[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
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