Judge Antonin Scalia recently gave a speech of dissent in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the juvenile death penalty. At the heart of the issue is the question of whether we view the constitution as a “living document” to be changed whenever the customs and practices of “we the people” change, or whether this great document contains universal timeless principles which should be interpreted based on the intent of it’s framers.

There is an underlying worldview, which places mankind at the top of the eternal food chain and therefore gives him an impulse to evaluate, judge, and recast everything according to his current inclinations. The result is a feeling of liberty to reshape the eternal from the temporal. That pattern can be seen not only in the ancient practice of idolatry, but in our approach to morality, the foundation of a government…and the intent and meaning of biblical prophesy. One view treats the eternal as the clay, to be reshaped at our convenience and inclination. That might not seem so bad if all our inclinations were good, but not all inclinations are created equal. What happens in a time when unwise, corrupt, greedy and lustful inclinations are doing the molding and shaping? The other view perceives an eternal God who is unchanging and unchangeable. And this God has shaped the world through eternal laws and principles. The highest quality of human living comes from allowing Him to mold and shape our lives, our marriages, and our families. I will seek to connect these dots to bible prophecy later in this article. The better understanding of biblical prophecy comes from within His eternal word, not from recasting prophetic intent based on changing world events.

The following are some excerpts from a report out of Washington:

In a 35-minute speech Monday, Scalia said un-elected judges have no place deciding issues such as abortion and the death penalty. The court's 5-4 ruling March 1 to outlaw the juvenile death penalty (search) based on "evolving notions of decency" was simply a mask for the personal policy preferences of the five-member majority,” he said. “If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again," Scalia told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. "Why in the world would you have it interpreted by nine lawyers?" he said.

Scalia, who has been mentioned as a possible chief justice nominee should Chief Justice William Rehnquist (search) retire, outlined his judicial philosophy of interpreting the Constitution according to its text, as understood at the time it was adopted. Citing the example of abortion, he said un-elected justices too often choose to read new rights into the Constitution, at the expense of the democratic process. Scalia said increased politics on the court will create a bitter nomination fight for the next Supreme Court appointee, since judges are now more concerned with promoting their personal policy preferences rather than interpreting the law.

"If we're picking people to draw out of their own conscience and experience a 'new' Constitution, we should not look principally for good lawyers. We should look to people who agree with us," he said, explaining that's why senators increasingly probe nominees for their personal views on positions such as abortion.

"When we are in that mode, you realize we have rendered the Constitution useless," Scalia said. I agree with Scalia. The framers of the constitution were not perfect, but they sought to construct a framework of government based on sound, eternal principles of human living. Individual rights were seen as the unchanging endowment of an eternal creator. Those rights are not “granted” by the government, but recognized and protected by the government. Activist judges have been, and continue seeking to reframe our culture, divesting it of its connection to the Judeo-Christian foundation of America, and reshaping it to reflect modern lifestyles and practices. Thus the incredible battle over the appointment of judges by the president. The left is well aware that the appointment of justices who take the “living document” view have legislated from the bench and moved American politics and culture away from Christianity. Moving American culture away from its Christian roots is necessary to get a government stamp of approval on homosexuality, gay marriage, pornography and other baser inclinations of the human spirit. Therefore the foundational documents, rooted in Judeo-Christian worldview, must be re-worked by activist judges to reflect contemporary inclinations and lifestyles. And…we must be inclusive. If people have certain thoughts and practices, they must be included…not left out. If someone thinks that way and practices that thing, it must be ok. The validation of the practice is that someone is practicing it. That is faulty logic, and destructive. This is the reason the left refuses to acknowledge the existence of right and wrong…sin and righteousness. To say someone is wrong is judgmental, and to say a practice is sinful risks being labeled as bigotry. Right and wrong become something we can change, from generation to generation, depending on which way the cultural wind is blowing. Big problem- if you’re a results oriented person it’s easy to see the heartache, brokenness and emptiness that have descended on our lives, our marriages, and our families the more we’ve lived out this worldview. Make no mistake, the controversy surrounding judicial appointments, gay marriage, etc. is driven by the militancy of those who do not want an eternal God with His eternal principles interfering with our inclinations and desires. Him & them won’t shape us…we’ll shape Him & them! Steven Covey in his book Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People states, “Principles are like lighthouses. They are natural laws that cannot be broken. As Cecil B. deMille observed of the principles contained in his monumental movie, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, ‘It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only break ourselves against the law’.”

