Are we in the ‘end times’?
Yesterday I was the guest on the hour-long 'Bible surgery' on Premier Christian Radio, hosted by Maria Rodrigues and recorded over Zoom. It was the first fourth dimension that I had worked with Maria, and she is a lovely person!
Although the programme was an hour long, with songs and breaks my contribution was about 35 minutes in total. You tin listen to information technology here.
In response to questions, we discussed:
o.oo My ain encounter with the bug in my Christian journeying.
2.38 Does the Bible teach the doctrine of the 'Rapture', when Christians will exist secretly whisked away to heaven by Jesus?
I have commented on this at length in several articles, including this one on the relevant reading from Matt 24, where I note:
The comparison with the 'days of Noah' contains a simple logical construction which, because of assumptions we make about the passage, it is like shooting fish in a barrel to miss. In the days of Noah, nigh people were unaware of the coming judgement, and were pre-occupied with the mundane realities of life, as if these were all that mattered. When the alluvion came, they were taken away, whilst Noah and has family unit, having taken notice of God and made set, remained behind in the ark and stayed to repopulate the earth.In the same way, people will be pre-occupied with the mundane realities of life, equally if these were all that mattered, just when Jesus returns they will exist swept abroad in judgement. Those who follow the educational activity of Jesus and have made ready will be left behind to receive and live in the coming kingdom, the New Jerusalem which volition come from heaven to earth (Rev 21).
The logic of this is quite clear: in the days of Noah, it was the wicked facing judgement who were swept away, and the righteous who were left.In the same fashion it will exist those absorbed with this life who will exist swept abroad, whilst those who are ready for Jesus will exist left behind.
Therefore I want to exist left behind, and y'all should as well.
8.05 Will Jesus come up downward to Jerusalem, so volition those of the states in the U.k. miss out?
This is the comment I make in my IVP commentary on the Book of Revelation on the beginning of chapter 21:
Every bit John'due south report of what he has seen unfolds, the contrasts and connections with earlier parts of his vision report go more muted, especially those connected with judgement, but keep to be present. The details of the bride-city offer a clear dissimilarity with the depiction of 'Babylon' earlier, but John is content to allow us to notice these for ourselves, rather than drawing attention to them.
He does his theology through numbers, structures and lists as he has done at cardinal points earlier in the text, especially in Rev. 7–13. This boggling (and, literally speaking, impossible) giant cube-city is a new holy of holies, not one that is a unmarried part of a single temple in a single city in a single land in the world, just encompassing the world itself of John's day. This is the holy presence of God on a truly cosmic scale. As with his first vision of heavenly worship in Rev. 4, the exact details of what John sees are impossible to make sense of – but their multiple significance is to exist found in his re-use of Erstwhile Testament imagery. This urban center is not only the counter-point to all failed man aspiration to transcendence and significance ('to make a name for ourselves', Gen. 11:four) but fulfils the specific promise of the people of God every bit they longed to see themselves returned dwelling house from exile and longed to encounter God'south proper noun glorified over again.
The city that shines with the celebrity of God is (with its walls reaching to the skies) the ultimate place of security and peace. Its splendour and magnificence are without compare, dwarfing all human being measures of extravagance. It is the home for the beautifully adorned bride of the lamb; it is the home of the priestly people of God; it is the place where the created order is restored to its original splendour.
12.06 What is the marker of the fauna, and volition it be obvious to us that something is the marking of the fauna?
In my article on the marking of beast I observe:
There are a few things worth noting here immediately. The first is that John is not hither offering an esoteric and mysterious code which requires hole-and-corner knowledge to unlock. The phrase 'this calls for wisdom' is echoed later in Rev 17.nine, when we are told well-nigh the identity of the Great Whore of Babylon: 'The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.' This is a clear reference to the seven hills of Rome; it is not a secret! In the same style, it is reasonable to assume that John expected his readers to sympathise conspicuously what he was referring to.
This leads to the second observation. Quite a few commentators argue that we should non try and piece of work out what the number stands for; it is symbolic, and its threefold '6' suggests a falling brusque and imperfection, in dissimilarity with the number 7 which is associated with God. In fact, 7 is a number of completeness rather than holiness, and the problem with this argument is that it contradicts the patently sense of the text, which in fact tells united states of america to 'calculate', to work it out (the verb ispsephizo, so you might imagine I have an interest in it!).
Thirdly, another matter which is oft missed by commentators is that this marking cannot be interpreted separately from making sense of the 'seal' which is put on the foreheads of the 144,000 servants of God in Rev vii.3 (though the act of this sealing is never in fact recounted). Chapter xiv offers two juxtaposed scenes—of the 144,000 who take been sealed enjoying the presence of God, and the balance of humanity who have the mark of the beast facing the judgement of God. In other words, the two marks or seals divide humanity completely into two distinct groups, the saved and the judged. You either take the seal of God, or the mark of the beast; y'all cannot take both or neither. This is office of the text's full general strategy to raised the stakes in terms of the readers' relationship with their civilization; it is often less about comforting the oppressed, as much as challenging the comfortable to realise that they cannot compromise in their discipleship.
eighteen.00 Is the 144,000 in Rev 7 those who are saved? If so, will well-nigh Christians miss out?
In my commentary on Rev 7 I summarise the theology as follows:
John'southward vision here offers a three-fold picture of the people of God which are interrelated. The first is of a people looking similar an army ready for spiritual warfare as they endure the intermediate time between their release from slavery and before their entry into the promised land, recast by John to refer to the menses from Jesus' death, resurrection and exaltation until his return and the renewal of all things. The 2d is of this people Israel now drawn from all nations of the earth, 'out of every nation' in terms of having members from every nation rather than being a nation set autonomously by national and ethnic boundaries. They are a people caught up in the praise of the i on the throne and of the lamb that we encountered in Rev. 4–5. The third portrait is of this people having come up through intense suffering – not the suffering brought nearly by God's wrath and judgement, only the 'tribulation' that comes from staying faithful to the testimony of the lamb who was slain in the face of relentless opposition. They are protected from divine judgement, merely nonetheless endure suffering at the hands of human power; capacity six and 7 together role equally a narrative exposition of Jesus injunction in Matt. 10:28. 'do non fearfulness those who impairment the body, merely God who tin can destroy the soul'.
Together, these portraits give us a picture of a people in receipt of God'due south grace and responding to information technology. In dissimilarity to those who, in desperation, cry to the rocks and mountains for protection (6:16), the servants of God await for the gift of protection that comes from God'due south sealing of them. They stand in white earlier the throne considering of the gift of the blood of the lamb, by which they have been purchased as a kingdom of priests for God (v:9). And their response to this gift is to remain faithful, just as Jesus did, and be set up to live a disciplined life of obedience. The holy warfare for which they are prepared is their non-violent witness to Jesus, even to the point of expiry.
24.10 If the Book of Revelation is written for the beginning century, why are we reading it now? What is its relevance?
In my section on 'What kind of text is Revelation?' I note its three primary genres:
Outset, information technology is an apocalypse, that is, a revelation from God. John is claiming to offer us a perspective on the world that we could non piece of work out for ourselves, and and so nosotros need to pay attention, to look and listen. This is emphasized in his repeated interjection of 'Behold!' (26 times, from 1:7 through to 22:12). Such 'revelation' is in fact at the middle of the Christian faith, and the verb apokalypto is used repeatedly by Paul to describe how the good news has come up to us (Rom. 1:17, 8:18, 1 Cor. 2:ten, Gal. 3:23, Eph. three:5 and and then on).
Secondly, what John writes is a letter, conspicuously communicated in the epistolary markers in Rev. one which offering close parallels to the style of Paul'southward messages, and the endmost epistolary comments which also echo Paul. Letters are written to particular people living in a particular fourth dimension and place, and taking Revelation seriously every bit a letter means reading it in its historical and cultural context simply as we would any other letter in the New Attestation. John knew his readers who lived in the province of Asia, and he appears to accept expected them to understand what he wrote.
3rd, Revelation claims to be a prophecy, a word used seven times in the book, five times emphatically describing what John has written (one:3, 22:seven, 10, xviii, 19). Prophecy is less concerned with predicting the time to come in any abstruse sense, and more concerned with communicating God's bulletin, calling people to obedience by highlighting the consequences of their actions and the new possibilities offered by repentance and obedience. Having fabricated sense of Revelation by reading and listening carefully, nosotros and so need to reply to what John reveals about the world we live in by keeping faith with Jesus, the give-and-take of God.
28.48 Why does thinking near eschatology matter?
I explore this in the final chapter of my Grove booklet,Kingdom, Promise and the Terminate of the World,which I reproduce in this post on the pastoral importance of eschatology.
xxx.24 Nosotros currently take decadent authorities, merchants exploiting the system, massive ecology damage—does this evidence we are in the end times predicted by Jesus?
I offer this summary in my section on the theological themes of Revelation in the introduction to the commentary:
The rhetorical goal of John's writing – for his first readers besides as for subsequent generations – is that they should exist motivated and equipped to alive every bit mature disciples of Jesus. The central element of this is to be a 'faithful witness' equally Jesus was, living a life of 'patient endurance' (1:ix) in the face of opposition and difficulty, simply motivated by a clearer understanding of the 'kingdom' that is ours in Jesus. Information technology is this 'quietist' approach, involving non-violent resistance to the forces of imperial conformity, which constitutes true victory, trusting as it does in God's ultimate power and justice for vindication. This is a life that is lived in abiding apprehension, always looking forwards to the promised end, and so that the present becomes shaped by the hope of the future. As in Paul's agreement (seen, for instance, in his clarification of baptism and resurrection in Romans vi), the saints are already kickoff to alive the resurrection life – they are already casting their crowns before the throne of God since they are already 'dwellers in heaven' – and this is to be lived out in their various contexts on world until the final and definitive visitation of God's presence in the grade of the holy urban center that descends from sky. In Revelation, being a disciple is nearly living in the 'now' as well every bit the 'not yet' of expectation, with the one-time decisively shaped by the latter.
I promise you lot enjoy the broadcast!
You can purchase my Grove booklet on eschatology (post free in the U.k.) at the Grove website here.
Y'all can purchase my commentary on Revelation from IVP here or any good bookstore.
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