Whenever geo-political tensions arise in Arabia and the Middle East some streams making up the great river of the Christian Church get excited. These folk subscribe to the idea of an Israel-centric final conflagration, just prior to the final advent of our Lord. With the rise of Islamism, of Al Qaeda, and of ISIS, with civil war in Iraq and Syria, and the on-going, simmering hostilities between Hamas and Israel, many of these Christians are seeing portents of the end of the world.
It has long been so. Ever since Napoleon, then Kaiser Wilhelm II were identified as "the Beast", these mistaken Christians have put forward a lengthy list of candidates for the position--including Hitler and Henry Kissinger. All have subsequently proven to be false accusations--but the underlying theology on which their apocalyptic vision rests has remained. Once more, given events in the Middle East, the febrile speculations have burst forth again. The quasi-liturgical chant, "We are in the end times", is being heard again. The search for the Beast has recommenced. Is it the new Caliph? Maybe. Who knows? After all, Osama Bin Laden has relinquished the position.
This peculiar eschatological view rests upon principles and doctrines that are not well-grounded in Scripture at all. But the popularity of the view remains amongst some, doubtless due in part to the dramatic nature of the woven narrative. The belief that one is living in portentous, scary times has the same kind of appeal that horror movies do. We like being scared. We like living amidst drama. It relieves the boredom of a hum drum life.
At Contra Celsum we hold to the doctrine of Christendom--which, simply put, espouses the growth and extension of Christian teaching to where all cultures of earth are accepting of the Lord Jesus Christ and submissive to Him. "Christendom" refers to the earthly reign of Christ. The first Christendom, emerging gradually in Europe, then officially with the crowning of Charlemagne in 800AD, has fallen apart. Its sons decided that the gospel of the French Revolution and materialistic rationalism were more compelling. They apostatized from the Lord Jesus Christ. But, we hold to the view that the first Christendom was a foretaste of what will gradually emerge in human history. It is possible that the second Christendom will be initially based in Asia or Africa or South America. But eventually Christendom--growing in strength through the conversion and mass discipling of peoples--will emerge again.
What is the biblical evidence for such a view? Whilst there are many evidences and proofs, but we will give just three lines of argument.
Firstly, the Great Commission itself--in Matthew 28: 18-20:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”The clear and obvious reference is to the discipling of nations, not just a smattering of individuals from within nations. The nations are to be taught to observe all the commands of Christ. This command, in order to be observed and fulfilled, requires the emergence of a global Christendom through the preaching, teaching, baptizing, and Christianising of all nations. As we have observed before, when eighty percent of a nation's population consists of faithful, observant, believing Christians, so many of ills of modern society which rely on lawlessness and unbelief will just fade away. General trade on Sunday will attenuate, for example, because there will be no customers to be found. The vast majority of folk will be enjoying a Sabbath rest.
Secondly, the Bible speaks repeatedly of the love of God for His people extending down to a thousand generations, which roughly approximates to around 30,000 years, or thirty millennia. For example, Deuteronomy 7:9:
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.If the length of God's covenant faithfulness unto a thousand generations be granted, we must conclude that we have only made the very smallest beginning. Christendom is still in its infancy--historically speaking. Therefore, the idea that human history is about to come to an end in a fiery battle of Armageddon is somewhat premature. In the year 30,000AD maybe.
Thirdly, the repeated testimony of the Book of Daniel is that from the time of Daniel to the coming of the Kingdom of God there would be four kingdoms (the first of which was the Babylonian kingdom of Daniel's day) all based upon human power and authority. During the time of the fourth kingdom, God would set up a kingdom which would expand to take over all other kingdoms and encompass the entire world. Daniel 2:44
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold.Daniel 7:27 speaks of the all the kingdoms of the earth being given to the saints of the Most High at that time.
And the kingdom and the dominionWhat is not clear in Daniel's prophecies is how this kingdom shall come to pass. What our Lord makes definitive in Matthew 28 is that the kingdom of the saints of the Most High comes into suzerainty not by force of arms or compulsion, but by the preaching of the Gospel and the teaching of the nations. That is why it is genuinely the Kingdom of God, not of man--as were the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, which were replaced when the King of kings entered into our human history.
and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven
shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;
his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,
and all dominions shall serve and obey him.’
Central to the certain hope of Christendom and the Kingdom of God is that the peoples of Syria, and Iraq, Israel and the Levant will all eventually come to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, the King of the whole earth. The rise of ISIS, the war between Israel and Gaza, and the beheading of captives are truly signs and portents--but not of the Last Days. Rather, they signal that the Church has much work to do--in prayer, missionary endeavour, teaching, and labours for Christ in those regions.
The blood of Christian martyrs in the Middle East and the Levant calls to us.
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