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Scot McKnight: The Eschatology of Politics

By UrL Scaramanga on Doctrine

by Scot McKnight
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Somewhere between 6pm and 8pm, Central Time, on November 4th, 2008, the eschatology of American evangelicals will become clear. If John McCain wins and the evangelical becomes delirious or confident that the Golden Days are about to arrive, that evangelical has an eschatology of politics. Or, alternatively, if Barack Obama wins and the evangelical becomes delirious or confident that the Golden Days are about to arrive, that evangelical too has an eschatology of politics. Or, we could turn each around, if a more Democrat oriented evangelical becomes depressed and hopeless because McCain wins, or if a Republican oriented evangelical becomes depressed or hopeless because Obama wins, those evangelicals are caught in an empire-shaped eschatology of politics.
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Where is our hope? To be sure, I hope our country solves its international conflicts and I hope we resolve poverty and dissolve our educational problems and racism. But where does my hope turn when I think of war or poverty or education or racism? Does it focus on November 4? Does it gain its energy from thinking that if we get the right candidate elected our problems will be dissolved? If so, I submit that our eschatology has become empire-shaped, Constantinian, and political. And it doesn’t matter to me if it is a right-wing evangelical wringing her fingers in hope that a Republican wins, or a left-wing evangelical wringing her fingers in hope that a Democrat wins. Each has a misguided eschatology.

Now before I take another step, it must be emphasized that I participate in the election; and I think it makes a difference which candidate wins; and I think from my own limited perspective one candidate is better than the other.

But, participation in the federal election dare not be seen as the lever that turns the eschatological designs God has for this world. Where is our hope? November 4 may tell us. What I hope it reveals is that:

Our hope is in God. The great South African missiologist, David Bosch, in his book Transforming Mission impressed upon many of us that the church’s mission is not in fact the “church’s” mission but God’s mission. Our calling is to participate in the missio Dei, the mission of God in this world. So, at election time we can use the season to re-align our mission with the mission of God. Therein lies our hope.

Our hope is in the gospel of God. God’s mission is gospel-shaped. Some today want to reduce gospel to what we find in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, while others want to expand it to bigger proportions (and I’m one of the latter), we would do well at election time to re-align ourselves once again with the gospel as God’s good news for our world. Therein lies our hope.

Our hope is in the gospel of God that creates God’s people. God’s gospel-shaped mission creates a new people of God. In fact, the temptation of good Protestants to skip from Genesis 3 (the Fall) to Romans 3 (salvation) must be resisted consciously. We need to soak up how God’s gospel-shaped work always and forever creates a gospel people. The first thing God does with Abraham is to form a covenant people, Israel, and Jesus’ favorite word was “kingdom,” and Paul was a church-obsessed theologian-missionary. Herein lies the challenge at election time. We are tempted to divide the USA into the good and the bad and to forget that the gospel has folks on both sides of political lines. Even more: we are tempted to think that the winners of the election are those who are blessed by God when the blessing of God is on God’s people. God’s gospel-powered mission creates a new people, the church, where we are to see God’s mission at work. Therein lies our hope.

Our hope is in the gospel of God that creates a kind of people that extends God’s gospel to the world. Chris Wright’s big book, The Mission of God, reminds us that election is missional: God creates the people of God not so the people of God can compare themselves to those who are not God’s people, but so that God’s people will become a priesthood in this world to mediate the mission of God, so that all hear the good news that God’s grace is the way forward.

Our hope is in God’s mission in this world, and that mission transcends what happens November 4th.

debate

Well, the first presidential debate is in the books. I'm a "political junkie" of sorts - and presidential elections are the Super Bowl of politics. Right now...honestly...it's a little like Kansas City and St. Louis playing at the SB.

After last night's debate, I'm actually wondering if we can get a redo on the nominating process. Here's my quick-hit reasons...

1. McCain's strength is his in-depth knowledge of government, leadership, and speaking his own mind. Last night, he was clearly working to get his lines right. And even when he had a great line (I love the one about DNA testing on bears in Montana), he couldn't deliver them with any sense that he's actually human.

2. Obama's strength is his ability to string words together in a way that inspires people to something greater than their current experience. Last night was about as uninspiring as an AP Calculus class. Pundits are giving him credit for looking directly at the camera...really! He showed no leadership. He showed a book-worm's knowledge of foreign affairs. But, as the candidate of hope, offered none to speak of.

I will confess that I didn't watch every minute of the debate. I just couldn't it. I had to do something interesting just to keep my pulse in a safe range - and by interesting, I mean watching Heidi balance the check book.

Anyway...maybe a little hard...maybe not harsh enough.

Looking forward to the VP debate on Thursday...

M@

VP Pick - part 2

I know it's been a couple weeks (sorry), so I'm a little late to the scene. However, since I posted a quick comment about Biden, I'm taking this chance to do the same about Palin.

In short, I think McCain's pick of Sarah Palin is nothing short of a brilliant political move. That pick communicates everything McCain wants to communicate:

1. Message #1: you want an agent of change...here I am!

2. I make the decisions here, not my staff.

3. I'm ready to lead the future of my party.

4. you ticked at Obama for dissing Hillary? You have a home over here in the GOP.

And in the past couple weeks, I think the McCain campaign has handled the celebrity, shock, and furry (on the part of the liberals and flat-footed media) just about perfectly. Brilliant.

On top of communicating what he wanted to by her pick, McCain completely stole the "bump" Obama would have gotten from an excellent convention and the most-watched nomination acceptance speeches ever. Amazing timing...the day after...and for the next 3 days, America googled and read about a little-known governor from the state of Alaska. Obama who?

and on that Friday afternoon in America, there began a true race for President.