An Adult Faith Looks at Jesus’s Prediction of the End

[James]

Suppose, for the sake of discussion, that we could if good enough, smart enough, wise enough figure out exactly when the end will come and what will happen when it does. What would it gain us as individual and/or the church? I think that we, the people of God, have wasted a lot of time, money and energy trying to figure this out. What could the church, as the people of God, have done with all that money, brain power and energy have done for the Kingdom of God in the here and now "doing unto the least of these."

I once told the members of my Sunday School that I regarded all this speculation including the Bible verses that generate all this speculation as "Theological Pornography." Basing my comment on the Supreme Courts ruling that pornography is "that which is without redeeming social virtue." All of this has divided and sub-divided and split the subdivisions over and over again. It is detrimental to the public and private education of our children. It has made a mockery of the two great commandments given to us by Jesus-to love God first and always and our neighbors as ourselves. How can we love one another if we are screaming at each other that we are right and they are wrong about something that in the words of Jesus only God knows.

I would rather try to figure out a solution to the homeless problem or figure out how, in the richest nation on earth that produces more food than any other nation, provide enough protein to malnourished children to keep them alive and awake enough to profit from his or her free education. I could go on, but you get the idea. If you have not guessed already, my ThM is in ethics.

Jesus' first words in the Gospel of Mark were, "The Kingdom of God is at hand." We should be about the mission he gave us not trying to second guess God.

[Dave Roberts]

[Sandy]

Premillenialists, dispensationalists, all arrive at their conclusions by separating and compartmentalizing scripture passages, instead of looking at them in context, and in a way where, as a lot of conservatives like to claim, the Bible interprets the Bible. The writers complement and corroborate each other. The whole narrative of the "end times" is connected, in Matthew's gospel, and other passages where Jesus is recorded talking about "last days" or "end of the age," with the apocalyptic works of Daniel and Revelation, and the few other references made by the other writers, mainly Paul in Thessalonians. You have to look at the perspective of the writers, and the citations of Jesus' words. The time that Jesus frames is within the lifetime of those who witnessed his transfiguration, and within the generation to which they belonged. If you put all of the "end times" scriptures in that context, including the writer of Revelation saying that the time for its fulfillment would be "soon", and "near", then it all makes sense. Jesus came to earth, accomplished his purpose, and returned to his Father, though that return, in the context of his perspective as he was narrating it, was "coming into" his Kingdom. When he died on the cross, he said, "It is finished." There's no additional covenant that is either needed, or pointed to.

Perhaps, at some point, the planet will come to an end, and perhaps humanity, which now has the capability, will destroy itself long before that happens, but as far as there being any "Armageddon" calendar, or literal series of events leading up to a "rapture" and then, a tribulation, millenium, and another resurrection and return of Jesus, I just don't see it there. That can only be explained by dispensationalism, which I don't believe is something that can be deduced from scripture that is consistently interpreted. Jesus is the final sacrifice, he's capable of redeeming all humanity, and there's no need for another convoluted series of events to bring things to a close.

[KeithE]