THE END: 2000 YEARS LATE!

DID THE FIRST CENTURY CHRISTIANS BELIEVE THAT THE IMMINENT RETURN OF THE MESSIAH AND THE END OF THE WORLD WOULD NOT HAPPEN UNTIL 2000 YEARS LATER IN THE FUTURE?

OF COURSE NOT! THE ALL EXPECTED THAT TO HAPPEN WITHIN THIER LIFETIME, ESPECIALLY THE APOSTLES. WHY?

1)      “The end of all things is near. Therefore, be solemn and sober so you can pray.” 1 Peter 4:7 MEV

2)      “There is not much time left, and from now on married men should live as though they were not married; those who deal in material goods, as though they were not fully occupied with them. For this world, as it is now, will not last much longer.” 1 Corinthians 7:29, 31 GNB

WERE THE APOSTLES SAYING THIS FOR OUR GENERATION IN THE 21st CENTURY? OF COURSE NOT!

THIS URGENT EXPECTATION WAS BASED ON THE MESSIAH’S OWN WORDS, IN THE GOSPELS, ABOUT THE SIGNS THAT THE END IS NEAR:

“As Jesus left the Temple and was walking away, his followers came up to show him the Temple’s buildings. Jesus asked, “Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. Every stone will be thrown down to the ground.” Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his followers came to be alone with him. They said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that it is time for you to come again and for this age to end?” Jesus answered, “Be careful that no one fools you. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will fool many people. You will hear about wars and stories of wars that are coming, but don’t be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes. Nations will fight against other nations; kingdoms will fight against other kingdoms. There will be times when there is no food for people to eat, and there will be earthquakes in different places. These things are like the first pains when something new is about

 to be born. “Then people will arrest you, hand you over to be hurt, and kill you. They will hate you because you believe in me. At that time, many will lose their faith, and they will turn against each other and hate each other. Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe lies. There will be more and more evil in the world, so most people will stop showing their love for each other. But those people who keep their faith until the end will be saved. The Good News about God’s kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come. “Daniel the prophet spoke about ‘a blasphemous object that brings destruction.’ You will see this standing in the holy place.” (You who read this should understand what it means.) “At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains. If people are on the roofs of their houses, they must not go down to get anything out of their houses. If people are in the fields, they must not go back to get their coats. At that time, how terrible it will be for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies! Pray that it will not be winter or a Sabbath day when these things happen and you have to run away, because at that time there will be much trouble. There will be more trouble than there has ever been since the beginning of the world until now, and nothing as bad will ever happen again. God has decided to make that terrible time short. Otherwise, no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help the people he has chosen.

“Soon after the trouble of those days, ‘the sun will grow dark, and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky. And the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’ “At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the peoples of the world will cry. They will see the Son of Man coming on clouds in the sky with great power and glory. He will use a loud trumpet to send his angels all around the earth, and they will gather his chosen people from every part of the world. “Learn a lesson from the fig tree: When its branches become green and soft and new leaves appear, you know summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. I tell you the truth, all these things will happen while the people of this time are still living.” Matthew 24:1-22, 29-34 NCV

THERE ARE FEW VERY BIG PROBLEMS WITH THESE SIGNS, BUT FIRST, IN REGARDS TO ALL THE SIGNS IN CONSECUTIVE COMBINATION THE MESSIAH SAYS:

“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matthew 24:34 KJVA

NOW, MANY CHRISTIANS TODAY SEEM TO BE UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT SINCE ALL THOSE SIGNS DID NOT REALLY OCCUR DURING THE FIRST CENTURY THAT THE GENERATION REFERRED TO MUST BE THE PRESENT GENERATION. WELL, THEN THAT WOULD MAKE THIS THE THIRD, FOUTH AND FIFTH GENERATION EXPECTING THE WORLD TO END.

1) The first century Christians expected the world to end after 70 C.E.

2) The Waldenses, from 538 A.D. when the Bishop of Rome was head of the entire church, expected the world to end in their generation. They were the first to declare “the Church of Rome to be the apostate Babylon of the Apocalypse”. (TGC)

3) The Reformation, from 1798, expected their generation to see the end of world.

4) The Millerites, 1844, expected their generation to see the end of the world.

5) The Russellite International Bible students expected the their generation to see the end.

6) And at last, The Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Inc. expected their generation from 1914 to see the world end, but is a bit overdue now.

Of course, some of these overlap, but there were at least 3 distinct historical events when Christians expected the world to end. Now, the problem is since the Messiah knew that the end would not come until at least 2000 years later in the far distant future, why did he give the impression to the Apostles themselves that the end was coming in their lifetime?

“Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died.” Matthew 24:34 GNB

THE MESSIAH SAID HIS GENERATION, THE PEOPLE LIVING IN HIS LIFETIME.

1) NOW, THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST SIGN:

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14 KJVA

THIS IS THE RESULT OF THE FIRST SIGN:

“if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;” Colossians 1:23 KJVA

HOW COULD THE APOSTLE PAUL ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT THE GOSPEL HAD BEEN PREACHED IN ALL THE EARTH IN HIS TIME?

BUT THEN IT WAS THE CATHOLICS, THEN THE PROTESTANTS AND EVERY OTHER RELIGION AFTERWARDS SOUGHT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL IN ALL THE EARTH.

ALL THE LETTERS OF THE NEW COVENANT BIBLE (the correct Greek translation, Testament is a misnomer) except for the letters from John are assumed to have been written before 70 C.E., when Jerusalem was destroyed. However, the subject matter of some of the letters suggest that they were written after 70 C.E. If all those letters were written before 70 C.E. Then what happened to all the Apostles after that time? They are all suddenly quiet. I wonder did they also die in Jerusalem when it was destroyed? Not likely. Since the destruction of Jerusalem would be the first sign they see they then expect the the end soon afterwards. This especially so if any are disappointed that the end has come yet. For example:

2 Peter 3:3-16,

Hebrews 10:37-39,

And especially 2 Thessalonians:

“Brothers and sisters, we have something to say about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the time when we will meet together with him. Do not become easily upset in your thinking or afraid if you hear that the day of the Lord has already come. Someone may have said this in a prophecy or in a message or in a letter as if it came from us. Do not let anyone fool you in any way. That day of the Lord will not come until the turning away from God happens and the Man of Evil, who is on his way to hell, appears. He will be against and put himself above any so-called god or anything that people worship. And that Man of Evil will even go into God’s Temple and sit there and say that he is God. I told you when I was with you that all this would happen. Do you not remember? And now you know what is stopping that Man of Evil so he will appear at the right time. The secret power of evil is already working in the world, but there is one who is stopping that power. And he will continue to stop it until he is taken out of the way. Then that Man of Evil will appear, and the Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath that comes from his mouth and will destroy him with the glory of his coming. The Man of Evil will come by the power of Satan. He will have great power, and he will do many different false miracles, signs, and wonders. He will use every kind of evil to trick those who are lost. They will die, because they refused to love the truth. (If they loved the truth, they would be saved.) For this reason God sends them something powerful that leads them away from the truth so they will believe a lie. So all those will be judged guilty who did not believe the truth, but enjoyed doing evil.” 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 NCV

IN FACT IN 79 C.E. THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS THAT DESTROYED POMPEII WAS SEEN BY CHRISTIANS AS RETRIBUTION FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. IT ALSO DARKENED THE SKY ALL OVER THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD FOR DAYS AND SUN, MOON AND STARS WERE DARKEN AS DESCRIBED BY THE PROPHECY IN MATTHEW 24:29. AND THAT HAPPENED A SECOND TIME IN 1883 WITH THE ERUPTION OF KRAKATAU. IT DARKENED THE SKIES ALL THE WAY TO EUROPE.

At the end of the very creditable reign of emperor Vespasian, who was on the throne of Rome when Jerusalem fell, Titus, called "The delight of the human race," reigned in his stead. During his reign occurred that awful eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii.

 

2) THE PROBLEM OF THE SECOND SIGN:

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand,) then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains:” Matthew 24:15-16 KJVA

The abomination of destruction is a foreign, gentle, uncircumcised nation on a campaign of world domination. The holy place is the city of Jerusalem, but actually it is the the temple in Jerusalem, especially the designated Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. Now, a foreign power had desecrated the temple in Jerusalem several times before the Romans destroyed it completely:

The Philistines (but there was no temple then only the Tabernacle)

The Egyptians (but they were a circumcised people in part at least)

The Babylonians (but their kings were ordered by God destroy Jerusalem)

And, the Greeks. They however committed the most serious offense against Jerusalem and even to the Most Holy Place of the Temple, more so than what the Romans ever did afterwards other than to destroy it. They Hellenized (meaning they imposed their own culture and language onto them) the Jews and Jerusalem, they set up their own gods it the Most Holy Place of the Temple, and they appointed their own gentile converts to serve as priest in the temple.

The book of Maccabees tell the story:

“When the news of these events reached the king, he thought Judea was in revolt. So he broke camp and marched from Egypt while wild with emotion, and took the city by force. He commanded his soldiers to cut down without mercy anyone they met and to slaughter those fleeing into their houses. They killed young and old, murdered adolescents, women and children, and slaughtered virgins and infants. Over a three-day period, eighty thousand people’s lives were ruined. Forty thousand were killed in hand-to-hand fighting, and no fewer than those slaughtered were sold as slaves. Not content with these measures, he dared to enter into the holiest temple of all the earth, guided by Menelaus, who had become a traitor to the laws and to his native land. Clutching the holy equipment with polluted and unclean hands, Antiochus made off with them and the things donated by other kings to increase the prestige, glory, and honor of the holy place. Antiochus was really pleased with himself, not realizing the Lord had become angry for a short time because of the sins of those who lived in the city. For this reason, he had shut his eyes to the holy temple. If they hadn’t previously been involved in so many sins, Antiochus would have been forced to abandon his rashness and been defeated at once when he attacked, just like Heliodorus (the one King Seleucus sent to inspect the treasury). But the Lord didn’t choose the nation because of the place, but the place because of the nation. So the temple also shared the misfortunes of the nation, but afterward it also shared in its good fortunes. That which the almighty abandoned in his wrath would again be restored with all glory when the nation was reconciled to the great Lord. Antiochus carried away 102,600 pounds of silver from the temple and hurried back to Antioch, imagining in his pride and arrogance that it was possible to sail across the land and march across the sea. He left governors who mistreated the people. In Jerusalem there was Philip of the Phrygians, who had a manner more barbarous than that of the man who appointed him. In Mount Gerizim there was Andronicus, and in addition there was Menelaus, who treated the citizens worse than the others. In his hostility against the Jewish citizens, Antiochus sent Apollonius, a Mysian leader of twenty-two thousand soldiers, with the command to slaughter all adult men but to sell the women and children into slavery. When Apollonius arrived in Jerusalem, he pretended to be peaceable. He waited until the holy Sabbath day to take advantage of the Jewish rest from work, and then he led an armed parade of his troops. He suddenly killed with swords all those who had come out to see the spectacle. While running into the city with his foot soldiers, he slaughtered a large number of the crowd. But Judas, also known as the Maccabee, and about ten men with him, fled into the highlands where he (along with those accompanying him) managed to avoid defiling themselves by living like wild animals: they ate grass for food.” 2 Maccabees 4:7-17 ; 5:11-27 CEB

NOW, WAS THE MESSIAH SAYING THAT THE SAME THING WAS GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN, THAT THE APOSTLES KNEW WHAT HE MEANT? A LATER APPLICATION OF THIS IS PROPHECY IS SKETCHY. MOST PROTESTANTS BELIEVE IT APPLIES TO 538 A.D WHEN THE BISHOP OF ROME BECAME THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. PERSONALLY, I THINK IT APPLIES TO 325 WHEN CONSTANTINE MADE CHRISTIANITY THE OFFICIAL RELIGION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. WHO KNOWS, GO FIGURE!

NOW, THERE ARE A FEW OTHER SIGNS BEFORE THOSE TWO MAIN ONES:

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Matthew 24:6-7, 9-13 KJVA

 

3) NOW, THE PROBLEM WITH THESE SIGNS IS THAT THEY HAPPENED MANY TIMES OVER AND OVER AGAIN SINCE THE FIRST CENTURY TILL NOW. FOR EXAMPLE:

“Now in these days there came down prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be a great famine over all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius. And the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren that dwelt in Judæa:” Acts 11:27-29 ASV

NOW, I AM NOT SAYING THAT THE END IS NOT COMING, BUT THAT IT MAY NOT BE WITHIN OUR LIFETIME LIKEWISE. INSTEAD WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO END, WE SHOULD BE PREPARE BY STARTING TO CREATE A NEW WORLD NOW. THE PROBLEM IS THAT MOST CHRISTIANS ARE UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT PREPARING MEANS TO BE GOOD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL, THEN JESUS WILL COME AND TAKE THEM TO HEAVEN DESTROY THE WORLD AND THEN MAKE A NEW EARTH.

OKAY, WELL, THE BAD NEWS IS, NOBODY IS GOING TO HEAVEN. GOD’S WILL IS FOR EARTH TO BE LIKE HEAVEN. BUT, ABSOLUTELY NO CHRISTIAN ARE TRYING TO DO GOD’S WILL TO MAKE EARTH LIKE HEAVEN, EXCEPT TALK ABOUT DOING GOOD. WHY ARE THEY WAITING FOR GOD TO EVERYTHING? IF EVERY CHRISTIAN MADE AN EXPRESSION OF THEIR FAITH BY CLEANING UP THE EARTH AND MAKING IT BEAUTIFUL, WE WOULD ALREADY OWN THE WHOLE EARTH BY NOW. LIKE THE SCRIPTURES SAY, THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH.

THUS, ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. BY A MINISTRY TO TAKE CARE OF THE EARTH WE MAKE A PROACTIVE WITNESS OF OUR HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. AND FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD.

There is an esoteric parable from the Messiah about preparing for the end of the world, called the Ten Virgins.

“As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.” Matthew 25:5-7 ESV

So, most Christians think that while the return of the Messiah was delaying, the church fell asleep as inactive in preaching the Gospel and living by Christian principles. But I have a problem with that interpretation.

First all the oil by which they get prepared, to me represents the “bread and butter of a family, a community, a society as their personal resources. It provides fuel, food and balm for healing. There is no spiritual equivalent of ‘oil’ as with ‘water’ meaning spiritual food, wisdom, and holy spirit.

Second, to prepare means not being dependent on the world for support of personal resources.

Third, in a way I agree with others for the meaning of Nod, Drowsy as meaning to grow old, or establishing a routine, formalism.

Fourth, likewise to Sleep as meaning to die (generations pass) or resting on what you know, settled on having the truth.

Last, to Wake up as meaning a spiritual revival of new generations.

To explain it simply, being prepared means building a community like that of the Amish of Dutch Pennsylvania in the USA. Even if they fall into a routine and the elders grow old and die, new generations will always be ready meet the Bride without needing anything from anyone else. Whenever the end does come, most Christians will be running around like chickens with their heads cut off, because they are all still very dependent of public services from the State and earning money from corporations, when that entire system will fail and fall dependent on having the mark of the Beast.