Introduction:
I am going
to start of this sermon by giving the only answer that can be given to this
question: I don’t know. It is not for us to know the answer to this question.
Jesus will return when he is ready. But this is a question on a lot of people’s
minds right now.
Indeed, this
question has been on the minds of Christians since the beginning of the Church.
The Apostle’s expected Jesus to return at any moment, and when he did not
return for some time people began to worry, and some began to mock the
Christian’s belief in the return of Christ. To respond to this Peter wrote this
powerful little reminder in his second book:
2 Peter 3:1-10 – “3 This is now the second letter that
I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere
mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy
prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3
knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with
scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the
promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are
continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they
deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the
earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that
by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and
perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are
stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the
ungodly.
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that
with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is
patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should
reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then
the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies[b] will be
burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will
be exposed.”
Peter
reminds us, that the Lord is guaranteed to return, but he is taking his time,
and will return when he is ready, because he is giving as many people a chance
to repent as possible: “9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as
some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should
perish, but that all should reach repentance.” It is good to long for
his return, it is good to long for his coming, Revelation 22:20 says this: “20
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come,
Lord Jesus!”
I, myself,
have prayed this at different points in the last year and before. There is so
much wickedness in this world, that I would like to see God avenge. But as we
talked about two weeks ago God is much more patient and merciful in his
expression of anger than we are.
So, what we
are not going to do today is get bogged down in details about the tribulation,
the book of Revelation and the end times. What I want to do is give some
historical perspective about the second coming. Show how many different generations
of Christians expected it to happen in their day, for good reason, and then I
want to give some biblical encouragement to you. But first let’s cover
something in Matthew:
1. The End Is Not Yet – Many people think that the signs
of the end times will be wars, rumours of wars, earthquakes, famines, etc, etc.
But Jesus actually said this: “4 And Jesus answered them, “See
that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am
the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and
rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the
end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All
these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” (Matthew 28:4-7).
1.1 Was there ever a time in our history when
there have not been wars and rumours of wars. Plato once said, “Only the dead
have seen the end of war.” Is he not right? Earthquakes would have been abundant
in the post-flood years. Entire lands masses had been moved. We still feel
these effects today.
1.1.1
People in Japan and California live right on the top of massive fault
lines.
1.1.2
Famines are a common thing in the world, both historically and even
today. The horn of Africa is a place of constant starvations.
1.1.3
Wars are also constant. The US is involved in multiple wars or “policing
actions” right now, and that is just the US, and just the ones we know about.
1.2 What did Jesus actually say? “6
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for
this must take place, but the end is not yet.”
1.2.1
Wars, rumours of wars, famines, etc, etc cannot be signs of the end
times, because they are constants, and Jesus said they are not signs of the end
times; “but the end is not yet”.
1.2.2
In fact, what he is telling his disciples, is that before the end comes
there will be times where things are going to get bad. Really bad. But “see
that you are not alarmed.”
1.3 Why does he say don’t be alarmed?
Because we are people of the king, God is sovereign over history. And he will
bring it to an end when he is ready. As Jesus says, “14 And this gospel
of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to
all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).
1.3.1
Notice how this fits with what Peter says as well: 1 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow to
fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not
wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
1.3.2
Both Jesus and Peter agree: don’t be alarmed, don’t doubt that the Lord
will return, and trust that God is wrapping things up his way for good,
righteous, and loving reasons. God wants as many people saved as possible.
2. What we look forward to – As I said, it is good to long for
the return of the Lord. It is good to trust in his return and say with the
Apostle John: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” I used to not want the
end to come too soon, but now, as I have matured in my faith, I can’t wait for
the end, because the end of this world is “the Revelation of Jesus Christ”,
2.1 As John says, 1 John 3:2 - “2
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared;
but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him
as he is.”
2.2 Or as Paul says, Colossians 3:2-4 - “2
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For
you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is
your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
2.3 Or as Paul says again Romans 8:18-19
– “18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not
worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the
creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.”
2.4 What we long for is the coming of
Christ, the revelation of our Lord, the fullness of our salvation.
2.4.1
Many Christians fear the end times, strangely. Because they are afraid to
go through tribulation. They fear what might happen. But many Christians have
faced crazy hard times, and as Jesus said, “see that you are not
alarmed.” Our destiny is in his hands, and that is something to long
for.
2.5 Now, as I said we are not going to
get into the debates about the tribulation this morning. What I want to show
you today is that many past generations of Christians thought they were living
in the end times, the tribulation itself, and they were wrong. Even though they
had good reason to believe it.
