Discuss
your understanding of what the Bible says about the return of Christ. When is
Christ
going to return, what is it going to look like? How do you respond to
individuals who seem obsessed with end time prophecies and knowing the date and
return of Christ? How would you disciple someone who is fixated on this aspect
of eschatology?
The
word that continues to come back to me in my daily walk with Christ and pursuit
of an understanding of the myriad of aspects of theology, from a proper
understanding of who God is, who Christ is and my relationship to Him, the role
of Christians in these days of advent, and so forth, is “balance.” There are so many aspects to a full
understanding of what Christianity teaches, that is very easy to lose balance
if one chooses the wrong fulcrum point for one’s theology, and that can lead to
consequences ranging from a damaged ability to preach the Gospel, to losing
fellowship if not apostatizing. Of
course, there are many potential outcomes within that wide range and, hopefully
for a Christian who is in a church full of people that care about him and
leadership that take responsibility for their flock, a serious imbalance would
be addressed by calling for repentance and reminding what is truly central, but
the danger remains for all of us and is all the more reason to seek after God’s
grace daily as well as sit under godly leadership.
All
of this to build up to an experience I had with a younger Reformed man who
claimed that “your eschatology is what informs all the rest of your
theology.” While this is certainly true
to an extent in that if you reject the return of Christ and His judgment you
likely will be at least slightly off elsewhere, he meant it to say that unless
one held to a theonomic post-millennial construct of eschatology, you were a
step and a half away from writing the forward to John Hagee’s next Blood Moons
book. Over the course of conversing it
became clear that the fulcrum of his belief was not the Gospel—which he
certainly did not deny—but rather his belief in the Church’s role in reshaping
the world and the idea of theonomy. This
is not to say that those ideas are completely wrong, but rather it caused me to
reflect on my own background coming from a church in my youth with a much more
dispensational view, and the idea bandied about by some that a Christian
couldn’t possibly stand outside of the dispensational premillienial view of
eschatology. In both cases, it becomes a
stumbling block to what should be the true central point of our faith: the
Gospel message, man’s need for salvation and God’s perfect providence of that
salvation in Jesus Christ.
The
culmination of the Gospel, of course, is the return of Christ to judge all and
to restore creation to its proper state of perfection. I try regard the issue of Christ’s return the
way it seems the apostles did in their writings: 1) Jesus will return at some
point in the future.[i] This exact time is known only to God and will
not be known to us until He appears.[ii]
2) There are particular signs that will occur before Christ’s return, ranging
from broader such as the Gospel reaching every people and bringing into God’s
people those whom He has called from among them all,[iii]
to more blatant exercises of God’s power and authority such as natural
disasters.[iv] 3) All will be judged by Jesus, both
believers and unbelievers. Believers
will enter eternal life with Jesus, unbelievers will go to eternal punishment.[v]
There
are a lot of variables that go within those events, and it’s to be expected
that Christians will take varying positions based on the scriptural
testimony. It’s also to be expected that
churches may take a particular position within their statement of faith. There are two main dangers here. One is in breaking fellowship over particular
interpretations of prophetic passages.
The second is often intertwined with it: becoming obsessed with those
passages, and trying to lay them against every passing event, trying to
determine which world leader is the Antichrist or if the newest advance in RFD
technology will be the mark of the beast.
I have believed that two main factors contribute to this obsession: the
general lack of persecution of Christians in the West, especially in America,[vi]
and the perception that the life of a Christian is merely about salvation,
rather than involving struggle and suffering in the name of being sanctified
and made to look like Christ.
When
discipling someone coming from this point of view, I want them to take two
important things away that I believe will impact the way they view this and
their relationship with Christ. Firstly,
that the Gospel is truly central to all things and that a Christian’s purpose
is not to build a bunker and wait for Jesus to return, but to love God above
and to love and serve his neighbor. If
the belief in a great tribulation means what the premilliennial position believes
it does and we are to suffer an extended period of worldwide persecution of
Christians, our calling does not change: preach the Gospel, help the suffering,
gather together to encourage each other, and above all love God and remember
His faithfulness.
Secondly,
I would encourage them to study their soteriology and be refreshed in the
promises of the Gospel, and remember exactly what Christ did on the cross. He didn’t simply set in motion a series of
events that result in His second coming and judgment. He perfectly atoned for all those who believe
in Him, and in Christ there is nothing that can be done to take us away from
Him.[vii] Obsession with this seems to result in dread
and fear about the future, when the reality is that we should approach all
events, even ones that seem to promise future attacks on the right to live
freely as a faithful Christian, with the confidence of knowing that God is
fully in control, not with the fear that a one-world government is going to
materialize out of nothing and haul all Christians off to be guillotined.
Finally,
there is the constant reminder that every generation before this one, even the
one that saw Jesus ascend, thought that they would be the ones to see Him
return. This is not to breed apathy, but
instead should prompt readiness and a desire to do whatever can be done in the
days remaining to see Christ glorified in many people being saved to take joy
in that future glory with Jesus. In that
all believers, no matter their eschatology, can take hope, and find unity to
work and live faithfully.
[i]
Acts 1:10-11
[ii]
Matthew 24:36
[iii]
Revelation 7:9
[iv]
Mark 13:24-25
[v]
Matthew 25:31-46
[vi]
This is purely speculation, but I have always suspected that there is probably
no analog in Sudan or China to Left
Behind, as those there are already well-versed with government oppression
and have no need to fantasize about it.
[vii]
Romans 8:31-39
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