Last things last, that’s what I used to say. There’s plenty of difficult theological issues for us to wade through without having to worry about the end times. We all agree, after all, that in the end our side wins. Whether Jesus comes to find His world a horrible cesspool that needs to be cleaned up, or to find a glorious reflection of His successful bride, or somewhere in the middle, He does come back and make all things right. I was indifferent about how He would return.
But two things kept nagging at me. The Bible talks about the return of Christ. It talks about the full consummation of history. And one thing I didn’t want to happen when Jesus comes back was this — to have Him be displeased with me because I tossed aside a portion of His Word cavalierly.
The second problem was this, a fundamental principle of progress. One cannot know which way to go unless one knows where one is supposed to go. If you’re going nowhere, any direction will do. But if you want to get somewhere, you have to know where.
A good friend once explained that years ago he had joined an association of local evangelical pastors that had as its goal educating their congregations about various political candidates. He explained that in the providence of God, this little group of pastors came to be rather influential in local politics. Candidates would actually seek them out to curry their favor. As a result, the elections began to swing strongly in favor of more conservative candidates.
Everything was going well. And that, according to the organization’s founder, was a problem. He announced that he was shutting the organization down immediately, as an act of repentance. What was he repenting of? Seeking to delay the return of Jesus. To labor for justice was, in the mind of this pastor, to go in the wrong direction. His understanding of the end times taught him that the quicker things got worse, the sooner Jesus would return.
What are we to be doing? How are we to prepare for the return of Jesus? Is our calling to sit and wait, to drag as many lost souls as we can onto the lifeboat? Are we supposed to merely occupy until He returns, or are we called to be more than conquerors? Or should we be like I was, utterly indifferent?
Paul writes to Titus that believers are to be “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works” (2:13–14). That’s not nothing. Nor indifference. We are called here to look for the blessed hope, to be not only at peace but looking joyfully forward in the midst of our own cultural collapse, knowing He will return. Yet we are also to purify ourselves, to be a people zealous for good works.
As we look with hope, our first task is tending our own garden. We should be preparing for the return of the Groom more than peeking down the hallway to see if He is coming. Even as we face frustration in our sanctification, we still have peace because He is the one working in us, not just as individuals, but as a people. And our common purity is shown forth in zeal for good works. In this context we go forth as conquerors.
Our understanding of the last things is dependent upon our understanding of the firstborn of the new creation. As we understand Jesus went up in the shekinah glory cloud, and will return again in it, went to heaven not to wait, but to rule, we labor here as His faithful servants, mighty warriors. When we understand that He will wipe away every tear, our tears would begin to dry themselves (if we only would believe it). If we would but believe that He has already overcome the world, we would be of good cheer now.
We need not invest all our energy trying to chart the day and the hour. Nor as if this were our last day, eschewing the godly investments in a sure tomorrow. We need to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That is first, and that is last — because it begins in Christ, the firstfruits of the new creation, the true Alpha male, and ends in Christ, to whom and for whom and through whom are all things, the true Omega man.
For good Biblical reasons I disagree with most of this post. Jesus told his disciples that most would live to see His Parousia. That, what we call the second coming, would happen within their lifetime, not 1900 and counting, years later, in our lifetime or our future.
This pronouncement can be found in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Mark chapter 13, and Luke chapter 19 & 21. Where he tells his disciples, their generation would not pass away before those things would take place. There are about 70 verses that declare this. Here are just a few verses where Christ told the chief priests, the elders, and the whole council, that they would see his parousia in their lifetime, his coming in the clouds!
Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matt. 26:64).
I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven (Mark 14:62).
Jesus also told His disciples that they would behold the Son of man coming in His kingdom:
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom (Matt. 16:27–28).
Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power (Mark 9:1).
For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s and of the holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God (Luke 9:26–27).
You might want to read my book “Israel, Rapture, Tribulation: How to Sort Biblical Fact from Theological Fiction.” It will help you sort out your seeming confusion on this issue. Most importantly, it covers every issue you touched upon, and so much more. You can find the book online for sale (paperback or hard cover), or I can attach a PDF to an email for you to read.
CHAPTER 1: DISPENSATIONS: WHAT ARE THEY?
Issues Covered
Overview Of Dispensations
Belief Can Produce Amazing Results
What The Dispensational Belief Has Wrought
Salvation Belief
Belief Equals Actions
CHAPTER 2: DISPENSATIONALISTS DISTORT BIBLICAL WORDS
Rules Of Interpretation
Dispensation / The Biblical Meaning
Rightly Dividing The Word Of God
Do The Words “Soon,” “Quickly,” And “Shortly” Imply A Delay?
Has Christ’s Coming Been Delayed?
God’s Time Or Man’s Time?
Covenantal Approach To The Bible
Summary
CHAPTER 3: DISPENSATIONS: A NEW VIEW THAT SEES THE FUTURE PESSIMISTICALLY
Origin Of Dispensationalism
Defeat Of The Church / What Kind Of Hope Is That?