3. Many Times The End Of The World
Happened (But Didn’t).
3.1 The destruction of Jerusalem – I have preached a whole sermon this
event, based on Mark 13, it is titled: A Prophecy of the End, but what end?
3.1.1
There is no doubt many early Christians believed this to be the
prophesied tribulation and end times: Schaff tells us in his history of the
Christian Church: “The prophetic description of the last days by our Lord began
to be fulfilled before the generation to which he spoke had passed away, and
the day of judgement seemed to be close at hand. So the Christians believed,
and had good reason to believe.”[1]
Why did they have reason to believe?
3.1.1.1 It began with the reign of Nero,
Christian persecution, and decadence and evil, that even shamed many Romans
watching on.
3.1.1.2 The temple, God’s house was wiped
out.
3.1.1.3 The abomination of desolation
trampled all over the holy place.
3.1.1.4 The Jews were annihilated in a one of
the most destructive wars in the world till that time.
3.1.1.5 As the armies surrounded Jerusalem,
Christians fled, just as Jesus told them to.
3.1.1.6 It was truly a tribulation, a time of
trouble, like none other, that had been seen in the world of that era. Even the
Roman’s were horrified, and the terrors which the Jews struck upon each other
equalled, if not excelled what the Roman’s did.
3.1.1.7 Read Tacitus’ description of the era:
“Tacitus begins his history of Rome after the death of Nero with these words:
"I proceed to a work rich in disasters, full of atrocious battles, of
discord and rebellion, yea, horrible even in peace. Four princes [Galba, Otho,
Vitellius, Domitian] killed by the sword; three civil wars, several foreign
wars; and mostly raging at the same time. Favorable events in the East [the
subjugation of the Jews], unfortunate ones in the West. Illyria disturbed, Gaul
uneasy; Britain conquered and soon relinquished; the nations of Sarmatia and
Suevia rising against us; the Parthians excited by the deception of a
pseudo-Nero. Italy also weighed down by Dew or oft-repeated calamities; cities
swallowed up or buried in ruins; Rome laid waste by conflagrations, the old
temples burned up, even the capitol set on fire by citizens; sanctuaries
desecrated; adultery rampant in high places. The sea filled with exiles; the
rocky islands contaminated with murder. Still more horrible the fury in the
city. Nobility, riches, places of honor, whether declined or occupied, counted
as crimes, and virtue sure of destruction.”[2]
3.1.1.8 Many saw this as the end of days, and
had every reason to, but it was not. It does point to them though, what they
will be like.
3.2 The Invading Muslim Hordes – One of the things we keep hearing
people say is how so much of this Covid time is unprecedented. Indeed, the word
unprecedented has been used at unprecedented levels through this entire crisis.
But history has a way of throwing up unprecedented curveballs. It was
unprecedented went the Arab armies, supposedly inspired by Muhammed, came
raging out of the Arabian peninsula, and defeated Heraclius, the Roman Emperor
and the Persian Empire as well.
3.2.1
Till this time Arab armies were considered decent soldiers, but bad
armies. They were used as light cavalry by the Romans as auxiliaries. Indeed,
many of the Roman Arab soldiers were Christians. Arabs were not known for
standing and fighting in pitched battles. They preferred quick in and out
raids, which is why they made good light cavalry.
3.2.2
But this all changed in 636AD when an Arab army crushed the Byzantine
Army of Heraclius. Rome at this time was weakened by a long war with Persia,
which they had won actually. But this battle was lost, and the Provinces of
Palestine were captured, Jerusalem was captured a few years later, then the
Muslim armies not long after this conquered much of the Persian Empire, and
took Egypt from the Romans.
3.2.3
From the perspective of the Greek Christians of the era, it was like the
Abyss was opened, and the servants of the devil were raging across the land,
burning churches, raping Christian women, killing Christian men, and more. This
felt like the end of days. But really it was the end of Roman Imperial rule in
the lands of Syria and Jerusalem.
3.2.4
For some time afterwards this is how Muhammed was described: “The
medieval writers, both Greek and Latin, represent Mohammed as an imposter and
arch-heretic, who wove his false religion chiefly from Jewish (Talmudic) fables
and Christian heresies. They find him foretold in the little horn of Daniel,
and the False Prophet of the Apocalypse.”[3]
Who better to serve as the model anti-Christ than a false prophet like
Muhammed? But yet this was not the end. It felt like it, but it was not.
