The loss of hope for a better future often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This, as much as anything else, underlies much of the destruction and decline that afflicts western society. The question, then, is how to restore hope. FBB writer Shafer Parker suggests the answer is surprisingly simple. Since the loss of hope started with the Christians, the restoration of hope must begin there also. It's time, Parker writes, to revisit eschatology and ask, what went wrong 200 years ago that made today's mess inevitable.