Prophet Land

One of the fundamental problems of prophetic futurism is its inability to understand and appreciate the varied types of literature we find in Scripture. Actually, I think it is deeper than that. In my experience, most futurists have an anemic imagination in general. Their eyes glaze over when they read the prophets, automatically jumping to the conclusion that the prophet is saying something that he is really not saying at all. The problem is that those with such weak imaginations cannot possibly see the text in any other way. How do you reason with someone who can't see any possibility other than the one in their own atrophied mind?

I have come to the tentative conclusion that the problem may be cultural more than theological. We, as scientific moderns, don't have a lot of use for aesthetics other than more "practical" things such as advertising theory or marketing method. Aesthetics serve a cruel master we call "the bottom line." Our "aesthetic vision" is withered to the point that we can't see past the end of our nose, so to speak. Sure, there are few "artsy" types who spend big bucks for obscure paintings or historical works of art. Then you find out that a lot of these people are buying the stuff as an investment: it's dollars and cents to them. But the general population finds all this irrelevant to their normal life. Besides, they are out trying put bread on the table [note metaphor-can you count them all in this paragraph?] rather than cultivate an aesthetic sense to the glory of God.

We are also at a disadvantage as moderns who, generally speaking, are not forced to spend a lot of time with nature. We drive an automobile virtually everywhere we go rather than walking from one place to another which allows time to observe the natural rhythms in our surroundings. We live in the comfort of our climate-controlled houses and work places. We see weather reports that tell us what the weather will be like in the next day... or seven. We don't grow our own food or raise and butcher our own animals. Many people have never even been around agricultural animals in any close way so that they experience their nature and personalities.

Now what happens when the Bible, written to people who had intimate, experiential knowledge of the physical world and nature, is handed to urban modern Americans? Well, some pretty bad things. All of a sudden you get the Bible talking about atomic bombs, international politics (at least since the rise of the UN), geological formation, and the linguistic record of the world. Is it too hard to see that modern Christians have forced the Bible into their own image as scientific moderns?

The timing is ironic as I was thinking about these things. This week I ran across a superb article that is a great exercise in training the biblical imagination: an essential element to accurate biblical understanding. This article by Morrison Lee (from South Korea) is called "Prophet Land."

I think this article is worth your time. If you are interested, you can read it for yourself here:

http://www.beyondcreationscience.com/index.php?pr=Prophet_Land

Tim Martin
co-author Beyond Creation Science
www.beyondcreationscience.com