20. Chapter Seventeen: The Future of the Christian
Chapter Seventeen THE FUTURE OF THE CHRISTIAN
1go to prepare a place for you. And if1go and prepare a place for you, 1 will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where 1 am, there ye may he also. —John 14:2-3 THE world unites in testifying that we are in an hour of dire crisis. Many are predicting impending calamities. Some say that the race is heading toward destruction. Many believe we are on the verge of the eclipse of civilization itself.
Many of the best-selling books deal with dire predictions of the future. Editorials in newspapers and magazines are talking about Armageddon, the end of time and the destruction of civilization. A president in his inaugural says, “Science has bequeathed to us the ability to destroy ourselves.” Mr. William Vogt in his book, Road to Survival, says, “The handwriting on the wall of five continents now tells us that the day of judgment is at hand.” Dr, Richard K. Ullmann has written: “We live in an age of decision, of choice between right and wrong, between good and evil, between life and death, such as has never occurred before. If we choose wrongly, we may be the last generation of mankind.”
Professor Sorokin has said: “We live amidst one of the greatest crises in human history. Not only war, famine, pestilence, and revolution, but a legion of other calamities are also rampant over the whole world. All values are unsettled. All norms are broken. Humanity has become a distorted image of its own noble self. The crisis is omnipresent and involves almost the whole of culture and society from top to bottom. It is manifest in the fine arts and science, in philosophy and religion, in ethics and law. It permeates the forms of social, economic and political organizations and the entire way of living and thinking. There is every reason to expect that the disastrous effects of such calamities will fall upon us in a much more intensive and extensive scale during this catastrophic age of ours.” As we move through the vast literature created by the atomic and hydrogen bombs—the books and articles that, on one hand, describe the experiments in Nevada and Bikini; and, on the other hand, those that attempt to portray something of the inescapable crisis that is now facing the human race—we are amazed to find that science is now using Biblical terminology. As Dr. Wilbur Smith says, “Plato, Seneca, Aristotle and practically none of the great philosophers ever attempted to delve into the future.” The Bible is the only Book in the world that has an eschatology. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible is full of the events that await the climax of history. For the past few years church leaders have been afraid of fanaticism in the discussion of future events, but the church is taking a new look at these reams of Holy Scripture that talk about the future-events’ course of human history. The World Council of Churches, for its meeting at Evanston in 1954, chose as its theme: “Christ, The Hope of the World.” The World Council appointed committees to study the teachings of the Bible in order that the church might present an adequate picture of God’s revelation concerning the future. At a moment like this men and women who are untaught in the Bible are prone, as in every preceding critical hour, to become the dupes of false prophets, spiritualism, palm readers, tea leaf readers, and other forms of superstitions. Thousands of dollars are being spent daily by frightened people trying to find some inkling as to what the future holds. All they have to do is go to the nearest book shop and purchase an inexpensive Bible and find within its pages the secrets of the future.
There is not one sentence in Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health that throws any light on the future. You can read the Koran from cover to cover and not find a word concerning the future of mankind. It is the Bible, and the Bible alone, that casts a penetrating light into the darkness and mystery of the future. The veil of mystery is lifted, the future is revealed—the Bible predicts that there is coming an end to this world system as we know it. The Bible declares that the climax of history will be the coming again of Jesus Christ. The Bible gives hints that the greatest coronation of all time will take place when Christ is crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I am aware of the fact that this is a controversial and often misunderstood subject. We have had a great many fanatics in past years who have gone about the country setting dates, and as a result this glorious truth has been obscured. The magazine Religion in Life carried an article entitled “The Christian Hope—Its Meaning For Today.” The subject of the future was discussed by three intellectual leaders. One is Dr. Arnold J. Toynbee, the famous British historian; another is Dr. Amos N. Wilder, well-known theologian at the University of Chicago; and the other is Dr. C. S. Lewis, famed English scholar and professor at Oxford University.
Toynbee sees a world divided into two camps as a result of technological changes which have made all men neighbors without giving them tolerance, love, and understanding of one another. The Christian hope, according to Toynbee, is to fight the leviathan of man-worship, materialism, and collectivism.
Dr. Wilder, on the other hand, doubts if man can find the Christian hope within history itself. Redemption, he believes, must come from spiritual resources outside the human race. Man must realize that God’s purposes will eventually be worked out in the world even if it requires the refining fires of war and tragedy. Man will some day build a kingdom of God on earth largely through his own strength and wisdom.
