Ancient-Modern Time Theory and the Gospel

The difficulty of Christ's message is that it is without time. Of course, His life and work are firmly anchored in time, but the message is not only timeless, it's outside time. The inherent problems of chronology are resolved in the Gospel because they are wholly dispelled.

When did the ancient era end? when did the modern period begin? Historical philosophers will argue various points on the timeline, but none are conclusive. Still, the zeitgeist of each is indisputable. The ancients were naive; the moderns are cynical. The ancients saw time as cyclical; the modern, whatever his religion or personal philosophy, views it teleologically. Ancients took the world largely at face value; moderns are skeptical that anything is as it seems.

An ancient like Plato would shake his head at the modern weltanschauung, while a modern would simply smile condescendingly at most ancient ideas, whether they were scientific, philosophical, or religious in nature. Speaking to either (and there are plenty of ancients around still, despite the moniker) requires a measure of translation.

Unless one is presenting the Gospel. The message of Christ is consistently misunderstood because it is interpreted according to the dominant philosophy of a given era, but the Gospel is without era and without a controlling zeitgeist other than theocentrism. The Cross is universal and transcends chronological boundaries and distinctions. It is the same for everyone from Adam to the Last Men, whoever they may be.

It is even beyond the pale of Ancient-Modernism. The main theory behind my philosophy is that time is to be seen as a single fabric, a square yardage rather than a linear yardstick, and that the proper view of history is as a single unit. Yet, though I think this is nearest to the biblical concept, even such a holistic approach fails to account for the utter time-transcendence of the Gospel.

We hear increasing calls to "contextualize" the Gospel. I have no objection to contextualization on a cultural level, as in helping people understand biblical metaphors by using ones with which they're familiar. But to bring the Gospel to a postmodern society, or a modern, or pre-modern context, is simply to bring the Gospel. It requires no tailoring to the constraints of a specific era, because it is the only message truly universal and truly eternal.

Eternity isn't simply an interminable extension of time in both directions, it's a different plane altogether, one inhabited by God and His ultimacy. Each successive generation of Christians brings the Gospel to each successive generation, and the Gospel doesn't change. It requires no human alteration or adaptation because it doesn't come to us on our time, but in the fulness of time as decreed by God from the depths of eternity.