For the Long Haul

Digging In

". . . the compilers of The Book of Common Prayer provided 'Tables for Finding Holy Days' all the way to AD 8400! Clearly they were digging in for the 'long haul,' and did not expect an imminent "rapture" of the Church."

David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance, p. 497

One of the most debilitating and enervating beliefs in Christendom has been the idea of an imminent end to human history and the soon coming of our Lord in His final advent. We know of folk who all their adult lives have lived with a (false) expectation that the Final Advent was imminent--just around the corner. Usually this is tied up with periods of unrest in the Middle East and perceived military threats to Israel. Since the Middle East is currently in some turmoil, the syndrome of Armageddon has burst forth once again amongst the gullible and poorly taught.

In our library we have a volume entitled Armageddon Now. It traces all the identifications of the Anti-Christ that have been made through the twentieth century--from Kaiser Wilhelm II to Henry Kissinger. How many times do folk have to be wrong before self-critical reflection sets in?

The hypothesis of an imminent return of our Lord has also been ascribed to Jesus Himself and the Apostles. Now this creates an implicit, severe theological problem. If an imminent return is taught in Scripture by the Apostles and our Lord Himself--as many modern scholars allege--then clearly both our Lord and the Apostles were mistaken. Subsequent history proves them so. Last time we checked, we are now in the 2011th Year of our Lord. If the writers of the New Testament expected an imminent Final Advent in the generation of the apostles, and now a period of two millennia has elapsed, then clearly they were wrong, mistaken, and error prone.

This very same argument was frequently used by liberal, unbelieving scholars in the twentieth century to cast doubt upon the historicity and reliability and authority of the Scriptures. It is an argument that many professing Christians who do believe the Bible teaches an imminent, soon-to-be Final Advent find hard to address.

Yet the idea of an imminent return of our Lord has not been part of the Church's teaching historically. It has broken out from time to time--for example, the Anabaptist radicals at the time of the Reformation espoused the notion of End Times soon to be. But as Chilton's reference to the Book of Common Prayer makes clear, such an idea is an aberration and contrary to a long tradition of historical theology.

The simple fact that so many prophesiers, who have proclaimed that the Final Advent of our Lord is just around the corner, have been proved wrong by subsequent events should cause all but the most wilfully blind to experience a deep angst of scepticism coupled with an openness to return to a more solid exegesis of the relevant Biblical texts.

For the record, we believe that our Lord's words on His return are impeccable and infallible and without error. Secondly, we believe that His Apostles, inspired by His Spirit, were equally infallible, when speaking of the times and seasons of His coming. Thirdly, both our Lord and His Apostles believed and taught that He would soon come to judge Israel and destroy the temple and its apostate religious service--which occurred indeed within a generation of the resurrection of our Lord, as He foretold. This was indeed an Advent of our Lord, although not the Final Advent, which is yet to come. As our Lord informed the High Priest, ". . . hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven . . ." (Matthew 26:64)

Fourthly, whilst this historical judgement may well foreshadow the great cataclysms of the Final Advent, the Scriptures themselves say nothing of the length of time that will elapse until its occurrence. In fact, not only do the Scriptures makes clear that no man knows that time, and that it has been kept from men by the express purpose of God (thus, one of the "secret things" referred to in Deuteronomy 29:29), but that our Lord gave many indications that it was a long, long time away.

In the meantime, we have His commission to go forth and disciple the nations, teaching all to observe everything that the Lord has commanded. Last time we checked, we have only made the barest beginning in this great, global, universal task. One of the great problems with false doctrines of an imminent return is that it introduces a short-cutting urgency into the Church, which necessarily involves neglecting some, if not a great deal, of the responsibilities and duties commanded by God.

In the Kingdom, doing things fast does not mean they are done well. In fact, the reverse is more likely the case. Try forging the character of a child in thirty seconds. More like thirty years are required.

Digging in for the long haul is the ticket.