About a week ago I was driving downtown to a coffee shop listening to a new mix CD I’d made.  Mix albums are an art.  Selecting your tracks is only one part of the process.  What can make an album truly great is song order.  The whole tone and success of a CD for me can be determined in the order.  It can’t jump around too much.  It can’t be alternating between fast songs and slow songs.  As I was listening to this album in the car, I was enjoying a track toward the end, with about three songs after it.  Thinking ahead to the tracks that awaited me, I wasn’t too excited.  It wasn’t that they were bad songs.  If they were, they wouldn’t be on the CD.  They just weren’t as good as several of the tracks that preceded them.

When I thought about his, I realized that I often judge the content of my mix CDs by how well they end.  If I can be increasingly excited about what is left to come as the CD progresses, then it is a successful album to me.  As I chased this train of thought a little bit further, it hit me how often this principle transcends into other things in life.  A bad ending to a story will, at the very least, be a weakness to the story, and at the worst it will completely undo it.  When you go see fireworks on the Fourth of July, all the splendor of what you’re seeing is eclipsed only by the expectation that the grandest part of the show is yet to come at the conclusion of it all.  The best Star Wars movie, “The Empire Strikes Back”, is defined by its ending when we discover (spoiler alert) that Darth Vader is Luke’s father.  The ending of a story is the culmination of everything that came before.  Endings give us the light to see the ultimate purpose behind everything and to understand their function.  We eagerly look toward the end in order to gain this clarity as well as to see the story end happily.

My life has become extremely focused on eschatology in the last few months.  This is true in the academic sense in that I’ve been studying the millenium and whether Christ’s return will be premillenial, postmillenial, or amillenial.  But the thoughts the mix CD inspired were more related to eschatology in the broader sense, and what I mean by that is despite all the numerous views on Christ’s second coming that there are and all the debates that surround it, one thing remains constant in all these theological systems: Jesus is coming back.  In realizing that so many things are dependent on their endings, I understood that this is not only equally true of the story of God, but ultimately and especially true of it.  The most important ending is the end of all things.

The entire Bible is eschatological.  It points that final day when God will create a new heaven and a new earth, right all wrongs, and glorify his children.  This became very apparent to me in the last few months when I caught a clue that the entire hope of the apostles was based on the life to come and not this life.  They were constantly looking forward, looking through the trials of the present to the ending they knew would be truly magnificient.  One of my favorite verses as of late has been 1 Peter 1:13- “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Peter’s encouraging believers by telling them to make the entire gravitational pull of their hearts the day when Christ returns.  Paul’s endurance during trials was his assurance that he would be with Christ again, and that that joy would completely overshadow his trials now and make them incomparable (Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18).  Paul encourages the Colossians to look upward and set their minds on things above, where Christ is (Colossians 3:1-2).  God points Isaiah to the day when all things will be made new and wolf and lamb shall graze together (Isaiah 65:17-25).  When Asaph was flabbergasted and distraught that he suffered while the wicked seemed to prosper (Psalm 73:1-15), he found comfort in discerning their end and his own (verses 16-28).  There is a future for the believer because Christ is king and thus he will prevail and all will be well for his children.  This is what Stephen saw as he was stoned to death, and he died with joy saying “‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the  Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’” (Acts 7:56)

This forward-pointing is everything to the Christian.  Jesus’s sermon on the mount has one central thrust: “‘Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.’” (Matthew 24:42)  Jesus is coming back, so don’t fall under the seduction of this temporal world that we live in (see also 1 John 2:15).  Live for that day at all times.  My other favorite verse right now is 2 Timothy 2:4- “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”  Christians are soldiers on behalf of Christ, armed with the good news of God’s grace and not with physical weapons.  I’ve opened myself up to be challenged by this verse in conjuction with all the preceding ones.  Is the magnetic north of my affections the day when this temporal world comes down like a veil and Christ returns to rule?  Again, for the Bible authors, the assurance of Christ’s kingship and his return to rule for all time was the bedrock of their joy.  Everything for them pointed to that day.

