Expectation for the Christian Future

"For the Christian, exegesis and theology should provide the basis of expectation for the future, not current events" (Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., He Shall Have Dominion: A Postmillennial Eschatology, xxvii-xxviii).

He Shall Have Dominion

"My prayer is that this book will lead God's people to pray more fervently and believingly: "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt 6:10). And in better understanding and praying that, they might more diligently labor to "make disciples of all the nations" (Mt 29:19), knowing that "he shall have dominion" (Ps 72:18 KJV)" (Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., He Shall Have Dominion: A Postmillennial Eschatology, xxiv).

Eschatology of Hope: Benchmarking Church Growth and Community Impact for a Christian Future

Benchmarks for Community

Loose collection of thought-fragments on the Christian future . . .

• Construction of brick-and-mortar churches that aren't going anywhere for a while, i.e., think of Notre Dame de Paris, or Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, but think of them as actually functioning as vibrant churches, instead of being mere landmark or tourist attractions--these brick-and-mortar churches would point to the acts of God in the past as well as the Christian future.
• Construction of mercy-ministries (predominantly overseen and ran by local churches) with military-like organization and influence/efficacy, e.g., soup-kitchens and rescue missions that provide a segue from homelessness, hunger and poverty, financial and social instability, as well as functioning as a training-ground for developing a professional skillset that in the future might provide a protective-hedge for individuals (and families) from falling back into those vulnerable circumstances.
• Construction of Christian-mediation groups to assist with legal disputes (outside of courtrooms) between Christians (this work would be only a segue until Christian Law was the law of civic courts). 
• City-based trans-denominational elders meetings focusing on collaborative/strategic prayer, evangelism, mercy ministry, etc., for shared cultural space. 
• Closing of abortion-mills, Planned Parenthood facilities, and the like.
• Closing of Casinos, State Lotteries, etc.
• Closing of strip-clubs.
• Closing of wannabe strip-clubs, e.g., restaurants like Hooters, The Tilted-Kilt, etc.
• Closing of oodles and oodles of Federal, State, and County "Department of whatever-wealth-redistribution-program-comes-to-mind"

What should be added to the list?

God's Plan

"[T]he essential teachings of Christianity is that God has a plan for man and the world. We are bound to believe that history is not a haphazard conglomeration of chance events which are going nowhere. We are bound to believe that there is some divine far off event to which the whole creation moves and that when that consummation comes Jesus Christ will be Judge and Lord of all. The Second Coming is not a matter for speculation and for illegitimate curiosity; it is a summons to make ourselves ready for that day when it comes" (William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, 14).

Social Collateral: A Great and Power Thing

Here is a thoughtful article by Peter Leithart; he is commenting on Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, and his closing thoughts are quite compelling: social collateral (the matrix and benefits created by social institutions) is greater and more powerful than raw free enterprise (the market).

Leithart says that the former, not the latter, serves as a better bulwark to tyranny. Surely, for some, this is a controversial statement.

Lordship of Christ and the Christian Future

Philip Schaff reflecting on God's hand of providence in the midst of Heathenism:

Greece gave the apostles the most copious and beautiful language to express the divine truths of the Gospel, and Providence had long before so ordered political movements as to spread that language over the world and to make it the organ of civilization and international intercourse, as the Latin was in the middle ages, as the French was in the eighteenth century, and as the English is coming to be in the nineteenth (History of the Christian Church, vol. 1, 77).

Before Christ (BC)

God providentially used heathen empires and languages of olden times to prepare man for Jesus Christ. All of Western history and culture, i.e., Mesopotamia, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Sparta and Athens; Grecian epics, lyrical poetry, and dramas; the rise of Rome, etc., was a tool in the hand of God, preparing the sons of Adam for Jesus Christ. Schaff says, "In Judaism the true religion is prepared for man; in heathenism man is prepared for the true religion" (58).

Anno Domini (AD)

Christ came. Christ ascended and now rules at the right hand of the Father. And Christ used the events of AD history, i.e., fall of Rome and Romish and Byzantium schism; 7th-10th century Islamic growth and development of medieval civilization; economic, technological, and political European transformations and the Renaissance; Protestant reformation and Western expansion; etc. and etc., for , as Schaff said, the "gradual diffusion of his spirit and progress of his kingdom."

Christian Approach to the Future

So, if we want to craft a Christian approach to the future, then we need to remember that Christ is King and is using the events of AD history to push his Kingdom into the corners and the shadows of this world. But how do you think and live if that is the approach you are trying to take? Well, here are a couple examples:

1) International Economies

Christ is using international economies to subdue the world, even when the captains of those international economies are tyrants. Eventually those tyrants are going to be overthrown, but in the meantime Christ is using them as a tool to cultivate the world, and from those figurative fields the Lord will grow and feed his Church.

2) Internet

The Internet is an incredible vehicle for delivering stuff. The glorious thing about the Internet is that it is an infrastructure that is both ubiquitous and flexible, e.g., you can get nearly everything (audio, video, text) anywhere (via wireline, WiFi, Satellite, etc., communication channels). The Internet is a powerful tool that Christ is leveraging for expanding his Kingdom, e.g., with the click of a finger you can send the entire writings of the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene Fathers to a village in middle of the Congo. And parallel to the Internet is technology in general: you can smuggle all the Western Christian classics and multiple translations of the Bible into Communistic countries on itty-bitty SD cards. Boom Shakalaka!!!

