Thursday, September 10, 2015

The Signs Of The Times That Point To Christ’s Return (6)

The Sixth of an On-going Series
                     The Imminent Return of Christ (a)

(Matthew 24:33;Mark 13:29; compare Romans 16:20; also see         1 Thessalonians 4:17, 5:10; 1 Corinthians 15:51; Hebrews 10:37; James 5:8; 1 Peter 4:7; Revelation 1:1)



KINGDOM DYNAMICS

The Imminent Return of Christ

Just as the New Testament’s concept of the Parousia as a whole defies the folly of arguing a provable "systematization" or charted guarantee of know-it-all-ism, so does its vision of an imminent Second Advent discourage arrogant date-setting.  Yet the early church left on record in the New testament a clear and unmistakable witness that Christ is coming soon. 

The early church’s free and unsystematic proclamation of Jesus’ teaching about His return is consistent through-out. New Testament believers lived on the paradoxical cutting edge of fulfillment and hope, of "already" and "not yet," of being in Christ already, yet expecting Christ to come.  They did their work and waged their campaign with one eye, as it were, strained on heaven, the other focused clearly on the earthly embodiments of principalities and powers – the nations of the Earth.  A balancing tension drew the church forward in both ways, to witness of christ, while looking for Him to return, expecting the Parousia any moment.

The imminent "any moment" expectation is an unmistakable element in the New Testaming – in the Synoptic Gospels, and in the writings of Paul, Peter, and John. Over the centuries – particularly in the twentieth century – there have been various attempts to explain this expectation in the light of the nearly two thousand years that have passed since the New Testament period. Often, explanations result in claiming to know more than justified by solid biblical evidence,

Humility before this truth is recommended. Throughout the New Testament the purpose of apostolic teaching concerning Jesus’ Second Coming is to stimulate us all to a "moment-by-moment" readiness and vigilance, never to encourage calculations of exactly how near the moment of His return might be. The New Testament writers did not manipulate their readers, playing off a remote expectation against an immediate one. For example, Paul’s two epistles to the Thessalonians are specifically designed:

1.      to calm their apprehensions about the link between Christ’s resurrection and our own ( 1 Thess. 2:12, 19:3-13; 5:23), and…

2.      to remind them of the obligations we have to live an upright and industrious life in the interim (1Thess. 4:11, 12; also see 2 Thess. 3:6-12)

At times Paul seems to suggest that he himself might survive to behold the Lord’s return in his lifetime (2 Thess. 4:15, 17; also see 1 Thess. 5:22, 3, 9, 10).  At other times he suggests that the Paarousia is far off (Phil. 3:20, 21). G.C. Berkouwer in his The Return of Christ and Oscar Cullmann in his Christ and Time have taken great pains to demonstrate that the early church focused attention on the central message of the concept of imminence – be alert, be wakeful, for you do not know when the moment comes (Matt. 24:44; Mark 13:33; 1 Thess. 4:2, 2 Peter 3:10).

Be prepared,




Playwright Janet Irene Thomas
Founder/President/CEO
Bible Stories Theatre of
Fine & Performing Arts

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