Eschatology

The End-Times and the Kingdom of God

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APOCALYPTIC IMAGERY AS A DRUG

Addiction to the ultimate extreme event

Some Christians have become quite well-known for their detailed studies of what will happen in The End. The Web is full of pages dedicated to it. Studying end-times writings can become quite addictive : premillenial this and elders that, beasts and horns and powers and such. Books like Hal Lindsey's *The Late Great Planet Earth*, and novels like the *Left Behind* series. There's so much detail, so much tribulation and apocalypse and destruction and excitement, yet there's so much that's vague. It becomes easy to begin to envision what it could be like -- there's lots of room for imagination and symbolism. Studying eschatology (end-times stuff) is fun, fascinating, and frustrating. Therein lies the addiction : the imagination and the mind get thrills, but it's never quite right or quite full, always being corrected and changed, sometimes drastically (for instance, by a hot new book, or by some new evil deed by a real-life menace such as the terrorists). Your vision never gets "there", no matter how much you might thirst for it. If you frantically race to get "there", how much time or attention will you put into learning what faith is made of, and what time will you have for acts of kindness, grace, witness, solidarity or justice?

What matters most is that we follow God in our lives today. We don't know what the future holds, so it's best that we get to know Who holds the future.
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I Can Feel It

A reader writes :

>> But the Lord has been sort of warning me personally of the End Times...[long story] and on my part...because of His Warning....... I still get the palpable sense that something big is at hand tho I can't put my finger on it. It really troubles me. I could use some advice from someone far wiser than I am and I was wondering if you have any words for me. <<

Since I am not someone far wiser than you, please accept these words from a peer. The 'palpable sense' that 'something big' is at hand is nothing strange, *for the apostles felt it too*. That's because something big *is* at hand. The evidence is everywhere. Stirrings of the coming Kingdom are all around. But the forces of evil know this too, and they won't go down without a fight.

Sometimes, theologians will speak of the 'imminent' Kingdom of God and the 'eschatological' Kingdom. Big words, but they boil down to this: God's Kingdom is 'now' (= imminent, today) and 'not yet' (= eschatological, Kingdom come, future). The Kingdom of God is not just in the future; it is also now, in the citizens of the Realm, living as such, and in the many ways God is setting the stage for the future with many good things happening. The victory is already won, at the empty tomb, but the work is not over yet. There are some NOs to keep in mind:

1. NO FEAR. Christ is the winner, and His followers are with Him. It'll get ugly, but so what?
2. NO PRETENSE. Noone knows the hour nor the details; we're all equally in the dark about it.
3. NO RUSH. It will happen in God's time, which is probably (but not certainly) longer than you'll be alive. If you live as Jesus called you to live, using the gifts He gave you, while you give love like He gave and listen for His leadings, you'll be doing your task in the coming of the Kingdom. Maybe you'll have a more direct role; noone knows but the Father. So keep your eyes and ears open.
4. NO OBSESSION. Don't let worries about the End Times or the desire to know more about eschatology get in the way of praying, worshipping, studying, loving, and serving as a Christian in daily life. (The Internet has loads of people who just can't kick the habit of eschatology, spending huge amounts of time, attention, and effort on it. I think God wants to tell them to get a life.)

Whether there's more to say, I don't know. That's something for you to sort out for yourself. Keep praying, Maranatha!
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When Will It End?

a reader wrote:

> And for eschatology, when do you believe
> it's going to end? And if so, how would you assume it will?

I really have no thought about when it's going to end. I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future. Timing is something even Jesus apparently didn't know, and certainly his apostles were wrong about it. I know for sure I don't know. I guess I'll die before the end comes -- but I could be wrong on that. I know I'm called to live for Christ, whether the end comes before you read this note or whether it's another 2,000 years away. I know the Kingdom of God is at hand in the life we live right now, because we who follow Christ are its citizens. Yet I also know that what I live in is not itself the Kingdom, from the way this world turns its back on the Lord. Whenever its fullness comes, I trust it when Jesus says I'll be there with Him. But on other matters of the end times, I don't know.

