Jesus Is Coming Again--Are You Yearning or Yawning?

“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4). Does it really matter what you believe about the end times? Does it really make any difference? It certainly does! What we believe about Bible prophecy determines the way we live. Furthermore, what we believe about Bible prophecy determines our level of expectedness and hope so far as the return of Christ to this earth is concerned.

I have to be honest. I never heard too much about the Second Coming of Christ when I was growing up. I don’t think the problem was being in a church that didn’t believe it. I’m sure it did. I believe the problem was the pastors didn’t think it was all that important to preach. After all, most people believe prophecy is either boring or too far beyond our grasp to understand. Both positions are just plain dumb. It is anything but boring and it is within our grasp to understand, because we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us. One third of the Bible, properly understood is prophecy. God wants us to study it, understand it, and believe it. One thing he definitely wants His children to know and believe is that Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth, and that His return is very soon! Most people, albeit most Christians, either don’t believe this or if they do believe it, they certainly don’t show it. They believe time has continued to come and go and they are blind to the fact we are living in the last of the last days.

When I attended Mississippi College, I had the privilege of studying Revelation under someone who had studied the book for years. I was excited until I realized the professor’s take on the book was, for the most part, unscriptural. I think he probably believed Jesus was coming back again someday. But there was no imminency to Christ’s return. In fact, he poked fun at those who believe in the imminent return of Christ. Furthermore, this professor believed God had washed His hands of the Jewish people because of their rejection of the Messiah. He didn’t believe in a literal thousand year reign of Christ on this earth, as the Bible prophesies will happen. His problem wasn’t that he wasn’t a follower of Christ – he most certainly was. His problem was he had ascribed to a belief known as amillennialism, which taught that all prophecy concerning Israel, the last days and the Second Coming, was for the most part, symbolic. This has always amazed me, considering the fact that all prophecy concerning Christ’s First Advent was fulfilled literally. In fact, all prophecy that has been fulfilled has been literally fulfilled. How could it be that God has now switched to a spiritualized symbolic method of fulfilling prophecy? Now granted, there is symbolism in Scripture. But that symbolism always points to something literal. If it’s a symbol, interpret it as such. But once that symbol is interpreted, literally believe it.

In order to arrive at such a belief system, one has to do a few things. First of all, in order to be an almillenialist, one would have to believe in Replacement Theology. Replacement Theology teaches that God has replaced Israel with the Church (apparently everlasting covenants aren’t really everlasting). In other words, the promises to Israel have been reassigned to the Church. No wonder the holocaust was so easy for Hitler to pull off. Secondly, one would have to believe there will be no Great Tribulation, that Satan was bound at the Cross (if this is true, he must have been bound with a very long chain), there will not be two resurrections as the Bible clearly says will happen, and there will be no new heaven and new earth, just heaven. And there could certainly be no hope of an imminent return of Christ at any moment.

Amillennialism is based solely upon spiritualizing Scripture. Spiritualizing Scripture means that the Bible does not mean what it says. Theological liberals love to spiritualize Scripture. This should be no surprise. The surprise comes when theological conservatives fall prey to it. Those who do, in effect say that the Bible means what it says unless it is talking about the Second Coming of Christ! The view was developed around A.D. 400 by St. Augustine. It was a major departure from the premillennial view that had been the orthodox view up to that time. Nowadays, those holding to this view try to say the premillennial view, which would include the Rapture of the Church and a final seven year Tribulation period, was developed in the late 19th century by John Darby. Nothing could be further from the truth. He may have further developed what the early church believed, but he didn’t invent it. Let’s stop playing games with God’s Word. Let’s allow it to mean what it says. Bible prophecy isn’t hard to understand. It’s just hard to believe. But if you will believe it, you will understand it. If we believe in a literal fulfillment of all prophecy, especially those prophecies concerning the return of the Lord, we will yearn for His return. If we fail to believe in a literal fulfillment, then we will run the risk of scoffing.