by the way, written 30 years ago, well before the illusion of Making America Great Again.) Tainter also wrote that “The forces that gave rise to modern civilization, namely technology, industrial violence and fossil fuels, are the same forces that are extinguishing it. Their leaders are trained only to serve the system, slavishly worshiping the old gods long after these gods begin to demand millions of sacrificial victims.”
Then there is Dr. James Lovelock, 93 years old. He wrote in his book THE REVENGE OF GAIA: “We have driven the Earth to a crisis state from which it may never, on a human scale, return to the lush and comfortable world we love and in which we grew up.”
Curiously Lovelock, who is not a Christian, starts his book with a quote from Jesus: “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” (Matthew 23:24). A gnat is the tiniest of unclean animals. He refers here to political and environmental measures that are for appearances only but have no substance, while the real issue is ignored or the so-called cure has negative results. Ethanol from corn comes to mind. The Germans have a beautiful word for that symptom: Schlimmbesserung, which literally means “an improvement that makes matters worse.”
Just like smokers ignore the many warnings, we are ignoring all the dangers inherent in the use of fossil fuels.
NO WONDER PROPHETS ARE UNPOPULAR
People hate to be reminded of their addiction, reason why Prophets are unpopular. They are unpopular because they question the status quo; they are unpopular because people hate change; they are unpopular because people want to feel comfortable; they are unpopular because politicians want to avoid controversy at all cost, hate to be bringers of bad news even though they know better; they are unpopular even in the church as is evident from a cursory reading of the Old Testament prophets: all of them plainly show that leaders in organized religion in the days before Christ do not significantly differ from most of today’s principal church actors who also want to please everybody.
WHO IS A PROPHET?
The average human thinks that a prophet is a special person who speaks for God or one who foretells the future, at least that’s what my dictionary tells me, but I take issue with that explanation, because it would limit the office of prophet to crackpots, since nobody can predict the future.
As an older person I am a product of a society that since long has disappeared. In my teenage years I was part of Sunday gatherings of some 20 young men. There, after having attended two church services of at least 90 minutes in duration, we debated topics of general Christian interest, introduced by one of the members. There I learned that we as Christians have a three-fold office: that of Prophet, Priest and King. These weekly 2 hour Sunday evening gatherings in the early and the mid 1940’s shaped my outlook on life. Of course no TV in those days, not even radio in occupied Holland.
To be a Prophet, Priest and King is a core Calvinistic declaration, but one that I don’t hear much about anymore. Perhaps the words of God to Ezekiel (chapter 2: 2-5) apply to today as well: “I am sending you to a rebellious nation that is obstinate and stubborn. And whether they listen or not they will know that a prophet has been among them”.
After this introduction, I better clarify what I perceive to be a prophet’s profile.
HOW TO SPOT A PROPHET.
A prophet in the Bible they are called ‘seers’ not because they could see into the future, but because they could see the truth, could understand the deeper meaning of life and have a holistic view on events. In other words prophets do not major in minors, but grasp the true consequences of the day’s happenings. The people cited above, Svante Arrhenius, Tainter, Hansen, Lovelock, Gore, are such prophets.
A true prophet also points out societal failures. He or she is not afraid to emphasize the pain and injustices of today’s society: they connect the dots and live what they say.
Prophets are first and foremost believers, convinced that today’s new present requires new thinking and different approaches. They openly and unabashedly dare to look at what is happening ‘out there’ and warn of the consequences. They also have the courage to critically look at past decisions, including those involving doctrines, to test them on their relevance for today and tomorrow. They are persons who from their perspective on contemporary life dare to look to the future to keep creation viable for our children and grandchildren. They are believers who now already can visualize what this future will be like and thus can critically evaluate the present in the light of the glorious future that is coming.
I see prophets as believers who by regarding Scripture as a lamp for their feet and a light for their path in God’s wonderful creation, know that Christ, as the Son of Man, the Ben-Adam, the Son of the Soil, will return to make all things new. That’s why all prophets, in spite of all the sin and evil in this world, look to the future with full confidence.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
America became the globe’s largest economy and the envy of the world in the 20th Century because of some fortunate circumstances: where Europe and the rest of the world suffered ruinous wars, North American industrial hinterlands were not only spared destruction, but benefited immensely as producers of war materials and the providers of the black gold in Texas and elsewhere in its territory.
It is easily forgotten that the United States in the 20th Century produced more petroleum than all the other countries on Earth put together. The USA floated to victory on these oceans of oil in the two World Wars. But OIL also shaped its societal make-up, created its subdivided cities, and its divided society, and so sowed the seeds for its current destruction, now evident in its unsustainable energy use – twice that of Europe – and its deep societal divide.
Today’s out-datedness of the USA is evident in its lack of universal healthcare, its unequal education system, its clinging to the cumbersome imperial system of miles and Fahrenheit, and its trends toward human ‘whiteness’ and individualism.
It is especially evident in its form of worship which has ceased to be CHRISTIAN. The churches there have not seen a Reformation, still clinging to RAPTURE and the HAL LINDSEY’s views of THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH, portraying creation as evil.
The oil- fracking industry today is a desperate attempt to regain oil supremacy, at the expense of such essentials as water, soil, and air, all in efforts to extend the enslaving of creation where each person has at its beck and call 24/7/365 a hundred carbon slaves. Trump’s ill-conceived plan to renege on all environmental regulations will simply speed up America’s demise.
The Western age of abundance has caused nothing else but a tremendous acceleration of human history. During my life time I have seen the more than tripling of the number of humans, just one example of the speeding up of everything, including the Coming of the Christ.
A PROPHETIC VIEW.
A realistic look at what’s happening around us – witness the political turmoil everywhere – makes plain that the period of unprecedented prosperity, extraordinary extravagance and gigantic growth, is ending. That means that society has to relearn the lessons of more normal and less unusual times, times where we are given the opportunity to truly and purposely honor creation.
That’s what Peter alludes to in 2 Peter 3: 11-12 when he asked us “to live holy and godly lives as we look forward to the Day of God and speed its coming.”
That is right in line with the teachings of Jesus, whose main message was and is “Seek first the Kingdom”, the welfare of God’s creation.
In that so abused “The Lord’s Prayer” he taught us to pursue “Your Kingdom Come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” (a direct appeal for the speedy coming of The New Creation), and he repeated this request in the next line: “Give us this day our daily bread,” which has nothing to do with us asking for food.
In a thousand Page book: A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY, THE FIRST 3000 YEARS, on page 89 I read that “The Greek word epiousios, translated as ‘daily’ does not mean ‘daily.’ It points to the new time of the coming kingdom. Professor Dr. Herman Ridderbos, in his THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM also says that ‘daily’ is incorrect and means “belonging to the coming kingdom.”
Thus this fits in with the preceding line in THE LORD’S PRAYER, asking for YOUR KINGDOM (to) COME. The wrongly translated “Give us this day our daily bread”, should be read as “Give us the wherewithal to prepare ourselves for the Coming of the Kingdom,” something, I might add, the church rather not emphasize.
LOOKING AHEAD
The re-election of politicians depends on ‘perpetual growth.’ They look to yesterday for answers to cope with tomorrow’s problems. Attempt after attempt to cure economic stagnation by expanding credit have only generated a series of destructive speculative bubbles and crashes while destroying creation. Efforts to maintain an inflated standard of living in the face of a contracting real economy have only caused mountains of debts.
Today’s policy makers are driven by a two-pronged faith commitment: (1) that policies that failed last year will succeed next year, and (2) that the pursuit of ever newer and ever more expensive technological tools will assure an even grander future.
A new course should be taken, based on simple technologies, locally based, more resilient, sustainable and creation friendly, but that will not happen because that means concentrating on negative growth.
Galbraith in 1954, wrote at the end of his book, THE GREAT CRASH 1929,
“Inaction will be advocated in the present even though it means deep trouble in the future.”
We are in that ‘deep trouble future’ now.
The warnings in the Bible and by the modern-day Cassandras are being ignored. People will go there worried way till the End, when the Lord returns to straighten out the situation once and for all.
Be part of that restoration process.