Power And Victory For The Church
The Devil’s Kingdom
God Is King And Lord Of This Planet
Christ Reigns As Lord And King Now
Dispensationalists See The Near Future Pessimistically
Has The World Grown Worse And Worse For Christians?
The Dispensational Hope For The Future
CHAPTER 4: WHOOPS! WRONG AGAIN
A Myriad Of Date-Setters
What Signs?
Dispensationalists Teach The Third Coming Is The Second Coming Of Jesus
Dispensationalism–A Failed Interpretive Model
All From The Same Tree
Two Brands Of Dispensational Error
Root Cause Of Error For All Date-Setting
The Last Days Have A Beginning And End
When Was The Alarm Clock Set?
How Long Is A Biblical Generation?
Starting Point For The Last Generation
The Credibility Of Jesus
CHAPTER 5: THE HISTORIC CHURCH BELIEVED IN VICTORY
Victory: The Historic View Of The Church
Theme Of Victory Is All Through The Bible
Dispensationalism Is A Pessimistic Faith
The Lofty One
CHAPTER 6: DANIEL’S SEVENTY WEEKS
Background
The Prophecy As Given To Daniel
The Seventy Weeks Are Divided Into Three Parts
The Command To Restore Jerusalem
The Confirming Of The Covenant
Jesus’s Triumphal Entrance Into Jerusalem
Jesus Was Crucified In The Midst Of The Seventieth Week
Unbelievers–The Servants Of God
Abomination Of Desolation: The Roman Armies
Making, Breaking, And Confirming The Covenant
A Rebuilt Temple And Animal Sacrifices
Missing Beliefs
CHAPTER 7: Is MODERN-DAY ISRAEL GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE?
Who Is A Jew?
Was The Original Nation Of Israel Re-established In 1948?
Why Modern-Day Israel Is Not God’s People
The Origin Of Modern Jewry
Fallacies Concerning The Nation Of Israel
CHAPTER 8: MATTHEW TWENTY-FOUR: THE OLIVET DISCOURSE
The Disciples’ Questions
The Parousia Of Christ
Deceivers, Wars, Famines, Pestilences, And Earthquakes
The Gospel Preached In All The World
Sign / The Abomination Of Desolation
The Tribulation
Cosmic Signs And Prophecies
Old Testament Usage
Darkness For Babylon
Darkness For Egypt
Darkness For Edom
Darkness For Israel
The Gathering Of The Eagles
After The Tribulation
Sign Of The Son Of Man
Coming On Clouds
In Like Manner
Israel: Fig Tree Or Olive Tree?
This Generation
The Harmony Of The Olivet Discourse
Five Keys To Understanding The Olivet Discourse
Summary
CHAPTER 9: IT WAS AT HAND
When Was Revelation Written?
The Antichrist
Wrath To Come
Is At Hand
The Latter Days
The Last Days
CHAPTER 10: THE RESURRECTION
The Resurrection
CHAPTER 11: IT’S SIMPLY UNBELIEF
Two Excuses
Literalism Run Amok
Message With An Expiration Date
Conquering With Unity
A Terminal Experience
It’s Simply Unbelief
CHAPTER 12: THE KINGDOM OF GOD
The Kingdom Of God / A Neglected Subject
What Is The Kingdom Of God?
Demonstrating The Kingdom
What You Think Really Does Matter
Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Amish
Evangelical Churches
Catholicism
When Was God’s Kingdom To Arrive?
Manifest Destiny
Conclusion
Epilogue
Appendix A: Who Are God’s People?
Appendix B: A Tale Of Two Eschatologies: Bojidar Marinov
Appendix C: What Difference Can One Person Make?
Appendix D: 9.5 Theses For The Next Reformation
• When prophetic material is under discussion, it’s important to note time references and audience relevance.
• We need to be careful not to read into Scripture concepts and preconceptions that aren’t present no matter how popular they may be.
• New Testament eschatology is meant to be understood in the context of the special and non-repeatable history of redemption in Old Testament Israel that ran from the patriarch Abraham to Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of Israel.
The Biblical last days ended almost 2,000 years ago. The Biblical last days took place when Jesus walked the earth and ended sometime in AD 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath IN THESE LAST DAYS SPOKEN unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things” Hebrews 1:1-2. “but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Hebrews 9:26.
The Christians were expecting the Parousia of Christ in their lifetime. Why? Because Jesus told told them. And Paul believed he would live to see it. “For yet a little while and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Hebrews 10:37. John told the seven Churches the time was at hand and those things were going to happen shortly. Jesus said “Surely I come quickly.” 2,000 years is not quickly. It seems Christ had no idea of when his parousia would happen…
I’m not sure there’s any disagreement here. Unless you are contending He will not come again. If not, great. If so, I’ll ask you not to use this space to make that case.