The End of Time

Today, we’re moving on in our discussion of the book of Matthew. Those of you who have not been with us for a long time may not know that we began a study of the book of Matthew 22 years ago, in the year 2,000.We’ve now reached the 24th chapter, so we don’t go at a very fast pace. 

Do you think that we are living in the time of the end? Is Christ’s return imminent? Are the signs all around us—in the weather, the pandemic, violence, droughts, floods, all kinds of distress—evidences that we’re in the end of time, that we are living in the last days? 

In Matthew 24 the disciples ask Jesus what will be the sign of his coming and the end of the age. Jesus responds partly in prophecy, partly in parable, and partly in predicament. There’s quite a bit to study here and to unpack. It may take us a few weeks. 

Perhaps moreso than others, Seventh Day Adventists—of who there are many in this class—have an interest in the signs of the end. In fact, the word Advent means the coming of Jesus. It’s in our name. We were founded on a failed prophetic interpretation concerning the end of time. 

For context of our discussion, here are the key passages from Matthew 24: 

 Jesus left the temple area and was going on His way when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. But He responded and said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” 

“Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. 

… 

“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. 

… 

“But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. At that time there will be two men in the 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. 

“Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you must be ready as well; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. 

“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household slaves, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and he eats and drinks with those habitually drunk; then the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect, and at an hour that he does not know, and he will cut him in two and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24)

And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 

And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many people. And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. 

While end of time events are of great interest to many Seventh Day Adventists, they are not by any means the only ones. A Pew Research survey in 2010 found that 41% of Americans believed that Jesus Christ would come either definitely or probably by the year 2050, 46% of the public did not believe Christ would return in the next 30 years. But fully three quarters of white evangelical Christians said that Christ would return to the earth in this period, by far the highest percentage of any group.

Only a third of the Catholics and even fewer white, mainline Protestants (27%) predicted Christ’s return by the year 2050. One in five religiously unaffiliated (the so called “Nones”) saw Christ returning during the next three decades. Among Americans with no college experience, 60% were much more likely than those with some college experience or college graduates to expect Christ’s return. By region, those in the South (52%) were more likely to predict the coming of Jesus by the year 2050.

A poll published by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2012 found that more than six out of 10 Americans agreed that over the previous two years the weather had gotten more extreme. Roughly three in 10 said the weather had not changed, and less than one in 10 reported that the weather had become less extreme. 

There was a strong consensus among Democrats (76%) and independents (59%) that the weather was getting more extreme. Republicans, on the other hand, were divided, with 46% reporting that the weather was getting more extreme and 45% that it had not changed. But more than 1/3 of all Americans (36%) believed that the severity of recent National Natural disasters was evidence that we are in what the Bible calls the end of time. Roughly 60% of Americans disagreed with them. 

Nearly two thirds of white evangelical Protestants believed that the severity of events and recent natural disasters was not evidence of what the Bible calls the end of times, but only 20% of Catholics believed that. In the religiously unaffiliated (the so called “Nones”) only 15% believed it. 

One third of Republicans agreed that the severity of recent national disasters was evidence of the end of time. Sixty percent of all Americans agreed that God is in control of everything that happens in the world, and 40% disagreed. Ninety percent minority Christians, roughly three quarters of white evangelical Protestants, 60% of Catholics, and a slim majority of white mainline Protestants agreed that God is in control of everything. 

Fifteen percent of all Americans believe that the end of the world as predicted by the Bible will occur within their lifetime. College graduates are four times less likely to believe that the world will end in their lifetime than Americans with a high school education.

The British tabloid The Express published in November 24 2014 publish this article:

DOOMSDAY WARNING: World will end in the next SEVEN YEARS, warns terrifying prophecy 
The end of the world will happen in the next SEVEN YEARS with a cataclysm of natural disasters, according to a terrifying prophecy. 

By NATHAN RAO 17:01, Mon, Nov 24, 2014 

Floods, earthquakes and deadly plagues will finish all humanity and the civilised world as we know it. 

The horrifying forecast is being made by some Christian groups who predict the “Rapture” phenomenon will bring about a global Apocalypse before 2021. 

Traced back to ancient Biblical texts, believers claim warnings of the impending Armageddon also signal the Second Coming of Jesus. 

They say similar events have been charted in ancient history including the Biblical Flood of 2,348 BC, told in Genesis, and the Three Plagues of Egypt. 

