Armageddon it
It's the end of the world as we know it And I feel fine. --REM
Some say the end is near Some say we'll see Armageddon soon. I certainly hope we will; I sure could use a vacation from this bullshit three-ring circus sideshow. --Tool
Is the world ending soon? Is the Second Coming around the corner? A lot of my fellow Christians seem to think so. Why is it so important to so many people to believe that we are living in the End Times? Read on for a few of my comments on the topic.
That "prophecy" is a dominant topic within American evangelical circles today is no secret; a simple trip to the "Christian" section at your local Barnes and Noble will treat you to the site of countless shelves of books by self-professed prophecy experts attempting to provide easily-digestible answers to questions about Armageddon and the Antichrist. At my job, I have encountered hundreds of Christian websites devoted to the topic of prophecy and the idea that the world will end within our generation.
Theologically, I am not a dispensationalist; but I understand that many of my fellow Christians are. I have no problem with their belief that we are living in the End Times, as it is in fact a fundamental part of their cosmology. However, I have begun to wonder if the belief in an imminent apocalypse hasn't spread beyond the borders of the rather specific doctrines of dispensationalism into other branches of Christianity. In a recent conversation with a Christian Reformed acquaintance, I was surprised to hear my friend--an amillenialist who doesn't interpret Revelation as a literal picture of 20th century history--point out to me as if it were obvious that we were living in the End Times.
Are we living in the End Times? Is the end of the world right around the corner? I suppose it's possible (I mean, who really knows?), but I don't there's much special evidence for believing that we're near the End. For thousands of years, people have believed that their generation was the last, that events in their lifetimes matched perfectly with the apocalyptic visions of Revelation, that the prevalence of evil and godlessness had grown so great that the Lord's return must be imminent. Today, many Christians seem to share this same general feeling: that the world has never been more evil and that we are at the edge of the Apocalypse.
I genuinely don't understand this. If the destruction of Rome, or the fall of Constantinople, or the Black Plague, or the French Revolution, or the Holocaust, or hundreds of other epic disasters didn't signal the end of the world, can people really believe that the World Trade Center attack (a tragedy to be sure, but pretty minor in the grand scheme of history) is irrefutably a sign of the oncoming End? Are people unaware that hundreds of generations before them have used the same words, the same Bible verses, to predict that the End would come in their lifetime? Is there a subtle psychological benefit that we derive from a belief that the world will end soon? Why are people so interested in this? And beyond simple interest, why does it seem that the idea of an impending End is permanently implanted in the hearts and minds of so many believers?
It's not too hard to see where this belief in imminent apocalypse has its origins. Numerous parables (see Matthew 25 for at least two examples) warn us that the End will be both unexpected and terrifying for those caught unprepared. Furthermore, Jesus himself predicts an imminent End within the first generation of the early Christian church. But the fact that these parables and statements, with their strong implication that the world will end in the very near future, obviously did not come true within the lifetimes of their original audiences, implies to me that such statements are not referring to the end of the world in the way that most people want them to. If these were references to the specific end of the world, they would have been meaningless and misleading to the original intended audience, and in the case of Jesus' statement, an outright false prophecy--a possibility I don't accept. But if these passages are rather intended to communicate a general encouragement to believers to serve God wholeheartedly at all times (because we never know when, say, death might claim us), why are people trying to use these sorts of passages to pinpoint when the End will come? Since such comments weren't literally true for Jesus' audience, doesn't it make sense to look for an alternate interpretation that a) would have had relevance to early Christians and b) doesn't require that they be referring to the end of the world, which didn't happen? Or should we arbitrarily assume that these comments were literal, but stated purely for the benefit of 21st century Christians living in the real End Times? How many more generations of Apocalypse-guessing will we have to endure before somebody finally realizes that the Bible just doesn't tell us when the world will end?
If you were reading this entry hoping for answers, I'm sorry to disappoint you. This is simply a phenomenon that I don't understand. I don't believe the world is about to end--not because it's impossible that the Lord might return tomorrow, but because I see no real evidence for it beyond our apparent human psychological need to believe that we are living at the crux of history, that our generation is the pivotal one upon which the salvation of the doomed world depends. What do you think? Do you believe the world will end soon? Why? My enquiring mind wants to know.
Comments
I don't know anything about dispensationalism or amillenialism ("'Isms' in my opinion are not good"), but I've erred to the side of "Who cares?" in terms of end times, probably to my detriment. In the end, Revelation amounts to:
God wins.
Most everything else is speculation.
Also, you might consider what true "prophecy" is. My understanding is that it isn't fortune-telling; prophecy is basically conveying God's will in a situation. The important bit is to consider what purpose the "prophecy" plays. Most "prophecy" today empowers the individual, helping them know the future, know more about where they are going, helping them obtain some modicum of control. God doesn't call us to know the future, only know that He is in control of the future. He doesn't want us to know where we are going, just where He is taking us. He doesn't want us partially in control so He can control the remainder of our lives, He wants to be COMPLETELY in control.
All of that to say, I think you're right on in terms of "to serve God wholeheartedly at all times". Anything else is speculation.
Posted by: pcg | March 1, 2003 11:50 PM
I must admit that after reading your post, and reflecting on my own thoughts on the end times, I've always believed that I was living in the end times. I guess such a feeling has probably been shared by many Christians at many times. After all, the Apostle Peter wrote that he was living in the End Times: "The end of all things is near" (I Pet.4:7).
It strikes me that the reason we are living in the end times is that the conditions are currently present for Christ to return and claim His own whenever He will. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ. He can return whenever He wants to. So why does He delay? I think the Bible makes it clear that He is gathering all the Father has given to Him.
I don't think there is any historical event that will directly signal to us the timing of Christ's return. I think the reason that so many people throughout history have predicted that theirs would be the time of the coming of the Lord was because they saw signs of the end times predicted in the Bible. History is peppered with times where there were wars and rumors of wars and false teachers and prophets. Those things are happening to us right now. And they were happening to the baby boomers, and to their parents, and theirs all the way back to those who saw Christ's ascension.
I think the prophecies are accurate about what will characterize the end times, but I also think that we are not fully equipped by God to know the time of His returning. Not even the angels know. God only knows when His work will be done because only He will know when all His people have been gathered to His name. This is a comfort for me, because it means that the reason the apostles were allowed to see death was that God still had to collect us to His name. If we go to the grave before His returning, it will be because God wants to redeem those that come after us. If we look at it that way, I think we see how impossible it is for us to know what God will do, because only He knows His own mind as to when He is finished calling His people to Himself.
I think the End Times began when Christ sent his Holy Spirit. They will run until He returns. Until then, I think pouring through prophecy will give us clues, but God has made it clear that neither we nor even the angels will know the time of His returning. All we can do is believe, and live as if He is returning at any moment...oh, and pray, "Come quickly Lord Jesus!"
Posted by: billg | March 6, 2003 2:22 PM
I think the whole point of Matthew 24, which is missed by most amateur eschatologists seeking to make some money publishing books about 'The Imminent Rapture', is that we don't KNOW when the end of the world will be. Jesus specifically warns against those who will come, claiming that the end is nigh. He also warns us about behaving differently in the belief that the world is about to end. He's making a very important point - serve the Lord with all your heart every day, not as though the end is coming, but as though every one of your actions will matter.
Posted by: Red Tim | June 3, 2003 7:01 AM