I have issues with this theology on so many different levels. Here are a few:
Problem #1: Ethical. Mr. Tom Evans predicted the end of the world in 1994 and was obviously wrong. He chalked it up as a mathematical error. Oops. Sorry that I soaked up people's life savings, passions, ministry resources, people's concepts of God, man, and the church that could have been spent on actual purposes of God and His Kingdom. Maybe next prediction will be right. When this Saturday comes and goes I am sure that there will be another mathematical error statement. Why anyone would put stock into this again is beyond my comprehension. If Christ does come back this Saturday it will not be because Mr. Tom Evans predicted it through numerology, it will be because it is time. The two coinciding would be mere coincidence.
Problem #2: Theological. The destruction of the world is not in the Bible. Revelation 21:3 says that God makes HIS home with US. Here. Not us there, but Him here. It goes on to say in verse 4 that the world is actually resurrected to wholeness and healed of death, pain, and sin, by God Himself. Verse 5 says that God will make all things new.
Problem #3: Philosophical. This seems more of a Gnostic heresy than Biblical Christianity. Gnosticism was a heresy that the church fought tooth and nail with early in its early days. To simplify it, it states that physical matter = bad | spiritual = good. “Christian” Gnosticism says that Physical world = bad | Spiritual heaven = good. The problem is Jesus occupied a human body that was fully man as much as fully divine. God made the physical world and stated that it was “very good.” (I wholeheartedly agree with Him) The corruption has taken place in the systems and structures of this world. Those are done away with at the end and the physical creation is healed and restored, not destroyed.
Problem #4: Sociological. This paints a poor picture of God, his church, and his motives and intentions for humankind. Judgment is something that is to be looked forward to. I want the evil systems and structures of this world to be gone. They are what hinder us from becoming into who God created us to be. This view of God promotes a view of Christians as judgmental, self-righteous, prideful, vengeful, and, sorry to say, ignorant. It paints God to be a bloodthirsty, vengeful, bitter old man who can’t wait to give it to those “sinners” down there.
To sum it up, this campaign is a perfect picture of what is wrong with the Western Evangelical Fundamental Christian Church. Because I love the church, I love God’s creation, and I love God, I am grieved, mad, frustrated, and just plain fed up that Christians would even give this theology the attention it has received and I wish that I did not have to waste an hour of my day writing this post.
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