Revelation 11, Zechariah 4, and Mission Theology: 'Not by Might, Nor by Power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord'
Introduction: J. R. R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings , was a scholar of the faerie story genre. In describing this genre, he coined a new word for the plot of faerie stories: ' eucatastrophe '. We know what a catastrophe is, but the ' eu ' in front of a word means 'good'. A 'good catastrophe'. Tolkien also described the Christian Gospel in the same terms--a eucatastrophe which also happens to be true. Rev. 11, our text this morning, is a vision that describes the Church's mission in the world as a eucatastrophe. My father’s premillennial, apocalyptic theology allowed no room for positivist views that believed society was getting better: evolution, socio-economic development, scientific progress. His theology of ultimate doom served him better than those missionaries (fewer than often maintained, incidentally) who confused the Gospel with colonialism, whose postmillenialism led to a social Gospel activism ala Walter Rauschenbus