Shawshank Redemption has an immortal line:
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
The apostle Paul says, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
So Steven King was almost correct.
I want hope. Real hope. Not misplaced hope. Not a flimsy hope. I want a full throttle biblical hope. And so, in an attempt to think afresh about hope, I decided to read through the NT, noting specifically what the apostles tended to really hope for. What did they look forward to? The results were interesting.
The thing that really stuck out to me was a deep and consistent hope in the return of Christ and all that that entails (the redemption of our bodies, the new heavens and new earth, the destruction of evil, etc.)
Now, as someone who has been hanging out in Postmillennial circles for about 13 years now, hope is an oft championed concept—and rightly so. Hope is an amazing thing. But even if one were to grant that Postmillennialism is A-grade prime meat, it doesn’t necessarily follow that an adherent’s particular emphasis is altogether correct, or balanced. Critical elements can be downplayed or ignored. Or misinterpreted. Or whatever.
With that in mind, I would like to offer what might be a friendly corrective. No war is being waged here. It’s just a concern.
And what is that?
I would submit two things:
1) The hope of the glory of the return of Christ can be sidelined, or minimized, and replaced with a kind of postmillennial fervor, whereby the accent point is placed on what God will do someday in the far future (a grand, worldwide Christendom, if you will), rather than on the renovation of all things at the return of Christ. What should be in the foreground can be pushed to the background, and vice versa. My sincere question would be: What is emphasized more in Postmil circles? The return of Christ, or excitement over the eventual transformation of culture (before the return of Christ)?
I believe it is often the latter.
2) If my assessment of the NT data is largely correct, then I would submit that Postmillennialists should tweak their terminology a touch. Instead of saying that their eschatology is an eschatology of hope, or that it is the one with real hope, they should instead say that they have a joyful expectation in what God will do culturally. Or that they have a firm confidence in what God will accomplish politically worldwide, through the church. The reason I say this is because our hope should be rooted in our union with Christ. In His return. In the resurrection of our bodies. The consummation. The wedding feast. The new heavens and new earth. The hope of eternal life. And so on. That is the overwhelming NT focus.
The potential danger, otherwise, besides missing the emphasis of the NT, would be in placing our hope in the overthrow of Rome, as it were, which can create imbalance, or even zealotry. Our focus can become misplaced. My sincere question would be, can you think of texts where the apostles expressed hope in a future cultural transformation, or in a worldwide Christendom predominantly overshadowing unbelief/evil?
I don’t think they exist. Or if they do, they aren’t expressed keenly.
To stress the point again, time and time again, they anchored their hope in the return of Christ. That was the glowing center of their future hope.
Here is what my recent listen through the NT revealed (See texts below).
I leave you with them. [Note: Since there is so much debate around the book of Revelation, I didn’t draw from it, rather than to note the final chapters.]
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Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
(2 Peter 3:11-13) (See also 3:3-10)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. (Titus 2:11-15)
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thess 1:9-10)
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thess 4:13-18) (See also 5:1-11, 23)
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb 10:24-25) (See also 11:13-16)
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. (James 5:7-8)
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:19-23) (See also Romans 5:2, 8:18-20)
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Phil 3:20-21) (See also 3:14-15)
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor 4:17-18) (See also 5:2-5)
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Mat 6:19-21)
But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (Jude 1:20-21)
Colossians 1:5, 3:1-2, 4, 2 Thess 1:5-12, 2:16 (rooted in 2:1-15), 2 Timothy 4:8, 1 Peter 1:4-7, 13, 4:7, 13, 5:1, 4, 1 John 2:28, 3:2-3, 1 Cor 7:29, 11:26, 15:51-55, Revelation chapters 21-22
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