I felt super convicted this week by this little tid-bit from the millennium chapter:

"The question is not merely theoretical - as though the issues were disconnected from the concrete issues of our daily lives. The way we answer the question affects the way we live. It especially affects the way we pray. The answer expects what we think can happen as a result of our little acts of witness.

"Thankfully, the reality packed into the word 'millennium' is not tied to our understanding of the word millennium. That is, no matter where we come out, if we are in Jesus Christ, we participate in the millennium reality - whatever it is!" (pg 336)

I think my tendency with highly debated issues like this is to just ignore them for the most part. I get sick of the division they can bring, and so I just avoid it. My stock answer would be to say that I believe God is big enough to work in any of those cases, and someday, when we get to heaven, we'll figure all that out.

But this chapter reminded me how much of a cop out that can be. It's not just some disconnected theoretical issue - it's a reflection of the way I see my God because they ways we expect Him to act reflect the ways we view His character. Granted, I still don't want to get caught up in messy philosophical debates about the millennium topic (or any other "hot topic" like creation vs. evolution, etc.), but I want to at least give myself license to wrestle with the issue and seek to know who He is through that issue.

"What I want to shout from the mountain tops is that what we agree on is so much greater than what we disagree on! If only we were to simply live what we agree on and live what we should agree on!" (pg 339)