Robert Smith – Page 27 – What Does This Mean?

Last Things #12: The Great Tribulation

[Twenty-first in a series of posts on Last Things] Encore Post: Jesus had quite a bit to say about his return. The signs that we are in the last days are clear. He will return suddenly, so be ready! The angels will descend, the dead will come to life again, and we will all gather before his judgment throne. The lost will then be thrown with the devil and his angels into hell, and we will go with him to live forever. But where is the talk about the Tribulation and the Millennium? Jesus never speaks of seven years of special punishment of the world for their sins, or of an earthly reign at the end of time, much less a thousand-year one. So, where does the talk of a millennium on Christian radio, in endless end-time and prophecy books, come from?

The concepts of the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, and a one-thousand-year reign of Christ before the final judgment are less than 200 years old. John Nelson Darby first taught the idea that faithful Christians would be “raptured” — removed from the world at the end of the current age, just as God poured out his wrath in a seven-year “Great Tribulation” when the Anti-Christ would rule and severely persecute people who became Christians, mainly Jewish people. At the end of this period, Christ was to return to rule the world for 1000 years. After that, he was to judge the world, condemning the lost, the devil, and his angels to hell, while the saints would live with God forever.

These views, popularized by the Scofield Reference Bible and evangelical authors, became an established theology among Fundamentalist, Evangelical, and independent Protestant churches. Some pastors and evangelists speculated that current events fulfilled Biblical prophecies, treating the Bible like a giant algebra problem. Some even set a date for the rapture — and recalculated when the prediction failed. Yet the whole view of the end is not accurate.

All the signs Jesus taught apply throughout the time between the Ascension of Jesus and his return at the end of time. No one knows the day or the hour of his return (Mark 13:32). It will be a typical day like any other — until it is not. (Luke 17:26-35) Jesus calls on us to stay awake. We do not know when he is coming for us — at the end of days, or at the end of our days. Either way, we should be about what God has called us to do, so when he comes to take us home, we are ready to greet him.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Stir up Your Power, O Lord, and Come!

Encore Post: Great forest fires, earthquakes, hurricanes and floods are all over our news. Acts of unspeakable evil and cruelty occur on almost a weekly basis. A nation routinely kills babies in the womb, celebrates immorality, and lectures the church when it doesn’t join them. All the signs of the end of days fill our TVs, cell phones, and computer screens. It makes you just want to scream, “Tear open the heavens and get down here, Lord, and do something about it! What are you waiting for? (See Isaiah 64)

To most of the world’s religions, the high god who made the world is a distant god, who made the world and is tired of it, going away to leave it to lesser gods and our own devices. We are left alone to deal with the mess that is our world and our part in making it worse. Even more modern thinkers, like the Deists, thought of God as a great watchmaker, who made the world capable of running itself, wound it up, and walked away. Pop songs muse: “God is watching us… from a distance” and “The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died.” We just have to cope, they advise.

Advent breaks into that mood and reminds us that it is not true at all. The God who made the world and called it “very good” intends to do something about it. He promised to come himself, in the person of his Son, born of a woman, to become one of us. It reminds us that he kept that promise and to prepare to celebrate his coming, receive him as he comes to us each day, and how he will finally come to set things right.

The season of Advent developed over the centuries to do just that. Like Lent prepares the church to celebrate Easter, Advent prepares the church to celebrate Christmas. For some, it was also a season of repentance, as a deliberate counter to the wild and immoral way pagans celebrate their December holidays. So in many places, during Advent, the color is purple or black; the Gloria is not sung, and people fast. For others, it is a season of hope, with blue as the color and carols sung to anticipate Christmas.

Either way, the church cries out: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and come!” Come as you did, born to die that we might live. Come with your grace and live among us. Come and bring us all home to be with you. Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Last Things #11: Rapture and Tribulation and Millennium — Oh My!

[Twentieth in a series of posts on Last Things] Encore Post: Many of our evangelical brothers and sisters are fascinated by Biblical prophecy. Seeing the evil around us, they are convinced that we are living in the very last years and months before Christ returns to raise the dead, bring an end to sin, death and the power of the devil, gather all in the final judgement and begin the marriage feast of the lamb that has no end. They are not alone — in every period, Christians were convinced they were living in such times — even St. Paul and Martin Luther!

What makes their view unique in the church’s history is that they accept a theological view called Dispensationalism, a Christian school of thought that was born in the 1800s. It adopted the ancient view that Christ would reign on earth literally for 1000 years after he returned in glory. It was set in the way of looking at history, inspired by the 19th-century cultural movement known as Romanticism. Dispensationalism was developed by Charles Nelson Darby, D. L. Moody and C. I. Scofield.

Dispensationalists believe God divided the world into seven dispensations (also called economies and administrations). In each age, God supposedly revealed himself in different ways. Salvation was offered according to different plans for each age (for example, under the Law of Moses, salvation was by works, but in the church age, by grace), and humans were held accountable to the set of rules for that age. They get to these views by treating prophecies written in figurative and symbolic language at face value and using the interpretations they discover to understand, in a complex way, the simple and clear words of Jesus and the apostles.

For them, this age will end when the events predicted in prophecy occur. They look to current events to fulfill these prophecies, treating the Bible as a giant algebra problem. Some have used such calculations to predict end-time events. Among these are the rapture, when all true Christians will suddenly be removed from the world, leaving only unbelievers, the Tribulation, when they will be punished, and those who come to faith, seeing these events are persecuted, and the Millennium, when Christ and the church will rule the world for a thousand years. Two problems with this: Christ promised he would return suddenly, and the last judgement follows immediately (so the Bible is not an algebra problem), and these versions of a rapture, a millennium, and a tribulation are not in the Bible.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Last Things #10: The End of Days and the End of Your Days

[Nineteenth in a series of posts on Last Things] Encore Post: As the turn of the millennium approached, people began to wonder if maybe Jesus would return. They sold all their property and gave the money to the poor. They went on a pilgrimage. Some gathered with the Pope to celebrate the last moments of the millennium. It is said some died of heart attacks, expecting the end of days. But when the bells of St. Peter’s tolled in the New Year and Pope Silvester the First made the sign of the cross in benediction, the Trumpet did not sound, and the dead were not raised. With great relief, they welcomed in the year 1000.

840 years later, a Baptist farmer became convinced that he had decoded the Bible’s prophecies of the Second Advent. It would be on March 21st, 1843, he announced. So people sold all their property and gave the money to the poor. They traveled distances to hear William Miller. When March 21st came, they gathered with him in white robes. But the trumpet did not sound, and the dead were not raised. The disillusioned called it the Great Disappointment.

Throughout the years, Christians have been tempted to ignore Jesus’ warning that no one knows the day or the hour. (Matthew 24:36) In 1988, one man claimed, “But that doesn’t mean you can’t know the month and the year.” Truly distressed by the trials of this world, they latched onto the thought that they were in the last days. In the process, they missed the work that God had for them to do.

Rather than focus on any one day, Jesus calls on us to always be ready, because we do not know when he will return. That is true not only of the end of days but of the end of your own days. Our lives are short and in God’s hands, who alone knows when it is best for us to be by his side. When that day comes, be it in the end of days or at the end of our days, his angels will come and escort us home forever. In the meantime, be alert! Work while it is still day, because you do not know when you will rest from your labors. Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Joy to the World! The Lord is Come!

Encore Post: Isaac Watts hated the music sung in his dissenting Calvinist churches. These congregations believed that only the words of Psalms, or close paraphrases, were appropriate for worship. Watts believed that hymns should bring out the Christian sense of the Psalms and connect with the lives of everyday Christians. So, over three hundred years ago (1719), he composed a book of hymns inspired by the Psalms entitled: ” The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament. On Psalm 98, he wrote two hymns. Under the title “The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom,” he wrote, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.”

Now, the most published Christmas hymn in North America, “Joy to the World,” is really not a Christmas hymn. It celebrates both the First and Second Advent of Christ.

Joy to the World; The Lord is come;
Let Earth receive her King:
Let every Heart prepare him Room,
And Heaven and Nature sing.

The first stanza rejoices that Christ has already come and invites us to do what Bethlehem did not do on the first Christmas: make room for him in our hearts.

Joy to the Earth, The Savior reigns;
Let Men their Songs employ;
While Fields & Floods, Rocks, Hills & Plains
Repeat the sounding Joy.

No more let Sins and Sorrows grow,
Nor Thorns infest the Ground:
He comes to make his Blessings flow
Far as the Curse is found.

He rules the World with Truth and Grace,
And makes the Nations prove
The Glories of his Righteousness,
And Wonders of his Love.

The rest of the hymn looks forward to the Second Advent. Then the Savior will reign on the earth. The curse of Adam will be reversed. He will rule with truth and grace, and all the nations will know it. We will all rejoice.

So, no, you are not rushing Christmas by singing “Joy to the World.” It is great to sing on the last Sunday of the church year and throughout Advent. After all, the Lord has come. He was born of the Virgin, lived a perfect life for us, died for our sins, and rose for our salvation. The Lord is come, wherever people are baptized in his name, saved by his grace, rejoice as he reigns among them. The Lord will go as far as the curse is found. Joy to the world indeed! Come, Lord Jesus, come!

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Thank Who?

Encore Post: Over the last week, American television personalities have been engaging in a kind of ritual. All of the hosts tell their audiences the things for which they are thankful. The typical items on their lists are: family, friends, health, home and other goods. One thing is nearly always missing: whom should they thank for these blessings?

The natural thing for people, as sinful creatures, to do is to assume that the blessings they have are theirs because they are good people. If you do good things, then God will reward you with good things. In the musical Sound of Music, the character Maria von Trapp sings:

Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good

In the eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, the principle of karma is based on this idea: the good you do will return to you as a blessing and the evil you do as a curse. The Pharisees were of the same opinion. If you had a blessing, you must be especially righteous, and if you suffered from a disease, you must have sinned. In a parable Jesus told, the Pharisee’s prayer of thanksgiving is more of an act of self-congratulation. (Luke 18:9-14) Sinners are inclined to think they are entitled to their blessings and so, if anyone is to be thanked, it is ourselves.

Yet, the reality is that very few of the things we have are of our own doing. The people in our family, community, church family, and nation labored and sacrificed much so that we can have the opportunities to work, play, and enjoy our place in the world. Behind them are still countless others, and ultimately, to God himself, who made us and all things. All this comes to us because of God’s love for us and his mercy. Because after all, our sinful nature is in rebellion against God. We’ve forfeited our right to live, much less live forever in his presence or receive anything from his mercy. We deserve to die and be cast into hell.

Yet God loved us before he made the world, and in his grace decided not to destroy us, but to save us, and, in the end, fully restore us. He did this at the cost of the suffering and death of his son, Jesus. In his death, he destroyed death and, in his resurrection, opened the kingdoms of heaven to all believers. Our natural response to the grace is trust in his promises and, in thanksgiving, to him for the countless blessings in this life and in heaven, kept safe for us. So, we always give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endures forever.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Thanks for Nothing

Encore Post: Giving thanks does not come naturally to sinful human beings. It is a learned trait. In traditional American etiquette, children are constantly reminded to say “please” and “thank you.” Part of the training that goes into professional life, since it is not a feature of working-class culture, is always to respond to a gift with a handwritten “thank you” note. It is part of every successful fundraising campaign. It serves to let the giver know you received the gift, that it was appreciated, and to allow you to let the giver know what use their donation will support. Even self-centered individuals soon learn that taking this step is likely to lead to another gift from the patron.

The Holy Scriptures are filled with thanksgiving to God for His mercies. They are part and parcel of the praise we give to him for his love towards us. God’s Word encourages us to thank him, exhorts us to do so, and offers endless examples of how to do so. By the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, it was a part of the liturgy of God’s people. The constant refrain throughout is familiar to every Christian: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good and his mercy endures forever.” Nearly every prayer began with “Blessed are you, O Lord, our God…”

Yet sinful human beings quickly forget that all they have has been given to them. Quickly, a blessing becomes something they are owed rather than something given to them, which will eventually be taken away. We enter this world with nothing and will leave this life with nothing. All depends on others and ultimately on God. Thanksgiving reminds us of this positively and helps us to appreciate everything as a gift, not a right. It encourages us to hold our possessions, lose them in our hands, to enjoy them while they last, and to be ready to give them when another needs them.

It would not be unjust for God to withdraw all our gifts since we are ungrateful, self-serving creatures, curved in on ourselves to the exclusion of God and others. Yet he loves us and is not willing that we should perish. So he sends sunlight and rain, seasons, and all that is needed for our crops and other foods to grow, even without thanks or prayer. And most of all, in the person of his Son, he became one of us, took our ungratefulness and all other sins upon himself, died to pay their full price, and earned for us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. These he gives to us fully, along with the faith to receive them and give him thanks. So it is that we urge each other to give thanks to the Lord, for he is good and his mercy lasts forever.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Thanksgiving in the United States

Encore Post: Four hundred-twenty-four years ago, the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts had much to be thankful for. They had survived a severe first winter that had killed most of the first settlers in their colony. They were befriended by the neighboring Wampanoag tribe, who fed them, taught them how to hunt, fish, and plant successfully in their new home, and with whom they made a treaty to defend them against their enemies. The treaty was honored by both sides for a generation, which allowed the colony to establish itself, grow, and thrive.

