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“What do We Need to Know about the End Times: What If Jesus Waits Another 5,639 Years?”
This is a possibility. If you’re a Christian who takes the Bible seriously, you have to admit that this is a possibility. Matthew remembered Jesus saying, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Matthew 24:36).” Matthew then quotes Jesus describing what people will be doing “at the coming of the Son of Man.” They’d be “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.” People will be working in the fields and doing household chores. In other words, when Jesus comes again, according to this description, things will look a lot like they look every day. “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” So, it stands to biblical reason that Jesus may wait another 5,639 years before he returns to consummate history. Many people would read the above and say, “I doubt that!” And they’d site abundant evidence that our world in the 21 st century is more violent than ever, the Middle East is at a boiling point, people and governments pursue wars and civil wars all over the globe, hunger kills tens of thousands a day and even scientists tell us that the climate is warming at an unprecedented rate. Society continues to shed even the most basic of traditional moral norms and crime seems to be more rampant than ever. Certainly, these and all kinds of other examples correspond to the calamities Jesus describes in the 24 th chapter of Matthew (and correspondingly in Mark 13 and Luke 21), as well as the graphic tumult described all through the Revelation of John. Certainly, we are in the End Times and Jesus’ return cannot be far in the future. Well, maybe. Certainly, it only stands to simple mathematics that we’re closer to the Day of the Son of Man than we were in Jesus’ time. However, this introduces some counterpoints. In the same passages cited above, Jesus told his disciples, “This generation will not pass away until all these things have happened (Matthew 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32).” Evidently, in the first decades of the Christian movement, the followers of Christ took this Greek word, γεvε, to mean what we mean by “generation”, that is, this group of people living right now. In fact, if you trust the Greek scholars on this, whenever γεvε appears in the New Testament, it refers to “generation” in the sense of “contemporaries.” Evidently, the first followers of Jesus expected an immediate return of the Lord based on a literal understanding of this saying. Of course, everyone in that generation did pass away and the Day of the Son of Man had not occurred. That called for some reinterpretation of what Jesus said, and folks began to understand that there are also passages in the New Testament when γεvε refers not to individuals but to a “whole people” such as is meant in Luke 1:48, in the so-called Magnificat. What Jesus meant, then, was that the human race would not pass away before these things occurred. Evidently, it was only about the time that Jesus’ contemporaries began dying out that they decided to record the Gospels. Scholars all date the pastoral letters of Paul earlier than any of the four Gospels, which stands to reason when you think about it. Since the first Christians expected Jesus to return before most of them had died, there wasn’t any need to tell people what Jesus had said and done. He’d take care of that himself when he came back in a few years. However, there were practical congregational matters with which people had to deal in order to maintain a peaceful community of faith conducive to recruiting as many persons as possible to the Way. For that reason, Paul wrote scores of letters aimed at helping people to relate in an orderly fashion and believe the correct things. By the end of his life, however, the Paul of II Timothy 4:6 had come to the conclusion that Christ’s second coming would not occur in his lifetime. The biblical book that gets used the most in our current age to stoke excitement about Christ’s immanent return is the Book of Revelation. This is a curious thing to me. You see, the Revelation of John tells us that the book’s apocalyptic, graphic visions describe what “must soon take place.” It’s amazing to me that Bible teachers and preachers who claim to believe the Bible literally and to take its words seriously don’t actually believe that John meant what he said when he used the Greek word “τάχει” in his Holy Spirit inspired introduction. The word literally means “right now,” or “immediately.” It’s where we get our word “taxi” which means “to move” (or “scare the devil out of you” in New York). Those very proclaimers of literal biblical truth then go and say that John was really talking about events that were going to happen 2000 years later. That isn’t what the Greek word John used would ever mean – ever. Indeed, the events that John describes in Revelation largely DID happen. The elaborate and rich symbolism of images and numbers referred to political and religious realities with which the original recipients of the Apocalypse would have been familiar. Babylon was Rome. The Dragon was the power of Satan. The Lady dressed in white was the church. The Lamb and the Lion were both symbols of Jesus, depending upon the context in which the image is used. And nowhere in Revelation – NOWHERE – does the term “antichrist” appear. What Revelation does say about the distant future is very general and non-specific. Revelation assures all Christians of all ages that when the time is right, God will establish a new heaven and a new earth, will wipe away all tears from the eyes of the faithful, and will once again live with his people in unmediated, unspoiled fellowship. This will happen when the