While humans like to think that they are smarter, more sophisticated, and more imaginative than were the people during Biblical times, they are actually mistaken. Or, rather, I would be more precise to say that people during Biblical times were both more reality based AND more imaginative than modern people. Actually, the increased technology, sophistication, secularization, socialization and education had diminished modern humanity's two polar, but complimentary and necessary, talents of being reality based and imaginative. Instead of being superior in these regards, modern humans are actually inferior in both traits compared to Biblical humans (and by Biblical humans I mean those of any culture or belief system, not just the ancient Israelites or early Christians). Here is why, and how that is linked to humanity's ability to understand the Lord's Return.
As I have explained, but many people have forgotten, or cannot relate to due to poor education plus the pressures of taking modern life for granted, until the past century humans were extremely reality based. The vast majority of the population world wide worked daily in food production. They did not have jobs or receive paychecks, and industrialization had not created jobs that produced products unrelated to basic survival needs. There was no such thing as leisure time, and life was "real" all the time. "Reality" has actually come to mean cynicism, manipulation and unreality (performance art) in modern society. People have become very divorced from the reality of the formula for successful living and thriving and often have no idea where their food even comes from. So people in Biblical time were very reality based and while this is a risky terminology to use, they were "happier." I don't mean the mythical happy peasant toiling in the fields. What I mean is that they knew what dangers were (famine due to a crop failure) and didn't dream up imaginary fears (what if aliens arrive and they don't like humans). As a result people were extremely well balanced and firmly grounded. Children were respected as having a vital role in maintaining and contributing to the household's functioning and the thriving of the family. Children not only knew where bread and butter came from but they helped to make it. Staying close to biological reality is a critical survival skill and necessity for both the human mind and body, but also the spiritual life too. If one is "keeping it real," one is not easily fooled, depressed or deceived.
So if I say that Biblical people and humans in general until the past one hundred years were much more reality based than modern humans, then how can I say they were also more imaginative, if they had to have their noses to the grindstone all the time? Aren't people who dream up wild and crazy entertainment scenarios, great, sophisticated and/or "edgy" pieces of art, or musical compositions much more "imaginative" than Biblical people. Not so fast with that assumption, because I would explain to you that they are not. Modern people are not "imaginative," they are all like cows in a herd. That is because they are wild and crazy and "imaginative" within invisible boundaries and shared values and assumptions that limit rather than free them. For example, many think that "pushing boundaries in art" means the same as increasing the shock value or the novelty value. In other words, they are bounded by a hidden objective of manipulating an audience or media reaction. They have eliminated the mysterious in life, and when one does that one creates boundaries. It is like when people didn't realize that the lights they saw in the sky were planets and suns just like earth and "our" sun. Another saying that relates is that "when you are a hammer everything looks like a nail." Humans manipulate the same theories and activities over and over again and call that being imaginative.
Biblical people did not try to be "imaginative" at all, and therefore they were actually more imaginative in their potential than modern humans. How does this work? Biblical people believed that "anything is possible with God." They did not try to "imagine" the "wildest" or "most creative" thing that they could. They felt that God "had that covered." Look at the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. No one could ever have "thought up a plot line" where an angel would appear to a young, pure, pious betrothed girl, in the first place, tell her that she is full of grace and chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, in the second place, and shortly after prophesy so movingly and accurately as Mary did in her canticle at her visitation to Elizabeth. And what was Mary's response to the angel? Just a single question, which is "how can that be because I do not know man" (she was committed to a life of virginity). An angel appears and announces the Messiah will be born to her, and this young girl "unimaginative" and "unsophisticated" takes it all in stride, just asking how it would be done. When one is reality based yet entirely open to the power and might of God, one does not try to create one's own "imaginative creations," but one is entirely open and receptive to whatever incredible and unheard of event that God sends. Mary is a case study and model for many virtues, but she is also a cultural marker to show how a very reality based people took in stride the most incredible and mighty divine events as they happened. This is why Mary, true Mary, should never be ignored or underestimated. In addition to her model of grace and piety, modern humans have a living snapshot of how a young religious girl reacted to the greatest salvation news, brought by an archangel, that while unique to her is also instructive as being representative of how open the ancient pious people were to incredible events that defy "imagination."
So with this in mind, consider now how modern humans are constantly seeking signs, omens, clues, indications and "opportunities" in the promised Second Coming of Christ at the End of Days. If you detect that I'm disapproving of this tendency, you are right. But, you would object, didn't the Apostles constantly ask Jesus about it and write about it themselves? Yes, indeed they did and the Second Coming (and associated Apocalyptic topics) were very important and "hot" during the time of Jesus and for some decades afterward. But here are the differences in mindset and mentality between Biblical people and modern humans.
1. Biblical people were still incredibly reality based even as they had these conversations. Remember that the apostles were fishing to feed their families within days after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. Saul, who became Paul, continued to make tents while he evangelized in order to have an income to sustain his preaching. They could discuss the loftiest theology and prophecy, but they still were firmly rooted in subsistence living, just as everyone was throughout most of human history. So Mary, even bearing the Savior, hurried to help her pregnant cousin who was further along in her pregnancy by six months. There were no armchair philosophers; everyone had to work the land with the sweat of their brow even as they accompanied Jesus and spread his message. Many modern people have no clue or remainder of reality, since they get paychecks, hop into cars, have food they purchase, buy ready made clothes, buy houses and furnishings. Modern conveniences create an inevitable air of unreality in modern humans that absolutely did not exist in even the relatively wealthier families of Biblical times.
