{"id":4843,"date":"2014-11-11T17:15:38","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T16:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=4843"},"modified":"2014-11-11T17:15:38","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T16:15:38","slug":"peak-oil-end-times-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=4843","title":{"rendered":"Peak oil and end times theology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"siluet\"<\/a>A few weeks ago the film “Left Behind” came out, this and my daily readings set me thinking again about peak oil and end times theology.\u00a0 As we wrote in our book<\/a>;<\/p>\n

“Some churches and Christians, it seems particularly in America, are fixated with the second coming of Jesus and the events that might presage it. Conflicts, political events and groupings of countries are often assessed to see if they could fit with the various prophecies and pictures that the Bible provides.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

“Some of the speculation is informed not so much by biblical scholarship, but by<\/em>
\n the best-selling books and films which have woven the supposed events into fictional narratives.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

As I read through my daily readings recently on Matthew 24 my mind again turned to peak oil and end times theology. The whole issue of peak oil which will hit us eventually, if it has not started already (see posts to numerous to list on this site) does lend itself to the apocalyptic.\u00a0 After all the whole of civilisation is heavily dependent on fossil fuels for almost every aspect of daily lives.\u00a0 We can argue about when this stuff will run out but at the moment\u00a0civilisation would be very challenged to do without it.\u00a0 Yet surprisingly most Christians seem blithely unaware of peak oil and its implications and the end times theology seems firmly centred in other aspects of the middle east such as the conflict between Israel and Palestine.<\/p>\n

The problem with many of the passages that end times theology is dependent on are that in my view they talk about the present, the future and the return of Jesus all in the same section.\u00a0 This makes disentangling the meaning challenging.\u00a0 Our culture thinks about time in a linear manner, people in the past didn’t think that way.\u00a0 Read the old testament prophets and you see this with the narrative going forwards and backwards as you move through the text.\u00a0 We can pull out a few conclusions though;<\/p>\n