followers of Christ practice what the rest of the book of Revelation emphasizes: don’t be duped by the forces of culture and Empire. Live according to the principles of the kingdom of God, no matter what, and you’ll know this uninterrupted fellowship. Revelation was never meant as a cryptograph with secret codes that only specialists could decipher. That would belie its very name: “Revelation” means to reveal, not conceal. Apocalypse means to “open up” not to close. The obvious message is the message God wants us to take away from Revelation, not some mysterious, secret message. The obvious message is precisely this: DO NOT GIVE IN TO THE FORCES OF CULTURE AND EMPIRE. OVERCOME THAT AND YOU’LL KNOW THE VICTORY OF GOD! Alas, all through history, well-meaning people who are true followers of Jesus still can’t help but claim to know something their own Lord said he didn’t know. From around 150-170 C.E., according to the church historian Clyde Manschreck, a movement arose in Asia Minor around a former pagan priest by the name of Montanus, who in a series of ecstatic visions (not unlike the visions of John in Revelation), preached that the second coming of Christ was about to take place in the region of Pepuza where the new Jerusalem would be established. Quite a few persons flocked to Montanus, including the early church leader Tertullian. Montanism, however, died out, probably in part because the subsequent centuries saw no second coming. Montanism died out, also, because Christianity, which had been severely persecuted by the Roman Empire for about three centuries, became the established power under the Emperor Constantine. Apocalyptic predictions of an immanent end to the age of evil only have relevance as long as those making such predictions compose a relatively powerless minority. Interestingly, when the Christian church became the ruling power, both religiously and secularly, predictions of an overthrow of the world no longer were welcome, since the world to be overthrown was the world controlled by the Church. For several centuries thereafter interest in end times waned considerably. During the 12 th century, an Italian Cistercian monk by the name of Joachim of Fiore had proposed that history be divided into three ages corresponding to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The age of the Father was dominated by the Old Testament law; the second age of the Son began with Jesus’ ministry and resurrection and constituted the time of mankind living under Grace; the third age would be the age of the Spirit, and Joachim predicted that it would begin in 1260. Since Joachim was a pious monk, he directed that his writings be submitted to the Pope for approval only after his death. This proved to be a wise move on Joachim’s part since he died in 1202 and when the Lateran Council of 1215 took up Joachim’s ideas they condemned them, which probably would have meant some unpleasantness for Joachim had he been alive. Of course, this should surprise no one when one considers that the condemnation of Joachim’s ideas took place under Pope Innocent III, the pope of the Inquisition and the most powerful pope ever to have lived, before or since. Again, would you welcome apocalyptic predictions of an overturned world order when you control the world order? Then came the Protestant reformation. Perhaps because the challenge presented by Martin Luther to the establishment of the Catholic Church, many simmering spiritual forces erupted into full boil, often to the great displeasure of the leading reformers themselves. One such person was the Anabaptist, Thomas Müntzer. Müntzer saw in the unhinging of Catholic hegemony sure signs of the end of the age and led peasants from the region of Mühlhausen in Germany to revolt. Since the church and the nobility that supported it were, to Müntzer, corrupt and part of “the Beast” (see Revelation 13) the peasant army he inspired was justified in killing anyone who had sympathies with the establishment. On April 16, 1525, Müntzer and a militia of peasants stormed Weinsberg, Germany and massacred its inhabitants (see Manschreck, p. 201). This crime incensed Luther, who subsequently declared in a well known essay entitled Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, that the ruling authorities had the right, even duty, to suppress the peasant uprising with brutal force. Luther’s ideas on this subject made sense to the ruling authorities who subsequently sent in their armies. Before the revolt ended, over 100,000 peasants had been brutally slaughtered. Anyone else who held views similar to Müntzer’s subsequently either decided to keep quiet, or in many cases, joined what became a largely Protestant exodus from Europe to the New World. Consequently, many movements based on expectations of Christ’s immanent return blossomed in the United States. One of the most famous rose out of William Miller’s teachings. Miller attended a revival at a local Baptist church and was converted. He started studying a King James Version of the Bible which had in the margins the chronology of human history worked out by Archbishop James Ussher. Ussher was the Primate of Ireland and had worked out some elaborate calculations from a literal reading of the Bible. He concluded that the world had been created on Sunday, October 23, 4004 B.C. at 7:35 am. Adam and Eve had been banished from Eden on Monday, November 10, 4004, B.C. Ussher’s figuring made an impression on Miller who subsequently did some figuring of his own, concluding that the world would end some time between March 1843 and March 1844. Miller took his views on the revival circuit and was soon ordained as a Baptist minister. In 1835, he published his thoughts on the second coming and gained the attention of a minister named Joshua