It is not until we come to the statement by Dr. Lewis that we feel that we are on a Biblical basis for thinking. Lewis accepts God’s Word as the truth. He frankly declares, “It seems to me impossible to retain in any recognizable form our belief in the divinity of Christ and the truth of the Christian revelation while abandoning or deducting the promised and threatened return of Jesus Christ.”
Dr. Lewis points out three reasons why people scoff at the idea of the return of Jesus Christ to this earth: first, many professed Christians say it is a false teaching since the second coming of Jesus Christ did not take place as the early church predicted. It is true that the early Christians looked for the Lord’s return in their time, but many prophecies of the Bible were to be fulfilled before the second coming, says Lewis. Second, the theory of evolution keeps many people from believing the doctrine of the second coming of Christ. If we believe man is progressing upward of himself, we will never accept the promise of Christ that He will return and bring an end to sin and death. Third, he points out the doctrine that Christ is coming cuts across the plans and dreams of millions of people. They want to eat, drink, and be merry without interference in their selfish course of action. This was exactly the reason why the scoffers of Noah’s time refused to believe in a flood, for they did not wish anything to mar their selfish plans for the future. The Bible itself predicted that scoffers would come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:4). The whole point of God’s offer of hope and of God’s warning would have been lost if, in departing, He had left behind the exact date of His return. It is because we know not at what hour He will return that we must keep our spiritual houses in readiness at all times. The great D. L. Moody used to say, “I never preach a sermon without thinking that possibly the Lord may come before I preach another.”
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, the distinguished British clergyman, said, “I never begin my work in the morning without thinking that perhaps He may interrupt my work and begin His own. I am not looking for death. I am looking for Him.”
That’s the way a Christian should five his life, in the constant anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ! If we could live every day as though it might be the very last one before the final judgment, what a difference it would make here on earth! But we don’t like to think that way! We don’t like to think that our carefully made plans, our long-range schemes may be interrupted by the trumpets of God! Were so engrossed in our own little activities that we can’t bear the thought of having anything spoil them! Too many people would rather say, “Oh well, the end of the world hasn’t come yet, so why think about it—it’s probably a thousand years away!”
It may be! But on the other hand, it may not! I’m not going to predict the end of the world. Too many well- meaning people have done that and been guilty of tragic disservice to the Christian cause. Too many religious cranks and fanatics have held Christian faith up to ridicule by making false predictions.
Students of religious history can recall all too vividly the many times that self-styled prophets have created mass hysteria. Back in 1843, William Miller predicted that the end of the world would occur on the night of March 21. At exactly midnight, he declared, the trumpets would sound, the heavens would roll up like a great scroll, and Jesus would appear for the second time! Those who believed William Miller, instead of the Bible, gathered in a great crowd and waited, and then slipped home in the early morning light, disappointed and ashamed.
They could have been saved this public embarrassment had they but recalled the warning that Jesus uttered over and over, “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.” (Mark 13:35-37).
Both false predictions and human unwillingness to admit that life on this earth may come to a sudden halt, because of supernatural forces quite outside ourselves, have made many people scoff at the idea of the second coming.
There is still another reason which has lulled too much of the “civilized” world into an unwarranted feeling of security. It is the erroneous doctrine of “progress!” According to this teaching, man and all his works are slowly and painfully making their way upward by their own strength and intelligence. Many who believe in this theory also claim to believe in the second coming of Christ, but they say this coming means only the day when man will have purified himself by his own means! When he will have come to recognize the futility of war, the stupidity of greed and selfish behavior, the uselessness of prejudice and intolerance, and clearly understands that he is his brother’s keeper and must five according to the Golden Rule! This myth—for the theory of inevitable “progress” is a myth and nothing more—is based on what man hopes is happening and not on what is really taking place. When such men point to the fact that modern medicine is now making it possible for us to live longer than our ancestors, they overlook the fact that death is still our ultimate destiny. At best, we have only been able to postpone it for a few brief years. When they point to our vastly improved transportation and communications systems, they try to ignore the fact that we have used our conquest of the air mainly to carry death and destruction to our fellow men and not to spread the gospel and Christian faith. When they boast of our far-flung network of schools and colleges, they quickly pass over the fact that much of the teaching in these schools and colleges has led students further from, instead of closer to God.
These men exalt the ingenious minds that have finally solved the mystery of the atom, while we tremble at the thought of what this, the zenith of mans cleverness, may have brought upon us all!
These are among the high points of mans “progress.” These are the achievements from which some men take hope, on which some men pin their faith of a better and more peaceful world. They seem to take it for granted that “progress” leads always toward improvement, when in reality it can lead backwards as well as ahead!
