sejul05

Watch World News!

You can tell that the Churches of God have Adventist roots by the insistent appeal to "watch world news". Visit any other church website - Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, whatever - and you're likely to find a religious focus (not surprising really!) Visit a COG website - UCG, LCG, PCG, RCG or one of the other splinters - and you might be forgiven for thinking you'd found some kind of strange political movement. You'll be hit in the eye with speculative "news" articles and superficial social commentary parading as inside information. Raise an skeptical eyebrow and you'll be assured that this is in fact a sure sign that you've found the true church, for real Christians are commanded to "watch world events".

We should all be much indebted to John Ross Schroeder for clarifying this in a recent article in the aptly named World News & Prophecy. Here's a boiled down summary of that article.

Christ commanded his true followers to "watch therefore..." (Mt. 24: 42-43) ... Christians should always be on the alert for whatever may happen. Watching world news and spiritual readiness go hand in hand... Note carefully the combination of words, watch and pray. We are to do both. Mark 13: 35-37. Continual alertness and awareness is clearly required by your Savior. No member of the Body of Christ is exempt from this crucial responsibility. Luke 21: 34-35. Note that this prophecy is global in nature! It is not just intended for the United States or the Western World alone. Notice Christ's concluding words in Luke 21: 36: "Watch therefore and pray always..." What things? The events mentioned in the context of the whole Olivet Prophecy: religious deception, wars, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, spiritual complacency, etc. ...world news must be properly understood. Grasping the "signs of the times" (Matthew 16:13) as Jesus described them is supremely important. Bare-bones news facts, without the background of a serious biblical understanding, will prove pretty useless.

Only trouble is, the whole rationale is hogwash.

The "watch therefore" expression in Mt. 24 actually means "stay awake". It has nothing to do with reading newspapers, watching Fox News or perusing the latest TIME magazine. There were no newspapers, TV newscasts or magazines in 1st Century Palestine. "Keep awake" simply means to stay focused, to keep the faith!

If John is right, and no Christian is exempt from the "crucial responsibility" to keep up with the latest thoroughly objective news analysis on WorldNet Daily, then there's a slight problem. 2000 years have gone by since Jesus spoke on Mount of Olives. Let's think; for how many of those years was it even remotely possible for Christians to monitor earthquakes in Argentina, civil disturbances in Central Asia or religious deception in Muncie, Indiana? There are obviously certain preconditions. Universal literacy helps, printing presses, fax machines, the Internet, the humble telephone, Newsweek...

If Christians had a hard time keeping up with all that watching for century after century, what about those 21st Century Christians still eking out a subsistence living in the hills of Burma, or rural China, or Sierra Leone? Current copies of US News & World Report tend to be a bit thin on the ground in some of these places.

Well, what about "Watch therefore and pray always..." (Luke 21: 36)? Again, the sense is to keep awake and spiritually prepared. "Be alert at all times..." (NRSV), "Be on the alert... (REB), "Be vigilant at all times" (NAB). Just how do you get from this to wild-eyed speculation about the European Union or the end-time significance of metrosexual fashion statements?

The intended message in Luke 21 is that although things are tough now, and tougher times may yet be coming, those who are persecuted need to stay the course to claim the ultimate rewards. That's what apocalyptic literature is all about, its raison d'être: to inspire hope when things seem hopeless. The emphasis is on faithfulness under pressure, not on who the current German chancellor might be. But then, I doubt that many of the writers at World News & Prophecy know an awful lot about the characteristics of apocalyptic literature, which is a shame considering how frequently they quote it uncritically. (This isn't to say that they're not genuinely nice guys¹, and thoroughly sincere. In fact, I'm sure they are.)

If grasping the "signs of the times" is "supremely important", then I'm afraid the various Churches of God have only managed to be supremely incompetent. Remember 1972, Petra, 1975, the gun lap, Gerald Waterhouse, "America has won its last war", Franz Josef Strauss? Or are we all suffering from a rogue variety of Alzheimer's?

World news, John states, must be properly understood. Maybe I'm a cynic, but that's a tall order. Hindsight helps, of course, but even then historians muddy the waters by asking inconvenient questions. Did Gene Hogberg² really have the foggiest idea about the significance of the news stories he opined about in the Plain Truth all those years ago? Frankly I doubt it. It's not that Gene didn't have a copy of the Bible close at hand either. It's just that he was way off base trying to read 1970s headlines into ancient writings. And, with all due respect to Melvin Rhodes and Darris McNeely (both indisputably fine and insightful chaps of impeccable rectitude), I'm not convinced either could hold a candle to Gene in his prime.

None of which is meant to discourage anyone from keeping up to date. In fact it would be nice if more COG members did, rather than relying on the amateur efforts of in-house journalists selectively regurgitating carefully culled cuttings. But it hardly constitutes an act of obedience to Christ's command.

John is, however, absolutely right when he states that Jesus' words are "not just intended for the United States or the Western World alone". This is mighty big of him, and his kind reassurances on this matter must be warmly appreciated by Christians in small, insignificant nations like India.

John is also undeniably correct when he mentions the need for "serious biblical understanding". So where, you might wonder, are the respected theologians who write for World News & Prophecy? Would all the senior editors with legitimate, recognized qualifications in the field of Biblical Studies please raise their hands (sorry, unaccredited degrees don't count)? Uh, how about someone who's had a peer reviewed article published in a scholarly journal? Okay, so has anyone got a bone fide degree in political science then? Excuse me guys, how about it?

Guys?

1. There are no women listed in the staff box above the status of copy editor.

2. Gene Hogberg was news editor during the later Armstrong years.