vic said:
To Drew, Novum and others,
It seems we are opposite sides of the meaning of "better". You are referring to material things like advances in science and medicine. To that end, I will agree with you. We are referring to the state of spiritual things like morality, heresy, apostasy, etc. To that end things are not progressing. Our very Bible warns this will happen.
You are confusing quality of life with things spiritual. The two don't always mix. Paul walked around with a "thorn" in his side but he was spiritually healthy. People may walk around in better health and that is even questionable, but most are spiritually void.
Greetings:
I think that we draw a false dichtomy when we distinguish between the "material" and the "spiritual". This a whole complex issue on its own, however I think that we look at things like Greeks. We should remember that the Scriptures emerge out of a
Hebrew mind-set. I will boldly suggest that medical technology is just as "spiritual" as silent meditative prayer.
In any event, I am starting to believe that things are generally getting
better - human morality is actually
improving (albeit there have been some downturns) along with our science and technology.
I submit the following for the reader's consideration: There are at least 2 reasons why we Christians think that things are getting worse "morally":
1. Increased "bad news" in the media.
2. Scriptures such as the ones that lovely has posted that talk of the bad things that will happen in the last days.
I think that the media over-represents bad news. In a country of 300 million, you are bound to have the occasional postal worker gone nutz or 45 year old male celebrity cruising around town in his car wearing lingerie and looking for transvestites. We have an appetite and the media is willing to satsify it.
I think that, as in many other areas, Christian culture (at least in N. America) tends to dumb things down to "scripture bites". I do not deny the content of texts such as those in 2 Timothy, I just think that they may actually speak largely to a very specific and narrow window of time that precedes the dramatic convulsions associated with the end times.
On the other hand, I think we give short-shrift to what Jesus' teaching about the kingdom of heaven. My sense of his teaching is that the cross is a seminal point in human history. In Christ, God has begun to work in history to subtly but inexorably establish his Kingdom right here on this Earth. To me, this should mean that things are getting better in all senses, not worse. The Cross has to mean something for the evolution of the world, not just at some vague point in the future, but from the day of the Crucifixion forward.
Of course, the quality of the evidence for this claim is highly debatable.
But, I would bet a paycheck that many Christians get their opinions about this matter "handed to them" via some text snippets that speak of moral decay at the end times.
I think we would be wiser to look at Jesus' extensive teachings about the kingdom. I think that these teachings speak of God's intervention in history and the initiation of a subtle revolution whereby the work of Christ initiates a new age of moral progress as God inevitably works out his plans.
