“Reading the Signs of the Times”
by Bruce
Yocum
Introduction to a
New Series
by Bernhard Stock
Under this headline,
“Reading the Signs of the Times”, we
want to sporadically publish articles,
book reviews and other material which
have a prophetic orientation: reading
the signs of the times and trying to
understand what the Lord is telling
us, or has already told us as the
Sword of the Spirit. He has called us
to be a prophetic people and to “build
a bulwark against the tide of evil” –
for this, we should learn to
understand what the evil tides are and
how we can be equipped to counter
them.
The following
article is from Bruce Yocum, who has
just completed, but not yet published,
a serious study of prophecy in
Scripture and in the history and life
of the church. He comments here on the
phrase from the Gospel which we are
using as the title for this series of
occasional commentaries on what is
happening in society and in the
church.
[Bernhard
Stock was the long-term Senior
Coordinator of Brot des Lebens in
Munich, Germany and Regional
Coordinator for Leaders Training in
the European Region. He
is currently the director of the
Catholic Teaching Institute, an
institute which develops and provides
teaching for Catholic Members in the
Sword of the Spirit.] |
“Reading the Signs of the Times”
It is very common today among certain groups of
Christians to hear it said that we, or the church,
should discern the will of God by “reading the
signs of the times.” There is good reason for that
because it is taken directly from the words of
Jesus. But it is a phrase that we must use
correctly.
The phrase is from Matthew 16:3 and has a long
history as a description of a type of prophecy.
Its use in the gospel makes it the common property
of many traditions and many currents in the
church, but today is most popular among those in
the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement, among
Catholics and among those everywhere who would
like to promote certain changes in the church..
The connection of the phrase with prophecy is
natural and understandable, but it can only be
viewed as prophetic if it is a matter of God
speaking to the church, or to members of the
church, or perhaps occasionally to the broader
society. Sadly, today its use is often inverted,
and becomes a means of the world speaking to the
church. I will address the improper use of the
phrase first, and then point to what we learn from
the Gospel.
In order to illustrate how the phrase can be
inverted, I will briefly describe some of the ways
it has appeared in Catholic circles in the past
fifty years. Similar stories could be told of
other churches or groups. The use and misuse of
the phrase is quite ecumenical.
Through its use in Vatican Council II, most
notably in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes, the
phrase has become ubiquitous in the Catholic
world. As Pope Paul VI commented “An expression of
the Council has entered our habits: that of
scrutinizing ‘the signs of the times’,” and
he points out that it was used by Pope John XXIII
“in the Apostolic Constitution with which he
convened the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
when, after observing the sad spiritual conditions
of the contemporary world, he wished to rekindle
the hope of the Church, writing: ‘We like to place
staunch confidence in the divine Saviour ... who
exhorts us to recognize the signs of the times’,
so that ‘we see amid obscure darkness numerous
indications that seem to announce better times for
the Church and for mankind’2 ”
Gaudium et spes itself says this:
To carry out such a task, the Church
has always had the duty of scrutinizing the
signs of the times and of interpreting them in
the light of the Gospel. Thus, in language
intelligible to each generation, she can respond
to the perennial questions which men ask about
this present life and the life to come, and
about the relationship of the one to the other.
We must therefore recognize and understand the
world in which we live, its explanations, its
longings, and its often dramatic
characteristics.3
As we can see in this paragraph, Gaudium et
spes itself does not connect the phrase
with prophecy, but rather with the perennial task
of the church to interpret what is happening in
the world in the light of the gospel so that it
can better proclaim the Gospel “to each
generation.” The Gospel itself does not connect
the phrase with prophecy.
And the Pharisees and Sadducees came,
and to test him they asked him to show them a
sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is
evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather; for
the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be
stormy today, for the sky is red and
threatening.’ You know how to interpret the
appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret
the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous
generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall
be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he
left them and departed. (Matthew 16:1-4)
Here Jesus responds to a disingenuous question
from the Pharisees and Sadducees by telling them
that they should not need and will not be given a
sign. In effect he tells them that they do not
need a “prophetic” sign because they ought already
to be able to understand what they see. This is
very much what we see in the passage from Gaudium
et spes just cited: the church ought to be
able to “scrutinize the signs of the times” and
interpret them “in the light of the gospel.” God’s
revelation has been given to us to equip us to
“interpret the signs of the times.”
On the other hand, later in Gaudium et spes
we find this.