V. Hines, who was a great organizer and promoter. With Hines’ help, Miller’s views on the second coming attracted a rather large following of folks who prepared in various ways for the arrival of the Lord. There was even a comet in the sky at that time and the glow seemed to validate Miller’s predictions. Unless we missed something, though, time did not end in 1844. Suffice it to say that the vast majority of those who’d believed Miller and Hines abandoned the cause. A few people, however, hung on despite what came to be known as “The Great Disappointment”, believing that something apocalyptic had indeed happened, only that it had happened in heaven, or otherwise in secret somewhere. A movement sprang up based on Miller’s teachings. One thing led to another, one person met and impressed another and through the leadership of one young woman converted to Miller’s ideas, Ellen G. Harmon, the movement established its headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan and soon took on the name of “Seventh Day Adventists.” Now, despite the fact that the Seventh Day Adventists espouse some venerable religious ideas, and Ellen Harmon’s vegetarian discipline led one Adventist by the name of John Kellogg to devise some great cereal, which really helped the people of Battle Creek economically, nevertheless we can see how getting so specific about the dates of a second coming can get a person into trouble. About the same time that Miller and his followers were propagating their interpretation of End Times, in Ireland, John Nelson Darby was inventing what subsequent generations have come to call “premillenianism.” Darby was an attorney who’d undergone a powerful conversion experience and began to study the Bible. He became fascinated with the images and numbers in the book of Revelation and soon developed an elaborate grid through which he interpreted the entire scriptures. Darby was the first to suggest that there would be a secret rapture of Christians before a terrible time of tribulation which would inaugurate the end times. To his credit, Darby never specified a time when Christ would return, but he heavily influenced people like Tim LaHey who coauthored the Left Behind fiction series. It should be noted that Darby’s interpretation of Revelation which has become so influential among Evangelicals never took into account the deeply Jewish roots of the book’s numerical and visual symbolism. Then there was Charles Russell. He announced first that the so-called “Millennial Dawn” had started in 1847 and that the Lord would return in 1914. Instead, the First World War started up, which didn’t seem much like a Messianic reign. Russell confidently proclaimed, however, that “millions living today will not die.” In 1916, Russell himself did die, but thanks to some really good promotional work on the part of his follower, Joseph Rutherford, many of the original “Russellites” organized, published Russell’s particular brand of biblical interpretation, and when Rutherford died in 1942, his successor, Nathan Knorr built a publishing empire. Their primary magazine was, and still is, called The Watchtower, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses thrive, somewhat, until this day. When I was in seminary in Louisville, Kentucky in the early 80's a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses came by our townhouse and my wife let them in. After explaining to us that the established church was an abomination they then told us that they were reasonably certain that the Lord’s return would be in 1984. I asked them if George Orwell was a Jehovah’s Witness but they didn’t get the joke. Of course, I’m reasonably certain that these guardians of Russell’s legacy were as mistaken about 1984 as Miller was about 1844 and Russell himself was about 1914. Then in 1987, I received at my church in Muldraugh, Kentucky a little booklet entitled, 87 Reasons Why the Rapture Could be In 1987. The other side of the booklet bore the title, On Borrowed Time. It had been published by the World Bible Society and had been written by Edgar C. Whisenant, someone of whom I’d heard nothing and of whom I’ve heard nothing since. That is, I didn’t hear from him until 1988 when I received a booklet entitled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could be In 1988. In it, Whisenant insisted that the Rapture would occur “sometime during the period of Rosh-Hashanah, between sunset September 11 and sunset September 13, 1988.” Well, it didn’t happen. One more prognosticator failed. Then there was a Korean group which went by the name of the Mission for the Coming Days (MCD). In 1990, when I had moved to Virginia to pastor Middleburg Baptist Church, MCD sent out a booklet entitled, Are You Ready for the Rapture? October 28, 1992. Like Whisenant (and Russell, Miller, et. al.), they had calculated dates using numbers in the Revelation of John and in Daniel. And like all the above, again, they were wrong. As was a publication entitled Endtime which predicted that Armageddon would take place in the year 2,000. Endtime wasn’t alone in its fascination with the year 2,000. Few people are unaware of the dire predictions various groups, both religious and otherwise, cast concerning what became known as“Y2K.” And as most of us are aware, the year 2,000 came and went with nothing more than a fouled up presidential election. What does all this tell us? Being wrong about the second coming of Christ enjoys a long and venerable tradition in which people still engage. Now, admittedly, it’s more glamorous to think in terms of Apocalypse Now. You might notice, though, that most of the people who predict apocalypse pretty soon see themselves on the winning end of it. They don’t think that the prophet Amos’s warning applies to them:
