Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII

Wow! There were twice as many folks in my class tonight – 12! Let’s see … we started the first half last week with just three, then it doubled to six when more came in … if my math is right, we’ll need to meet in the 750-seat auditorium by the end of July!

We talked about being careful not to apply passages of Old Testament prophecy to Christ’s return just because they talk about “the day of the Lord.” Some of them refer only to a day of vengeance against Egypt, or Cush, or Put, or Libya or some combination thereof. Others refer only to God’s judgment against Israel and/or Judah, specifically Jerusalem – because of disobedience (like offering flawed sacrifices). And some are clearly Messianic, because Jesus or New Testament writers draw from their language.

That sets the stage for our discussion in two weeks (church picnic next week, remember?): how Christ speaks of His return as a time of judgment and calamity … but His followers – from the perspective after His death and resurrection – also add to it the dimension of hope and salvation.

I’ll just post the part of my handout for then with the quotes from Matthew and save the other quotes from Jesus for later posts:

Matthew 3:2 – In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Also Mark 1:15)

Matthew 4:17 – From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Matthew 10:7 – As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’

Yes, I know these don’t specifically refer to the return of Jesus, but to the coming of the kingdom. Bear with me. I hope to remember to tie this in to other citings later in this series! – It’s also interesting to me that there’s a progression here: John the Baptizer begins with this message; Jesus takes it up after John is arrested; then He commissions His followers to preach it.

Matthew 24:1-ff – Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now?and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect?if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time.

“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

“Immediately after the distress of those days
” ‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I think Matthew 24 has been sliced and diced to fit any and every kind of interpretation about the order in which these events fall. The trouble is, in parallel passages in Mark 13 and Luke 21 (plus an extra teaching in Luke 17) they’re all muddled together in no particular order.

And the clincher is, in all three accounts of this Olivet Discourse (as it’s called by them what knows) He says, “… this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” (Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30, Luke 21:32)

Now we can quibble about what the word “generation” means, but what He says on the Mount of Olives seems parallel (to me) to other passages like Matthew 16:27-28:

For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

See? I told you I’d try to tie them together later! There are similar passages in Mark 9:1 (“I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”) and Luke 9:27 (“I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”) Was He talking about His ascension? Pentecost? The obliteration of the temple and most of Jerusalem in AD 70? Or some coming of the kingdom yet to take place?

Matthew 28:18-20 – Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

And we can quibble about the word there translated “age” meaning that or “world” or “era.” But it doesn’t help. To me, the key word is “end.” The guarantee is absolute: He is with us. Surely. Always.

So does that imply that the word “parousia” is more likely to mean “presence” than “coming”?

Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII

Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII

To help them prepare for what I hope to teach tomorrow night in my class on the second coming (and all other things eternal, it seems!), I handed out a list of Old Testament scriptures. It’s not a complete list, to be sure, but it does give a flavor of apocalyptic language and several different descriptions of “The Day of the Lord,” among other things – including God’s hint to Ezekiel about resurrection.

Jesus draws from these passages when He speaks of His return (we’ll study that on July 6; we’re having a church picnic June 29). Peter and Paul and other New Testament writers quote them, too. That’ll be our study July 13 – “Six Authors In Search Of An Ending.”

So here’s that taste I promised:

Joel 1:15 – “Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.” (The context is invasion, famine, catastrophe and it continues through chapter 2.)

Joel 2:28-31- “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls.” (Following this is a promise of judgment on the nations.)

Amos 5:18-20 – “Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD – That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light – pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?”

Isaiah 2:2, 12 – “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. ? The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled).”

Isaiah 13:6, 9 – “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. ? See, the day of the Lord is coming – a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger – to make the land desolate, and destroy the sinners within it.”

Jeremiah 46:10 – “But that day belongs to the LORD, the Lord Almighty – a day of vengeance, for vengeance on his foes. The sword will devour till it is satisfied, till it has quenched its thirst with blood. For the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will offer sacrifice in the land of the north by the River Euphrates.”

Ezekiel 13:5 – “You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the LORD.”

Ezekiel 30:3 – “For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near – a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.”

Ezekiel 37:3 – “He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Sovereign Lord, you alone know.’ “

Daniel 9:20-27 – “While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill – while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision: “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

Obadiah 1:15 – “The day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.”

Zechariah 14:1-9 – “A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime?a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light. On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.”

Zephaniah 1:2-3, 7, 14-16 – “I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD. “I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. ? The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD. ? Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near. The LORD has prepared a sacrifice; he has consecrated those he has invited. ? The great day of the LORD is near ? near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the LORD will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers.”