3.3 The Words of Pope Gregory in the 7th
Century – Now I know
it is not the best thing to do, to quote a Pope in a Baptist Church, but surely
it is ok, if I am saying he was wrong? Pope Gregory wrote to an Anglo-Saxon
King in 601 AD, these interesting words:
3.3.1
“But as the same end of the world approaches, many things are at hand
which were not before, viz. changes of the air, and terrors from heaven, and
tempests out of order of the season, wars, famines earthquakes in several
places; which things will not, nevertheless happen in our days, but after our
days.”[4]
3.3.2
What was this guy seeing? The Climate changing and bringing storms out of
season. Sound familiar?? All sorts of troubles around the world. And he
believed the end of time was imminent, maybe not in his day, but soon. This was
written 1419 years ago. It felt like the end was nigh, but it wasn’t, not even
close.
3.4 The Reformation – is another classic period where many
thought they were in the end of Days. Indeed, the popular idea that the pope
was the Anti-Christ took hold in this era, and has remained in much of the
Church. It might even be right for all we know, eventually. Surely many popes
have been wicked.
3.4.1
Think about this time: the church was not just split in half, but into hundreds, if
not more, small little bickering factions, that did not just turn against the
Catholic Church, but against each other. Whole governments were brought into
question. Rebellions happened all over the place. There are many examples of
people believing this was the tribulation, but my favourite is Melchoir
Hoffman.
3.4.2
Hoffman was a radical end times preacher. A millenarian. He preached the
imminent coming of the kingdom of God, to be established in Strasbourg. He
believed the world would end in 1533, “and that he would ride into Strassburg
with Christ in the clouds to establish the New Jerusalem.”[5]
3.4.3
A follower of his prophesied over him in 1533 that he would spend 6
months in jail. So, Hoffman turned himself in, waiting in jail for the coming
of Jesus. He died in 1543, in prison, a broken man.
3.4.4
Hoffman comes across as many of the false prophets of today’s church do:
charismatic, smart, creative, a great preacher, he gathered a massive
following. I wish many of the modern versions of him would follow his example
and offer to stay in jail until their prophecies come true.
3.4.5
Hoffman caused a lot of damage, some of his followers took his words to
the next level, took over a town called Munster, tried to set up the kingdom of
God, instituted polygamy, violence against unbelievers, etc, etc. The leaders
in Munster were so wicked, that in 1535, in the middle of the Reformation, the
Catholics and Protestants united to defeat them in battle to take back the
city.
3.4.6
Many bad men like Hoffman’s followers, and many good Christian men,
believed that the Reformation was the end of time, the beginning of the
tribulation. They had many reasons to believe this. They were wrong.
3.5 The Napoleonic Wars – John said this: 1 John 2:18 - “Children,
it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now
many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”
John predicted that many Anti-Christ’s would come, before the big one, the
final one. So, who is the Anti-Christ? Well, I wonder if John knew how many
predictions there would be, if the end time predictors were right, then the
Anti-Christ has come a thousand times. Now, there is no doubt that many lesser
anti-Christs, that is false Messiahs have sprung up, but did you know Napoleon
was a number one contender in his day?
3.5.1
Napoleon built an Army the size of which Europe had never seen. Rather
than being tens of thousands strong, it contained half a million men. He
conquered most of Europe: In 1804 he was crowned the Emperor of the Gauls. In
1807 he divided Europe with the Tsar of Russia. In 1809 he arrested the pope
and dominated the Papal states. By 1815
Napoleon had fought, subjugated or invaded: Most of Europe, the Middle East,
including Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia, parts of Palestine and
Egypt. He gave his son the title: King of Rome, and he dubbed himself the King
of Kings, and his goal was to set himself up as the supreme sovereign of the
Roman Empire.[6]
3.5.2
One of his famous quotes was: “Remember that I march followed by the god
of fortune and the god of war.”[7]
Some famous preachers of that day saw him as the anti-Christ. Indeed, Napoleon’s
clearly demonic reign inspired new movements dedicated to end time prophecy,
many of which are still around today, and are consistently making predictions
about the end times that are wrong.
3.5.3
There was probably no greater contender for the anti-Christ than Napoleon
in the last couple of hundred years, and yet all those who thought they were in
the end times in his day, were wrong.
3.6 World War 1 – Then of course there is World War 1.
The brilliant history Podcaster Dan Carlin called his WW1 series, the Blueprint
For Armageddon. Well named. 20 Million people died. Tolkien based his idea of
Mordor on the Battle of Somme, where he had fought. Poison gas! Artillery that
felt like the sky was falling in! Weapons that spat hails of bullet like they
were purpose designed by demons to slay man. It was a true meat grinder, as
young man, after young man, was forced to run into machine gun wire again and
again. Just one more charge.
