a theology to hang my hopes on

Ok, I admit it, the bombings are getting old.

The first time around you expected it. C’mon. The UK jumped on the American bandwagon and pretty much signed a petition saying “come bomb us too!” which the terrorists were happy to oblige. You expected it. You knew it was coming. And when it did, you almost sighed a sigh of relief that it was finally over. You could move on with your life, you thought, the worst had come and finally gone. No more worrying. No more sitting on the tube and wondering if today might be the day. They had done it, and now we could all move on.

Two weeks later and life is very different. I remember that feeling after 9-11 that anything was possible and we would never be safe again. Today feels much like that time. Two sets of bombings in two weeks? So evidently you can just walk into any tube station, carrying a bomb, and pull the trigger. It’s very frustrating and I’m not feeling very relevant or tolerant today.

It’s strange, the difference between knowledge and belief. My head knows that God is in control but sometimes my heart has a hard time believing it. I see His hand at work, on the streets. But I also see the enemy’s work, and it often seems terrifying.

It wasn’t until 300 years ago, or so, that the church began to take on this theological view that the world was getting worse, and that it would continue to get worse until Christ finally returned to “take us home” (dispensationalism). Until that time the church widely believed that God intended to build His kingdom here on earth and that, with this in mind, the world would only get better (post millennialism). Today many people believe that the world is getting worse, pointing to terrorism, crime, and even aids as evidence. But many philosophers, historians and even Biblical scholars agree that the world is, in fact, getting better, pointing to advances in medicine, aid sent from one country to another, and many other “proofs”. I cling to this hope, but sometimes only by a thread.