What, then, are the arguments on the other side? What sure proof do we have that Jesus will return and that we should live our lives in constant readiness for that glorious day? The Bible is our proof, of course, and in the Scripture the second coming of Christ is given a most prominent place. Some Bible students have shown that one out of every thirty verses mentions this doctrine, and for every one mention of the first coming of Christ there are eight references to His second coming! In all, there are three hundred and eighteen references to it. In the Old Testament it is the theme of the prophets, and in the New Testament whole books (1 and 2 Thessalonians) and entire chapters (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) are devoted to it. The whole Bible emphasizes over and over the fact that Christ will come back. For example, in Isaiah (Isaiah 66:15) we are told that “the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.” In Jeremiah, we are told that at the Lord’s coming Jerusalem will be made the throne of His glory and nations shall be gathered in representation. There shall be a mighty disarmament conference in Jerusalem, far greater than any the world has ever seen in Washington or London or Paris!
Ezekiel tells of Jerusalem which is to be restored, a temple which is to be rebuilt, and a land which is to be reclaimed and filled with prosperity.
Daniel saw Him in visions, coming as the Judge and King of the earth.
Hosea says that in the latter times when the Lord shall return, Israel shall accept Him as Lord and King.
Joel describes the world’s armies arrayed in the last day against the host of heaven.
Amos reveals the new throne of David established again in Jerusalem.
Obadiah issues serious warnings in view of the coming again of the Prince of Princes.
Micah announces the cessation of all wars when swords shall be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks.
Nahum tells of the mountains quaking beneath His feet and the very earth burning with the presence of Christ.
Habakkuk shows the King measuring the new Kingdom with a measuring rod and all the hills bowing unto Him.
Zephaniah gives us the new song that He will teach unto Israel and describes the overthrow of the false Christ.
Haggai tells of the shaking of all things and only the things of God remaining.
Zechariah gives the picture of His feet standing again on the Mount of Olives. The mountain shall split in twain and the valley of decision shall be formed.
Malachi closes the Old Testament story of the coming Prince by showing Him as a refiners fire and as a fuller’s soap, and as the rising sun filling the whole earth with His glory. The Old Testament is brimming with accounts of the second coming of Christ. In the New Testament the predictions of His coming are even more vivid and couched in even clearer terms. Matthew likens Christ to a bridegroom coming to receive his bride.
Mark sees Him as a householder going on a long journey and committing certain tasks to his servants until his return. To Luke, Jesus is a nobleman going into a far country to transact certain businesses and leaving his possessions with his servants in order that they might trade with them until he comes.
John quotes Christ as saying, “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” In Romans we see Him at His coming placing all things beneath His feet. In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells of the Lord’s coming to awaken and raise the dead; 2 Corinthians describes the new house we shall have when this earthly house is dissolved.
Colossians (Colossians 3:4) says, “When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” In 1 Thessalonians, Paul tells us to wait for God’s Son from heaven. 2 Thessalonians gives us the glorious picture of the Lord coming with His saints. In Timothy, we find these words, that the Lord will reward all those who “love His appearing.”
Titus talks about the “blessed hope.”
Hebrews tells about His coming the second time apart from sin.
James urges his readers to be patient unto the coming of the Lord.
Peter says that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night.
John gives the great promise to all believers, “Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
Jude says, “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints.” And the whole Book of Revelation is given over to the teaching of the coming of Jesus Christ. Not only does the Old Testament tell us to expect the second coming of Christ, not only is the New Testament filled with the promise of it, but if we would study the historic documents of our major denominations, we would find that our founders all believed and accepted it. The most thrilling, glorious truth in all the world is the second coming of Jesus Christ. It is the sure promise of the future, when all about us is pessimism and gloom. When people wail, “What is to become of us, whither are we drifting?” the Bible can give them a sure, straight answer. The Bible says that the consummation of all things shall be the coming again of Jesus Christ, and the rewards that await the elect of God! As to the exact time and date that this glorious event will occur, I would not defy Providence by hazarding a guess! I know too well that passage in Acts 1:6-7, when the disciples asked, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus answered saying, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.”
It is not important that we know the exact time of His coming. What is important is that we live our lives in such a way as to be ready for it at any moment! Jesus said that the angels in heaven did not know, that only God Himself is aware of the hour and the moment when the mighty blasts shall be heard, the heavens shall part and Christ and His heavenly host shall appear once more to human eyes!