3) Cities

Cities are growing and growing and growing and growing, and even though lots of cities are bastions for sin (read: NY, LA, etc.), have faith that God is shoving people into cities for a reason. I thinks that when God begins to pour out his Spirit of revival and renewal there is going to be a lot of (positive) collateral damage, merely because of the fact that God has shoved a whole lot of humans into cities. My best guess is that it will look like the revolution that took place when the early church grew in the midst of Roman paganism: back then there was a lot of "positive" collateral damages, e.g., God's common grace was dispersed through the mercy ministries of the church: through the creation of orphanages, and care and dignity was given to the sick and infirm; also, a great many abandoned babies were saved and given homes, etc. On the front-end, all of that revival and renewal requires sustained prayer, so that the church is prepared and made-ready. That way when the moment comes all of us are ready to roll-up-our-sleeves and jump in! But on the back-end, it is going to be so cool to see God's Spirit poured out that we're going to want to crack a beer and just bask in the enjoyment of watching the glory of widespread-revival. But I digress.

The thing to remember in the midst of all this optimism is that Christ does not convert the nations at the edge of a sword. Christ uses AD history for the "gradual diffusion of his spirit and expansion of his kingdom,"  but he uses it after the specific pattern exemplified by himself and his Church: it is the pattern of peaceful martyr and witness. Christ didn't march into Jerusalem armed to the teeth, rather he peacefully rode into that city, all the while knowing he would be crucified as a martyr. God raised Christ from the dead, so the church follows the example of Christ. The church knows that God brings life out of death, therefore, the church has always been an optimistic witness of the efficaciousness of martyrdom.

Modern World: Appears to be Unsuited for the Coming of God's Kingdom

A little over a week ago I preached on the "Five Woes" declared against the Chaldeans in Habakkuk 2:5-20. Many crimes are listed in that passage, but I stressed that the Chaldeans were bloody-city-builders. The Chaldeans were brutal like Cain, who was the first bloody-city-builder (see Genesis 4).

God commanded man to multiply and subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28), but man is not suppose to accomplish this with murder; God's law forbids man to build civilization upon murder (Exodus 20:13). Because the Chaldeans committed the crime of bloody-city-building, that is, murderous-city-building, the Lord declared woes of judgment against them (Habakkuk 2:12).

It is disconcerting that so many contemporary nations are committing the same crime as the Chaldeans: at their worst, many contemporary nations are building civilization upon "strategic" murder (e.g., unjust war(s), euthanasia, abortion, etc.), or, at their best, many contemporary nations utilize "strategic" murder as a type of "flying buttress" that helps support the desired economic-political-sociological infrastructure (e.g., pharmaceutical abortifacients).

Discouragement comes easy for those who are faced with the grim prospect of contemporary nations that are bloody-city-builders, like Cain and the Chaldeans. However, for those of us who face the grim prospect of the modern world, these words by Herman Bavinck may be of comfort:

"The modern world appears to be extremely unsuited for the coming of God's kingdom. Much more emphasis seems to be placed upon political and economic progress, and self-rule, than upon any search for God and any desire to listen to him. Sometimes we feel almost powerless. With fear and trembling we can only try each day anew to live close to God, and we can pray. More than ever before in our own weakness, we experience that God alone can help us and that he will help, if we pray. Thus, we learn in these tense years to understand again what Paul had learned by prayer and tears, namely, that the power of Jesus Christ is revealed to the fullest only in our weakness, and that therefore -- no matter how contradictory it may appear -- it is possible to take comfort in our impotence" (An Introduction to the Science of Missions, 217).

Christian Education

"The establishment of a Christian school movement is in principle a threat to the current establishment, and the establishment knows it" (Douglas Wilson, The Case for Classical Christian Education, 36).

"The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said that without an infinite reference point, every finite point is absurd. This statement is exactly correct and explains why every secular classroom is a manifest absurdity. The need for an infinite reference point explains why an understanding that each child bears the image of God is so central to the process of Christian education" (49).

"In order to teach a child rightly, his parents and teachers must know both who and what they are, and they must know this on the authority of God's Word. They must understand that mankind has fallen away from the initial task assigned in the Garden of Eden, but that Jesus Christ came in order to make it possible for people to resume work on that task. Given the nature of the case, men and women must either serve God or refuse to do so. They must either serve God or man. This is the fundamental question before us in all our debates about education" (50).

Revelation: Christian Future - The New Jerusalem

'"I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I John saw a holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." In taking these words for my text I placed myself at the point where the whole teaching of Scripture culminates. Here, at the last step, we have a definite and satisfactory completion of the former doctrine of the future. There is to be a perfect humanity; not only perfect individually, but perfect in society. There is to be a city of God. "The Holy City!" - there is the realization of the true tendencies of man. "New Jerusalem!" - there is a fulfilment of the ancient promises of God' (Thomas Dehany Bernard, The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament, 217).