Courtesy of Kevin Giovanetto

What does the Bible Really say about the last days?

APOCALYPSE AND PROPHECY

The approach of the year 20000 presents Christians with many problems and opportunities. Speculation about the new millennium has already prompted heightened interest in and questions about the Bible and the return of Christ.

The study of "eschatology," the doctrine of last things, has always fascinated Christians. Even non-Christians have been curious about how believers see the final act of the story God is telling. The book of Revelation especially has been a source of fascinated horror and lurid speculation throughout the history of the church. Over the centuries Christians have held, and continue to hold, very different opinions on what the Bible teaches about the end times. Yet questions remain. What do we expect? How should Revelation be understood? How can we make sense of so many different views?

Christians inherited the Jewish conviction that God would one day establish a kingdom of righteousness and truth (Isaiah 25:6-26:6). Then as now, the nature of that kingdom was a matter of intense speculation . Some Jews in Jesus’ day evidently believed that the kingdom would be established through socio-political means. The kingdom would come as a result of defeating enemies and restoring the rule of state to a proper kingly line. Any talk of cataclysmic events and glorious transformations attending the establishment of such a kingdom was seen as typical Mid-eastern overstatement.

Other Jews (then and now) thought only divine intervention would usher in the kingdom. God would once more fight for the people of Israel. The Anointed One, the Messiah, would be the instrument of God’s victory and the one who would rule Israel on God’s behalf. For many Jews, the emergence of the Messiah amounted to the return of their greatest king, David (Ezekiel 37:15-28). The Messiah from the line of David would restore the honor of Israel, end Israel’s exile within her own land, and bring the scattered children home. Enemies would be punished and made subservient (Isaiah 60:4-23; Zechariah 9:9-17;14).

Different groups of Jews interpreted these and other prophetic passages in various ways. The Jews who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls, for example, expected two messiahs a royal messiah and a priestly messiah. Jews also had different expectations as to what would happen after the reign of Messiah. One ancient text portrayed a messiah reigning for 400 years and then dying along with the rest of creation. But all Jews had the one common: their expectations were universally earthly (see especially Isaiah 65:17-25). Even in the case of the messiah who died after 400 years, the death of the whole creation was intended to give way for the creation of a new earth.

Jesus’ contemporaries clearly had such expectations and he clearly did not form the mold they had in mind for Messiah. His actions both excited and confused them. Jesus perplexed even John the Baptist: "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matthew 11:13). If Jesus was the Messiah, why was John still in prison?

Jesus responded with allusions to Isaiah 35 and 61. He insisted that the coming kingdom was present in his work despite the fact the Herod and Rome still ruled. But now how could the be? John was not the only one what was confused. Jesus’ disciples were troubled and then alarmed when Jesus began predicting his own death (Mark 8;31-91;9:30-32;10:32-45). Jesus would fulfill the messianic role by suffering and dying-not only by defeating the Romans in battle. This was clearly something the Jews did not expect.

In this, is a warning for us. The prevailing noting about God’s will for the future can be wrong. The deliverance Jesus offered to Israel was not what they expected. He did not seem to live up to the expectations fostered by prophecies in Isaiah, Zechariah, and Daniel. This is not to say that Jesus did not expect a "new heaven and new earth," for he clearly did. Jesus not only expected a new heaven and new earth, he also predicted that difficult times would precede the last days (Mark 13:5-13). He warned about messianic imposters and false predictions of the end (Mark 13:21-23). Jesus’ purpose was primarily pastoral rather than speculative. He wanted his disciples to be ready to face whatever came their way. The "Son of Man" was going to return in due time through the mysterious agency of the Father, who alone has the last word (Mark 13:32-37). Not even the Son knew precisely when the end would come.

The end of the age remained a significant concern for the early church. In his letter to the church at Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul writes that both the living and the dead will "meet the Lord in the air." As a result "we shall always be with the Lord." Paul’s purpose is also pastoral. He warns against lethargy and a lack of preparedness, and he encourages those who have lost loved ones.

Paul clearly expected Christ to return within his life time as evidence by his statement the "those of us who are still alive when the Lord come will have no advantage one those when have died." Although Paul detailed no chronology of the end, he believed it was eminent. In his second letter to the Thessalonians Paul writes of a ‘man of sin’ who will stand against God but who will ultimately be destroyed (3;3-5). When he wrote the letter, Paul believed that these events had already been set in motion and that the end would come very soon (3:7). Later in life, however, he seems to indicate that he will not be alive at the time of Christ’s return (2 Timothy 4:1-8).

In light of all this, what will the end look like? What events will precede the coming of the Son of Man and the creation of the new heaven and new earth?

Faithful, Bible-believing Christians have held different opinions on this topic throughout the church’s history, and fierce theological battles have been waged. In a previous era, Covenanters, based on their study of the book of Revelation and other Bible passages, were quite exercised over whether there would be a "Great Tribulation," "Secret Rapture," and/or a thousand year reign of Christ over the earth. Would the rapture occur before, during, or after the tribulation? Why were the "Beast" and "False Prophet"? Who was the Anti-Christ?