Jesus did, however, say that there would be certain trends that might indicate that the time of his second appearance was drawing near. He said, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads: for your redemption draweth nigh. And He spake to them a parable: Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:28-31). And what were these trends that Jesus bid us look and watch for? “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity: the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts fading them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26.)
Time, as measured by the angels who view all eternity, is far different from the earthly calendar by which we reckon it. To us who clutch desperately to our allotted three score years and ten, to us who see the days in relation to our own particular stay on earth, to us a hundred years, two hundred, five hundred years seem a long, long time. Such time, however, is but a day to God!
Many scholars who read the Scriptures correctly in the view of current events, feel that we are living now in the latter days of life on this earth and that we have entered upon the final era—the last act of the mighty drama that started all those thousands of years ago in the Garden of Eden!
There are stirrings in the Middle East. Ancient Persia is once again a key nation because of oil. With the re-establishment of Israel as a separate nation, a sovereign state with its own currency, its own army, its own identity, the wheel has made its mighty cycle and is coming to a full turn. It was in that rich and fertile crescent of the Near East that our civilization had its beginning. From this restricted area it spread out in all directions. It encircled the globe. It moved steadily around, pausing sometimes to collect itself and gather strength, trapped sometimes in the mighty talons of man’s many dark ages of barbarism, ignorance, godlessness, and fear. Until now at last, and in our time, it is beginning to return to the scene of its beginning. In addition, these scholars look about them and see all too clearly the picture that Jesus painted when He said: “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until that day that Noah entered the ark. And knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:37-42). These scholars point out (Daniel 12:4) where Daniel refers to the great increase in knowledge of the last days as another of the trends that indicates the approaching end. “Many shall run to and fro,” this passage tells us, and we need no prompting to recognize the tremendous increase in both travel and knowledge that has marked these past fifty years. Never before in all recorded history have events been so speeded up, never before has one man-made wonder followed so closely the heels of others.
Medical men and psychiatrists for the past twenty-five years have been saying that the human body is not geared for such tension, that it cannot withstand so much speed and pressure, but we dash forward just the same. Many of the mighty leaders, whose work has made this drastic speed-up possible, have dropped dead at their desks, victims of the very Frankenstein monster they created!
We are told that Ezekiel 38, 39 may well be describing Russia and the mighty power of Communism, in the great armies that shall rise and march against the Lord in the latter days.
Many intellectuals scoffed at 2 Peter 3:10-12 a few years ago, but the explosion of the hydrogen bomb and the terrible possibilities of the cobalt bomb have changed their skepticism to wonderment at the Bible predictions. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”
I would certainly not make the mistake of William Miller, or of so many other sincere but over-zealous men of God, in setting even an approximate date for the return of Christ. I do, however, in all seriousness point out that the times in which we are living differ radically from any that have gone before. The tempo is increased, events of such magnitude that any one of them would have been the sensation of the age a short time ago, now come so close together that many pass almost unnoticed. Moral laxness has become so common and so widely accepted that little or no effort is made to conceal it. Corruption in high places is almost taken as the rule rather than the exception!
Above all we are faced with the mighty force of Communism—the greatest, most well-organized and outspoken foe of Christianity that the church has confronted since the days of pagan Rome! The anti-Christ, that the prophets warned would appear in the latter days, may be growing and taking concrete shape before our very eyes—A bold, brazen, well-armed anti-Christ, who does not stoop to disguise his identity or masquerade his purpose.
These are apocalyptic trends, marked by the war, famine, pestilence and death that we know so well are riding around the world at this very moment. Time, as measured by heavenly bodies, may give us ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years; but it may also give us only a day, a week, a month. It may well be true now “that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34).
Until that Day of Days the attitude of every Christian should be one of watching and expecting. Jesus said, “Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:42). Again this thrilling hope should cause a complete consecration to service on the part of all that believe it. Jesus said, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13). It is also to be a time of preparation. Jesus said, “Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:40).
All of history is moving toward that climactic day when all enemies shall have been put under His feet and Christ shall have been crowned. The Bible says, “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever” (Isaiah 9:7). In that day war and strife shall cease. Sin and want shall be no more. In that day sorrow and pain will be unknown. In that day the heathen will be converted. In that day no man shall dwell in ignorance of God. In that day all of nature shall unfold the splendor and luster that characterized Eden. In that day the very beasts of the earth will dwell together in amity and peace. In that day the knowledge of the love of God shall cover the earth. In that day our long and ardent prayer, “Thy kingdom come,” shall be answered at last.
Jesus shall reign wher’er the sun Doth his successive journies run; His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, ’Til moons shall wax and wane no more. This is the hope of the Christian!