The People of God believes that it is
led by the Lord’s Spirit, Who fills the earth.
Motivated by this faith, it labors to decipher
authentic signs of God’s presence and purpose in
the happenings, needs and desires in which this
People has a part along with other men of our
age. For faith throws a new light on everything,
manifests God’s design for man’s total vocation,
and thus directs the mind to solutions which are
fully human.4
This is rather different, and while not using the
gospel expression “signs of the times” clearly
alludes to it, but this time says that the People
of God ought to be able “in the light of faith” to
“decipher” God’s presence and purpose in what is
happening in the world.
For whatever reason, this phrase has, to
paraphrase Paul VI, “has entered our habits” of
speaking about prophecy. Often those who employ
the phrase give no explanation of what count as
“signs of the times” or how one knows what the
correct “reading” of them may be. It is at times
used as a way of saying, or implying, that what is
now dominant in the surrounding culture is what
God is saying. (And it is almost always used by
those in Western culture, who apparently do not
regard what happens in any other culture as
important). In effect, the expression used in the
Gospel is inverted, and we are asked to interpret
the gospel in the light of current culture. We see
this for example in the words of the late Catholic
theologian Avery Dulles.
“Scrutinizing the signs of the times,
Christianity must reinterpret its own doctrine
and goals in relation to the world of today. To
effect this transposition without loss of
substance is a task calling for prophetic
insight.”5
Whereas Gaudium et spes urges a scrutiny
of the signs of the times in the light of the
gospel, Dulles tells us it is the doctrine and
goals of Christianity that need scrutiny. Very
likely Dulles himself took seriously his comment
about avoiding a “loss of substance,” but many
others do not. Too often the phrase is used as a
Trojan Horse to introduce current cultural norms
under the cloak of prophecy.
Yves Congar, a contemporary of Dulles, says rather
that what the prophets who read the signs of the
times say is “essentially, the judgment of God on
things; to [measure] things against the absolute
of God…. To declare their truth in the light of
the plan of God for the world, his design, his
purpose. The prophets read the ‘signs of the
times’, they bring out the significance of events
with regard to the eschatological consummation.”6
That certainly is much closer to Jesus’ use of the
expression in Matthew 16, and Congar ties it also
to the eschatological pronouncement of Christ in
Matthew 24:32-33: “From the fig tree learn its
lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and
puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is
near. So also, when you see all these things, you
know that he is near, at the very gates.”
In the Pentecostal-Charismatic world the phrase
also appears in connection with prophecy, often
with prophecy that is supposedly about the “end
times.” That makes some sense when read in
connection with Matthew 16 and Matthew 24, but
Christ in Matthew 16 is telling the disciples they
do not need a special sign, or prophecy. They
should already be able to see what is happening
spiritually.
It is
most fundamentally Scripture, God’s
revelation in Christ,
that allows us to interpret the signs of
the times. |
In the “charismatic” world the phrase is sometimes
used in connection with 1 Chronicles 12:32: “Of
Issachar men who had understanding of the times,
to know what Israel ought to do, two hundred
chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their
command.” This use of the verse doesn’t make sense
when cited as a manifestation of prophecy, since
there is no reason from the passage to attribute
the understanding of the times to prophecy. It is
much more reasonably read as a matter of wisdom or
prudence, perhaps as having the good judgment to
align themselves with David rather than Saul.
Nevertheless there is something natural about
reading Matthew 16:1-4 and 24:32-33 in connection
with prophecy, and there is a proper place for
reading the signs of the times prophetically. To
do so is to bring to bear, as Congar says “the
judgment of God on things.” It is most
fundamentally Scripture, God’s revelation in
Christ, that allows us to interpret the signs of
the times.
Notes:
[1] L’Osservatore
Romano, weekly Edition in
English, 24 April 1969, page 1.
[2] A.A.S 1962,
p.6.
[3]
Gaudium et Spes,
4. www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html.
[4] Ibid., 11.
[5] Dulles,
“Succession of Prophets,” p. 31
[6] Vraie et Fausse, 183.
Bruce
Yocum has been involved in leadership and
teaching in charismatic renewal from its
earliest years, and has served in the
Sword of the Spirit for many years in
North America, Europe and the Middle East,
Latin America and the South Pacific. He
was Presiding Elder of the Servants of the
Word for thirteen years. In 1976 he wrote
the book "Prophecy", which has been
translated into at least nine languages.
stock
photo of clouds by (c) jotvelzatstock
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