Tag: worldview

As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple area, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be when all these things are about to come to an end?” (Mark 13:3-4 NABRE)

This scene immediately follows Jesus’ public prediction that the temple would be destroyed. Jesus’ inner circle is trying to get the inside scoop on what’s coming next.

We’re all kind of like that, aren’t we? We like to be the first ones to know. Sometimes it’s just for the knowledge itself. Sometimes it’s for the attention we get in the short term. Or it might be about having the reputation for being a source of reliable information.

But there is a warning that comes along with this thirst for knowledge. The sense of pride that comes from being first to know can overwhelm the significance of the actual knowledge that you are conveying. To avoid succumbing to that, check your motivation for obtaining the knowledge in the first place. Is it to help others, to help yourself, or just to be first?

Fake News

I don’t need to remind anybody in this age of disinformation how much garbage there is on the interwebs masquerading as knowledge. Any post or clickbait that triggers somebody’s offense mechanism has the potential to go viral before a single fact has been checked. And now, social media itself, under the guise of “fact checking,” is censoring voices that dissent with its political agenda, making even the real news look like fake news.

But our urge to be able to say, “You heard it here first” is so strong that people have gone so far as to create new social media networks, just so they can have an outlet to forward the latest “breaking news” without fear of recrimination by the “tech lords.” So, under the guise of free speech, all we have done is relocated and refined our echo chamber.

Another thing to be wary of with a thirst for knowledge is that sometimes when you ask questions, you might get more than you bargained for with the answer. Consider how Jesus responded in Mark 13:5-31 to the question posed by His inner circle at the top of this post.

He begins with a warning. “Watch out that no one deceives you.” Fake news was a thing even 2000 years ago. Jesus knows the hearts of His disciples, so He knows their motivation for asking. Although we can’t really tell from the context, Jesus’ warning is useful regardless. He wants them to have correct information from the Source, both for their own knowledge and to share with others who might ask.

Getting the Scoop

There is also a sort of secondhand knowledge that people thirst for. If you aren’t in the “you heard it here first” club, then maybe at least you can be the first to report a sign predicted by those who were. Jesus knows that even though He is telling his inner circle directly about the signs of the end, since these signs will be unprecedented, they could easily be misinterpreted.

What I mean is that our individual perceptions color our worldview. When we see a war, a certain political alliance or a natural or humanitarian disaster, we might be tempted to point and say, “See? The end is near!” But Jesus specifically said this 2000 years ago:

When you hear of wars and reports of wars, don’t be alarmed. These things must happen, but this isn’t the end yet. Nations and kingdoms will fight against each other, and there will be earthquakes and famines in all sorts of places. These things are just the beginning of the sufferings associated with the end. (Mark 13:7-8 CEB)

To a woman going through childbirth for the first time, labor pains are an unprecedented calamity. There is no pain quite like it (so I have been told). But the labor pains themselves are not the main event. They are the prelude to a birth.

Likewise, these signs of worldwide calamities, which have been going on throughout the ages, are not the main event themselves. It might be accurate to call them “the beginning of The End,” but since we don’t know when The End will be, we also have no idea how long the Beginning of The End will be. It seems kind of pointless to even try to measure such a thing as it is happening. Perhaps this is also a symptom of our wanting either to know more or to at least make sense of the knowledge we have.

(To be continued in Part 3: On Your Guard)