3.6.1
It would have felt to many that demons ruled the Great Powers. I would
say they did. Paul tells us demons rule this world: Ephesians 6:11-12 - “11
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the
schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over
this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
places.” But we can’t beat them with machine guns.
3.6.2
Imagine the first time an ordinary solider saw a tank. It would have felt
like fighting one of the beasts out of Armageddon. Then WW1 was followed by the
Spanish flu that killed 50 Million people. How could you not think this was the
end? And yet it was not only not the end, it wasn’t even our worst war.
3.7 World War 2 – In World War 2, 70-85 million people
died. It is estimated 3% of the world’s population died in or because of the
war. There are so many tragedies in this war: people on all sides were wiping
each other out. The eastern front was probably the closest the world ever
gotten to hell on earth. We are all aware of the famous catastrophes of this
war.
3.7.1
One of the worst single events was the bombing of Dresden. Dresden was a
civilian city, with no significant military infrastructure, and the allies
bombed it into oblivion. Dropping explosive and incendiary bombs, plus Napalm.
Some reports say in one night 250,000 people were killed. The city was
annihilated.
3.7.2
Nagasaki, Hiroshima, deaths in concentrations camps of Slavs, gypsies,
Jews and others and, the slaughter of German, Polish, Russian and Chinese civilians
among others. Total war around the world. In 1919 no one could imagine a war
surpassing the Great War. Then it was not only surpassed, but thoroughly
eclipsed. Most of Europe, England, North Africa, Russia, Japan and massive
parts of China were bombed into oblivion: Revelation 8:7 – “The first
angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and
these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a
third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.”
You could forgive people for thinking they were in the middle of the Trumpet
judgements. Stalin, Hitler, FDR, all candidates for the Anti-Christ, depending
whose side you were one. Yet none were.
4. So what about today? – Is some of what we see today
unprecedented? Yes, worldwide shutdowns of countries. Churches rolling
over in most places without a fight. The economy crippled over a virus, that
while serious, is not what they originally made it out to be. There are signs
of corruption at the highest levels of politics and the medical industry.
Everyone now knows that some vaccines have been cultured in aborted baby cells.
A lot is being revealed, a lot of questions are being raised, and there is a
strangeness to our time. You can feel it in the air, it feels strange, it feels
ominous, like evil is rising. People are nervous about where society is headed.
More can be said.
4.1 But as we have seen, it can get
really bad, really, really, really bad and still not yet be the end times. Many
generations were absolutely convinced they were in them, and they were wrong.
4.2 I am convinced the final generation
will not think they are in the end times, they will know. All of our
interpretations of Revelation will be laid bare before what Jesus actually
does. Until then, how should we live? As Peter told those living in expectation
of the end:
4.2.1
2 Peter 3:14-18 - “14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be
diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count
the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also
wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his
letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them
that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own
destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved,
knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error
of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now
and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
4.2.2
Our role is to live righteous lives, be at peace, trust the Lord will
return in his time, and knows what is best for us.
4.2.3
Also, ignore all of the vain predictions about the return of Christ: “take
care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose
your own stability.” There will always be big and crazy end times
predictions. So far they have all been wrong. But more will be made.
4.2.4
We should focus on growing in grace, and knowledge of Jesus, sharing the
gospel, being his people. In other words, hell or high water, our role is just
to be the Church, come what may. That is our role. To be ready for him to come
at any time. Have you placed your trust in the king? He is returning one day.
5. Conclusion – So, is this the end times? Maybe. I
would not be surprised. But that’s in Jesus’ court. My job, your job, our job,
is to be his faithful witnesses, until he decides to end this thing on his
time. Let’s pray.
References:
[1]
Schaff, Phillip, 1988, A History of the Christian Church, Volume 1,
William B Eerdmans, p391.
[2] Schaff,
Phillip, 1988, A History of the Christian Church, Volume 1, William B
Eerdmans, p392.
[3]
Schaff, Phillip,1989, A History of the Christian Church, Volume 4,
William B Eerdmans, p196.
[4]
From Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, p59.
[5]
Britannica, Melchoir Hoffman, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Melchior-Hofmann.
[6]
Seizer, Stephen, Christian Zionism, Inter-Varsity Press, p31.
[7]
Ibid, p31.
