Last Saturday was the Judgment Day. The earth was being gradually destroyed by enormous earthquakes at 6 o’clock local time. The believers were saved and the rest of the population was swept away. If you haven’t noticed such a fundamental change in your surroundings, don’t worry, you’re not the only one.
At the beginning of 21st century it’s hard to imagine that there are people in developed countries honestly believing such nonsense. People who experienced enormous technological development and scientific knowledge in the last several decades shouldn’t believe in so idiotic predictions. But they were and they were many around the world. They regard themselves as strongly believing Christians following the Bible. So how could they have missed all references saying that the time of the end is not known to anybody?
For the last several years we witness a growing attack against Christianity led by atheists. This conflict is driven by differences between current scientific knowledge about the universe and humankind and the Bible. It’s fuelled by so-called fundamental or evangelical churches. They stubbornly claim that the Bible is an all-in-one book describing the world; and if science doesn’t fit to the Scriptures it has to be rejected as a false and satanic invention. On the other hand the same people don’t hesitate to use technology backed by science: from a mobile phone and a sat-nav to highly advanced medical treatments.
In fact, the conflict between the Christian faith and modern science is artificial. It comes from the inability of believers to change their understanding of the Bible. This book wasn’t dictated by God word by word to a mindless scribe, like recording with a voice-recorder. The Bible is a very human product, written by people with limited and scientifically false idea of the universe. Treating the Bible as a proper and accurate scientific description of the universe is completely a misunderstanding and misleading.
The Bible is the book of faith. It contains an ever-relevant message buried in the cultural and historical background of the ancient Middle-East. Our task is to discover and apply this message to our lives in the current situation. This is the reason why we need the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls it another Advocate. As a solicitor helps us to understand a complicated law and its implications for a particular case, similarly the Holy Spirit helps us to understand properly God’s message and apply it to our complicated lives. The Bible can be helpful for spiritual or moral doubts; but it’s absolutely useless for fixing a rocket.
For the last twenty centuries the Bible’s had an enormous impact on changing the face of humankind. It has slowly but constantly changed people, teaching them all those attributes which nowadays are taken for granted. In 21st century we believers don’t have to be ashamed of our beliefs as long as we follow the spirit of the Bible, helping the world around to be a better place to live.