4 March 2012
Dear Phyllis,
Last week, while my having weekly meeting with Gary, we got into a heated discussion about the Lord's return. I gave vent to my passionate belief that we are right on the door step of the return of Christ. Gary replied, “Yes BUT they were talking like that in 1950 and Christ still isn't here.” That got me going on my two reasons for passionately believing in the immanent return of Christ. Gary said, “That is pretty good. Why don't you write about it next week?” Hence this letter.
The first reason I believe in the imminent return of Christ is because I believe it is a central message of the Holy Spirit. The pre-trib and post-trib people have argued over the chronology of events for decades. There are good arguments on both sides of the fence, but one position I will not compromise on is the doctrine of the immanent return of Christ. I say that because I believe it was a major doctrine of Paul and the 1stcentury Christians. It is impossible to read the NT without seeing that they believed Jesus was coming back very soon. The entire reason for Paul's First Letter to Thessalonians was to further explain details about Christ's return (1 Th. 4:13-18). The question might be raised, “why is it that the 1st century Christians believed Jesus was coming back very soon, when 2,000 years later He still isn't here?” To answer that I resort to my theme of the Inverted Kingdom.
I see in the scripture a clear teaching the the laws of the Kingdom of God are reversed from the natural laws of this world – up-down, live-die, get-lose, win-surrender, etc. In this teaching, I see a necessity to think outside the box. Just as it is necessary for a stone-age savage in the Amazon to think outside the box of his world-view or experience to understand life in Tokyo; we have an even greater problem in understanding spiritual truth unless we are willing to go outside the box of natural logic to receive that truth. Paul tells us clearly that it is impossible for the natural man to receive spiritual truth – it is foolishness to him (1 Cor. 2).
Along with the recognition that the laws of the Kingdom are backwards, I believe there are a great deal of things in the Kingdom of God that don't exist in our natural world. One of which is the co-existence of contradiction. In our world it is impossible for two contradictory things to exist together. Either it is hot or cold, up or down, right or wrong, etc. They both can't be true at the same time. I believe in the Kingdom of God they can. I see many things in the Bible that are clearly contradictory. I have mentioned this to you several times before. One is free will of man, and the sovereignty of God. Both can't be right. I firmly believe they are. Another is the very doctrine of the Trinity. You can't have only One God and yet have three separate persons in that Trinity. In Christ there are many contradiction. It is difficult to have Jesus be God and totally human. It is difficult for Him to be both the King and the servant; the priest and still the sacrifice, etc.
Along with this, there is the problem of Jesus' promise to come quickly. Jesus said four times in Revelation that He was coming quickly – three times in the last chapter (Rev. 3:11, 22:7,12,20). John said “the time is at hand”(Rev. 1:3). Two thousand years doesn't seem like quickly to me. More than that, I believe that the Holy Spirit bears witness with Jesus' promise by giving a strong witness in the hearts of His believers that He is coming soon. The 1st century Christians believed that Jesus was coming in their day. In 1800 Christians believed that Jesus was coming soon, in 1950 Christians believed that Jesus was at the door, and today I passionately believe that the return of Christ will be VERY SOON. Does that mean that Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit is a lie? No. I believe this is a truth that is different than what we have on earth. By our standard this is clearly a lie. But from heavens position I believe what Jesus said, and the Holy Spirit bears witness, is absolutely true. I believe in eternity that we will see that Jesus kept His word and came quickly. By our reasoning this is difficult to see, but I believe it is no less true.
For one reason, the return of Christ is measured by heavens clock – not ours. In eternity there is only one day. Eternity is the eternal TODAY. CS Lewis correctly observes that in eternity, in 1960, 1940 is still happening and 1980 has already happened. It is the eternal present. This might explain why, by heavens clock 2000 years is quickly. I believe is is accurate to say that Christians have believed in the immanent return of Christ ever since the days of the Apostles. And I believe that it is imperative for any healthy Christian to expect Jesus to be back at any moment. I believe it is unhealthy for a Christian to believe,“No sweat. Jesus won't be here for another 50 years. We have a lot of time on our hands”. I believe any normal Christian should live like; “Today may be my last day on earth. Jesus could be here this afternoon. I hope when He comes He finds me doing what I should be doing.” That is why I believe the Holy Spirit puts in the heart of any generation of Christians an intense expectation of the return of Christ.
The second reason I believe the return of Christ cannot be far away is the unique days we are living in. It may be true that every generation thought that their generation was the most unique in history, but I believe – in light of history –we are living in days like have never happened before.