To thank God for these blessings, they invited their new friends to a feast. It was the first of many such feasts of thanksgiving, which Puritans would have after any great blessing. Other colonies in the United States would periodically celebrate days of thanksgiving, particularly at harvest time in October and November. The first nationwide day of thanksgiving was declared by George Washington on November 26, 1789, to thank God for establishing and blessing the new nation. The date of Thanksgiving celebrations varied from state to state, but in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln set the national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt experimented with moving the date to the second-to-last Thursday in November. In 1941, he signed legislation that set Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November.

Today, Thanksgiving is increasingly a family event, where families gather from across the country to eat a big dinner together, watch football games on TV, and go shopping for Christmas gifts on the Friday following, known as Black Friday, when many American businesses show a profit for the first time. It is the unofficial start of the Christmas season in the United States.

Many Americans have completely lost track of the purpose of the day — to thank God for his blessings. Christian churches, however, still conduct services of thanksgiving on Wednesday and Thursday. We remember the source of our blessings and one most Americans do not remember — that our Lord Jesus took our sins upon himself, bore them to the cross where he suffered and died to pay their price, rose again to break the seal of the grave forever, and in Holy Baptism, made us his own. Now, at the end of our days or the end of all days, he will return to bring us home to live with him forever. Then at his return, the Great Day of Thanksgiving will begin, when he brings an end to sin and death forever, casts Satan and his forces into hell forever, raise us from our graves, transform us to be like him and live with us forever. So, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good and his mercy endures forever and ever.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

At Just the Right Time

[Nineteenth in a series of posts on Last Things]Encore Post: Time is a funny thing. We use clocks that measure the vibrations of atoms, coordinated with telescopes to record their passage with great precision and consistency from place to place, transmit them to us via computers, satellites, radio, television, and other digital signals, and synchronize our clocks with them. We barely notice that time is a human thing — except on leap years or when we change our clocks twice a year or move from time zone to time zone.

Time is how we record the changes we notice more and more each year of life. Time passes quickly. When you are a child, an hour drags on forever. As an adult, it passes before you realize it. What is important, our culture has noticed, is not time itself, but what you do with it. It has become our new currency. We would sooner write a check than hang out.

The Greek of the New Testament uses two different words for time. καιρός (Cairos) translates roughly “the right time.” χρόνος (Chronos) is about the passage of time, minute after minute, hour after hour, year after year. Seasons like Advent, days like Christmas and New Year’s Day are χρόνος, times that we plan for, come and go, forming a part of the rhythm of life. That Christmas when you opened your first present is καιρός

The fullness of time when God sent his son, born of a virgin, is God’s καιρός (Galatians 4:4-5). His acts and plans unfolded slowly, one building on another, leading to just that right time. The next big καιρός is the Second Advent, when time itself will come to an end in God’s eternal life with his people.

The persons, events, and institutions leading to that first right time, the incarnation, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Immanuel — God-with-us — were called by the Early Church the praeparatio Evangelii (The Preparation of the Gospel).

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Stir up Sunday

Encore Post: In the Anglican Church’s Book of Common Prayer, the collects for the last Sunday of the Church Year and three of the four Sundays of Advent begin with the words “Stir up …” In England, where the mix for Christmas Pudding needed to cure for weeks, hearing the words of the collect reminded households to stir up the Christmas pudding! So they nicknamed the Sunday “Stir-up Sunday.”

Lutheran churches do not use the first collect, perhaps because it is a kind of works-righteousness. But we do use the three Advent Collects. They are:

First Sunday of Advent: Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance;

Second Sunday of Advent: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son, that by His coming we may be enabled to serve You with pure minds;

Fourth Sunday of Advent: Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come and help us by Your might, that the sins which weigh us down may be quickly lifted by Your grace and mercy;

The three prayers summarize the themes of Advent. We call on God to come, knowing he has come in the person of his Son, comes to us each day by the Holy Spirit, and will come to us on the last day. But our prayers make his coming our own in a special way. The Spirit and the Bride say to us Come! They invite us also to say Come! to God’s children, lost and found. They call on us to say, Come, Lord Jesus. And so we do in Advent.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana