Barneyisfat

I was spending some time with a friend and her family. Crystal is in her forties, and has been a friend since I started Middle School. Crystal asked me to clarify the Christian and Missionary Alliance position on the end times.

Now, this is something I should know. I attend a C&MA school and have passed all of my Bible classes. I remember learning this material. But, I have intentionally not retained it. I received a really poor grade on a theological paper for responding, “I couldn’t care less!” to a question about my theological belief about the timing of Christ’s return.

I couldn’t care less. I honestly doubt that I could care less even if I tried. I think my views would be pretty accurate for my generation. “It’s a mystery, we live in the tension, God knows not I.” All of these answers make significantly more sense to me and my generation than “Amillennial, pre-millennial, or postmillennial” will ever make.

There is a large framed painting in a Sunday School classroom at Toccoa First UMC. It was hung in the mid-fifties. It shows the progression of time from Creation to Revelation. Every year is mapped out in perfect detail, every line is clear-cut, there is no room for gray areas. I have a pretty good guess of which older adult in my church bought and hung this particular painting. I can see his long fingers gently leveling the wide-framed picture, and his thin wiry frame stepping back and sighing in satisfaction. A place for everything and everything in its place.

I spent an hour staring at this picture once. Nothing could have been less relevant to a mind of my generation. I finally made the executive decision to remove the chart from the room that was serving young adults and to place it in an older adult Sunday School classroom. My generation is all about the gray areas, the smudged lines, and the Big Picture that eschatological theology so often clouds or misses altogether.