I confess that a social media post on eschatology by a friend uncharacteristically irritated me. The post came with a warning of cognitive dissonance—mental discomfort over holding conflicting ideas. In other words, you can’t handle the truth!
Regarding cognitive dissonance over a new idea. I say, the weight of innovation is on the innovator. Such high handed flippant accusations as cognitive dissonance, eisegesis (making up Biblical interpretation), and solipsism (sloppy thinking), frankly are insulting to others who also have the Holy Spirit. Apostle Paul made it clear in 1 Corinthians: Christ’s church is no place for party spirit. Who am I to judge Another’s Servant.
I try to live by the principle that God may rearrange my mental furniture any time He wishes. I desire to align with Him, not men. I appreciate others’ gifting and brilliance, but don’t depend on them and they don’t wow me. I take positions not sides, which allows me to be friends with whom I disagree. I don’t like disillusionment any more than anyone else, but I hate illusion even more. I’m used to cognitive dissonance. It is how we respond that matters. And we ought to let every wind of doctrine blow us about.
Moreover, we Christians hold to many things logically inconsistent among men. One God in Three Persons. Christ, man and God. Mighty man of valor and meek. Intolerance of this tension found throughout Scripture results from the Fall and Original Sin, making ourselves at least as smart and wise as God. Accepting the tension and otherwise hidden knowledge requires faith in God to trust Him.
The apostle says we can have sure knowledge. Jesus says we know a tree by its fruit, the fundamental principle of epistemology. As the asymptotic exponential curve well represents, our approximation of reality in knowledge can be sufficiently close to reality to be useful and sure. Speculation is sound science if we are wise enough to know the safe limits for depending on a theory. Van Tillian epistemology is a humble one. Don’t think too highly of ourselves. Knowledge puffs up. Who am I to judge Another’s Servant? There is a certain tension in all Biblical truth that requires us to admit we do not have the upper hand, but the just walk by the Divine disadvantage of faith. We go to God as children.
I find it interesting that men spend so much time speculating on God’s secret counsel with such authority. As Francis Nigel Lee’s Certain Victory well documents, Revelation tells us plenty with certainty. We don’t need to know the mechanism of His ending things in history. Rather be about His business, hasten the day as we may, and be ready. And we ought not to so divide ourselves over the necessarily unclear future—viewed through a glass darkly. In that regard, Satan seems to have an upper hand presently.
Eschatologically and though Post Mil, I don’t seem to fall into any of the entrenched camps. I noted early in my Biblical studies both a close and a distant promise of prophecy fulfillment—the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). This makes sense as God speaks through prophets and He is transcendent of time. It’s all the same to Him, and thus I take Matthew 24 and all.
My eschatological model is largely based on First Coming prophecy and fulfillment. God gave copious evidence of events that would come to pass in time and place, and in minute detail. Yet no one understood them until they historically did come to pass. All Israel shall be saved. This prophecy obviates Full Preterism, no? There remains something unfulfilled. I sense ultimate fulfillment will provide full hindsight understanding, but in a way that will make all our speculation appear to have missed the mark some. In the meantime, surely men must continue to seek understanding of God’s Word in all of life, and live by faith in it, taking every thought captive. Speculate, but do not live absolutely in speculation, which is presumptuous original sin.
Then let us learn the lessons that are clear, and especially be about His business until He comes.