While interest in such questions has when over the years, many Christians today are still convinced that the future can be discovered by a careful study of Bible prophecies. In an effort to discern the fulfillment of prophecy, they look for signs of the second coming in the Middle East events or in the decisions made by governments leaders. Is such puzzle-piecing useful or legitimate.

As a way of moving toward answers and a clearer understanding, I want to briefly raise three questions and invite further reflection on a biblical perspective of the last days?

1)Is prophecy to be understood as static and unchangeable or dynamic and fluid

2)Does biblical prophecy refer only to the current situation of the prophet, to a time in the distant future, or to both?

3)Should ancient prophecies born in unique historical contexts have any import for contemporary Christians?

An important biblical and theological question to consider prior to a complete discussion of eschatology is whether or not the future is already rigidly determined by an unchangeable divine decision; or whether, on the contrary, a sovereign God is working out the divine will in free interaction with his people and creation. I would suggest that the latter is true. This view is clearly supported by books like Jonah, and passages such as Hosea 11:1-11and 2 Peter 3:9.

God is not a prisoner of his won decisions. The idea of a rigid and changeless God is found much more in ancient Greek philosophy than in the Hebrew Scriptures. Consider Jonah’s frustration with God for not fulfilling his prophecy to destroy Ninevah: "Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry...’O Lord, is not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick on to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.’ " In other words, I knew if I gave them half a chance you would change your mind and forgive them."

This suggests that God has the freedom to do what he wants with the future. God is free to destroy Ninevah in accordance with Jonah’s prophecy, or to forgive Ninevah if the city repents. Prophecy here and elsewhere is contingent on the response, or lack thereof, of the people the prophet addresses. God is not subject to an immutability that limits divine freedom, but capable of acting in love and mercy even when his own plan was for judgement.

Regarding the second question. Bible scholars have long debated whether prophetic passages in Daniel, Mark 13, and Revelation refer only to event current to the writers, to events in the far distant future, or to both. For example, is the reference to "the abomination that causes desolation" in Daniel 11:31 a reference to the desecration of the temple by the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes in the second century BC? Is it a reference to the of the temple in the first century AD at the time of the Jewish war (Mark 13:14)? Could it allude to the desecration of a future temple of some future time? Or does it in fact include all three? Can such prophetic texts have multiple references or can they mean only one thing? Could the crises under Antiochus (In Daniel), or Vespasian (In Mark), or Domitian (in Revelation), or for that matter Hitler or Stalin, anticipate the final crisis?

Must we look for events to occur exactly as they are described in these books, or are these events prototypical and anticipatory, but not precise and comprehensive predictions of the future.

In grappling with such questions it is helpful to ask yet others. Throughout the history of the church, can God be said to be at word in the joys, struggles, sins, failures, and triumphs, of the church? Should Christian of every age await and expect God to be present and active in the midst of their struggles? Was it wise for Christians of past ages to expect that Christ would return within their life times? Answering in the affirmative, I would argue that we must understand the ancient writers as both embracing and transcending their own time. They believed firmly that God was at work in their crisis, and that whatever the outcome of that crisis, God’s will for the whole of creation would ultimately be accomplished.

Both Jesus and Paul made it clear that Christians should always be ready for the return of Christ and the coming of the kingdom. But the actual events of the last days may nor be exactly what contemporary Christians anticipate any more than the actual events of the first coming of the Messiah were exactly what most Jews anticipated.

Finally, should Christians today continue to be informed by the expectations of ancient Israel and the early church? I would argue that as Christians we continue to await the "new heaven and the new earth." We still anticipate the "marriage supper of the lamb" (Revelation 21). Our expectations are as earthly as those of ancient Israel. We take to heart Jesus’ solemn warning about speculation (Mark 13:32); we remain as confident as the author of 2 Peter, remembering that "with the Lord a day is like a thousand years is alike a day"(3:8). We remain alert and prepared but "avoid foolish controversies and ...arguments and quarrels" (Titus3:9) as "we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ"(Titus2:13).

At the same time, we are leery of schemes and analyses that attempt to shoehorn into the present prophecies born of ancient agonies. We believe that God’s will will be done, but it may surprise us, just as it did Jesus’ disciples. We emulate the hope of our Christian forebears. We look for signs of God’s work in history. We live as "children of the light" (1 Thessalonians 4:5). We honor our differences with humility but hold firmly to the promise of God’s good purpose for the whole of creation and for all-living and dead-who have followed him.

The prophecies of ancient Israel and the early church do not provide a blue-print of the future. Rather, these texts warn believers of the inevitable difficulties, pressures, and assaults of the evil one on Christ’s Church. These prophecies assure that in God’s own good time the forces of evil will be utterly destroyed and a "new heaven and new earth" will established. This is an expectation hope, we can live with and live for.

Reprinted from
The Covenant Companion, January 1999 issue, pp 10-13.