Malachi 3:1-5 – “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years. So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.”

Malachi 4:1 – “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them.”

Much of the prophetic or apocalyptic language of these passages paints a picture of judgment. Not surprisingly, so does Jesus. And so do the NT writers inspired by His Spirit. How literally can we interpret it?

I view these writings as a writer. They are poetry – in fact, though I’ve quoted the New International Version here, I love the poetry of these passages in the King James and Revised Standard versions even more. That’s not to say they are just poetry, because some poetry is little more than rhythmic, rhyming drivel. The best poetry is truth, expressed simply and powerfully. It uses words to try to describe what there are no words to describe. That’s what these passages do, too. They do it very well. They make you sit up and take notice; pay attention.

That’s what God wants you to do. Pay attention. Watch. Get ready. (As Flip Wilson used to flippantly say, “Here come de Judge.”) And, if He asks you a really tough question, take a cue from Ezekiel.

Answer Him: “Sovereign Lord, You alone know.”

Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII

Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII

I gave the folks in my Wednesday evening class an incomplete list of terms to help with our study of scripture’s clues about the “last things.” Since I have no real intention of addressing any of them or schemes associated with them (I’m planning to stick to scripture instead), I didn’t want to disappoint anyone who might have been there to hear about them. Still, some of these terms are scriptural, and even a quick definition can help explain why there are so many different schemes floating around:

Parousia – means the presence or coming of Christ. In the Greek language parousia usually means “presence,” and in the ancient Greco-Roman world it referred to official visits by royalty. It is used by Christians as a specialized term for Jesus’ glorious presence on earth?primarily his final return at the end of the world, but also his return upon the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Eschatology – is the study of Christian beliefs concerning final events and ultimate purposes (from Gr. eskhatos ,last ). Eschatology studies the conclusion of God ‘s purposes, and therefore the concluding destiny of created things and especially of Man and of the Church, according to the purposes of God.

Rapture – is a term most commonly used to describe an event in certain systems of Christian eschatology (study of the end of the world ) whereby all true Christians are taken from Earth by God into Heaven before other events associated with the end of the world take place. Some teach a ?secret? rapture.

Armageddon – is the site of the final battle between the kings of the earth (incited by Satan) and God. The term is also used for the battle itself.

Apocalypse – term “apocalypse” was introduced by F. Lücke (1832) as a description of the New Testament book of Revelation. An apocalypse, in the terminology of early Jewish and Christian literature, is a revelation of hidden things given by God to a chosen prophet; this term is more often used to describe the written account of such a revelation.

Literalism – a way of looking at scripture which interprets it literally, with little or no symbolism involved.

Futurism – contends that “end things” are yet to happen, in the future.

Historicism – purports that “end things” have already taken place in history, or that the symbols describe events which continue to happen throughout history.

Idealism – views scripture’s description of “end things” as apocalyptic language not to be taken literally as describing earthly events, but heavenly ones.

Tribulation – is a period of immense suffering, greater than anything before in history, which some claim will occur before the end of the world. Some Christians believe that it will last seven years in all, usually divided into two periods of 3.5 years each. This is based on the phrase found several places in the book of Daniel, “time, times, and half a time,” interpreted as “a year, two years, and half a year.”

Millenialism – Some interpret a passage in Revelation concerning the thousand-year (or millennial) rule of Christ on Earth, to be a future goal. Ideas of the kingdom of God which place the beginning of the Messianic kingdom still future, and connect its beginning with the return of Jesus Christ, are called “millennialism”.

