{"id":10958,"date":"2018-05-22T06:39:28","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T10:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/?p=10958"},"modified":"2018-05-09T06:52:28","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T10:52:28","slug":"eschatological-discipleship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2018\/05\/eschatological-discipleship\/","title":{"rendered":"Eschatological Discipleship"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41KptmV0KZL._AC_US218_.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41KptmV0KZL._AC_US218_.jpg\" width=\"218\" height=\"218\"><\/a>I\u2019ve been re-reading some of Trevin Wax\u2019s new book\u00a0<em>Eschatological Discipleship<\/em>, a great book that could be best described as reading N.T. Wright with Russell Moore glasses. Wax nails the importance of eschatology for not only theology, but for discipleship too. The most important part of the book is where Wax shows how Christianity is different to rival eschatologies, including the Enlightenment, the Sexual Revolution, and Consumerism (I wish he did Islam, Marxism, and Postmodernism, but maybe in a second edition).<\/p>\n<p>On the sexual revolution, I\u2019m not sure it is completely a bad thing, you could argue things like #MeToo are an expression of the quest for gender equality and an attempt to draw attention to the insidious nature of masculinity, sex, and power. That said, I take Wax\u2019s point, the idea that your sexual desire is the single most determinative thing about you and your identity needs to be critiqued. We are more than our genitals and what we\u2019d like to occasionally do with them. I like this quote from Wax:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a world deeply influenced by the sexual revolution\u2019s eschatology, Christians must contextualize the preaching of the gospel in a way that emphasizes the difference between the sexual revolution\u2019s \u201cgood news\u201d of self-fulfillment through sexual expression and Christianity\u2019s good news of the ultimate fulfilling of all human longings in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christians have good news to offer in an age where \u201cgospel\u201d is \u201cself-actualization.\u201d After all, the idea of discovering and being true to oneself can become exhausting. the sexual revolution\u2019s narrative paints a picture of exhilaration in casting off society\u2019s restraints and expressing one\u2019s inner essence, but the initial euphoria of salvation through self-expression wears off, and the resulting society is plagued with doubt, where people constantly wonder if their \u201ctrue self\u201d is good enough. \u2026 In response to this cultural narrative, we must proclaim the gospel that comes from outside ourselves, no matter how countercultural this may seem. When people in today\u2019s culture discover how exhausting it is to try to be \u201ctrue to themselves,\u201d when looking further and further inward eventually shows them they do not have the resources to transform their own lives, the church must be ready to break in with good news that life change is not mustered up from inside but rather granted through grace from outside. (pp. 155-56).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I agree, \u201cBe true to yourself\u201d is so lame and bad for people who are selfish and disgusting. Harvey Weinstein doesn\u2019t need to be true to himself, the dude needs a total make0ver, a new way of being human, his old self needs to die, and he needs to be born anew, in fact, we all do.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been re-reading some of Trevin Wax\u2019s new book\u00a0Eschatological Discipleship, a great book that could be best described as reading N.T. Wright with Russell Moore glasses. Wax nails the importance of eschatology for not only theology, but for discipleship too. The most important part of the book is where Wax shows how Christianity is different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eschatological Discipleship<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I&#039;ve been re-reading some of Trevin Wax&#039;s new book\u00a0Eschatological Discipleship, a great book that could be best described as reading N.T. Wright with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2018\/05\/eschatological-discipleship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eschatological Discipleship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#039;ve been re-reading some of Trevin Wax&#039;s new book\u00a0Eschatological Discipleship, a great book that could be best described as reading N.T. 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