Once you understand these basic truths of the matter, and hold to them firmly, from there you can be of no particular view on the end times -- or be a fiery partisan of a point of view, or just be interested in researching, digging, thinking and praying about a coming momentous hinge point of history, one which will take us to something breathtakingly new yet cozily familiar, to the hands of the One who's loved us all along.

My job in all of this is to make sure the basics are grasped first. And I'll stick to that (limited) task like glue, instead of chasing after what I can't know.
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On the United States

a reader writes :

<<Can you help me with these questions, please?

1. What role will America play in End times?

2. What Middle East country will be the leader against Israel and Why (your opinion)?

3. Who in your opinion will be the two witnesses in Revelation, and why?

4. Who is "Gomer" (country)?

5. Is America going through Judgement (I think so), and will we always be Israel's ally?

6. What origin will the False Prophet and the Antichrist come from? >>

The only one of these I have any sort of opinion on is #6. Whatever way we might understand these future figures, their origins will be human, but they will have given their souls to Satan. Probably rather crassly and secretly -- yet the results will be in clear view. They'll act as our Slavior. And there will be others before them in like manner (I believe there already have been others, throughout history), it's just that the worst will come when it's wrapup time, whenever that is.

On #1, a warning is in order. I don't know if the United States has a role. I don't know if there'll be an America then, and I have no opinion at all about when the end will come or who will be able to give a legal-type testimony about it (which is what "two witnesses" refers to). I do know it is foolish to read your country -- any country -- into end-times discussions. It feeds exactly the wrong impulse in any nation's citizens, the impulse which makes us think of ourselves as the world's savior and rightful leader but our enemies as the devil's soldiers. When these flames are fanned, the U.S. gets led into foolish wars, and the atmosphere is created for acts of stunning, hateful brutality which are out of character with the very real ideals the U.S. really does usually stand for. If my nation or yours is to be the leader, it will emerge from the circumstances, and it's much less likely to do so if we're full of ourselves, as the U.S. is now.
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On Popes

A reader writes :

<< I was talking to a friend and we were discussing the "Popes" of the Catholic church and how somewhere in prophecy there was some indication that the "end" of the world would happen when there were 6 or 7 "Popes" in the church for 6 or 7 leaders of the church before the end would come. Can you tell me in scripture where this exists if it exists? >>

First, the Bible never, ever mentions popes. Such a thing did not exist in the first century church. They wouldn't have even understood what it would mean to have a single head of the church, since their leaders were always first among equals and chosen to serve (with the power to discipline and direct, used solely for keeping the gathered Body of believers healthy).

Second, Revelation does mention Mystery Babylon and some ugly beasts, and it mentions that some people switch allegiances and follow after them. There is little dispute, even in honest Catholic circles, that there have already been some popes who bore much resemblence to their ilk. But that is not part of an end-times picture as we would normally think of it, since they're already gone. (20/20 hindsight might say otherwise once it's all done with). In any event, the scenes are not measured by the number of church leaders, but by the eras of the beasts.

The figure of the Antichrist is drawn in 1 John chapter 2, and in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. These link up rather well with the descriptions of the beasts and the false prophet in Revelation (esp. ch. 11, and 19:20). The Reformers saw the popes of their time acting like this, so with some cause they slapped the label on their era's popes. Unfortunately such talk gave birth to much hatred over the next two centuries, as that sort of talk became an enduring fixture of Protestant rhetoric. So even a pope such as John XXIII was labeled as 'Antichrist' by some, and it could not have been less true.

A lot of ugly stuff has been going around fundamentalist circles over the years, seeing this or that 'enemy' in the images of the Revelation. To me, one of the more important ways the Church Universal can make itself ready for Christ's return is to see through the Satanic deception which leads us to hold old hatreds in our heart, whether against non-Christians or between each other. Hate has no place in Christ's church. It does not belong here, it is not what we're about. Polemics (fighting-words) have no place in God's Kingdom, and thus has no place among believers. When it comes to our talk about eschatology and the End Times, it is these kinds of basics we must focus on. If we do, it will become more and more obvious to us where the Satanic deceptions lie, and we won't have to label someone an Antichrist because we'll really just know him when he shows up.
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