• Premillennialism – is a futurist historical interpretation, which anticipates that prior to the final judgment, Christ will return to the earth to establish an earthly kingdom. Many anticipate a partial resurrection, only of the faithful, who will reign with Christ for one thousand years, during which time Satan will be imprisoned.
• Pre-Tribulationism – believes that Christ will return twice. At the beginning he will return to rescue those who are Christians at the time, and then disappear again. This will be followed by a seven-year period of suffering, in which the Antichrist will conquer the world and kill those who refuse to worship him. At the end of the seven years, Christ will return a second time to defeat the Antichrist, and rescue the Jews and those who have converted to Christianity during the tribulation.
• Dispensationalism – is a branch of Christian theology that (1) teaches Biblical history as best understood in light of a number of successive economies or administrations under God, which it calls “dispensations,” and (2) emphasizes prophecy of the end-times and the pre-tribulation rapture view of Christ’s second coming.
• Mid-Tribulationism – believes that Christians will not be removed from the great tribulation, until 3-1/2 years have elapsed, when the Temple sacrifices have been halted and the Antichrist has enshrined himself in the Temple, calling himself God.
• Post-Tribulationism – holds that Christ will not return until the end of the tribulation , which Christians will suffer through along with everyone else.
• Postmillennialism – is sometimes called “optimistic amillennialism “. As in amillennialism, the “thousand years” is an idiomatic expression equivalent to “all time”; i.e.: for the entire period following the resurrection of Christ until His return. Postmillennialists anticipate that prior to Christ’s return, the world will have gradually but entirely converted to Christianity, at least nominally, through the preaching of the gospel. It is of two antithetical varieties, millennial and non-millennial. Some postmillennialists believe that the millennium is a future golden age, when Christian saints will reign over all of the earth, before the return of Christ and the end of the world.
• Preterism – is a past-historical interpretation of “end times” prophecies, most notably the Great Tribulation and the coming of the kingdom of God. This is an historic view that can be traced back to very early proponents. The Preterist view, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, teaches that “the prophecies of the Apocalypse [book of Revelation] have already been fulfilled.” Extreme versions of this belief hold that all of those who are to be saved (mostly martyrs) already have been; the rest can only live pure lives out of reverence for Christ and then perish.
• Amillenialism – is a partial preteristic form of Christian Eschatology which teaches a very symbolic interpretation of the Biblical prophecy of the end times. It teaches that Christ’s kingdom will not be physically established on earth, but rather that the Christian church represents Christ’s kingdom. They teach a spiritual understanding of many of the prophecies of what is to come.
• Transmillennialism® – the belief that the millennial reign of Christ brought about the change, or transformation of the ages, from the Old to the New Covenant in A.D. 70. Also known as covenant eschatology, or a preterist view of Scripture. It differs slightly in that it holds there is still evangelism and other work for Christians to perform.

I tried my best to nest terms under the beliefs with which they’re most often associated, but there’s still a lot of variation.

My next-to-bottom line: Most of these beliefs agree with scripture – to some degree and at some points. Most contradict the others, and it’s usually at those points that they diverge from scripture as well. Believing in any particular one as a theory isn’t necessarily a bad thing … it’s when we pick one and believe it as “the one-and-only-interpretation of the truth” that we get into trouble.

Bottom line: Why not just read what the Bible says and believe it, whether it fully reveals what we want to know – and whether we fully understand it?

Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII

Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII

Last night I began teaching my summer/Wednesday Adult Elective class at church about Jesus’ second coming, and I’ll try to share some of what we talked about.

At first, there were just two besides myself in the class – then about halfway through, three more people walked in and doubled the number! (There are so many great choices at my church this summer.)

We talked about faith and knowledge, and their relative importance. I brought a brick out of my briefcase; a brick imprinted “Abilene” from the factory that went out of business there years ago, and described how much it meant to my son as his souvenir of where we used to live. I talked (briefly) about gravity; Newton’s universal law of gravitation, Einstein’s theories that fill in the holes in Newton’s law, the acceleration of a falling object and the power of gravity to bend light itself as it passes a star or black hole. Then I asked, “Do you need to know any of that if I hold that brick above your foot and tell you I’m going to drop it? How much do you need to know?”

I think it’s that way with the Bible’s revelation of Christ’s second coming and the judgment which follows it. God reveals it on a need-to-know basis. We want to know when and where the brick will fall; God just says it’s going to. Jesus said that, while He was in the flesh, even He didn’t know exactly when. But He did leave clues so that His followers would be ready; would see it coming.

In dealing with the uncertainty, we have tended to approach it intellectually. We’ve formed dozens – perhaps hundreds – of theories, explanations, rationalizations, and interpretations of the clues that scripture shares. We’ve debated, disagreed, and divided over our ponderings as if each was the gospel itself. We’ve written books, filmed “B” movies, made money, even formed political alliances based on the repercussions of our beliefs on the matter.

The plain truth is, we’ve pretty much failed to grasp it in any way other than intellectually. We’ve failed to simply accept scripture’s descriptions as truth itself, as a warning, as a call to “watch” and “be prepared.” It hasn’t reached our hearts … just our heads.

If its truth grabbed us by the throat with its apocalyptic descriptions of the intersection of time and eternity split wide open as a battlefield between cosmic good and evil; if we recognized that battlefield was our hearts, we would truly live what we believe.

In a sense, our faces would always be glancing upward – expectantly, prayerfully, longingly – and at the same time, fearfully, on behalf of so many people whom God loves but have not yet been reached by His love and its revelation in Jesus.

Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII