Terminator Eschatology?

I think I'm going to copyright the above phrase as a new way to talk about Christian eschatology. My thinking isn't fully clear here, but I've got some thoughts that might prove interesting.

I'm a big fan of the new series, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, on Fox that follows a growing teenage John Conner, leader of the resistance in the future against the machines of SkyNet that control the world. The series follows him, his mom Sarah, an uncle Derek sent from the future, and a terminator turned guardian named Cameron, also sent from the future.

The point of the show is to follow them as they make decisions to prevent SkyNet from taking over an inevitable future of total control and annihilate the human race. What I find so interesting is that their whole orientation to how they live their lives in the present is determined by what they know of the future. They have a unique grasp into the future because their future selves continue to send hints back in time to try to prevent certain events from happening. People are sent back in time with information on upcoming events. Even terminators are sent back in time by SkyNet to prevent the early resistance of the Conners. They live their lives now because of what they know of their futures.

It's the same for Christians. We have a certain picture of our future revealed to us in the death and resurrection of the man Jesus from Nazareth. God has shown the world what is in store for the future. The Apostle Paul speaks of our becoming a new creation. That we will die but our deaths will not result in futility or despair. Our deaths will be like a seed which must die to its normal character in the soil and be raised into a new creation, a new plant.

And because of this picture we get in Jesus' resurrection, our lives are changed--here and now. Our lives are re-oriented to this new picture of the future--a future of hope, a future with God forever. We have our hints from the future revealed to us in the Scriptures. They are there from cover to cover.

"Death is swallowed up." --Isaiah
"No one will have to say to one another, know the Lord, for we will all know the Lord." --Jeremiah
"I'm preparing a room for you in my Father's house." -- Jesus
"We will not all die, we will be changed, in the sparkle of a moment." --Paul, the apostle

We have our hints of what our future will look like. Our struggle is: what do we do with them now? It's the struggle that John Connor faces every day. There are times when he accepts his destiny as leader of the resistance, this person whom he will become. There are also times when he chooses to be a 21st century teenage boy who doesn't listen to his mom, skips school, and just wants to chill.

Our future is determined. There's no changing it. God has mind up his mind about where this world is heading. The resurrection has already happened. How does that change us now? Do we resist it? Do we accept it? "Reorient your lives, the time has come." (Mark 1:1)