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SERIES C - COMPLEX OR CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES.
FOUR
C4 COMING KING - PART ONE
CERTAINTIES AND UNCERTAINTIES ABOUT THE END TIMES
Revelation 1:7
See He is coming with the clouds and every eye shall see Him.
Jesus Christ is coming back to Earth. He said so Himself, again and again. Old Testament prophecies point to it, Peter preached it in Acts, Paul wrote of it in his letters and it is confirmed in John’s vision in Revelation. There are so many references to it that the only way to study the subject is to read the Bible right through.
A few of the most explicit passages are paraphrased here.
C4.1. CHRIST’S PROPHECY ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
Matthew 24:3-14
Sitting on the Mount of Olives away from the crowds, His disciples asked, “When will the things you spoke about happen? What sign will there be to tell when the age is complete and you are coming back?”
Jesus replied, Take care not to be deceived, many will come in my name claiming to be the Messiah. Many will be misled by them. Don’t be disturbed by wars and rumours of war. These thing will happen, but the end is not yet. Nations will fight. Ethnic groups will fight. There will be famine and earthquakes. All these will only be the first labour-pains.
You will be persecuted, killed, hated by every ethnic group for my name. Many will be tricked, tripped and trapped. People will hate and betray each other. False prophets will arise and deceive many. Lawlessness will multiply and love grow cold.
But those who hold on to the end will find that rescue is coming. This good news of the kingdom of God will be declared as evidence to every ethnic group throughout the inhabitable world.
Then the end will come.
Matthew 24:23-31
When people say, “The Messiah is here” don’t believe it. There will be many false Messiah’s and false prophets who will do signs and wonders, to deceive, if possible, even Gods chosen people. See I have warned you in advance. If they say, “Here He is, in the desert,” or “We have Him here in this room,” don’t believe them.
When I do come back there will be nothing secret about it. I shall be seen like the lightening right across the sky. You know how a flock of vultures suddenly converges on the spot where there is a carcass. Well my people will suddenly converge on the spot where I am.
After those troubled days, the sun will be darkened, the moon give no light, stars fall and all the powers of heaven be shaken. Then you will see the sign - the Son of Man in heaven, and all the peoples of the earth shall wail.
Then Daniel’s prophecy will be fulfilled that the Son of Man will come with the clouds in power and great glory and send out His angels with a trumpet sound to collect His chosen people from heaven and earth.
C4.2. ST PAUL’S PROPHECY IN THESSALONIANS
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
I don’t want you ignorant, my brothers and sisters, about those who have died. Your grief should not be like the grief of those who have no hope. Our Faith is that Jesus died and rose again and that in the same way He will bring with Him those who have died.
We who are still alive when the Lord comes back will not go in ahead of those who have already died.
The Lord Himself shall come down from Heaven with a shout of command - the voice of an archangel - and the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ shall rise. Then the living who remain will be caught up into the clouds to meet Him in the air and we shall be with Him for ever. So encourage each other with these words.
C4.3 SPECULATIONS AND CERTAINTIES.
Not surprisingly, predictions of the future attract speculation. Many a theorist has tried to work it all out and predict the details. Sects and cults love to pretend they know the order of coming events and some genuine Bible students have been sidetracked by the attempt.
On the other hand there are scholars who have studied the Bible all their lives who simply admit that they do not know. I remember one outstanding old scholar who said that he had seen over a hundred charts of future events, all showing different ideas, and he was quite sure that not one of them was right.
C4.5. THE CERTAINTIES.
But the central teaching of the Bible on the subject is clear.
1. After the Gospel has been declared to every people-group throughout the world, and after bitter persecution has been suffered in the process, the Lord Jesus Christ will return from Heaven to Earth. He described His return as “The end (or climax) of the age.”
2. His coming will be public - as public as a trumpet blast or a lightening flash - and every eye shall see Him. Willingly or unwillingly, everyone will have to acknowledge Him as Lord.
