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The Secret About the End Times You Need to Know

June 20, 08 by ed

Blogger’s Note: I wrote the following in response to a conversation I overheard the other day.

I have a secret about the end times that you may not have heard from those concerned with the current events today and the various signs that point so clearly toward the imminent return of Christ. There is a secret underneath all of the different theories abounding amidst the fears that the UN, the rise of Russia, the promulgation of national “unions,” and all of the other “signs of the times” such as earthquakes and floods signaling our world is done for.

Are you ready for the secret? You’ll be blown away by this.

Here it is: Every generation since the time of Christ has thought “Jesus is coming back very, very soon!”

Have you read the New Testament epistles? Paul is absolutely convinced that Jesus is coming back any day now.

During the persecution of the early church people thought God would show up soon to deliver them.

During the rise of Constantine people thought that God would return now that the empire was on the turnaround.

Barbarian invasions, Muslim attacks, the crusades, comets, and anything else you can cook up over the years served as signs that God was returning to earth very, very soon.

Yawn. So much for all that.

Uptight Christians eager to see God return have been freaking out their children with tales of the world ending for ages. And still some persist that the events of today are unique, that all of the scriptures are being fulfilled right before our eyes, and that the news headlines fit with scripture like the perfect puzzle deciphered by skilled Bible scholars.

And guess what, the odds are that we’ll probably be wrong and have gotten all worked up over nothing.

Having said that, keep in mind that the Bible tells us to always be ready, that the Lord will come as a thief in the night when we’re not ready, and that we should not mock the thought of Jesus returning. Rest assured that Jesus is returning. We should think about it, we should be prepared, and we should be aware that he may well return soon.

Can we just drop the rhetoric and stress levels a bit? I’m thinking we need to stop trying to figure out the ways the news and the Biblical prophecies fit together. Chances are most Christians have absolutely no idea how to interpret a prophetic oracle, let alone that the prophets wrote “oracles” in the first place.

So let’s relax a little, love God and one another, and keep in mind that Jesus will return sometime in the near future. We just don’t know when or how it will happen. Being ready for the return of Christ means living a holy life, not fretting over the news headlines.

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8 responses for this post

  1. Virgil Says: 20.06.08 at 9:44 am

    Jesus is not coming back; all the imminent prophetic texts mentioned in the New Testament already were fulfilled in or around AD 70 when the Jewish Temple was destroyed. This is a “covenantal” issue and a transitional issue from a Jewish covenant to a New covenant, a new mode of existence, a New Jerusalem (the church). Generally speaking, this is called preterism.

  2. ed Says: 20.06.08 at 9:55 am

    Wow. You sound pretty certain about that. Before I reply, I will say that the second coming isn’t something that should divide believers so even if I disagree with your views, I’m not calling anyone a heretic or whatever.

    Having said that, preterism has to do some interpretive gymnastics to make sense of Acts 1:11 where the angels say that Jesus will return in the same way he left… which implies some sort of physical return. I don’t profess to have all of this figured out, but I do think I have plenty of reasons to doubt preterism, not to mention the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creeds both profess the return of Christ. I’m not typically inclined to go against the early consensus of orthodox Christianity.

    I will agree that a lot more was probably fulfilled in the time between the writing of the NT and the fall of Jerusalem than we realize today, but I don’t think that explains everything. I also think we miss out on the apocalyptic elements of the NT, especially the book of Revelation, addressing events in the First Century.

    Thanks for popping by and for sharing the links!

  3. Virgil Says: 21.06.08 at 4:54 pm

    Ed, but you sound just as certain about a future coming of Christ :) I don’t wow about that..hehe

    Acts 1:11 doesn’t seem to be a reference to a coming in clouds; a “coming on clouds” is used numerous times throughout the Old Testament to indicate God’s judgment against his enemies. It is used both in reference to Babylon in Isaiah (I don’t have a reference handy) and in reference to Egypt.

    As far as early church creeds go, I am sorry but the early church had a lot less information than we do today, so trusting their opinions is not as important to me as it is to other people. I try to stick to Scripture and the time frame and time statements used by Jesus, Paul and Peter. They all point to a coming of Christ within their lifetime and within the first century. I am not ready to claim that all these guys and even Jesus were wrong.

  4. ed Says: 24.06.08 at 8:57 pm

    I still think I have a lot of scripture and tradition and the majority of Christians getting my back on this one. I disagree with your take on tradition because it rings of the quest for the historical Jesus that believed our modern historical methods provide a clearer, cleaner picture of the Bible and Jesus, which isn’t necessarily the case. Every point in history has its limitations and so no one time can claim to have it all together.Traditions aren’t always right, but I think they’re very trustworthy when they survive throughout all of church history as the return of Christ has.

    I see your point about Acts 1 and the idea of judgment. It’s a compelling idea. I don’t doubt that there’s a possibility you could be right here with the Preterist interpretation of Jesus, Peter, and Paul. I like the sound of Partial Preterism over Full Preterism. I’ve generally stood in the Amillenial camp myself. I just think things are way more drawn out than anyone would have guessed.

    We could probably lob scripture bombs on one another all day on this one. I think it’s just as well that we agree to disagree on this one.

  5. jovial_cynic Says: 26.06.08 at 5:52 pm

    Fun fact: Revelation 12:7 and 12:20 (which state Jesus is coming “soon”) is also translated “I come quickly,” which expresses a suddenness, rather than “in a short while.” Kind of like a, “behold, I come with no warning,” which ties together well with Jesus’ many parables about being vigil and prepared.

  6. ed Says: 26.06.08 at 9:27 pm

    Man, I never knew I had so many readers who were preterists!

    Well, you have a great point. Like I said, Virgil makes so solid points. If we’re committing to taking the Bible seriously and not imposing our own systems of interpretation on them, then we need to be open to the preterist option, since it’s one of several plausible explanations.

    Either way you slice it, my main point here is we can’t know the day or hour this will happen and therefore Christians need to take it easy when watching the news. The preterist option kind of drives that whole concept home!

  7. jovial_cynic Says: 26.06.08 at 10:16 pm

    Huh? What? I’m not a preterist.

    I was just going along with the notion that every generation believed that Jesus was coming “soon,” perhaps in part because they interpreted “soon” to mean “in a little while,” instead of “suddenly.”

    I’m not a preterist at all.

  8. ed Says: 27.06.08 at 7:09 am

    Ah, I thought you were following up on Virgil’s above comments that Preterism provides the most plausible explanation for the verses you quoted. I now see where you were going on that. Sorry for the mix up… not that there’s anything wrong with being a preterist!

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