Many Jesus followers operate on the assumption that the human project as we know it is coming to a close- i.e. "The End is Near!" But is this actually true? Is our little boat approaching the horizon of human history (about to fall off the edge of time) or have we only just started on this amazing journey? Is it as angels allegedly sang, "Late in time behold Him come"; or, was Karen Carpenter correct, "We've Only Just Begun"?
If human history were to continue to march forward for another 100 years,10,000 years, or 100,000 years, what might this mean for Christ's church? The thoughts that follow, written by Gil Bailie, have got me thinking about these things.
“It was not those closest to the historical Jesus who first gave the gospel its geographical breadth and theological depth. It was Paul, who had never known him. In addition to that, impressive achievements in biblical scholarship have, in many ways, brought our era closer to the constituent events of the Christian movement than were, say, the Gentile Christians of the second century. If the life and death of Jesus is historically central, then people living a hundred thousand years from now will be in a better position to appreciate that than we are. Furthermore, when they look back they will surely think of us as “early Christians” living as we do a scant two millennia from the mysterious events in question. They will be right, for the Christian movement today is still in the elementary stages of working out for itself and for the world the implications of the gospel. There isn’t the slightest doubt that the greatest and boldest creedal assertions are in the future, not the past. It may be only at rare moments that this flawed and unlikely thing we call the “church” even remotely resembles something worthy of its calling, but it is nonetheless embarked on a great Christological adventure. Even against its own institutional resistances, it is continually finding deeper and more profound implications to the Jesus-event.”
~Gil Bailie, Literary Critic/ Historian/ Lay Theologian
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