3. The dead will be raised with new bodies such as Christ had after He rose from the dead.
4. Christ will rule over all for ever.
C4.6. NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S DREAM
Two other passages set the scene. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its interpretation in Daniel 2 describes successive empires culminating in a disintegrated worldwide society - feet of part iron and part clay which do not mix; partly strong and partly weak. This fits in both with the first prophesy quoted above from Matthew, and with the trend of history since the end of the Roman empire - a trend which is accelerating at the present time. And through this disintegrating period, God’s kingdom is growing.
C4.7. THE WHEAT AND THE WEEDS.
The other vital passage is the parable of the wheat and the weeds and its explanation in Matthew 13. Here the point is made clearly that God’s harvest and the evil that corrupts it will both grow together. Again this is the trend of history especially recent history. The Gospel is spreading as never before and opposition is growing alongside it; indeed the opposition is a reaction to the Gospel’s success.
This parable is an extremely significant one. It asserts that God has purpose for the world and that it will be achieved, but not without set-backs.
It identifies “The Climax of the Age” with Christ’s return.
It states that it is the angels (not devils) who will carry the corrupting elements to their destruction, and those corrupting elements, “The Sons of the Evil One” are narrowly defined. Not all people who do not know Christ are “weeds” or “Sons of the Evil One” only those who cause corruption.
Christ is the “Son of Man” (of Daniel’s prophecy) and it is He who will send out the angels.
C4.8. THE GOSPEL AND PERSECUTION.
Revelation 7:9 & 14 speak of a great multitude that no one can number, from every language and every ethnic group, who have suffered great tribulation. This multitude is not the entire population of Heaven but specifically those who have suffered. Not only will the Gospel reach every group, it will find people in every group willing to suffer for it.
Throughout history the Gospel has alternately advanced and been attacked, every advance being followed by an attempt to corrupt it and then if that fails, by persecution.
Considering all the prophetic passages together in context, the view of the writer is that this trend will continue until the Gospel has reached the whole world after which the final onslaught of evil will be released against it. It will be as His people endure that onslaught that God’s final victory will be won, after which Christ will return.
C4.9. TWO NEGATIVE CERTAINTIES.
Those are the certainties. Before looking at the uncertainties, we need to mention two ideas which are certainly false, though commonly held.
Predicted dates.
It is one of the certainties that no one will ever predict or calculate accurately the date of Christ’s return, although it will be possible to recognise that events are heading up to it and know when it is getting nearer and nearer.
“Secret Rapture”
There is nothing in scripture to justify the common theory that God’s people will be taken out of the world before the final persecution begins. The so-called “rapture” - not a Bible term - will be at the time Christ comes again publicly. Whatever tribulation is to come God’s people will have to share, whether or not it is identified with any particular prophecy. There is simply no scripture to suggest otherwise, (see notes below on “The Great Tribulation”).
There will only be one return of Christ, and it will be public, Matthew 24:23-31.
C4.10. THE UNCERTAINTIES.
We now come to matters where scripture appears to give a guide to future events, but several interpretations are possible. In some cases the issue is completely open, in others it is possible to form an opinion of the probable interpretation, but opinion is not the same as God’s Truth.
The next Grow & Go study, C5 is specifically about parts of Revelation; so items covered in it are merely noted here.
In the following sections, the writer’s opinion is stated as well as alternatives. Readers must form their own - but please, not too hurriedly (it took me forty years to form mine).
C4.11. THE ACCELERATION PRINCIPLE.
There seems to be a pattern of repeated fulfilments accelerating to a final climax. This pattern certainly applies to the spread of the Gospel and the rise of opposition. It may well apply to other issues.
If it is the correct view there will be many Antichrists but one final one; many tribulations but one final one; many social orders which correspond to “Babylon” but one final one; etc.
In all these cases, there is an alternative view that the many are sufficient to fulfil the prophecy without any final one. While not sharing this view, I acknowledge that it could be right.
C4.12. THE ANTI-CHRIST
Study passages, 2 Thessalonians 2. 1 John 2. Daniel 7-9
Revelation 11:7 13 17:7-18 19:20
(these passages must be read in context).