Though the cultural elite have touted the excitement of licentiousness and indulgence, the consequences in real life have been devastating and heartrending. The lives, marriages and families broken and torn are far too numerous. When I was in South America walking through a dusty town far off the beaten path, I came across a little bodega. I remember how hungry I was and how that crème-filled pastry in the window caught my eye. In a moment…in the twinkling of an eye I was in & out having paid for this lightly browned, powdered sugar-topped delight. I remember, too, discovering how long it had been sitting in that window the hard way…by biting into it and finding a family of worms that had taken up residence. That’s the way it is when we treat all inclinations of the human heart as being created equal. Not everything that glitters is gold. Some things are wrong… counterproductive… foolish…ungodly…and have negative consequences. A God who loves us could not love that which is destructive to us. The temporal must not shape the eternal.

When Psalms 23 promises green pastures and still waters with the Lord as our shepherd, it is painting a vivid picture of life shaped by the creator (as opposed to the other way around). If there is an eternal creator who made the world based on eternal principles, then to disregard this is to swim against the current. Swimming against the current effects two results- it wears us out and we don’t get very far. To honor the creator and incorporate eternal principles as the basis of our lives and government is like turning in the water and swimming with the current- it doesn’t wear us out and we make more progress. The eternal must shape the temporal.

Indeed there is a cultural war in the United States, and though the talking heads don’t often say so, the basis is the canyon of disparity between these two worldviews. Results for human living vary greatly depending on who’s the potter and who’s the clay.

Transmillenialism / Preterism /Covenant Eschatology have blossomed “for such a time as this.” This emerging, but ancient, view has freed us “from” something and “to” something.

A.) It has freed us from the defeatist and bleak view of the future portrayed by the left behind crowd. Their drumbeat is that the end of the world is coming soon, and things will get worse and worse until God himself destroys everything. Those of us who believe we’re going to be around for a while see the great need to be proactive. Since Revelation isn’t about the end of our planet, but rather the first-century end of the Old Covenant world of animal sacrifices, then the people of God need to involved and making a difference. There will be a tomorrow, and the leadership of God will make it brighter for any person, family, or nation.

B.) It has feed us to make a world-shaping difference. We are the leaven of God. His presence is in us, for we are his new temple. And his desire is not that we be taken out of the world. His desire is that we be in the world but not of the world…and making a difference on His behalf. We make that difference by preaching the good news of the available presence of God and his kingdom. We make that difference by leading people, families and nations to allow the eternal to shape the temporal. We make that difference by exposing the tragic error in judgment of seeking to mold the eternal by the temporal.

This is a clear line of demarcation between the futurist view of prophecy and a fulfilled view. What we see happening the last several decades is that the prophetic word of God has been taken out of it’s biblical and historical context and reshaped to fit current world events. When modern interpreters’ predictions fail, they simply treat the prophecies as clay and reshape them into a new set of predictions.