My struggle has been clear: am I as hopeful of that day and thus as joyful as the apostles were?  If not, why?  What civilian pursuits am I entangled in which displace such a focus?  What are some very practical and subtle things I do each and every day that make me love this life a little too much?  What can I be doing to look more eagerly for Christ’s return?  Do I long and pant for his return above all things, or do I think it would be convenient for him to wait just long enough until I can get married and have a couple of kids?  Recently I’ve been scouting out good deals on TVs.  I would absolutely love to get a decently-sized TV along with a Blu-Ray player.  I was a Blu-Ray skeptic until I actually watched a movie in the format and…wow.  That’s a big investment, and I really don’t have that kind of money right now.  But honestly the money isn’t really the issue for me.  In order to make such a purchase in the future, I’d have to do some serious soul searching.  The way I put it to my roommate is that I’m cautious of anything that’s going to make our couch a little bit more comfortable.  I need to be careful of anything that’s going to encourage me to indulge myself rather than encourage me to help build the kingdom of God.  Comfort typically hasn’t been the most effective way of reorienting a person’s mind to Christ and his coming.  It’s hard to be eager for death like Paul was when comfort is plentious.  Paul said that to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).  He groaned to leave this life and be with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:1-12), and he saw value in living this life only in being able to tell others about Jesus and to instruct them in his teachings (Philippians 1:24-26).  But he didn’t do this reluctantly.  He did it joyfully because though he wanted to depart, the certainty of God’s triumph allowed him to be content doing whatever he could in this life to save others.

A story’s ending makes or breaks everything that leads up to it.  A good and happy ending clarifies the confusion, gives hope in tragedies, and accentuates the joys because they all coalesce into a glorious conclusion.  This life is meant to be viewed in light of the end.  The life Jesus calls us to, the building of his kingdom, necessitates this vantage point.   For only when we trust in the riches to come will we forsake the riches of this life (Matthew 6:19-21).  Only when we confidently wait for the comforts of heaven will we look past the trials of this world (Romans 8:18).  And only when we realize that fullness of joy is found in God’s presence alone (Psalm 16:11) and in being with him forever will we stop trying to be satisfied with the transient things of this world.  Jesus is coming back.  Let everything you do in life be done with this in mind.

How can I gain and preserve this precious treasure of placing the entirety of my hope in Christ?  It is valuable, precious, and fragile above all other things.  Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Look above and beyond this life.

I just found a great article on Christian Zionism that I felt compelled to share. The article saves me a lot of breath. Much of what I’m going to posting here in the near future deals in part with this issue, so I thought I’d go ahead and post the link. You can read it here:

http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/zionism.html

I wish I could say that the Zionist movement’s only flaw is that Biblically inaccurate. (I’ll defend that later.) However it has very real consequences. People die. I need to go ahead and say that I’m not against the nation of Israel. If these words of mine were to fall in the hands of some Christian circles, I’d be labeled anti-semitic, but I’m not. I’m pro-justice. In many churches today, what you hear about with regard to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is all the injustices done against Israel. True, they’ve done some crap. I’m not defending them. But no one ever talks about the injustices Israel commits against Palestine. Earlier this month, YahooNews ran a report showing that Israel’s current blockade against the Gaza Strip has created the worst humanitarian crisis since their occupation of the area began in 1967. Nothing excuses this. Nothing gives Israel, or any nation for that matter, the right to commit injustices like this. These are the very things scripture is AGAINST. Zionism has created the delusion that when Israel does this, since it’s really their land, it’s okay. Furthermore, this fails to take into account the Christians who live in Palestine who share in kind the current huminatarian crisis. But even if all that land is supposed to be theirs, what biblical mandate do they have to achieve God’s promise by ungodly means? Or as author Palmer Robertson asks, “should the Jewish people, quite apart from their lack of faith in the Messiah who has come, receive the blessings of the Messiah’s reign if basic principles of justice are violated in the process?”

Ironically, even Christians who take the peacemaker position (whom Christ calls blessed) are viewed by Zionists as adherents of an anti-semitic, pro-antichrist agenda. Many in the name of Christ are in vehement opposition to any talks of peace agreements between Israel and Palestine for the sake of Israel. Know who holds the same opposition but for the sake of Palestine? Al-Qaeda. Surely those who call on the name of Jesus can do better than to resort to any resolution short of justice for both sides of the issue.

Anyway, more to come on this later.

“in these last days…”
Hebrews 1:2

I’ve become very alert in the past couple of months to any mention of the “last days” in Scripture. So many people are ranting about how we’re living in the last days, the end times, and so forth. It’s my conviction from Scripture however that the people talk about current events in the Middle East and how they show that we are living in the “last days” don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. Hebrews 1:2, talking of how in “these last days” God has spoken through his son Jesus Christ, along with Acts 2:17 and 1 John 2:18 makes it clear that the apostles were living in the last days. That’s sort of a problem for the “Left Behind” crowd.

What EXACTLY the last days are is debated, and honestly I’m not sure exactly where I stand. Some believe that the “last days” refers to the entire period between Christ’s first and second coming, which would mean that we ARE in the last days today but have been so for 2,000 years. Others believe that the last days refer to the 40-year period between the Ascension of Christ and the close of the Jewish Age with the catastrophic desolation of Jerusalem (see Matthew 24:15).

Either way, one thing is for sure: the apostles were living in the “last days,” so any talk of the last days as a far-future-only event is not in line with the New Testament. Jesus’ words were spoken to a first-century audience, as were the epistles. We can’t assume that the New Testament authors suspended all relevance to their audiences to speak to humans who wouldn’t be born for another 2,000 years.

“‘But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;”‘”
Acts 2:16-17

In my four-and-a-half years walking with the Lord, I’ve come across many situations in which my understanding of Scripture has shifted. Sometimes it’s in small ways (“Oh I thought this verse meant this…”), sometimes it’s larger. The greatest shift in thinking came in the spring of 2005 in which I abandoned Arminian theology and embraced Calvinism. Now I’m undergoing what I consider to be another huge paradigm shift (awesome word, huh?!). This new shift comes in the realm of eschatology, the study of the end times. As if its hot, I’m dropping my former adherence of dispensationalist eschatology.

I first heard of the rapture in my old youth group back in high school when we watched the first Left Behind movie. Once all the people started disappearing, I asked around to find out what the heck was happening. “It’s the rapture,” one girl replied. Not wanting to look like an idiot, I said “Ohhhh…”, feigning a sudden light in the mind. Thus began my understanding of what was going to happen in the future. I let those like Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey be my guides to understanding the apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelation. I followed them because I didn’t know any other alternative.

This is huge to me now, but I remember one time looking up the Bible verses LaHaye used in support of his prophetic interpretation and thinking “I would NEVER have gotten that from this verse.” But he knew a lot more than I did, so I’m the idiot, not him. But now all this stuff about the Jewish temple being rebuilt, and a Rapture prior to a seven-year tribulation in which a brutal dictator called Antichrist rules the world…it’s all lost on me. I’ve come to believe that LaHaye and his Left Behind followers have GROSSLY misinterpreted Scripture. There’s a ton to say on the subject, and I won’t get into it now. Further entries on this subject will likely follow, but for now Acts 2:16-17 serves as a good example. In the Left Behind series, LaHaye interprets this to mean that in the last days, prophecies shall increase among the young and visions among the elderly. The character Tsion Ben-Judah at one point has a very vivid vision of what’s going down in Heaven. When trying to understand what just happened, he remembered this prophecy by Joel. There’s a problem with this though: Peter says that Joel’s prophecy has been fulfilled.

Peter said this on Pentecost, when people started speaking in tongues. Some who heard this just assumed that they were drunk and thus dismissed them. But Peter got up and said “Dude, it’s 9 A.M. They’re sober. This is fulfilling what Joel said would happen” (New Scott Translation: 21st Century Edition, Revised). This isn’t a yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecy. It’s already happened. Look at when Joel says this will happen: “In the last days it shall be…” People talk a lot today about “the last days.” The last days were already being lived during Pentecost. So do the last days refer to the last two thousand years? I don’t believe so. I believe the last days refered to is the approximately 40 years between Christ’s ascension and the destruction of Jersusalem in 70 A.D. Moreover, in light of internal consistency of Scripture and of the history of the time as provided by Josephus, I believe that much of what fuels the Left Behind script and end-times charts are prophecies of events that were fulfilled in this monumental event.

Again, there’s tons to say on the subject, but for now I’ll end by saying that the prophecies of Matthew 24:1-35 were fulfilled in and before Jerusalem’s destruction (yes, including verse 14), with Matthew 24:36-51 being the return of Christ, the end of the world and the beginning of the new. Christ told his apostles to be mindful of the warning signs, knowing that when they see them, the time for fulfillment was near. Yet of the time of his return he says that no one knows, not the angels of heaven, not even Jesus himself. Rest assured, EVERY generation believes its the one that will see the end. Don’t believe those who throw a newspaper in your face and say that the end is coming. Only one generation will be correct in its assumption that they will see the end of the world, and that will only be because every generation does it and someone’s got to be the last. We do not know when the end will come. We do not have warning signs for that, and for that reason we must be ready at all times. If Jesus himself doesn’t know when he’s coming back, then I assure you that Tim LaHaye doesn’t.

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place…”
Revelation 1:1