The Louisiana Quaker eLetter

ISSN 1523-4924—Vol. 1, No. 3

"THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO Y2K"

People do strange things in a fever. Their thinking is obscured and reason is mixed with fantasy. They can be easily led, or not, depending on the fever's hold on the mind. It is a kind of madness.

This is in some ways what the response has been to the Y2K problem—a fever leading to madness. It is reported that people are looking for hiding places for Jews so they can help them get back (like an underground railroad) to Israel, for otherwise Jesus will not be able to come again in his glory. Then there is the hoarding: soybeans, lentils, wheat, rice, flour, honey, purified water, canned goods, freeze-dried foods, batteries, candles—anything, in fact, that should be kept for catastrophe. Then there are the scare stories: violent criminals released from maximum securities prisoners after power outages fling open their doors; patients die after power cutoffs stop their life-sustaining ventilators; the closing of all areas of government function; mass transit systems halted by computer crashes; malfunctioning gas pumps; the end of banking, telecommunications, health systems; welfare payments stop; food cannot be distributed; manufacturing plants are closed; businesses are destroyed .... This is enough. The list is too long to repeat.

It is one thing to plan for disaster, but it is quite another to read into that the end of the world, or the triumphant return of Jesus Christ—all because an old computer programming shortcut has left classical operating systems (and computer chips embedded with susceptible code) with the inability to treat the year 2000 as a new century. But this is an easy issue to dispatch, for no one knows the time of Christ's return. We need to remember that Jesus will begin his second coming "like a thief in the night" [1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10], that he will return "when you do not expect him" [Matt. 24:44; Luke 12:40], that the end of the world simply cannot be predicted [Mark 13:32-33]. All such prophecies to the contrary are bogus. Our obligation is certainly to be watchful, expectant, but not anxious.

So what, then? Since there is not a theological issue to debate here, the upshot is purely practical and, of course, moral. Practical because we should hear the cautionary remarks of experts who are genuinely concerned about shortages, outages, and deficits and weigh their advice. Moral because during times of social need, as Christians, we are called to extraordinary service. If we stockpile supplies for the expectation of a lack, we should also be prepared to share with those who have not. This is certainly not a call for Christians to clear out the spare room and stuff it with cans, flashlights, bottled water, cash, and weird space foods. It is a call to Christians to share their wealth and time to help prepare organizations that already have these physical facilities and distribution systems in place. Oddly, though, we should be doing this all along [see Matt. 7:12].

—Merle Harton, Jr., The Louisiana Quaker

All biblical references are NIV unless otherwise noted.

BOOK for the month:

Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers.  By Christopher Hall. InterVarsity Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8308-1500-7.

This is an exciting little companion to anyone's study of the scripture with the aid of commentary by early church fathers. Hall's intent here is not an expansive discussion of the history of biblical exegesis, but rather to introduce the reader to a select group of patristic figures the historic church has recognized as preeminent in their ability to interpret the Bible as a communal, devotional, and ecclesiastical act. Hall discusses Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great; he puts each into cultural context and helps us to understand the directions the Holy Spirit has led these important teachers. This book is a handy complement to the new ambitious series, the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (of which Hall is associate editor), but it is also genuinely a readable and friendly introduction to eight early bible study masters, from whom we can still learn much. - MCH

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Copyright © 1999 by Merle Harton, Jr.