Sound Theology

November 2, 2019

Lucy and Linus are looking out the window, watching the rain. She comments, “What if it floods the whole world?” To which Linus answers, “It will never do that. In the ninth chapter of Genesis God promised Noah that it would never happen again and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” Lucy replies, “You’ve taken a great load off my mind.” The strip ends with Linus commenting, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”

This Peanuts cartoon came to mind today. If we listen to the alarmists in the world, climate change will doom us to extinction in a dozen years or less (of course, they’ve been saying that since at least the 1970s), financial collapse is just around the corner, every kid in the neighborhood is on drugs, and “assault weapons” are behind most of the homicides in our country. 

Jesus said otherwise. “Wars and rumors of wars” will proliferate, family members will turn on each other, persecutors will track down, torture, and kill Christ’s followers before the end comes. In other words, things can and may get worse, but we are not to despair. It’s not as if any of this has taken God by surprise; he knew it was coming and has provided the means for his children to come out victorious in the end. The book of Revelation describes truly perilous times, but instead of being a litany of fear and doom, it is one of the most joyful books in the entire Bible, with songs and shouts of praise and the promise of a day coming when every tear is wiped away. The Apostle John’s vision pulls back the curtain between heaven and earth, revealing The Almighty, the Ancient of Days orchestrating the arc of history through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the promise of his return to restore all things unto himself.  This is good theology.

Bad theology is rooted in fear instead of faith. The return of Christ is portrayed as a means of escape for God’s people instead of the ultimate victory of our salvation. Of course, for some people, good theology is a frightening thing because it exposes our sin for what it is; we cannot hide behind imagining all is well when in fact we are still wallowing in our sins. Good theology includes judgment, which we tend to want for others but not for ourselves. When however, we realize that God judged our sins on the Cross, forgave them in Christ, when we then confess and forsake them, good theology always points us to the mercy and grace that sets us free to truly live. Tonight, I am thankful for good theology. I need it. It tells me that God’s love is so great that nothing in all heaven or earth can separate me from him. Good News, indeed!