Note the terms, Antichrist is only used in 1 John. In Revelation the term used is the “Wild Beast”. Thessalonians 2:3 speaks of “the man of sin.” In Daniel’s visions there is the “little horn” which most interpreters regard as the antichrist or one of the antichrists.
This is not a detailed study of prophesies of the antichrist(s), but assuming their most usual and probable interpretation, the final thrust of evil will be headed by the last great antichrist who will be recognised by certain very obvious signs.
He will be the first and only person apart from Christ to be worshipped in all nations.
He will speak great blasphemies.
He will lead a massive persecution of the church.
It is by these things that we shall recognise him when he comes (not, for example, by making fanciful calculations based on his name to produce the number 666.)
An alternative theory is that the prophecy of Antichrist has been fulfilled, perhaps by Nero, or others. Yet other interpreters treat “him” as a symbol of movements or forces or social orders or states etc.
C4.13. THE NUMBER 666 AND THE MARK OF THE BEAST.
The meaning of that number will be clear when the time comes. My suggestion (only) is that it refers to 2 Chronicles 9:13 and symbolises nothing more than control of vast wealth beyond the common person’s imagination.
As for the “mark of the beast” there is no need for superstitious fear of possible markings (bar codes, credit cards, computer dossiers, identity cards etc.) The essence of the mark, whatever it may be, is that it will be awarded only to those who worship the beast. That will be very distinctive and leave no doubt.
There have also been spiritualised interpretations, eg that the mark is a characteristic acquired through occult practices.
C4.15 BABYLON OF REVELATION 17 & 18
This is likely to be some kind of civic order based on luxury and pornography. Modern capitalism could be heading that way, it could be some future hollywood, but it could be something else we have never yet thought of. It might even be a multi-national company, monopolising world resources. The antichrist will, it seems, use it to come to power, then discard it.
Again it partially describes various social orders that have existed, and some interpretations would take this as its only application.
C4.16. ARMAGEDDON
Armageddon, only mentioned once in the Bible need not refer to any particular battle, whether fought at Meggiddo or anywhere else. The sense of the term was like “Waterloo” in modern English - the final climax - the crunch - the decisive finisher - the come-uppance.
C4.17. WILL THE TEMPLE BE REBUILT?
Some people think it will and the Jewish nation would probably wish to do it. But there is no clear prophecy anywhere in scripture that it will. Ezekiel’s temple was not a prophecy of the future but a symbolic vision. Read it and see.
One prophecy sometimes taken to imply the existence of a temple in the future is Daniel 9:27 (in context) which if the whole passage is interpreted as leading to a final antichrist, seems to indicate that the temple will be in existence when he comes to power. Other interpretations of the antichrist do not lead to the same conclusion, both Antiochus Epiphanies and the Roman legions did desecrate the temple, and the prophecy might be applied to them although there are difficulties in doing so.
More realistically, it should be pointed out that in symbolic writings, “the temple” and “the sacrifices” may not be literal but may represent God’s people and their worship in whatever form it takes at a future time. Thus the infiltration and corruption of the church could be the “Abomination of Desolation” not the desecration of a literal temple.
Once again, it is better to accept the uncertainties of interpretation and say we do not know - because not knowing a point of detail is no barrier to understanding the central message.
C4.18. NUMBERS AND PERIODS - LITERAL OR FIGURATIVE?
If there is one thing I have learned in forty years of accountancy it is that human beings become irrational whenever they are faced with figures. A well-informed and experienced person can express an opinion about a business and ignorant people will take no notice unless it is backed by “figures” which are then trusted implicitly. Somehow we are conditioned to believe anything which is expressed in figures with an unreasoning credulity we would never extend to words.
Figures frequently appear in symbolic writing. So do apocalyptic horses, dragons, flying scrolls, white robes and all kinds of things which no one expects ever to see literally and which are taken naturally as part of the symbolism. They represent Truth, they have something to say but they are not literal.
So why must people switch their thinking from symbolic to literal as soon as a figure is mentioned? Numbers, including periods of time, are part of the whole visionary form of communication. Unless in any particular case there is definite evidence that a figure is intended literally, then, it should always be interpreted symbolically.
Continued in the next study, C5. “Revelation”