RUMORS OF WARS

RUMORS OF WARS

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. (13:7)

The sign of the end continues to be heard and seen. Rumors of wars are the signs of the end. The wars mentioned in the above verse perhaps referred to the Judean war in A.D. 60 which finally resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem. Christians in those days might have thought that the world would come to an end even before the occurrence of such wars. However, the end time did come as they expected. The content says, “Do not be alarmed.” It is because it was not the end yet.

Here we can accept the perception of the early Christianity about the end of time. They thought that the new world would not come in a forcible manner. They thought war and revolution were not directly related to the kingdom of God. Therefore, they did not consider the Judean war to be the end of time. Such stance of Christianity might be an important cause of their exclusion from Judaism.

If I explain such situation comparing to Korean history it can be described as follows: What if Christianity did not support an army for national independence who was doing an armed struggle under Japanese colonial rule. After the failure of public independence movement of 1919 led by Chosen, Christianity stepped back from politic and fell into apocalyptical faith. They thought the independence of Chosun could be possible only by God’s transcendent involvement.

The relationship between church and politic is obscure. Those who are standing in progressive position insist that church cannot ignore social problem while conservative party try to separate between social and religious life. It is difficult to find out the point of connecting between politics and Christianity. However, more important point is that Christianity in the New Testament era keeps a certain distance from war and forcible revelation.