to a drunkard who, after falling off his horse on the right, falls off it next time on the left. I am convinced that those who find in Christ’s apocalyptic the whole of his message are mistaken. But a thing does not vanish—it is not even discredited—because someone has spoken of it with exaggeration. It remains exactly where it was. The only difference is that if it has recently been exaggerated, we must now take special care not to overlook it; for that is the side on which the drunk man is now most likely to fall off. C.S. Lewis, "The World's Last Night" (1960)
Though this essay was written in 1960, Lewis describes the situation we find ourselves in. Some churches go to an extreme setting dates and propagating fear of being left behind (falling off one side of the horse) and then other churches seem to ignore the teaching of the Second Coming (falling off the other side of the horse). My typical metaphor here of the pendulum swing from far left to far right missing the centre might well be upgraded by Lewis and Luther's horse ridden by a drunken person.
ReplyDeleteGreat illustration with the horse! I loved it! I wonder how we can get back in the saddle with the NT teaching on the Second Coming....
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