2. Modern human "creativity" and "imagination" is actually a narrowing of choices and scenarios rather than what they think, which is an expanding and broadening endeavor. Here's what I mean. St. John saw a great vision when he was brought by an angel toward heaven, which he documents in the Book of Revelation (also called The Apocalypse). He was strictly a "reporter," though he did ask the occasional question. Incredible and mysterious things are shown to him. Now, fast forward to modern times. People start digging and digging and digging at what is in this and other books trying to "match" what John saw to anything real or imaginary that people can think of, regarding people, places, timing, events and materials. But by doing that they are by definition "limiting" themselves to speculating about a small set of things that they either have knowledge of or can "imagine." In their arrogance they figure that they can "work out" what God "means." How can anyone think that? How can anyone think that trotting out the usual tired suspects of aliens, asteroids, bad Muslims, bad Catholics, war in this country or disease in that country, demonizing loud mouth politicians as being the anti-Christ brings anyone actually closer to what God in the infinite fullness of HIS time and HIS will can or will do to fulfill what is seen in these or any other prophecy? How puny is the imagination of humans compared to what God sees and knows. Biblical people did not dare assume that they can "work the angles" and "think of all the scenarios" of what God will wrought during the End of Days or any time else. So as a result, Biblical people are more imaginative in potential because they know that people cannot predict or even mimic the mindset of God in the fullness of his power and his divine will.
3. So we see the Biblical people and their descendants be able to be extremely interested in the Second Coming and End of Days, and be anxious to be "ready" (as in judged worthy to be saved and brought resurrected to the New Kingdom), yet on the other hand, "get on with positive living." What do we see modern humans doing in increasing numbers? "Give up" and almost gloat and hope for the End of Days or what I describe in my previous blog posting as "Jesus comes back to close up shop." Modern people have totally skewed what "being prepared" means. Biblical people understood that they will not know when the end comes, so they need to live worthy lives. This doesn't mean shuffling along thinking, "Ha, I'm a blameless Christian and so 'I'm covered.'" Even the Apostles who had every right to think that did not do so, and emphasized only the hope and trust in God through Christ Jesus. Modern humans are not increasingly interested in the Second Coming because they have perfected their grace and charity and are "ready to go." They are increasingly obsessed with the Second Coming because they have given up on so many of the terrible problems of the world and the failings of humanity to exercise good God given free will judiciously. So there is this odd detachment from the End of Days being what it really is THE END to thinking "Oh, this is when the fireworks begins and Jesus fixes everything." Thank God that no matter how intense the Apostles' interest was in the Second Coming that they did not draw the same conclusions as modern humans.
Instead, they could have lofty conversations about the Return of the Lord on one hand, but get on with day to day reality based life making the world a better and safer place for their children and grandchildren, and for the generations after them. They went on to build the Church. Can you imagine what would have happened if every time a bishop was martyred that the early Christians would "figure" that "this was a sign of an imminent arrival of the end of days?"
And not just Christians but people around the world in the past two thousand years have only worked to better their lives and those of their children, not "wait around" and "decode" when the miserable and glorious "end" will finally come. Every time someone is obsessing about a modern event being "part of Revelation" I want to say, "Well, Einstein, while you were doing your book promotion tour another thousand babies were aborted, and another ten thousand children died of famine, and more of the oceans have been depleted of their fish because no one's working on restocking, and etc. etc. etc." It's not like God is in a hurry to allow the end to the much loved creation that he himself has made! So why are people such depressive do nothings? Because they have lost contact with the reality of life, and they have lost their spiritual way.
Brothers and sisters, the Biblical people were much more better prepared for the Second Coming and the End of Days than these so called good modern people are today. Both Jesus and the Apostles said to live in hope. That's "live" in hope, not sit around in stagnation waiting for God to clean up the mess. "Live" in hope, not hang around waiting for the best. "Live" in hope, not figure "I'm OK, you're OK." "Live" in hope, not force bad things to happen to people thinking that will help "trigger" the Second Coming. Biblical people and indeed pious people through the centuries had it right as they retained their optimism and hopes for themselves, their families, and their children, even when the world went through a soul breaking experience such as the Holocaust. No one, not even those who had the biggest right to feel despair, sat around after surviving the Holocaust and "hoped" that the world will end and "God will fix it." They pieced together their shattered lives and families and said, "Never again," not "Oh well, this sucked, let's wait for God to destroy the world and rapture or resurrect us and our friends and family." World War II veterans and survivors had more optimism and "get going and make it better" than any generation has since then. How have modern humans become such a bunch of depressives that the end of the world sounds like "a good idea?" Well, basically they shattered the family, became a culture of death, and lost contact with the reality of biological life and how to make it thrive.I hope this helps to provide some valuable context and perspective. God knows it is desperately needed.