Evidently, even during the time of the Old Testament prophets, people were predicting the apocalypse and even then, God wasn’t any too pleased with people who were eager for judgment to descend and the sharpest criticisms of Amos (and of Jesus, for that matter) were leveled against those who practiced religious ritual on a regular basis for their own benefit, to salve their own egos. “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.” Ouch! There is a veritable Hall of Fame of End Times Prognosticators who were Wrong. Check out this site: http://www.abhota.info/end1.htm for a lo-o-o-o-o-ng list of luminaries and less than luminous luminaries who’ve been wrong about the end of the world. So far, everyone who has made a prediction has been wrong. Everyone. Except me. I predicted last year that we would still be here this year. And I’ll predict now that we’ll be here next year. Should I publish a book? On a more serious note, I’ll make another prediction: the Rev. John Hagee will also prove not to know more than Jesus about the end times. Now, since everyone has been wrong up to this point, I’d like to return to the possibility I stated at the outset. What if Christ doesn’t return for another 5,639 years? Would that make any difference in how we practice our faith? It just might. If one considers the possibility that God might not consult a calendar created by a Roman emperor and refined by a 13 th century pope, faith actually becomes more demanding – which might explain why fascination with predicting the end remains popular among some groups. It gains a lot of attention, it can be quite lucrative ( as in the case of people like Hal Lindsay, whose Late, Great Planet Earth achieved best-seller status), and it tends to give little emphasis to the harder teachings of Jesus, many of which deal with social, political, and economic issues. If God hasn’t planned Jesus’ second coming for another 5,639 years, though, we’ve got to buckle down! Think about it. If Jesus were to return today, he’d find American Christians spending 99 cents out of every dollar they have on themselves. He’d come amidst congregations living in houses and driving cars much larger than their needs demand. He’d discover a nation full of evangelicals who support war without giving serious consideration to alternative means of confronting evil. He’d find a nation full of obese Christians in a world where tens of thousands die of hunger every day. I wonder what purpose apocalyptic predictions have ever served as far as discipleship is concerned. On the other hand, if Jesus is going to wait another, say, five millennia before he returns, then I’d suggest we be about a number of things. 1) We need to be serious about promoting Jesus’ way as the absolute best way to handle everything. The good news is that Jesus’ way works best for everything, no matter what the realists say. And, in following and promoting Jesus’ way, there’s this thing called eternal life woven in, something the entire human race remains hugely interested in. 2) We need to be serious about applying Jesus’ way to everything. This includes economics, politics, housing, entertainment, the natural Creation, social relationships, poverty, the military/industrial complex, SUV’s, the internet, and even how we do church. 3) We need to be very clear about what Jesus’ way is. I’ll suggest five themes that consistently emerge from my own study of Jesus’ life, teachings, and the manner in which he died. a. Jesus lived a life of radical simplicity. b. Jesus used creative non-violence to confront evil. c. Jesus practiced profound grace and forgiveness in his relationships. d. Jesus advocated and sought equity and justice in social relationships. e. Jesus lived a life infused with prayer and worship. Ample biblical material supports these five areas. In fact, the sheer volume of scriptural references in any one of the above categories (let alone all five combined) far outweighs the scriptural references to Jesus speaking about end times. Furthermore, when Jesus does speak about end times, and resolutely determines not to make predictions, he commands that instead of being preoccupied with predictions, the disciples should be faithful. In other words, when Jesus does return, he wants to find his followers committed to a life of discipleship characterized by the five areas above. Which raises another point. If Jesus refused to make predictions but instead wanted his followers to be found faithful to his way, then the actual date of his return doesn’t matter. Whether Jesus returns in 5,000 years or fifteen minutes doesn’t make any difference to a committed follower of Christ. The Apostle Paul gave the Thessalonians a glorious description of the events that would consummate history (II Thessalonians 4:13-5:11), and yet, he intended his description to “encourage” Christians to “build each other up.” In Romans he advised “being transformed” so as not to conform to the pattern of the surrounding culture (Romans 12:1, 2). And in Philippians he commanded that Christians have the same set of assumptions and priorities, living the same life as Christ (Philippians 2:5-11). This “mind of Christ” demands that his followers devote the weight of their concerns to living out the priorities reflected by the life of their Lord. Well, there! You finished reading this chapter and Jesus hasn’t returned yet. Now you have the chance to explore the mind of Christ and develop it yourself so that if he returns before you finish reading the rest of this book, he’ll have found you at least interested in being found faithful. And if he waits another 5,639 years? In that case, you’ll have the joy of sharing in his life right now, and for the rest of your life, and into eternity! |
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