All Christian language about the future is a set of signposts pointing into a mist.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that any language or predictions about the future are inherently unclear and uncertain.
N. T. Wright's quote highlights the limitations of human language when it comes to describing the future, particularly in a Christian context. It implies that while we may attempt to articulate our hopes or beliefs about what lies ahead, those expressions are ultimately mere signposts guiding us through the uncertainty and ambiguity of what is to come, much like navigating through a mist where visibility is poor.
In practice
In a sermon discussing faith, this quote could be used to illustrate the mystery of divine plans.
The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating thet God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven." "The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.
True worship doesn't put on a show or make a fuss; true worship isn't forced, isn't half-hearted, doesn't keep looking at its watch, doesn't worry what the person in the next pew is doing. True worship is open to God, adoring God, waiting for God, trusting God even in the dark.
Most of the things that really matter require faith. How do I know that my wife loves me? How do I know that Mozarts Jupiter Symphony is sublime and beautiful? There are all sorts of things which come at a more lowly level than that - How do I know that two plus two equals four? There are different layers, different types of knowing.
To get overprotective about particular readings of the Bible is always in danger of idolatry.
Without God's Spirit, there is nothing we can do that will count for God's kingdom. Without God's Spirit, the church simply can't be the church.
I'm not a universalist, and the way I talk about final loss is this: People worship idols - money, whatever. Their humanness gets reshaped around the idol - you become like what you worship. That's one of the basic spiritual laws.
In my experience, self-hatred is the dominant malaise crippling Christians and stifling their growth in the Holy Spirit.
If we will be true and faithful to our principles, committed to a life of honesty and integrity, then no king or contest or fiery furnace will be able to compromise us. For the success of the kingdom of God on earth, may we stand as witnesses for Him "at all times and in all things, and in all places that we may be in, even until death."
Philosophic meditation is an accomplishment by which I attain Being and my own self, not impartial thinking which studies a subject with indifference.
There are plenty who regard a wall behind which something is happening as a very curious thing.
A computational device is incapable of developing a mind. We got consciousness not just by being clever.
Irresolution on the schemes of life which offer themselves to our choice, and inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest causes of all our unhappiness.
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