Jesus said in Luke 21:26 that just before His second coming "the powers of heaven shall be shaken." That, together with "men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." It's only the superficial, non-thinking people who are not fearful of what is coming.
What has always been thought to be solid biblical teaching is being "shaken." Once Sabbath-keeping pastors now powerfully advocate Sunday-keeping; and there is a shaking of the very idea that the second coming of Christ is near at hand. Prominent Adventist voices are saying that there has been no delay in the time of Christ's second coming, so more than 150 years of waiting since the pioneers believed His coming was "even at the doors" only seems like a delay when it is not.
"Soon" doesn't mean what human language and concept understand it to mean. Young people reared in the church say they have no idea that Christ will return during their lifetime. The "signs of the times" that have long been understood to indicate that we are living in a clearly demarcated "time of the end" were pseudo-exegetical exercises in immaturity strewn like wreckage on the sands of time. Now we are told that there is an "immanence/distance tension of the Advent" that soft-pedals any time prophecies of Scripture and affirms that in Matthew 24 "Christ offers no sign by which the 'when' [of the second coming] can be calculated. ... What Christ explains is not the 'when' but the 'what' that will characterize the waiting time." The implication is clear: the second coming was as "imminent" in the time of the apostles as it is today.
Well, take a little time to read (on your knees) Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21, and ask the Holy Spirit to give you grace to believe what He is saying to us. Yes, and also read the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, just the naked Bible. What do they actually say? See for yourself. I count 13 "whens and "thens" and time indicators in Matthew 24; 7 in Mark 13; and 7 similar time indicators in Luke 21. Yet we are told that Christ does not explain any "whens."
Doubtless many will be "shaken" by this erudite philosophy. Hang on tight to what Jesus says: "Let the fig tree teach you a lesson. When ... it starts putting out leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things, you will know that the time is near," "even at the doors" (GNB, KJV).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 18, 1999.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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