Cultural Conditioning In Relation To Hope
Above, under 'Orientation', I state that in my opinion, the older you are, the more likely it is that you live life predominantly in a rear facing seat. Both western culture, and western Christianity condition us to do so.
Our increasingly secular culture teaches us that we cannot know specifics about what lies ahead, but that life will probably carry on much as normal. If we are lucky we will reach or exceed an average life expectancy, will then die and that will be the end. And life will carry on without us much as it always has done, albeit with the world facing various challenges of global warming, increasing population, depleting resources, and possibilities of global war and destruction. With such a mindset, it is probable that the older you get, the more you will live life in a rear facing seat than a forward facing one. Life will keep rushing past a bit of a blur, happy and painful memories will recede into the distance, and it will become harder and harder to face the future. A time will come, if it hasn't already, when you will begin to feel that life's best is behind you. Not exactly a recipe for hope!
In my opinion, Western Christianity also conditions us to live life facing the rear. The Church has absorbed a secular scepticism about prophecy, and the vast majority of sermons that we listen to focus on what God has done in the past and how to apply the Bible's teaching to the present. The Bible has much to say about the future, but much of the Western church has concluded that Biblical prophecy is weird, confusing, and not to be taken too literally. Because there are various different frameworks for interpreting Biblical prophecy, many church leaders have come to see it as divisive and best avoided. They don't consider it as relevant to daily life in the present, and so have labelled it as being of secondary importance, with a low priority on the preaching schedule. And if you do get excited about biblical prophecy and start to express strong convictions about it, you are likely to be seen as naive, or even arrogant, thinking that you can know specifics about the future.
Our increasingly secular culture teaches us that we cannot know specifics about what lies ahead, but that life will probably carry on much as normal. If we are lucky we will reach or exceed an average life expectancy, will then die and that will be the end. And life will carry on without us much as it always has done, albeit with the world facing various challenges of global warming, increasing population, depleting resources, and possibilities of global war and destruction. With such a mindset, it is probable that the older you get, the more you will live life in a rear facing seat than a forward facing one. Life will keep rushing past a bit of a blur, happy and painful memories will recede into the distance, and it will become harder and harder to face the future. A time will come, if it hasn't already, when you will begin to feel that life's best is behind you. Not exactly a recipe for hope!
In my opinion, Western Christianity also conditions us to live life facing the rear. The Church has absorbed a secular scepticism about prophecy, and the vast majority of sermons that we listen to focus on what God has done in the past and how to apply the Bible's teaching to the present. The Bible has much to say about the future, but much of the Western church has concluded that Biblical prophecy is weird, confusing, and not to be taken too literally. Because there are various different frameworks for interpreting Biblical prophecy, many church leaders have come to see it as divisive and best avoided. They don't consider it as relevant to daily life in the present, and so have labelled it as being of secondary importance, with a low priority on the preaching schedule. And if you do get excited about biblical prophecy and start to express strong convictions about it, you are likely to be seen as naive, or even arrogant, thinking that you can know specifics about the future.