“…a flowering of the love relationship begun on earth.”

With sixteen books, amassing sales of over forty million copies, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have greatly influenced the way in which Christians think about the topic of eschatology.  Taking the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture, first proposed by John Darby, which was then popularized by the Scofield Reference Bible and famously perpetuated from the pulpit and on television by individuals such as Hal Lindsey and David Jeremiah, LaHaye and Jenkins have discovered a money-making machine that preys upon the curiosity of those who desperately want to know what awaits them, in the future.

People will often ask what I think about the “rapture.”  With the current economic crisis and the fighting in the Middle East, people want to know if “the end is near.”  Not a week or two goes by that I do not have someone ask, “Have you read the Left Behind series?” Or, “Did you see the Left Behind movie?”  Members of my congregation regularly tune in, with eager anticipation, to Hal Lindsey’s nightly program, which seeks to understand current events in light of what Scripture says about the “End Times.”

There is a hunger by people, both in our churches and in wider society, to know when time as we know it will cease to exist and what will happen thereafter.  The study of last things is popular.  My fear is that we have truncated the eschatological discussion to the extent that: 1) people believe that the Dispensational approach to the eschatology is the biblical way to understand how things will take place in the last days or that it is the historically accepted view of the Church; 2) we now view eschatology as pertaining to and having implications only for the future; and, 3) we are failing to take advantage of an incredible opportunity that has been presented to us, as God’s people, to talk sensibly about the eschaton in a way that impacts peoples’ lives both now and for all eternity.

With these three things in mind, I intend over the course of this brief post to propose an approach to the eschatology that is faithful to the biblical witness, while, at the same time, broadening the scope of eschatology to include not only the future, but also, the present.

According to Scripture there is an eschatological reality to which all of creation is advancing.  Romans 8.18-25, for example, speaks of a future day towards which all creation is moving.  All of creation is waiting, in eager anticipation, for liberation and redemption.  And until that day comes, according to Paul, we wait patiently with hope.  Passages, such as 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18, describe a day when Christ will return to collect His Church to be with Him forever.  Texts, such as Revelation 20.11-15, look forward to a day when the dead will be judged, according to what they have done.  Verses, such as those found in Revelation 21.1-5, foresee a day when God will make everything new.

Scripture, at the very least, looks forward to a day towards which all creation is moving.  For some, it seems, it will be a glorious day.  A day characterized by liberation, newness, and wholeness.  For others, it appears that it will be a day when they will get their “just desserts.”  While such a day is an eschatological certainty, Scripture is likewise rather clear that we do not know when these things will take place; but rather, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”[1]

Moreover, while Scripture does describe Christ’s “Second Coming” as a certainty, and while the biblical text is very clear that all of creation is moving towards such a day- the biblical text is rather cryptic regarding the logistics of such things.  Will Christ come prior to a time of tribulation to collect His church?  Will He come in the middle of a time of tribulation to collect His church?  Will He come at the end of a time of tribulation to collect His church and set up His millennial reign and rule?  Will He…?  You get the idea, I’m sure- there is no shortage of speculation as to when Christ will come and how His return will logistically fit into sequence with the other “End Times” events described in Scripture.

The truth of the matter is that the biblical witness is clear about one thing- Christ will come again “to judge the quick and the dead.”[2] Apart from that, we can speculate as to when He will come, where in the sequence of events said “Second Coming” will take place, etc.  However, Scripture and the biblical writers don’t seem to concerned about the logistics of such things, so much as they are concerned how we should live because of this impending reality.

This impending reality, according to Stanley Grenz, is “the eternal community God promises us in the new heaven and new earth… it is for this community that we were created.”[3] The incredible thing, however, as Grenz notes, is that while the fullness of this reality “lies in the future, God has already inaugurated the eternal community.”[4] In other words, the reality towards which all of creation is moving can already be participated in here and now.  We do that, in the words of the Westminister shorter Catechism, by loving God and enjoying Him forever.  This after all, seems to be what Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 5.4-11, as he describes living in constant readiness and preparedness for that day to which we already belong.

That said, however, there are certain theological systems which are more conducive to such an eschatological understanding.  Systems, which posit penal substitutionary theories of atonement, it seems, are somewhat antithetical to living “at the ready.”  After all, if one is safe, having been declared once and for all “right before God,” then you might as well live however you want.  Systems that are more covenant oriented, however, seem to encourage such sober, self-controlled, alertness.  As Pinnock and Brow have so wonderfully illustrated, in Unbounded Love, the reality of life in a new heaven and new earth is made “possible [by] a flowering of the love relationship begun on earth.”[5] In other words, neither heaven nor hell will usher in an entirely new reality.  Instead, heaven or hell will be the fulfillment of the covenant relationship we either enjoyed or lacked with God.

May we, in light of what we know about the future that awaits us, love God and enjoy Him both now and forevermore.  Amen.

---

[1] 1 Thessalonians 5.2, as quote from the New International Version.

[2] From the “Apostles’ Creed.”

[3] Grenz, Stanley, Created for Community (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1998), p. 263.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Brow, Robert and Clark Pinnock, Unbounded Love (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 1994), p. 31.

Tags: 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18, 1 thessalonians 5.4-11, covenant theology, Eschatology, Revelation 21.1-5, Romans 8.18-25
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments