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K. Bangert
apocalyptic (like John the Baptist) but rather a prophet, for like the prophets of old
Jesus, too, still seemed to believe in the reshaping and reforming of present history.
That is not to deny the fact that the final and consummative establishment of God’s
Kingdom remained elusive and was to be expected at the time of the end by God’s
doing.
Whatever we may think of Jesus’ predictions, it will be expedient to assume that
there has always been a contingent element in virtually all prophetic and apocalyptic
predictions of the Bible; for—as Jonah had to learn for himself—God was “a gracious
God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from
disaster” (Jonah 4:2), and “behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Math
12:41). No one in this world should claim for him- or herself to know the mind of
God and to be able to predict the future. As the adage goes: “It is difficult to make
predictions, especially about the future.”
Today, after 2000 years of futile expectations of the end of the world (despite
many dates set), we do not know for sure if and when doomsday comes. With Jesus,
one may ask: “Who then is the faithful and wise servant?” (Verse 45) What matters
is not when we face our day of reckoning (which may be at our death) but whether
or not we are ready for it.
And assuming there will actually be a final apocalyptic event extinguishing the
human race, the question may well be asked, from today’s perspective, whether that
final end-time destruction will be brought about by a God who may once again
“regret that I have made them” (Gen 6:7) or whether that event is precipitated not
by a vengeful God but by man’s own carelessness and recklessness. If the latter, it
should give us pause to amend our ways. If the former, i.e. if God were to have set
a date in his mind for the world’s final hour, then He may not be very pleased if
we were to beat him to the task. Should man be guilty of jeopardizing life on earth
because he chooses to ignore the warning signs nature is giving him and because he
confuses his own sinful doings with the acts of God?
The Contingency of Prophetic Predictions
It may now be worthwhile, in this connection, to take a closer look at the possible
contingencies of prophetic predictions from a general biblical viewpoint. Let’s first
look at the Old Testament prophetic literature. When was a prophetic prediction
conditional and when was it not?
The correctness of biblical predictions ranks among the basic presuppositions
of many Christians. Especially evangelicals have maintained that virtually all of
the Old Testament predictions about the coming of the Messiah were fulfilled at
the time of Jesus (while liberal theologians would question at least some of these
“fulfillments”, arguing that they were sometimes artificially construed on the basis of
the Greek wordings in the Septuaginta). Some prominent evangelical literalists have
also claimed that it is possible to predict the events of the future simply by carefully
reading the Bible. Hal Lindsay (1970) and John Walvoord (1974) are examples of
K. Bangert
apocalyptic (like John the Baptist) but rather a prophet, for like the prophets of old
Jesus, too, still seemed to believe in the reshaping and reforming of present history.
That is not to deny the fact that the final and consummative establishment of God’s
Kingdom remained elusive and was to be expected at the time of the end by God’s
doing.
Whatever we may think of Jesus’ predictions, it will be expedient to assume that
there has always been a contingent element in virtually all prophetic and apocalyptic
predictions of the Bible; for—as Jonah had to learn for himself—God was “a gracious
God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from
disaster” (Jonah 4:2), and “behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Math
12:41). No one in this world should claim for him- or herself to know the mind of
God and to be able to predict the future. As the adage goes: “It is difficult to make
predictions, especially about the future.”
Today, after 2000 years of futile expectations of the end of the world (despite
many dates set), we do not know for sure if and when doomsday comes. With Jesus,
one may ask: “Who then is the faithful and wise servant?” (Verse 45) What matters
is not when we face our day of reckoning (which may be at our death) but whether
or not we are ready for it.
And assuming there will actually be a final apocalyptic event extinguishing the
human race, the question may well be asked, from today’s perspective, whether that
final end-time destruction will be brought about by a God who may once again
“regret that I have made them” (Gen 6:7) or whether that event is precipitated not
by a vengeful God but by man’s own carelessness and recklessness. If the latter, it
should give us pause to amend our ways. If the former, i.e. if God were to have set
a date in his mind for the world’s final hour, then He may not be very pleased if
we were to beat him to the task. Should man be guilty of jeopardizing life on earth
because he chooses to ignore the warning signs nature is giving him and because he
confuses his own sinful doings with the acts of God?
The Contingency of Prophetic Predictions
It may now be worthwhile, in this connection, to take a closer look at the possible
contingencies of prophetic predictions from a general biblical viewpoint. Let’s first
look at the Old Testament prophetic literature. When was a prophetic prediction
conditional and when was it not?
The correctness of biblical predictions ranks among the basic presuppositions
of many Christians. Especially evangelicals have maintained that virtually all of
the Old Testament predictions about the coming of the Messiah were fulfilled at
the time of Jesus (while liberal theologians would question at least some of these
“fulfillments”, arguing that they were sometimes artificially construed on the basis of
the Greek wordings in the Septuaginta). Some prominent evangelical literalists have
also claimed that it is possible to predict the events of the future simply by carefully
reading the Bible. Hal Lindsay (1970) and John Walvoord (1974) are examples of