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Vol. 33, No. 3 July 2009 Christian Mission and the End of Time he future begins in the past and powerfully shapes the twenty years ago, religious prognosticators do not have a mo- Tpresent. This is as true of civilizations as it is of religions nopoly on failed predictions (Megamistakes: Forecasting and the and individuals. Despite a virtually unblemished record of failure Myth of Rapid Technological Change [Free Press, 1989]). A detailed in making predictions, we humans continue to forecast. Apparently analysis of thirty years of technology forecasts appearing in seven we have no choice. Thinking about the future is in our genes. Continued next page In the days of the Roman Republic, learned Etruscan sooth- sayers ventured to forecast the future by close scrutiny of the liver and entrails of sacrificed animals. The Delphic Oracle, one of the best-known and most prolific forecasting businesses in history, On Page provided a full millennium of unbroken pronouncement between 115 Last Things: The Eschatological Dimensions of 700 b.c. and a.d. 300, when it ceded the field to Christians. the Church Divinely revealed futures within Judaism, Christianity, and Edward Rommen Islam have served as the underpinning for invasions, occupa- 120 Muslims and Christians: Eschatology and tions, wars, genocides, exterminations, expropriations, migra- Mission David W. Shenk 124 Eschatology and Mission: A Jewish Missions Perspective Susan Perlman 129 The Influence of Premillennial Eschatology on Evangelical Missionary Theory and Praxis from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present Michael Pocock 137 Premillennial Theology, Christian Zionism, and Christian Mission Colin Chapman 138 Rejoicing in Hope: A Tribute to Kosuke Koyama Dale T. Irvin and Akintunde E. Akinade 144 The Implications of Christian Zionism for Mission From http://helpersofyourjoy.com/images/Chart.gif. Used by permission. Andrew F. Bush tions, executions, suicides, racism, and ethnocentrism, as well as 146 Noteworthy various kinds of bizarre but essentially harmless behavior. One 151 Making Friends with Locusts: Early ABCFM recent survey chronicled several hundred predictions of the Mes- Missionary Perceptions of Muslims and Islam, siah’s return and the end of time as we know it, beginning with 1818–50 Theudas’s announcement in a.d. 44 that he was the Messiah, and John Hubers including Jerry Falwell’s 1999 pronouncement that the Antichrist 155 Book Reviews was probably alive then and that the Lord would return within ten years (www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm). 166 Dissertation Notices As Steven Schnaars reminded readers in a book published 168 Book Notes of America’s most prestigious news publications showed that Jesus is their long-awaited Messiah, demonstrates how crucial fully 85 percent of all predictions were dead wrong. to this enterprise is one’s particular understanding of biblical In Fortune Sellers: The Big Business of Buying and Selling Pre- eschatology. Other authors in this issue evaluate the impact dictions (John Wiley & Sons, 1997), William Sherden took a hard of premillennial eschatology on twentieth-century American look at the modern prophecy industry and at the soothsayers evangelical mission theory and practice. First, Michael Pocock who make a handsome living out of human anxiety about the points out in his carefully crafted and highly instructive piece future. He estimated that North Americans spent $200 billion that it would be difficult indeed to overestimate the influence dollars annually for the forecasting services of meteorologists, of premillennialism. Then Colin Chapman and Andrew Bush, economists, stock market gurus, demographers, technology whose own understanding of eschatology has been influenced assessors, and, of course, prophecy buffs. Of fourteen different by personal, prolonged immersion in the lives of Lebanese and genres of forecasting identified by Sherden, only two—one-day- Palestinian believers, follow with passionately written critiques ahead weather forecasting and predictions positing an aging of on-the-ground implications of Western armchair eschatologies population—have proven reliable. for dispossessed, dislocated, and ravaged populations in that As the essays in this issue remind us, our understanding of the deeply troubled part of the world. future has a direct bearing on how Christians (and Muslims) have If there is one lesson to be learned from millennia of religiously understood their mission in this world. Each part of the Christian inspired but misguided speculation about the future, it is that we Bible seems to have been written without any anticipation that it should indulge the impulse to forecast only with deep humility would one day be incorporated it into the vast seamless garment and a great deal of caution. Christians who predict the future typified by the “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” chart on the on the basis of insider religious knowledge should recall that cover of this issue. This compilation of disparate books and letters prophecy has always been a risky undertaking—unless one is a has never easily yielded to even the most ingenious attempts to false prophet! In the Hebrew and Christian record, official liars systematize its contents and deduce our present location on the were generally popular with the masses and with the powers of continuum of time and eternity. their day, while authentic prophets got themselves into trouble And yet . we seemingly must try. In this issue Edward by speaking unpleasant truths to anxious kings and smugly Rommen, an Orthodox priest, theologian, and missiologist, leads complacent nations. with an article that demonstrates Christian interpretation of The outcome of all authentically Christian hope is the pour- biblical eschatology at its least speculative. David Shenk follows ing out of God’s love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. with an essay reminding us that Muslims, too, embrace a mes- 5:5), evidenced by the fruit of that Spirit and grounded in the sianic hope that both informs their understanding of the here and here and now of love for God, neighbor, stranger, and enemy (1 now and guides them in and through it to the ultimate beyond. John 3:3; Luke 6:35). Any other outcome is an evidence of hope Susan Perlman, associate executive director of an organization manipulated, ill-conceived, or simply false. dedicated to proclaiming to Jewish people the Good News that —Jonathan J. Bonk INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary Research in 1977. Renamed INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH in 1981. Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by the Editor OVERSEAS MINISTRIES STUDY CENTER, 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A. Jonathan J. Bonk (203) 624-6672 • Fax (203) 865-2857 • IBMR@OMSC.org • www.InternationalBulletin.org Associate Editor Contributing Editors Dwight P. Baker Catalino G. Arévalo, S.J. Darrell L. Guder Anne-Marie Kool Brian Stanley Assistant Editor David B. Barrett Philip Jenkins Mary Motte, F.M.M. Tite Tiénou Craig A. Noll Daniel H. Bays Daniel Jeyaraj C. René Padilla Ruth A. Tucker Managing Editor Stephen B. Bevans, S.V.D. Jan A. B. Jongeneel James M. Phillips Desmond Tutu Daniel J. Nicholas William R. Burrows Sebastian Karotemprel, S.D.B. Dana L. Robert Andrew F. Walls Senior Contributing Editors Samuel Escobar Kirsteen Kim Lamin Sanneh Anastasios Yannoulatos Gerald H. Anderson John F. Gorski, M.M. Graham Kings Wilbert R. Shenk Robert T. Coote Books for review and correspondence regarding editorial matters should be addressed to the editors. Manuscripts Circulation unaccompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope (or international postal coupons) will not be returned. Opinions W. Garrett Heath expressed in the IBMR are those of the authors and not necessarily of the Overseas Ministries Study Center. 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Foreign subscribers must pay with U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank, Visa, MasterCard, or International Mobile: (516) 729-3509 Money Order. Airmail delivery $16 per year extra. The IBMR is available in print and e-journal editions. Fax: (914) 470-0483 ONLINE ACCESS: Use the subscriber number and postal code from the mailing envelope for online access to the journal. carothjrinc@maine.rr.com Visit www.OMSC.org/ibmr.html for details. Index, abstracts, and full text of this journal are available on databases provided Copyright © 2009 by ATLAS, EBSCO, H. W. Wilson Company, The Gale Group, and University Microfilms. Back issues may be purchased Overseas