Though dismissed by some, others insist such calamitous theories are true and warn the impending catastrophe will destroy the planet. 

Dr F. Kenton Beshore, President of the World Bible Society, says the “Rapture” is likely to occur between now and 2021 before the Second Coming between 2018 and 2028. 

Dr Beshore, who holds five doctoral degrees in theology, bases his prediction on texts in the Bible including the book of Thessalonians which states: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 

“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. He warns the human race to be prepared for the return of “our Lord and Saviour” and be ready for “His return at all times” stating it is written in the book of Matthew. 

He claims messages hidden in the Bible give warnings of when to expect the “End Times”. 

The book of Matthew states: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” 

Dr Beshore said: “If we can get our Jewish Scriptures into their hands now, the Holy Spirit will lead them to them at the right time. 

“They may have set them aside, but they will read them, turn to the Lord and lead billions and billions to Jesus. 

“Now, we are all going to be gone.” 

Believers of the Rapture theory also quote the book of Corinthians which states: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. 

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality. 

However Rev Jonathan Blake, Bishop of Greater London, denounced the claims as ”Hollywood scaremongering”. 

He said at a time when people are leaving religion in their droves, such warnings are made to scare people into following a certain doctrine. 

He said: “These are just imaginative, fantastical and illusionary stories people use to try to express the concept of judgement, their original purpose was perhaps to make people take stock of their lives. 

“The Bible is written in apocalyptic language and people hang on to it to gain power over others particularly at a time when religion is failing. 

“The hold of religion over populations is dwindling so they think scaremongering stories will bring people back under their power, but they were wrong as we now live in an enlightened age.: 

“These are very old tactics and smack of Hollywood fantasy. 

“It is also quite distasteful, especially in the the current climate.” 

Dr Beshore says the Bible says God has issued warnings of destruction throughout history including 100 years before the Great Flood. 

He says Lot and his family were warned before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah while Jesus warned of the destruction of Jerusalem decades in advance. 

“The word imminence means the Rapture can take place any day. 

“The Bible does not teach that.” 

This article was accessed at https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/539587/End-of-World-Warning-natural-disasters-seven-years-prophecy

There have been some powerful earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and other natural disasters in recent times but they are not, It seems, unique to our time. Some argue that because population density is much higher today than in past centuries, more people tend to be killed when natural disasters occur. 

But data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization suggests that although disasters happen three times more commonly now than they did in 1970, the fatalities are fewer because there is better warning of these catastrophes and better health care to take care of the injured. It raises the question: Do we judge the end time events in the natural world more from incidences which occur, or from fatalities which occur? 

What Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24 about Jerusalem came true: Jerusalem was destroyed as a result of the the Roman war. Yet, as he said, the horrors and signs, the sieges and battles, and the natural disasters of that period were only the beginning of the birth pains. Thousands of catastrophic events of all types—wars, famines, plagues, and earthquakes—have occurred in the intervening centuries, some of them on the apocalyptic scale. 

For example, in Antioch, Syria in AD 525 a massive earthquake killed 250,000 people. An earthquake in Aleppo, Syria in 1138 killed 230,000 people, and an earthquake in Shanghai province in 1556 killed 830,000 people. 

Millions died in the Great Famine of Europe in AD 1315 to 1317 and millions died in a feminine India in 1869 to 1902. In a Chinese famine in the time of Chairman Mao, between 1958-1961, between 20 and 40 million people died. 

A plague of smallpox in the Roman Empire in AD165 killed 5 million people. The so-called plague of Justinian in AD541 killed 25 million people, and who can forget the Black Death— the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages in Europe from 1338 to 1351, when 100 million people died. 

As well, thousands of wars and armed conflict since the time of Jesus have caused millions of deaths. 

People who lived during these times of stress can be excused for suspecting that they were living in the time of the end. However, the wisdom of Jesus’ words of caution regarding the linkage of human or natural disasters with the arrival of the end time has remained. His declaration that we cannot know the day or the hour of his return (Matthew 24:36) is as applicable today as it was in the Apostolic Church. 

Why are we taken up so much by end time events? 

Since the time of Jesus, every generation has seen itself as living in the end of time. How do we know if this is the end of time? When is the end of time? Why is it so important to know if this is the end of time? 

What signs are real signs of the end? What signs are mere coincidences? Does knowing this is the end of time frighten you? Does it reassure you? Are you indifferent? 

David: The Jehovah’s Witnesses are actively discussing this topic right now. Some Witness acquaintances of mine believe it is happening. The end of time is also called the end of the age. I have a theory that we are seeing the end of the age of humanity and entering a new age of post-humanity. 

From all of the things that are happening—global political (and increasingly military) struggle, a runaway climate, and so on-there could well be an apocalypse, but I don’t think it’s the end of the world. 

I think out of all this will emerge something bigger, stronger, and more godly than we have seen so far. We have clearly been terrible stewards of the Earth, but intelligent machines, or humans in partnership with intelligent machines, will eventually be able to put things right. In the meantime, as is visible all around us, there will be mayhem.

C-J: Let’s just consider that the end of time is when we die and just transition to another dimension. And so one is taken in the field, and one remains; one dies, the consciousness changes. As for the rest of the craziness each generation creates, we live. To me, we are co-creators with God, in the most basic sense of procreation—plowing a field and planting crops, or destroying the environment. That’s where I come from.

I don’t think of it as tick-tock time, but as a different awareness. That’s why you can say no one knows when we will die and be transformed into another place, I don’t believe that a spiritual entity is going to come down from the sky and reveal a new kingdom. I think it goes back to “In my Father’s house are many mansions”—many dimensions, many other ways of energy continuing in consciousness, or being utilized. 

Michael: Some books that look at the data on healthcare, world poverty, wars, and so on suggest that it’s the complete opposite, that we’re actually in the golden days of humanity, because there is less poverty now than at any time in world history, the best medical care, and so on—hardly signs of the end of time. But the thing is, it is mainly the bad stories that make the news because they get our attention. The media create much fanfare around bad stories, but don’t discuss the good stories, the milestones that we’ve achieved. 

We don’t talk about the GMO crops that saved Mexico from famine, or the vaccines that save people from polio and smallpox. We only read and discuss the bad news, and bad news makes us feel bad. Yet our brains are somehow hooked by it. We’re addicted to it. That doesn’t work with good news; it doesn’t create the same hook. 

Looking at the data seems much more rational than listening to the news.

David: But I think the data from Ukraine will change those happy statistics. Healthcare and much else that was good is pretty much shattered over there. But I do see hope in the Matthew 24 verse that says all these things are merely birth pains. If something is being born, it’s a beginning, not an end. 

But Matthew 24 also says that because lawlessness has increased, “most people’s love will become cold.” We may be biased toward bad news but nevertheless there is evidence that seems to justify the bias: The people of America really do not seem to care much about all the school shootings, for example, and continue to oppose gun control. They still ignore the pain, suffering, and death of children, and of women denied abortions. 

I fear we may indeed be starting to see love growing cold, therefore I think differently today than I thought before Ukraine and Trump and global hegemonists and a partisan Supreme Court. It’s not so much that the statistics have changed; rather, it’s that our attitude to statistics has changed.

Michael: Ukraine is a European war. I’m not saying wars have disappeared, but over the history of the world, they have decreased significantly. My country has been at war since I was born, but that’s just how it is.

C-J: There’s an old saying about never wasting an opportunity, and in parenthesis to climb up the heap and be on top and control it. I think the opportunities are manipulated, just like the manipulation of currency and goods and services. He whose purse can hold the most, wins. It’s very manipulative, even when we talk about being in the age of information. It’s skewed. 

Four people in the same room observing the same thing are going to have a different takeaway unless they are all of the same mind. What about people in the same church? We’re going into the end times and the churches are telling people to prepare, repent, go out and do the Great Commission. And yet, they’re still building megalithic churches and giant communication systems to make sure the whole world gets the news before the Lord comes again. They create self-contained, walled-in compounds. 

If you took that same money and applied it to the collective of humanity, think what it could do! I think it’s very, very wrong, very skewed and self-serving. I think they miss the whole message of Christ, which is personal relationship and accountability to God. If we take care of one another instead of practicing tribalism and familial nonsense and selfishness. It’s just wrong. In my humble opinion.

Kiran: In my early years as an Adventist, I was really scared of the Second Coming. Everybody says it’s supposed to be a joyous occasion. I was scared because Scripture says there are people who will ask the rocks to fall on them because they find themselves guilty, and that when people see God they will fall flat on their face because they see their sinfulness in comparison to the holiness of God.

I have gone through two phases in my Christianity—one where I lived a life based on works and one where I accepted the grace of God. The longer I lived a life based on works, the more miserable I grew. I hoped I would have a little bit more time to fix myself. But once I accepted grace, I realized it was God who’s going to change me and fix me and do whatever he wants to do with me. I realized I don’t really have the power to do anything except to choose him and look at him consistently. 

I have peace now, and a desire to suppress certain tendencies I have that hurt other people. I don’t want to hurt them but no matter how much I self discipline myself I still do so now and then, though perhaps less often than before. A place where I wouldn’t have those tendencies but would always treat people with kindness—and allow others do the same thing to me—would be wonderful place. 

If the Second Coming of Jesus means that the evil inside me is taken out and I am given a second chance to live the life I desire to live, then I look forward to it. If I’m really sinful at the Second Coming, what else can I do? There isn’t a thing I can change. 

If I have to live the way I’m living right now—hurting people sometimes and doing things I’m not proud of—I don’t want to live forever. I’m already tired of myself. But if eternity is going to be a place where my evil tendencies are gone—a place of love, kindness, and grace—then that’s where I want to be.

Donald: I was born an Adventist and it’s interesting to hear other Adventists say “I’m tired of this, and I just want to go home.” It is not somebody who is sick and about to die—it is somebody who just feels that way. There’s certainly a percentage of Adventists who fear the end of time. 

I can’t get my head around “I’ve gone to prepare a place for you.” I’m grateful for it and I know he’s my savior and he’s got a plan, but it is way beyond my comprehension. Who has ever gone to a funeral where someone says “This person just isn’t going to make it”? Everybody makes it. People always look for the good. 

I’m not sure how humanity is trying to work through this. Yes, we can look at calamities, we can look at war, we can look at all the negative news. And certainly, there’s a lot more news coming at us than there used to be. So they’ve got our ear and we’re listening carefully and we’re hyped, it seems to me. What does that say in relation to Matthew 24? Be alert? No one knows the hour? 

I know that every birthday I have is one less birthday that I will have, Christ will come within X amount of years based upon my age, period. God willing, I’ll live a few more years between now and what my age might provide. But that could change today. 

I have a very dear friend who spends all his time trying to predict from the signs of the times. He cares about his friends and shares with them what he understands. But I am not sure it is meaningful, that it does any good, that it serves any usufel purpose in my day to day life. 

All I can do is treat others as I would treat myself. The end will transpire and no one knows the hour.

Reinhard: I agree, nobody knows the time. Seventh Day Adventists don’t really expect Jesus coming in our lifetime, although deep inside we’d like to see it. Non-believers may criticize the teaching of Christianity on the subject but it is a tool not to scare but to bring people to Jesus. So I believe in some ways it’s useful. In church in the country I grew up in, the Second Coming featured in almost in every sermon of the pastor at the pulpit. 

I don’t know if World War 3 will happen. The chances are 50/50. If China becomes stronger and continues to try to dominate other countries it might increase the odds. I believe the devil is working behind the scenes. Revelation says that the power for Armageddon comes from the east, but whetner we will be directly affected by it I just don’t know.

I think the message of Jesus before he left was intended for every generation. The Second Coming reminds every generation that we have to be close to God, no matter what. Our death is inevitable, we cannot live here forever. The time between death and the Second Coming is as brief as the twinkling of an eye. Whether it’s one year or 1,000 years, the Second Coming must happen if we are to experience the resurrection. 

Revelation is a sort of sneak preview of the coming of God. It is just to strengthen our faith. Seventh Day Adventists are blessed to have the writings of Mrs. White about the Second Coming. There’s a lot of information in them that helps us prepare for the future as Christian believers so we don’t have to worry about the future. Jesus said he’s going to prepare a mansion for us. 

Maybe the Second Coming is the culmination of existence, the extinction of the human race from this earth. Noah experienced the near-total destruction of the human race but life picked up again after the Flood. But the end of time is a greater and more terrible global event. Even the stars are going to fall. A new earth and a new heaven will be created, as we read in Peter about the New Jerusalem 

So this is not like Noah’s time. This is the end of the six-day creation. We won’t know when to expect it, but we will know at our resurrection. That’s the end. That’s the Second Coming. And the time is very short. Jesus would not reveal the schedule, the timing, but to human beings the Second Coming occurs at the end of our mortal lives. It will be just like waking up from sleep, it is that close.

Donald: So we just need to prepare by staying close to God at the end, then we don’t have to worry if the Second Coming happens tonight or whenever. It reminds us to stay firm in our faith, to be faithful to God, and we will have eternal life and redemption.