For 6,000 years the most efficient way to kill a man was with a club, spear , or arrow. At the time of the Civil War in 1860, reloading rifles came into use which greatly increased firepower. At the time of the 2nd WW rapid fire machine guns were used. During the Korean War the Chinese still used human waves as an attack tactic. Today, military hardware is so advanced that this is virtually impossible. In the Seven Seals of Revelation (Rev. 5:1); the first seal is the white horse, which is obviously bloodless conquest (Rev. 6:2). This is political power. But the second seal is the red horse, which, unmistakably, is war. It is written “power was given him to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword (Rev. 6:4). I believe that great sword is nuclear warfare. One hundred years ago man could only be killed one at a time, but today tens of millions can be killed in a flash. This is one of the unique features of our present age.
Daniel said that two of the characteristics of the end time would be an increase in travel and the expansion of knowledge (Dan. 12:4). I have seen charts graphically depicting this. The chart of travel and knowledge is interesting. I have forgotten the exact figures, but until the invention of the steam engine, man could not go faster than the fastest horse could run. At the time of the invention of the steam engine there was speculation whether human life could be sustained at a velocity of 60mph. The steam engine was replaced by the internal combustion engine, and that has been replaced by the jet engine. Until the Bell X 1 in 1949 the challenge was to go faster than the speed of sound. Today they are talking in terms of going Mach 5. The chart on travel is dramatic. For 6,000 years the average distance a human would travel in a year was almost flat. With the discovery of the New World and sailing vessels, that line began to rise. With the advent of the internal combustion engine, that line began to move up rapidly. Today the distance a human travels in a year is going up exponentially. It is rising almost vertically. On a 6000 year chart this is extremely recent.
Of the major inventions, there are a few that have transformed humanity. The invention of the wheel was one. The three types of engines are another. Electricity was huge. With that, an entire new package of communication opened up. But I wonder if any invention has had a bigger impact on humanity than the computer chip. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, and television transformed communication. But the computer chip has astonishingly impacted total knowledge. On a chart of total knowledge, the line rises slowly for thousands of years. Then after the printing press and other means of communication became available, the line began to rise more rapidly. Today the line for total knowledge is rising exponentially at the same rate as travel. What we are witnessing in the past 30 years is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. This is a fulfillment of Daniel's prophecies that no one could have envisioned.
There are two things about the advent of TV and the computer chip that I feel are highly significant for setting the stage for the Lord's return. One is the impact on society. For millenniums the greatest force for molding society was philosophers and religion. Philosophers influenced the intelligentsia, but religion molded society. Unquestionably Judaic/Christian teaching molded the western nations. And where the Gospel went, that transformed society. Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism molded the other nations of the world. Culturally nothing has had as great influence on society as religion. But the religious teacher has been replaced by a much more powerful prophet – TV . With modern communication, the entertainment industry has become the dominant influence molding national morals and thinking. In the past 60 years I have witnessed the transformation of both the US and Japan from being basically conservative nations to moral sewers. Anyone who question this has only to look at the behavior of youth. The influence of TV and the movie screen has enormously impacted national morals, but there is another element that – to the best of my knowledge – no one has calculated the impact of porno on the individual. Never in human history has there been available such high voltage imagery as we have today. With a click there is access to some of the most vile scenes ever enacted. It can only be imagined how this impacts individual behavior. The devil has a huge tool at his disposal that has never existed before. This has got to unravel humanity at a breathtaking speed.
Politically and economically we are witnessing enormous transformations that have never happened before. I say all this as an indication that indeed we are in the last days.
But in the positive quadrant there are equally astonishing proofs of the time of our age. One is the thesis I wrote you last week concerning the Back to Jerusalem movement. Along with the electronic deterioration of society we are also seeing an acceleration of evangelism undreamed of 100 years ago. What is happening in world wide missions is unprecedented. Most of it in the past 50 years. I said last week that what has happened is a tsunami of the center of Christianity that started in Jerusalem, moved across the Mediterranean, Europe, England, and America. There is no question but what the center of the Gospel today in in the Orient. Based on the Bible, and church history there is little doubt where the trajectory of this tsunami is headed. Unquestionably west. Along with the rapid deterioration of society and globalisation, modern technology has enabled us to spread the Gospel at a rate never before imagined. I believe we are going to see an acceleration of that tsunami movement at an astonishing rate.
It may take 20 or 30 years to clean out the 10-40 window. It doesn't mater. Based on the witness of the Spirit in many ways and Jesus own promise, I find it only natural to believe in the immanent return of Christ. What we are witnessing in our day has got to be unprecedented in human history. I can't imagine how it can be much longer.
Oh Lord, haste the day when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ (Rev. 13:15).
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus;
bill
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