Introduction to My Thoughts on the End Times
Though I am often asked about my view of the end times, I usually reply only briefly because a proper answer would take too much time. I rarely preach on the topic for the same reason. But writing out my thoughts on the matter in several blog installments might be a more workable way to help our congregation understand my perspective on the end times. So here we go…
The first generation or two of Christians didn’t have a highly developed view of the end times because they believed Jesus would return in their lifetimes. The ancient creeds say little more about the end than that Jesus will return to raise the dead and judge all souls.
The nation of Israel didn’t figure in early Christian beliefs on the last days. After Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and dismantled the Jewish state (AD 70), Christians believed Israel was finished – for good.
That changed when biblical scholarship in the 1800’s began to interpret the Bible as an ordinary book. Liberals who did so dismissed the Bible as ancient superstition. But conservatives accepted the Bible as divine revelation and did something the ancient church rarely did – applied the scientific approach of literal interpretation to the Scriptures.
Using literal interpretation conservatives concluded that the prophets predicted a restoration of the state of Israel prior to Christ’s return. They then constructed a detailed system of theology (and the end times) called dispensationalism explaining this idea.
The basic premise of their system is that God has two separate plans operating in history. The first involves His earthly people, Israel; the second involves His heavenly people, the Church. Israel is not the Church. The Church is not Israel. The two plans and the two peoples are separate and almost completely unrelated.
The plan for Israel ran from Genesis to Jesus. When the Jews rejected Jesus, God put the plan for Israel on hold and launched His second plan: the Church Age. The Church Age was a secret plan not mentioned in the Old Testament (Ephesians 3.4-6).
When the Church Age is complete, Christ will snatch the Church out of the world (the rapture) to be kept safe in heaven, while God picks up the plan for Israel on the earth. Somewhat ironically, most of the topics regarding the end times (e.g. the antichrist, the tribulation) have to do with Israel, not the Church!
That’s a simplified pencil-sketch of the end times developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries using a literal interpretation of the Bible. It was the system I was taught in Bible college and which most of us learned in our churches. It is also a system that I left behind some time ago, and in this series of blogs, I’ll try to explain why.
The first generation or two of Christians didn’t have a highly developed view of the end times because they believed Jesus would return in their lifetimes. The ancient creeds say little more about the end than that Jesus will return to raise the dead and judge all souls.
The nation of Israel didn’t figure in early Christian beliefs on the last days. After Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and dismantled the Jewish state (AD 70), Christians believed Israel was finished – for good.
That changed when biblical scholarship in the 1800’s began to interpret the Bible as an ordinary book. Liberals who did so dismissed the Bible as ancient superstition. But conservatives accepted the Bible as divine revelation and did something the ancient church rarely did – applied the scientific approach of literal interpretation to the Scriptures.
Using literal interpretation conservatives concluded that the prophets predicted a restoration of the state of Israel prior to Christ’s return. They then constructed a detailed system of theology (and the end times) called dispensationalism explaining this idea.
The basic premise of their system is that God has two separate plans operating in history. The first involves His earthly people, Israel; the second involves His heavenly people, the Church. Israel is not the Church. The Church is not Israel. The two plans and the two peoples are separate and almost completely unrelated.
The plan for Israel ran from Genesis to Jesus. When the Jews rejected Jesus, God put the plan for Israel on hold and launched His second plan: the Church Age. The Church Age was a secret plan not mentioned in the Old Testament (Ephesians 3.4-6).
When the Church Age is complete, Christ will snatch the Church out of the world (the rapture) to be kept safe in heaven, while God picks up the plan for Israel on the earth. Somewhat ironically, most of the topics regarding the end times (e.g. the antichrist, the tribulation) have to do with Israel, not the Church!
That’s a simplified pencil-sketch of the end times developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries using a literal interpretation of the Bible. It was the system I was taught in Bible college and which most of us learned in our churches. It is also a system that I left behind some time ago, and in this series of blogs, I’ll try to explain why.