Understanding Biblical Pessimism
House 1.0 was built and collapsed sometime later. House 1.0 was rebuilt and collapsed sometime later. Someone said, “We need a better plan.”
House 2.0 was built and collapsed sometime later. House 2.0 was rebuilt and collapsed sometime later. Someone said, “We need a better plan.”
House 3.0 was built and collapsed sometime later. House 3.0 was rebuilt and collapsed sometime later. Someone said, “Hey, come check this out. The wood that we’ve been using on all these houses and plans is rotten through and through. The problem isn’t inadequate plans – the problem is the corrupted material.”
You have just received a crash course in Biblical anthropology. Theology is the study of the nature of God whereas anthropology is the study of the nature of man. The Bible says that humankind is corrupted material. Jeremiah puts it this way –
The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
It’s hard to build with corrupted materials. History is littered with the fallen houses of man. Empire after Empire has come and gone. Utopia after Utopia has risen and crashed. Worker’s Paradise after Worker’s Paradise has been established and then have been flattened due to the corruption of man. The socialist utopias of the Soviet Union and China and North Korea and Vietnam and Yugoslavia and Venezuela are epic failures. These houses have collapsed. Yet there are always the blind and ignorant who want to build them again.
Milovan Dilas was a Yugoslavian intellectual and a one-time Communist. The Marxist teaching of Communism is that history is pushing us toward a classless society. Everybody will be equal and all will flourish in a socialist society – or so Karl Marx taught. Dilas became disillusioned with Communism as it developed in the Soviet system and wrote a book entitled “The New Class.” In it he traces how Communism didn’t eliminate the haves and have-nots, Communism didn’t equalize society, but instead created a new class of oppressors and super-rich. The blueprints of a socialist, Communist society looked good on paper, but when you build with rotten wood, the structure collapses.
Whatever house man builds will bear the limitations of his fallenness. Whatever house man builds will have winners and losers and the have and have-nots. Whatever house man builds will collapse because he is building with corrupted material. Our hearts long, like Abraham, “…for…the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Hebrews 11:10
There will be a number of blueprints for rebuilding our society waved in our faces by well meaning people on how to go forward after the health crisis of COVID-19, the economic challenges it presented, and the social chaos brought forth in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Some plans will be better than others. Not all ideas are created equal. I think that as a political system, constitutional democracy works better than a dictatorship – but it’s not without it’s flaws. As an economic system, capitalism works better than communism – but it’s not without its flaws.
While we’re on the earth, we’ll have to sift through different blueprints and judge their relative merits. But let’s not for one minute think that the plans of man can establish the kingdom of God. Like Abraham, let’s look for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. No other foundation can be laid than that of Jesus Christ – crucified, risen, ascended, reigning, coming again. So, am I a pessimist? No. I am a Biblical pessimist – which means my pessimism is laced with hope. Not hope in man and the houses we can build, but hope in God and in the kingdom He has established.
Tim Brown has been in some sort of ministry since February of 1973 – as a youth pastor, an assistant pastor, and a senior pastor. Tim planted Calvary Chapel Fremont in January of 1997 and continues to pastor there. Tim has been married since August of 1976 to Fran. They have three children and nine grandchildren.