The better understanding of biblical prophecy comes from within His eternal word, not from re-casting prophetic intent based on changing world events. The sixty-six books of the bible are “inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Thus our understanding of how to interpret the prophecies of Revelation come from within the scriptures themselves, not from some contemporary writing which contains the 3, 7, or whatever number of essential keys to Revelation. That makes sense and allows all people anywhere in the world during any generation since the first century to understand Revelation. Who are those who say they are Jews, but are not in Revelation 2:9 & 3:9? Read Romans 2:28&29 along with Romans 9:6-8. What about the sun being darkened, the moon not giving it’s light and the stars falling from heaven? Read Isaiah 13 and see how similar language was used in a context where the interpretation is given. What is the kingdom of this world that becomes the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ in 11:15? Check the parable of Mt. 21:33-45. Where do the events (actual events figuratively portrayed) of chapter 11 take place? Look in verse 8. Who is Babylon the great harlot in chapter 17? She was to be judged in the near (to John) future, she was to be burned; she was guilty of the blood of the prophets, and guilty of the blood of saints. And she was a harlot in God’s eyes. Do we not find scriptures aplenty that lay these descriptions right at Jerusalem’s feet? One of the tremendous things about a fulfilled view of Revelation is the recognition of the bible as a complete unit, missing nothing. To ascribe to some of the modern futurist views of prophecy, a person needs the bible plus Dr. So & So’s book on KEYS TO REVELATION. An anachronism is something misplaced in time. I once saw a movie about cave men in which one of the actors forgot to take off his watch. That watch was a twentieth century concept superimposed on an ancient time. It didn’t go there. When we superimpose twentieth century events on ancient prophecies in an attempt to mold and shape them we are using those temporal events to shape the eternal word of God. When we prayerfully view the ancient prophecies in the context of their historical Jewish linguistics and first century Revelation authorship, the word provides us with God’s promises and God’s fulfillments. If I in year 2005 read about “these last days” in Hebrews 1:2 and think “wow…we’re in the last days”, I have taken the author’s term and misplaced it in time. The author of Hebrews, by inspiration, stated that HE and HIS CONTEMPORARIES were living in the last days. Joel did not live in the last days but foretold last days events. Peter quoted Joel in Acts 2 and stated unequivocally that the events that first century crowd was witnessing were the fulfillment of Joel’s last days prophecy. The modern futurists paint their prophetic picture to match developed notions derived from observation of similarities between contemporary events and statements in Revelation. They observe wars and rumors of wars, compare this to that phrase in Matthew 24 and Revelation and use the modern events to reshape the meaning of John. However, many time frames from the first century on have had wars and rumors of wars. But how many have had a temple with sacrifices in the city where the Lord was crucified? The first century context alone fulfills the entire framework set forth by the ancient prophets and the first century writers. Thus, not only did Peter and the writer of Hebrews think THEY were in the last days, but Peter wrote of “the end of all things “ being at hand…to his audience. And John stated with crystal clarity that his audience could observe the signs given by Jesus in Matthew 24 and know that it was “the last hour”. It makes since that when inspired scriptures are allowed to paint the prophetic picture, there will be remarkable cohesiveness. It also makes since that when changing world events are used to re-interpret and re-shape the prophetic message the canvass would become a splotchy mess. One moment the bear is Russia and the Kruschev is wearing #666 and the next its Iraq and Hussein. One minute the last hour is 1988 (counting forward from 1948) and the next it is the turnover of the millennium.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,” 2 Peter 1:3 (RSV)

The actual message of Revelation is that the Jewish and roman forces seeking to destroy the new kingdom of the messiah would be defeated. The prototypical kingdom of national Israel, it’s covenant relationship with God, and it’s ineffectual animal sacrifices would be destroyed and the world as they had known it would end. Christ-rejecting Israel would be brought into judgment and the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple would be a visible signal of a wondrous spiritual transition (Hebrews 7:18-19, 8:13, 9:8-9, 10:1-9, 12:18-29). A new world was dawning (1 John 2:8, Romans 13:11-12)…a world in which there was a sacrifice that actually atoned…a world in which a people purified and redeemed by the messiah’s blood became the new habitation of God. As Paul taught in Ephesians 2, we are that new temple, a dwelling place for God in the spirit. Revelation foretells the near (in time from it’s writing) realization of these promises when the dwelling of God would again be with men (Rev.21:1-2). When that new temple was completed and the hostile forces of Christ-rejecting Israel were defeated, the old temple was destroyed as a sign of that immense spiritual transition. It is indeed a wonder to live in a world where there is a savior and where we can actually be reconciled to God. David and Abraham never lived in such a world. John wrote to his first century audience in 1 John to convince them that they were coming into reconciled fellowship with God and that they had eternal because of the Christ. He told his Revelation audience that in the near future those who were in Hades would be raised, judged, and then Hades done away with. Indeed, Jesus did not leave his messianic task incomplete.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15 (RSV)