Rev Paul Nulton
Dec. 3, 2006
Scripture: Luke 21: 25-36
“Heaven and Earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.”
Jesus’ followers wanted to know when God’s Kingdom would come. Jesus answers here in Luke 21. The New Testament proclaims many images of the return of Christ and the end of time.
Christ returns to earth on a cloud, the same way he disappeared after the resurrection.
His followers meet him in the air and disappear from earth. This is called the rapture. Two men will be working in a field. One will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and one will be left.
Christ returns to judge the earth. Those who are connected to God in Jesus Christ will go to live with God, those who didn’t care about God and lived just for themselves, will be left out.
There is a period of tribulation, suffering, and sorrow with a pestilence of widespread disease.
A leader who is against Christ, the anti-Christ, rules the world. The Bible speaks of a beast with 10 horns, led by the anti-Christ. Only those with a mark of the beast on their body are able to buy and sell. Great poverty comes to everyone who refuses. The number of the beast is 666.
A mountain, burning with fire, is thrown into the sea. A third of the sea becomes blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea die; a third of the ships are destroyed.
A blazing star falls and makes the water bitter.
Sun moon and stars are darkened
Smoke from the bottomless pit darkens the sky.
Locusts like horses equipped for battle torture people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Their wings are noisy and they have tails like scorpions that sting.
A great army arises in the area of the Euphrates River . The soldiers are dressed in the color of fire, their mounts breath fire and smoke and sulfur.
A third of the world’s population is killed.
The ocean is like glass, mingled with fire.
The beast from the bottomless pit makes war on Jerusalem and for 3 and half days bodies lie all over the city.
Christ defeats the anti-Christ and the evil forces in a big battle at Armageddon. He then rules the world for 1000 years. This is called the millennium.
The images assail the senses more powerfully than the special effects of the current fantasy movies. Wow!
(Sing “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” by Larry Norman)
When will it happen? The New Testament says the signs of the end of time are wars and famines and earthquakes. Israel will be reestablished as a country. The gospel will be preached to the whole world. False prophets will arise and show signs and wonders.
For 2000 years Christians have predicted a date for a literal Second Coming of Jesus. I’ve got a file full of predictions: 1914, 1945, 1988, 1992, 2000. They’ve all been wrong.
Mark 13:32 said “Of that day or hour no one knows. Watch, therefore, and be ready all the time”. It will happen when people don’t expect it, like a thief in the night.
In the meantime we take it seriously but not always literally. Isaiah 8:12 says “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears, or be in dread.”
Maybe these images refer to present events. Maybe the stars falling from the sky are bombs, the fire breathing horses are tanks, and the stinger locusts are missiles. Maybe the fire and glass sea follow a nuclear blast. Maybe the beast from the bottomless pit that darkens the sky is burning oil wells in Kuwait . Maybe the famines are going on in Africa and Chechnya and Afghanistan now and the pestilence is Gulf War Syndrome or the Norwalk virus on cruise ships or AIDS. Maybe the beast with 10 horns is a 10 nation group, such as the European Union. Maybe Baghdad is the latest Babylon and Saddam Hussein the latest Nebuchadnezzar. Maybe the Bible predicted globalization by multi-national corporations which forces poverty on those who do not trade their way.
The popular novel series Left Behind is based on one theory of Christ’s return to the earth. It is based on the premise that many of the statements and images of the Bible were written, not for that period in history or any other, but for ours. Author Tim LaHaye’s scenario is named “pre-millennial”, pre-tribulationist” by Bible scholars. It is one of many theories.
Or maybe the images are not for the present, but the past. Maybe these things happened in the times when they were written, when Rome was burning under Nero, the antiChrist who persecuted the Christians in the first Century after Jesus. Maybe the “one world government” was under Charlemagne in the 10th Century or the European colonialists of the early 20th.
Or maybe the end of time will happen way off in the future.
Some parts of the Bible are written in figurative, rather than literal language. This may be true for these end times images. Maybe these awful images are not meant to be taken literally but meant to keep us awake and aware of the need to accept the love of Christ in all times. There are Christians on all sides of the timing issue.
There are problems in taking literally parts of the Bible which were not meant that way. We can miss the fullness of the Bible if we build our faith on interpretation of the events rather than the truth behind them. Those who look for Jesus on a cloud will miss him when he shows up another way. The literal will get in the way of the true.
We can miss the power of our relationship with God through Christ if we look for a simple formula. If we decide to be a follower of Christ just so we won’t be left behind, how shallow and small is our faith.
The signs are a reminder to watch and listen, not an excuse not to have to watch and listen.
But it is also possible they are signs of literal events. God works in history. He has saved his people through historical events for 4 thousand years. God is connected to the real world. Taking these images literally reminds us God is present in real human events.
We don’t know the day and hour because God wants us to be ready all the time. If tomorrow were as clear as yesterday, we would live only for the joys coming up and not enjoy the present. We would be ruled by fate. But we don’t need to know. We can rely on God and our spirits can be ready for whatever happens.
These Biblical images teach us that God has defeated and will ultimately defeat evil. They remind Christians in times of persecution that they can overcome it. The images in the book of Revelation are for Christians who remained faithful under Soviet atheism and South African apartheid. They are for Christians under Chinese communism and slavery in Darfur, in the Sudan in Africa. The images remind Christians in times of peace or war that God is more powerful than any evil. We can be ready for whatever persecution or trouble comes. God will keep us even if the food and the fuel runs out. What a powerful comfort.
How would you feel if you knew you would be judged tomorrow? We’ll be finding out where we were right and where we were wrong about the way we lived, what we believed. Is this a comfort or a worry? And yet, even though we may have hurt Christ in some of our actions, we will be accepted, loved, welcomed by our savior.
These Biblical images remind us that the way we live now determines what will happen to us at the end. God is bringing the world toward its ultimate purpose. Time is going somewhere. It has a goal. We don’t live like this forever. We want to be on God’s side.
What do you need to do today if you knew tomorrow were your last day? If Jesus came tomorrow and knocked on the door, and you invited him in like holiday company, what would he find you doing? Would you be cooking the books to hide income from the IRS or would you be organizing the Miracle Tree gift distribution? Is there a project that needs to be completed before you are ready to go? Is there an apology that needs to be made?
We want to be prepared by acting out our faith. God comes to the ones who are prepared.
“Don’t let that day catch you unaware, like a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”
Luke 21: 34-36
(Sing: “O sister when I come to knock on your door, don’t turn away, you’ll create sorrow. Time is an ocean, but it ends at the shore. You may not see me here tomorrow.” Bob Dylan)