Michael: I too felt a mix of guilt and fear about it. I think that’s the whole intention. But the people who usually propagate fear and guilt in others must be self-righteous people who should be taken down. I wouldn’t worry about the end of times. I would think about the people who are propagating such news. They’re doing the work of the devil, not proclaiming the word of God.

Reinhard: I think there is a thin line between proclaiming the Second Coming to scare people, and proclaiming it simply to tell the truth. Christians have a duty to tell the truth. Whatever the preacher’s motive (and God knows what that is) the preaching must go on anyway, just as Noah had to warn of the coming flood, whether or not some people took Noah as having a negative intent.

C-J: I think it goes against everything Jesus did during his lifetime. His ministry was all about grace, forgiveness, community, restoration. I didn’t hear anything in Jesus’s messages about fear. Repentance was the door into grace: “All has been forgiven and it shall be remembered no more.” 

We’ve twisted it. It’s self-righteous. “I got it, but you don’t. I hope you get it, but you probably won’t, because of predestination.” It’s just wrong. Everything Jesus said was loving: If you have a coat, give it to another who needs it. God’s provision will come to you as well. Grace, grace, grace, love, love, love, generosity. That was the message; not fear. The greatest fear for anyone is to have a bad death. It would be nice if I could just go to sleep and wake up in a different place.  I don’t want to be beaten or blown up.

David: I agree that in the good bits of the Bible Jesus is that kind of a person, but look at what we’ve just read in Matthew 24, at the very end: 

 But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and he eats and drinks with those habitually drunk; then the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect, and at an hour that he does not know, and he will cut him in two and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

This is Jesus, the God of grace, talking? It doesn’t ring true to me.

Anonymous: These are Jesus words—grace words, as well. I don’t know why we have a problem with taking both sides of the truth. It’s both. There is judgment, there is grace; there is forgiveness, there is justice. We have to take both together. To take one side over the other won’t help. I believe everything the Bible says and when you read the Bible, you can see this message so clearly: There are two ways: God has mercy and God is just. 

The final message is: ”Fear God and give Him glory.” Fear God, you people who did not consider the supreme judge, and took him so lightly and so despitefully and so carelessly, and took advantage of his mercy and his grace. There will be consequences for that. 

I don’t discount grace. We see grace, and we live in it, and we appreciate it, if we’re following God. To those who are not experiencing grace, who are not depending on God, who are not obeying his commands and requirements, there will be a day of fear. We will feel the fear if we’re not living the right way. 

And of course it’s not in the power of our hands or our minds—it’s all because of God’s work in our life, his grace, his accomplishments. The Bible is so clear. I’m comfortable with the way we see how the Bible details the Second Coming and the last days and the events that will take place. It’s kind of a roadmap for us, which is very helpful. 

However, sometimes I have questions and I don’t understand everything. There are few points that are completely clear. We don’t know what time the end is coming. And we know from the book of Peter that the earth will end in fire this time, not in water like the first time; and we know the promise of Jesus to come back to take us with him. There are some steps we can be very confident to trust and believe in strongly. 

However, there are other explanations. What if the Second Coming of Jesus happens to everyone individually when we meet Jesus? That’s his second appearance to me. Maybe. And how could God leave humanity to be destroyed after what he paid into it, after he died for it? Would he let it go? Or would he even expand the time until everyone comes back? And is the end of time the end of humanity, the end of time as we know it now, the end of the earth as we know it now? 

For sure, I know and I believe it’s the end of evil. There is not going to be any evil any more after that point, whenever it is, which I believe happens to be the Second Coming of Jesus. He is coming, victoriously this time, to put an end to evil. But what is evil? Is it Satan and his army (or as the Bible says, Satan and his evil angels)? Is that the end for that group? Or is it the end of everyone who follows Satan and believes in Satan? I don’t know. 

Sometimes it seems so hard to put things together. I mean, how could the satanic worshiper be saved? I know nothing is impossible for God, but will such a person make a stand, or will he change his ways? In the beginning, it seems easy to comprehend, but when you get deeper, there’s many questions. Actually, I don’t need to know the answers. I am putting my trust In God, I believe his Word. I am just watching, as a faithful servant, how things are unfolding, without making any judgments. 

He knows what he’s doing. I trust in everything he’s doing. I know he’s taking care of me and my salvation and the end of my life. He has everything planned. I believe in that so strongly. It’s like watching the movies—it is so interesting to know how it will end! I can hardly wait!

