There are two important models for eternity. In the oldest of these the end of time is also the beginning of time – all of reality exists in continuous, unchanging cycles. Our modern notion of eternity is quite different. We understand eternity as a straight line that continues on, without end. The endless line contradicts the endless cycle. This may seem to be a distinction with no serious difference, but it is not. These two ways of thinking about time have had profound effects on whole sets of other ideas.
All primitive religions are based on the cyclic model of eternity. This was also true of all the great religions of the past, and it is still the dominant principle of Hinduism, Buddhism, and all of the other great living religions of the East.
Ideas have consequences. The cyclic model of eternity implies that nothing will change – or can change. This discourages all thought of any, but temporary, improvement in the conditions of life. Hope is foolish. All effort will come to nothing when one cycle ends and a new one begins. As Hinduism has it: Shiva builds, and Shiva destroys. Time after time, eternally. The only release from the pain and care of the world is through Nirvana. In Hinduism this means the absorption of the self into Brahma. In Buddhism it means the extinction of the self through enlightenment – with no promise of absorption into anything. The only real hope offered by these religions is escape from the endless reincarnations created by the ever-spinning wheel of life.
This way of thinking is the proximate reason the Orient, and, in fact, most of the world has remained in poverty and chains.
Christ brought a mighty hammer to smash those chains – The Gospel. The Gospel message reveals that this world has a destiny – that every one of us is important to that destiny – and that progress toward it should be our goal.
It’s a world-transforming idea and it’s odd that so few people seem to realize that it is completely Christian in origin. Before Christ, progress was a small idea that applied to only temporal things of little consequence. After Christ, it was a huge concept that fanned the nascent sparks of Western Civilization into a great roaring blaze. The illumination of which has chased ignorance, despair, and superstition before it, ever since.
We are accustomed to think of the advances of science and technology as secular achievements, but without the inspirational message brought into the world by that pale, gentle Galilean, they would not have been attempted.
Christ tells us that the future will not be like the past. God has a plan for this world, and we have a role to play in that plan. We are called to a purpose – to transform the world. First by transforming our individual lives in imitation of Christ, and second, by telling the gospel to others.
“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”. – Mark 16:15
That’s progress.