Like most Christians, I love eschatology (the study of the end times). There’s hope in the biblical prophecies of the future, in completing the trajectory of God’s grand redemptive design. The prophetic books and passages are full of alluring mystery, of noise, and color. And in a world that is so broken and upside down, it is comforting to see that God will at last vindicate his truth and set everything aright.
Probably the question I’ve heard from Christians the most over the years, is, “Are we living in the end times?”
I suppose I’ve always had that feeling. That’s one of the effects of the biblical prophetic genre. Like a cup of strong coffee, it’s supposed to set your life on edge and keep you alert.
But often there’s a specificity to the end times question that, to me at least, is almost bothersome.
Is this it? Are these the last days?
Gulf War I
Y2K
9/11
Gulf War II
The COVID pandemic
The Israel-Hamas war
Honestly, each global incident made me wonder where we were on the prophetic timeline. But I often got the impression the Christians asking me about them had slightly different motives. It’s as though they were trying to gauge how much time they had left before they absolutely had to get serious about following Christ. While I shared my opinions with them, I could see alarm growing in them, and the gears turning in their heads: If the current age is drawing to a close, how much prayer, Bible reading, and church attendance will I need in order to get caught up?
They were calculating, not repenting.
Up until today, event after event has come and gone, without triggering the end of the world. On each occasion, the same vaguely troubled folks who had been asking about the last days, would always settle back into fleshy living and tell themselves they still had some time. But with every new war, blood moon, or earthquake, the words of First John 2:28 would once again haunt them– “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.”
Rather than ride a roller coaster of dread and relief, it would have been easier for these folks to simply follow Christ and love His appearance. That way, even if the end was one hundred years away, they could still with joy immerse themselves daily in Him and His work.
Yet, setting aside baser motives, even innocent intrigue can become something of a distraction to us. Consider this verse from Acts chapter 1 during the forty days the risen Christ spoke to His disciples:
“So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority’” (vv 6-7).
It seems we’re always concerned about the specifics of timing, not necessarily because we want to live profligate lives. Simply put, our nature is easily lured into areas above our pay grades. Little surprise, therefore, when we’re preoccupied with one another. Think of the time when Peter saw John following Jesus, and he said to him, “‘Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, [Peter] ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!’” (John 21:21-22). Jesus knew our propensity to stray out of our lanes and into others’ affairs.
Back in the Acts passage where they had asked about the timing of the kingdom, Jesus redirected His disciples from calendar dates, future curiosities, fears, idle predictions, and guesses. While He had earlier given them some seasonal indications of His coming, the exact schedule was up to the Father. He then said to His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (v.8).
This is a huge, global responsibility that we have been assigned, dominating more than two thousand years. It is odd how easily our interest in it wanes.
What is it time to do? How about continuing to do with vigor what we have been assigned to do?
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on John Myer
Featured Image by NASA on Unsplash
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