Michael: Maybe there is a different way of understanding this. This is not my idea—it’s something I’ve read in one of Paul Tournier’s books. He suggests that the contrasting stories in the Bible are meant for different people. Grace is meant for the ordinary person who feels guilt and fear. The condemnatory passages are meant for the self-righteous—the Pharisees. 

So maybe this whole end-of-time idea is meant to create fear in the self-righteous, in the Pharisee, not in the average person. Maybe we tend to mix up these passages, especially because the self-righteous use these passages to create fear in the guilty. But Jesus is giving grace to the guilty, not fear, not condemnation. 

So maybe these passages are needed, but the messages get mixed up. The self-righteous for some reason feel they’re justified by God, but the guilty are given condemnation and fear. The self-righteous should be given the message of fear because they need to turn back and see that it’s all about God, but the guilty are given the message of grace and forgiveness, not not justice or judgment.

Anonymous: It’s not for one party or the other. The message of grace and mercy is for everyone. In Revelation where it says to fear God and give him glory doesn’t mean fear as frightening but fear as respect for the creator. It’s not a message of condemnation directed to a part of the people. No. The message of salvation, the price that was paid for the salvation of all humanity, is for everyone, even the guilty, even the disobedient. 

Even at the very end, at the very last breath, a person can be saved just for recognizing God’s mercy and God’s grace. Right to the very last, God is so merciful, He will never turn anyone away. God knows the message that we call a message of fear or message of condemnation doesn’t work, because God is love. God works his way through human hearts with love, not with condemnation, not with judgment, not with punishment, not with fear, not with anything of that nature. 

He knows that without love, nobody can be saved, because we get broken. When we experience the magnificence of God’s love, salvation is guaranteed. By God’s love, everyone will be saved. In order to be exposed to God’s love they should know everything about God. In other words, you should know your Bible, and how God is talking about two things, the good side and the bad side, evil and good. 

For you men who make up your minds and decide, with the freedom given to you, which side you choose, that’s up to you. It does not make light of God’s trying and God’s insisting on saving you. God will keep trying until the very last breath we take. It’s not that he prefers to be condemning, or punishing, or throwing us in the fire. No. 

To have every one saved, it’s going to take many, many years! Imagine, we’ve been on this earth for 2,000 years and every generation is more evil than the one before. So I wonder sometimes how long God will be patient. We cannot even get our minds to help on that. He knows what he’s doing. It could happen in a heartbeat. I don’t know how, though.

Don: We assume that God knows what he’s doing—that’s a that’s a reasonable assumption—but we still want to help him, just to make just to make sure he stays on the right track!

Kiran: Scripture clearly says: 

 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.” (John 3:16-21)

The truth is that I am evil, and I need light. I will come into the light and be exposed, so that God can fix me. So condemnation is in my hands. I don’t worry about God condemning me. I can choose to come into the light so that I can be fixed or not to come into the light so that I can continue to live as before. 

I go back and forth between self-righteousness and feeling guilty about it, because even though I accept grace, it’s very hard for me to do so. It’s easier for me to be self-righteous and feel guilty. 

Don: We have much more to discuss about the end of time. I’m a little surprised that no one is standing up for the signs of the end. Even this week, I heard those on the side of “pro-choice” lamenting the Supreme Court decision as a sign of the end because we’re going to be losing our rights to choice, and those who are “pro-life” rejoicing over the same decision because we’re now approaching the time of the end when God can come and do his work in a people that are finished and are righteous. 

How we see the man-made and the natural events that occur around us seems to have a great deal of influence on our thinking about the time of the end. We have much more to discuss about the time of the end, judgement, about signs. What are the signs in the sun and the moon and the stars? What does that mean? 

Donald: The disciples asked the question about the Second Coming. Jesus didn’t start the conversation. They wanted to know. To my understanding, Christ didn’t proclaim his Second Coming. 

Don: In the first advent, Jesus says “A wicked generation looks for a sign.” This was when the Pharisees asked for a sign of the legitimacy of his first coming. “Are you the Messiah?” He condemns the looking for signs, as if somehow this is not appropriate. But in the Second Coming, when the disciples ask for signs, he gives them. The question is what is the value and legitimacy of the signs? What is the specificity of the signs? 

We will look at signs of the first advent, the signs the disciples asked for in the second advent, and about the sign of Jonah. We have much to unpack in the next few weeks.

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